Relapse

As another one of his snarls ripped through the space between them, he pressed the blade to the point of cutting into her flesh. Her eyes began to water with the stinging sensation, though she remained still. Daring him with her unrelenting stare to do it. End it! Right here, right now! She hadn’t realized that she had stopped breathing until … he pulled the knife away. “NO!” She cried out in a gasp as the promise of death evaded her. He kept teasing her with relief, and that was the part that she couldn’t stand. Why? While the threat of imminent death had been removed, she still couldn’t manage to swallow the lump in her throat. He stood over her- looming over her like he always did. Though, with tear-blurred vision, something seemed off. She watched him, still angry, but also with clear uncertainty- even more so as he dropped his knife to the ground and echoed her name. It seemed … almost desperate.

When he all but fell on top of her, she gasped once again, twisting her hips in an effort to protect her hip from having to bear his weight and her own. Her leg hurt- but it was growing more numb by the day. However, that wasn’t what sent her into shock. As his limbs snaked around the sides of her neck to apply pressure- pulling her into some sort of embrace, he leaned in to lick the laceration that he had made. It burned, but even that didn’t disturb her as much as what he said. Tell me he didn’t touch you. It was a plea. An upheaval of emotion that she wouldn’t have believed from him had someone tried to describe it to her. She kept waiting for the punchline, but he only kept going in his downward spiral. I like you - I love you. The words made her go stiff. She heard him say it- but she didn’t believe it. This was a child’s tantrum. He didn’t want to share his toy and now that he had been forced to believe it was a possibility … it seemed his entire perception of reality had begun to crumble. He mumbled something else as he squeezed her tighter. The closeness to him made her cringe.

Blinking the tears away, she decided that this was way more than what she had bargained for. “It was your uncle, Rhazien.” She announced breathlessly. Before he took it as an accusation of Rhazien having been the one to take advantage of her, she continued without waiting for his recognition. “He came looking for you, but didn’t stay. He implied that he was going to get the others and would be back … whatever that means.” She was certain it would mean something pretty important to Sephiran. She tried to push him away and then to prop herself up against the wall. She wanted space. She wanted distance from her captor. She wanted to snake a paw up to her neck and apply pressure to ease the pain. Though whether or not he denied that or not, she continued. “He lit the herbs for me in exchange that I would call you when he wanted me to.” Aurelia recounted while looking away from him. Psychotic maniac she could handle. This … “That was all that happened.” The girl finished, just wanting to put this event behind them.

"Speech"