{Keira}

 

Sunshine sweeps through the glass and lays on my face as I squint. I prepared a road-trip playlist and All Night is blasting through the car.

“Where is this place you’re taking me, again?” I ask Kyle, who has managed to keep the location a secrecy despite my many attempts to make him confess.

“It’s a surprise. How many times do I have to tell you?”

“Well, I don’t like surprises.” I sigh, and push back on my seat, setting my black sunglasses on.

“You’re gonna like this one.”

“Why are you so sure?” I raise an eyebrow and look at him.

He turns his head my way, both hands on the steering wheel, and smiles, “Because I know so.”

I realize that it’s gonna be worthless to try and get him to tell me. He’s just so stubborn not to reveal anything. And I can’t contain myself. I want to know.

“Anyway,” I proceed and look ahead. “Whatever it is, I’m gonna need it. I needed some time out.”

“Aww, you’re welcome, babe.” He tells me, and I frown, but he cannot notice because of the shades. I’m not his babe or anything, and coming into this, I don’t want to give him the wrong idea.

I notice that he’s rubbing his temples with his fist every so often, and I don’t know why.

“What is wrong?” I ask. “Do you have a headache or something?”

“Um, no. Look there must be some pills on my backpack. Care to pick it up for me?”

“Sure.” I say and reach to grab his backpack from the backseat. I unzip it and scramble for what he asked for.

“Here,” I say, removing the lid for him, while he takes it on one hand. He throws it on the other hand of his, and takes way too many pills on his mouth. His right hand is controlling the steering wheel all along, while he reaches his left one and grabs the bottle of water off of my hands.

“What are these pills?” I frown. “And why the heck did you put so many on your mouth.”

“They’re just tranquilizers.” He explains, but doesn’t look so tranquilized.

I’m starting to get worried. He’s sweating. Yeah I mean it’s very hot outside, but not as much as to make him look as if he’s come out of the shower.

“Kyle, are you okay?” I ask again.

“Yeah, Keira! Why wouldn’t I be?” he tells me in the most enraged of ways.

“Why are you yelling to me?”

“I am not yelling!!!” he’s still yelling!

I’m starting to get worried. He does not look okay. And I’ve never seen him treat me like this.

“I’m hungry,” I tell him.

“There’s a little something on my backpack.”

I rummage through his stuff and there’s a little strawberry muffin in there. He hates strawberries, or muffins. On the other hand I love them. But why would he be keeping that in there, since I didn’t ask for it anyway?

 

 

“What is this place?” I ask when he pulls over. There’s a big mansion in front of us. We’re on a quiet neighborhood that I don’t recognize.

“You’ll see for yourself.” He smiles and gets out of the car.

I follow him. Wow, this place is amazing. So quiet and beautiful.

“Kyle, what is this?” I feel like it’s about time that I know what he’s up to.

“It’s our house, babe. I bought it for us.”

“Ours? Why would we need a house together?”

I’m looking at the house, and I’m confused. Meanwhile he’s taking something out of his car. I turn back to look at him and frown. He’s holding a mallet on his hands.

“I’m sorry,” he says, and next thing I know, I’m lying blurred and unconscious on the floor. He hit me with the mallet.

 

 

My head hurts. I open my eyes slowly and wrinkle, as I’m adjusted to the lights. I try to take a look around. It’s a room. A big, spacious room will orange and violet walls. There’s a big glassy door on the end which leads to a beautiful garden filled with plants and flowers.

And then I look on the floor.

I’m surrounded by candles everywhere. It’s so creepy. There are candles near the bed, where I’m standing. The floor is crammed with candles.

Nobody could buy these many candles on one day. It seems like this has been planned out for weeks; months probably.

I try to draw my arms close but they’re tightened. I’m all tied up at the edges of the bed, and cannot move my arm and legs. My mouth is stuffed with some piece of clothing. Next to the pillow nearby my hand, lies my phone.

I try to scream, horrified by all this, but the thing on my mouth doesn’t let me.

It doesn’t take long, when Kyle appears by that door. He’s wearing only he’s underwear, and looks like he’s been catching rays outside. This is crazy.

I let out a muffled scream.

“Oh, hey, babe.” He smiles.

I look at him crept out.

“Sorry for the added accessories. I wasn’t sure whether you were gonna behave yourself.” He comes close and I look terrified.

What is he going to do to me? I try to scream, but I fail again.

He takes the piece of clothing out of my mouth. Now I scream freely.

“I wouldn’t suggest you to waste your energies. Nobody would hear you.” he says calmly.

“Kyle, what are you doing? What the fuck is this?” I yell.

“Oh, something I like to call, dreams.” He makes further steps around the bed. “You see, Keira, I had such high hopes for us. I dreamed for our future. And that’s why I bought you this house. I imagined our kids running on the garden, and you lying at the chaise lounge near the porch. And what did I get for all this? Disrespect.” His voice is so calm, but the next second he goes cray-cray and screams. “You ruined this beautiful dream!”

“Kyle, I’m sorry. You don’t have to do this.”

“Oh, I do. I won’t let you go this time. You cannot ditch me anymore, can you?” he laughs. “Try if you want.” He pokes at my tied up foot.

“We can work on this, together. You need to untie me.”

“You decided to run off with that rich boyfriend of yours, huh?” he says contemptibly. “What did he give you, that I couldn’t?” he asks. “Why did you choose him?”

“I didn’t…” I cry.

“Lier!” he yells, crazily.

I cry on a muffled way. Somehow it seems like I cannot escape this. And I’m afraid of what he could do to me. The Kyle I know was nothing like this man. This man is deranged, angry, and it seems like hurting me, satisfies him.

“Now, you might be wondering. Why all this candles? So romantic isn’t it? Oh, baby, we were supposed to ignite together with love, and you’re about to ignite alone in this house.”

I look at him terrified.

“Kyle, please, don’t do this.” I cry.

“I’m sorry, but what am I left with?” he asks. And it’s crazy how he goes from calm to deranged in spur of moment. “Nothing!”

He goes to the next room and my phone rings near my pillow. I cry and try to reach it with my ties hand until my wrist hurts. I can’t see who it is, but I try to slide my finger on the screen anyway, hoping that it will work.

Kyle comes back and he’s holding something on his hands that smells like gasoline. He pours it all over the unlit candles. This is crazy. Even if this phone call works, I don’t think that whoever is on the other part of the line will be able to come and save me from this.

“Kyle, don’t do this. You don’t have to kill me. How do you do this to someone you love?”

“Oh, babe,” he shakes his head and smiles. “I’m not killing you. I’m letting you ignite with love.” I look at him helplessly while he’s pouring gasoline all over the room.