Some days were easier to forget when he was gentle and loving, butit was rare. Most of the time, he fucked me like some kind ofcrazed animal, marking his territory, reminding me I was his and noone else’s. What was worse was that I found myself craving it. Ihated the man so much, my need for revenge and blood neverwavering, but when my body was under his, I somehow became adifferent person. And I didn’t like her. I allowed that to happen …because I knew it had to happen. I had to give myself over to hisdemands if he was ever going to trust me. So I had to make it real,but that didn’t make it any easier.
Accepting his ownership was still difficultfor me. He drilled it into my head every day, kissing my wristswhere his name permanently adorned my skin. It was hard to hide myrevulsion at first, but eventually, I grew to ignore it. He couldbelieve whatever he wanted. It didn’t make it true. But then again,the scale was about to tip, and I wasn’t sure which way it wouldfavor.
One afternoon, I had been roaming the house, bored, wishing Icould go outside, but it had been cloudy all day. I headed down tothe living room to find the rain clouds had finally claimed the skyabove the house as tiny droplets came splashing down on thepavement of the back patio. Plopping my ass on the cold leathercouch, I perched and stared out the window. Darren would be homesoon, and I needed to decide where I wanted to be fucked when hefound me. I supposed the couch would be fine.
I randomly glanced around the room until myeyes caught the attention of the big black flat-screen TV thatstared right at me in the corner of the room. I knew I could watchmovies in the theater, but I wondered if Darren would permit me towatch cable. I decided to find out. I grabbed the remote from theTV stand and turned the screen on. Within seconds, the sound began to roll from the speakers as thetelevision came to life.
I sat back down and surfed through thechannels randomly, not really looking for anything to watch untilsomething very familiar caught my eye and stopped my heart dead inits tracks.
It was me. A giant photo of myself wasplastered on the big screen as a national news station read details about my sudden violentdisappearance. Photos of the parking garage and my shot-to-shit carappeared on the screen and I was immediately reminded of that awfulfucked up day. And then there was an interview with my family. Mymother sat between my two younger brothers while she cried andbegged for my safe return. But then I forgot how to breathe when Ifinally saw Jason’s face.
I stood on shaky legs as I stepped closer tothe screen. He looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks—red circlesaround his eyes and dark stubble shadowing his jaw and chin. Helooked like he’d lost weight, too. His usual sexy muscular body hadlost some of its tone as if hehadn’t eaten much or kept up his usual workout routine. I couldn’tblame him, though. I’d be the sameway.
His voice was hoarse and tired as he spokeabout trying to remain hopeful as he continued his pursuit withlocal search parties to find me. He wasn’t giving up. Luckily forhim, neither was I.
At thatmoment, I wanted to scream. I wanted to destroy everything in mypath until there was nothing left but ashes and rubble. Pure rageboiled up inside me as I watched my family suffer in my absencebecause of my absence. Darren had hurt my family; whether he meantto or not, he had done them wrong and they didn’t deserve that.They at least deserved to know Iwas alive.
I continued to stare at the picture of myfamily for several minutes, tears slowly falling down my face untilthe TV randomly shut off.
“I think that’s enough TV for today,” said adark voice behind me.
I turned with enough fury on my face topractically light Darren on fire.
“You think?!” I shouted at him and turned tothrow the remote control as hard as I could at the TV. It crashedinto the screen shattering the entire thing while the remote slammed back onto the floor.Satisfied with my destruction, I marched toward the door to thepatio.
“Jaden, don’t you dare walk away fromme like that!” Darren shouted at me with so much anger in his voiceit actually rattled me. But only for a second.
“Or what, Darren? You’re gonna hurt me,again? Put me in my place? Show me how much of a big, strong manyou are? Go ahead … because I officially don’t care anymore.”
And with that, I walked right out the doorinto the now pouring rain. I didn’t know where I was going, but Ididn’t care. I just wanted to get out of that house and away fromhim. But I honestly didn’t even know what I was thinking because Ididn’t make it two feet out the door before I heard his footstepsthundering behind me.
He grabbed the back of my arm and spun mearound, but as he did, I immediately brought my hand up to punchhim in the face. He saw it coming and grabbed my wrist, twisting itaround painfully, causing me to gasp out loud.
“Just who the fuck do you think you’retalking to, huh? Obviously, you do need another reminder of yourplace since you forget it so easily!” he roared as rain drippeddown his face.
“Fuck you, Darren! You’re nothing but acoward who only needs to dominate me to make yourself feel betterabout your pathetic existence.”
“A coward? Really, Jaden? That’s
