Touch

The cold touch of something stroking my bare arm rose a trail of goosebumps in its wake and left me shivering. It was a moment of oblivion, a welcome one since I didn't know where I was, who I was with. At that moment the man with the green eyes didn't exist and neither did his unthinkable and unpredictable plans saved for me. This stage in between consciousness and unconscious was the most relief I could possibly have and live in and although it lasted for a few seconds, I was left with the yearning for more before I opened my eyes and faced the inevitable reality of being caged in the arms of my captor.

The warmth of his breath fanned my bare neck, shuddering the wisps of my unkempt hair back and forth. I dared not to breathe at all and clenched my eyes shut in the hopes of falling into the darkness of sleep again, but it was all in vain. I heard him smirk behind me as his ice-cold fingers kept trailing and drawing figures on my arm which I couldn't quite understand.

"Awake at last." The cold tip of his nose touched my arm, and before I could understand what his intentions were, I felt the sharp bite of his teeth at the back of my arm and the searing pain that followed after.

I refused to give in and give him the reaction he wanted and laid there still unable to stop the tears before they rolled down my cheeks. It was painful, and I was hurting in a way I always have. A companion that never wanted to leave, determined to come back, again and again, no matter how much I tried to pull myself out of the dark sludge that held onto me so dearly.

The bed dipped as he moved and got up. What I didn't expect was his arms sliding under me as he picked me up a little too gently to my huge astonishment and carried me somewhere I couldn't see with my eyes closed as I freaked out quietly. Every inch of my body was screaming and on high alert, and yet I could do nothing.

Funny, I thought to myself. I am supposed to scream, to push or even express my dissent to whatever he was about to do and yet here I was doing nothing. Absolutely frozen and scared to my very bone. I could easily open my eyes and see where he was taking me and what he was about to do, but I just couldn't. As if he had a strange sort of control over my mind, or maybe it was just me being submissive without even realizing it.

The squeak of the wooden stairs was the only hint I could gather without any idea on whether I was taken upstairs or downstairs. It felt strange to not know where the stairs led and weird because our mind never thinks about these things. You just know where you are going and the journey in between is almost always a blur.

A huge gust of wind pushed against me as another screech of a metal door painfully brushing against the metal hinges opened slowly. The freezing breath clenching my skin as the warmth I had felt inside the house dissipated unwelcomingly. After being locked inside for so long I almost forgot that it was winter outside with snow falling down the sky at every chance it could get.

"Open your eyes." His whisper cut through the wind and reached me clear and sound even through the chaos that raged outside. And I followed the command without any dissent and saw something which I didn't expect at all.

The dusk clouded by the cold draft left a brutal shadow behind as the pointed tips of the pine trees swayed with the harrowing storm as it controlled and manipulated nature to its will. But that was not the surprise. The arrangement of a table for two with a fireplace on the terrace was. The red velvet on the rectangular dinner table with two cloches at the opposite ends sat in the dark with an unlit candelabra in the middle.

He must be out of his mind because eating outside in this weather was absolutely ridiculous, and yet he didn't seem the littlest bit fazed by it as he put me down and placed his hand at the small of my back, guiding me towards one of the tufted red chairs that matched the table.

"Dresses suit you." A man of few words who left me baffled every time he said anything. I had no recollection of changing clothes or wearing any for the matter but as I looked at myself I realized that as always he was right. A simple black smooth silk dress with a v neck and no sleeves, plunging into my chest not desperately but enough to make me uncomfortable. Any dress was sure to make me feel uncomfortable.

He walked towards his seat and sat down nonchalantly, completely ignorant of the howling wind that thrashed against us. His lips moved, and I thought he said something but unable to understand what exactly it was, all I could do was sit still and gape until a tall slender man walked out from the shadows and made me almost jump out of my seat.

To my utmost horror, I realized that he was standing in the corner all along with a certain effortless camouflage which was hard to replicate. With his pale ghastly skin and neat black uniform of sorts, he gave the perfect image of a butler with white gloves on as he towered behind him while he was occupied with carefully placing a napkin on his lap.

I couldn't decide if I should be happy or if I was happy as I sat there completely blown out of my mind with the sudden twist and turn in the events.

Although was it welcome?