✧˖°.⊹📖⊹.°˖✧
Rain seeps through the cracks in the laundromat roof, cold and insistent.
I watch him pace the room, knife glinting in the dim light. His moments precise and controlled. His shadows feel like a threat- yet I can't stop watching him.
His words flash a memory.
My father's grip is tight and unyielding. The suffocating mansion, velvet curtains, the cold gazes of people deciding my worth. The arranged marriage- proposed like a business deal, and I was his trade. I took what I could- jewels, cash- and ran.
Freedom had felt like hope then. But now... now it feels like danger wrapped in chains.
A noise from he street- footsteps in the rain makes me flinch. Our eyes meet, then his snap to the window.
"Stay behind me," he whispers.
A tracker? My stomach twists. I freeze.
...Except there's nothing. Just a shadow slipping past, lost in the storm.
I glare at him, exasperated. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? You scared me for nothing!"
He doesn't turn. His voice is low, sharp. "Nothing? There's always a risk. You should still be careful."
I huff, shaking my head. I push off the wall, chest still hammering. A stubborn heat flares through me.
"I don't take orders anymore. Not from anyone. Not from you."
He finally looks at me. Cold. Unreadable. "Then you'll die faster."
I swallow hard, the fear twisting in my stomach. I thought following him would be my way out, a path away from everything suffocating me. But he's sharp, perhaps too sharp. And yet... I can't walk away. Better to face this on my own terms than be trapped again.
I want to bolt, run off, take my freedom in a burst of reckless courage. But the truth sting- too many dangers, too close, the rain masking their footsteps. I don't even know who they are or what they can do from what he's told me.
We have to keep moving. If I slow down, if I think too much... he may decide I'm a liability and leave me behind.
I can't stand his orders. He's infuriating, sharp, impossible to predict. Part of me wants to rail against him, and part of me can't ignore the fact that, unlike my father, he actually moves against control instead of enforcing it.
I follow him. Reluctantly at first. Every step measured, every movement cautious, but I follow.
The thought hits me like a cold pulse- I might need to stay with him longer than just tonight. Just for survival. Just to stay alive.
I thought he might be just a path I could walk past, a temporary shadow to hide in from the mansion. But now... he might be more than that. Not safe, never safe- but necessary.
And for now...
I obey.