“If I made a deal with her, do you think she’d hit you?” my father asks me as I sit in the steel chair across the room from him. My body shakes from the cold. My clothes are soaked, and the tips of my fingers are numb.

A deal… is he finally going to let her go?

“I think she would. She wants to leave more than anything,” he says more to himself than to me. I’m afraid to look at him. Afraid that if I do, he’ll tell her to do it.

My little bird.

She’s the only good thing in my world. The only purpose I have in life.

Do I think she’d strike me?

Yes.

She’d do anything to leave, and the thought shreds me. I could see him over her shoulder, whispering promises of freedom if only she’ll listen to him. Just like he did to me for so long.

“Are you letting her go?” I ask him, and the words tremble from my lips.

A rough dry laugh fills the small chamber as he throws a towel at me. It’s small and thin, but it’s something. I keep my movements slow as he paces, still not looking him in the eyes. One day I’ll be stronger than him. One day I’ll kill him for what he’s done.

But he likes to show me how weak I am, and he’s right. I’m no one compared to him.

The rough towel drags over my skin, drying it as he says, “No, of course not.”

He clears his throat, and I chance a look up at him as he stares at the back wall. He turns to look at me ever so slowly, and holds my gaze. My own eyes stare back at me. “She’s too important, boy. And I have so many plans for her.”

His words echo in my head, over and over. Through the screaming of the next session, through the sound of my feet pattering on the cold floor as he takes me back to her.

I only know two things to be true.

If she leaves, I’d rather kill myself than live another day.

And I need to get her out of here.

I promise I’ll find a way out.

---

I wake up to my heart racing and my body feeling like ice. I stay still, perfectly motionless with my body tense. There’s a thin layer of cold sweat covering me. The nightmares always feel so real. Like it just happened. Like I was back with him, helpless and stuck in that fucking chamber. It’s only after a moment of calming my breathing that I feel her warmth as she stirs beside me.

My little bird. For a moment it makes me feel like I’m back there again, back in the room and I’m quick to look around. But we’re on a bed, a comfortable one with sheets and a blanket. She’s with me though; she came down here to sleep with me.

I open my eyes and peek at Toby, fast asleep by the open door. He’s huddled in a ball and even he didn’t wake this time. I turn over onto my side and pull her small body closer to me. I kiss the crook of her neck and look up, staring at the wall and the camera. It’s off, but it’s there, staring back at me.

Not only watching me, but it’s watching her, too.

I don’t want her here at night. It’s too real with her in my arms. I whisper into the stale air, loving the feel of her soft body in my arms, “I'll always protect you, little bird.”

The moment the words leave me, Robin stirs next to me, opening her weary eyes. They’re still red-rimmed from earlier, and I know she’s tired. No one is sleeping in this house. I give her a worn out smile and push the hair from her face.

“You left me,” she whispers. I shake my head, denying it. Never. I’ll never leave her. The accusation in her voice mixed with pain is a heavy cocktail, and I don’t want to carry the burden.

“I’m right here,” I tell her and when I do, a small smile tugs her lips up just slightly. It softens me and warms my chest. But then she reaches up. I’m quick to snatch her wrists. Quick to stop her. I can’t help the reaction. I know it’s part of my fucked up head. How once I didn’t have my father to fight anymore, I found myself consumed with the past and tearing myself apart instead.

“I want to touch you,” she tells me softly, and I stay perfectly still. She can help me. She wants to help me, and I desperately need it. I need her.

My fingers dig into the mattress, and I have to close my eyes as her hands slowly slide up my shirt.

“You’re the only one I’ve let touch me,” I tell her in a soft voice.

It was years ago, back when giving her everything was all I had left.

“It would have been different,” I start to say, but my voice gets choked. The anger starts to rise, and my blood heats. I close my eyes, breathing out slowly.

It’s not her fault, I tell myself. I knew what I was doing when I set her free. But knowing how it all played out… I can’t help but feel animosity.

“Punish me, Jay,” I hear her soft plea and it forces my eyes open. “Please,” she begs me.

I hate how weak she sounds in this moment. I don’t want that for her, and I quickly silence her before she can do it again. I crash my lips against hers, spearing my fingers through her hair and parting her lips to deepen the kiss. She obeys me instantly, arching her neck and digging her fingers into my thigh. Letting me know she’s not going to move them.

I don’t mind her being weak for me. But not when it’s tinged with guilt.

She moans into my mouth, and my dick instantly hardens. I rock it into her, needing to feel something. A voice hisses in the back of my head, mine, as I break the heated kiss and catch my quickened breath.

“Punish me, Jay,” Robin begs me in a whisper laced with desire. Her eyes are still closed as she waits for my answer.

“Would it make you feel better?” I ask her as I press my chest against hers and slowly let go of her wrists. “If I took it out on you?” I whisper the question, feeling the heat between our bodies mingle with our breath. I slide my fingers along her collarbone and then to the thin silk strap of her nightgown. I don’t stop, my touch forcing the strap down her shoulder, letting it fall and exposing her left breast.

My cock is impossibly hard as I stare down at her gorgeous skin, trailing my finger over every inch and watching with bated breath as goosebumps follow my path.

Her pale rosy nipples are already hard as I reach down and pinch one with my forefinger and thumb, pulling back slightly and making her head fall back. A moan slips through her lips, and it forces precum to leak from my cock.

I’ve wanted her for so long, I know I have, but the anger has kept me from reaching out to her, from touching her. I harbor so much resentment for the day she left that I’ve feared this moment just as much as I’ve desired it.

“Jay,” she whimpers my name as she shudders, and it’s my breaking point. The last restraint I have snaps. I tear the nightgown off her body. The fabric comes apart with a loud rip, accompanied by her gasp.

She wants me to punish her. I will.

She wants me to have her. I’ll take every piece of her and leave her with nothing. Nothing without me from this day forward.

I shove my hand between her thighs and her panties are already soaking wet. She writhes under me as I nip her neck and work my hand over her panty-covered cunt, pressing my palm to her swollen nub and ruthlessly forcing her first orgasm from her.

She doesn’t expect the first release; it comes quickly and rocks through her body. As the ripples leave her lying limp, I tear through the thin lace and spread her legs for me. I kick off my jeans and boxers and stroke my thick cock just once.

I don’t even hesitate. I’m not gentle; I don’t give her a chance to acclimate. I thrust into her, slamming my hips to hers and taking her in one swift motion.

Her back bows and she screams out, but I’m quick to press my chest and lips to hers. It calms her as I pull nearly all the way out, feeling her opening at the tip of my cock and then shoving myself all the way back in. She’s already wet and hot for me, making it that much easier for me to fuck her so ruthlessly.

I pound into her over and over again, feeling her tight walls spasm around my cock. Each hard thrust is met with a whimper escaping her lips. Her sharp nails digging into my back only spur me to fuck her harder, faster.

I take her with a punishing force, relentlessly pistoning my hips.

Even as she cums on my dick again, so hot and tight and sucking my dick in further, begging for my cum, I refuse. I groan into her neck, grinding my teeth and digging my blunt nails into the flesh at her hips to keep my release from surfacing.

She screams out my name over and over, but I stay still, holding my breath and ignoring the tingling at the base of my spine. My toes curl and my balls draw up, but I deny it. I stay as still as I can, buried deep in her tight cunt until her orgasm passes.

And then I do it again.

And again.

I spread her wider and fuck her deeper and harder each time. Letting the waves of her orgasms build and crash through her, leaving her limp and destroyed each and every time. Her breathing is ragged as she arches her neck and pleads with me.

“Please, Jay,” she moans and her voice is a strangled cry. Her words barely audible. A cold sweat forms over every inch of my skin as I ride through her words, not letting up. Her body tries to roll away, in a desperate effort to leave me and I grip her throat tightly in my hand, squeezing as I piston my hips between her legs, forcing her small breasts to bounce. Forcing her hands up to clutch at my wrist. Forcing little cries of pained pleasure from her lips.

“Please what?” I ask her as her lips part with the need to breathe. Her fingernails just barely scratch at my hand, but she doesn’t try to pull it away. It’s only to make this last one the most intense. To shatter her completely and intensify it so that she’ll be more than ruined.

“Please,” she tries to speak, but the threat of another orgasm creeps up through her body, making her arch and writhe. As the silent scream is met with her body going stiff, her heels digging into the mattress, I pump my hips again and again, bottoming out against her cervix until my dick pulses and I relent.

I loosen my grip on her throat, listening to her gasp for air and scream my name with nothing but pleasure. My own orgasm finally tears through me, demanding its own relief and forcing her name from my lips. I whisper it in the crook of her neck, her hot breath on my face making my entire body chill.

Our mixed arousal and cum leaks between us as we both catch our breath. And I fall to the mattress next to her sated and mesmerized by the way she lies there panting for air. The way her eyes are dazed and her body trembles. Because of what I’ve done to her. Because of what I’ve given her.

She whimpers and tries to move when she realizes I’ve left her, but I merely splay a hand on her hip and she stills, waiting for me to tell her what to do next.

Her thighs scissor slightly, simply because I’ve put my hand on her but it’s met with a small cry and her brow furrowing.

I lean over her, kissing her gently on the lips before pulling the covers up and around her.

“Don’t leave me, please,” my little bird begs me, and it destroys every bit of me.

“I won’t,” I lie to her just to ease her worry. “I’ll be right here when you wake up.”