𝒐𝒃𝒔𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 *UNDER MAJOR EDITING*

eighteen

"I hope we can always be together, ya know?"
~

After Stephen dresses me, unnecessarily, I might add, I go to the kitchen to start on dinner.

I really don't understand why he can't just cook for himself. It's not that hard. And all he wanted was pasta. Can he not boil water? I clench my fist and look at the overstocked pantry.

With all this food, he should know how to cook.

How did he even manage before I came here?

I settle on making lasagna for him and I decided to just eat leftover spaghetti.

I wondered if I could still escape. I hadn't tried every possible method yet. The only possibility of me boing outside anytime soon was if he took to whatever is was on Thursday. He might be preoccupied with the business at hand and I could slip away to a bus station.

I hear the water hissing and pulled my hand away when I felt hot water splatter onto my hand. The pasta had boiled over, so I quickly turn down off the heat and drain the noodles.

I used to love cooking. Cooking with my mom used to be highlight of the day. But now, things had changed. He had taken it away from me. Now cooking was just a chore I had to get done. The joy had been squeezed out of it.

The only thing I had left of my mom ruined by him.

I angrily throw the pot in the sink, pouting in annoyance at the loud ringing that sounded because of it. Whenever Thursday comes, I'm leaving. It would be quick and simple and he wouldn't get caught.

Why didn't I want him to get caught? Do I actually have feelings for this man? I couldn't. I refuse to believe it. I have been in this house for a week and he is a criminal.

But he's been kinda sorta nice.

I have Stockholm syndrome. That is the only valid explanation. It has to be.

Then another part of me, a darker part of me, wanted him to get caught, not by my hands but by his own. If he was caught it was because he made a mistake on his.

I didn't destroy him, he destroyed himself.

My lips curled into a cruel smile before I shook off the feeling. I didn't like feeling that way.

God what was happening to me? Was I becoming so desensitized to this world of chaos that was becoming a psycho?

I shake the thoughts away and focus on dinner.

When I am done, I go and look for him but I can not find him. Weird.

Normally he's in his office or in the gym. But he wasn't in any of those places. Granted the house is huge and he could be anywhere. I still hadn't seen the full house and part of me never wanted to. I was scared I would find a torture chamber or a room just filled with dead bodies.

I check upstairs again. He is not in any room. I go downstairs and check the gym again. He is not there.

After a few minutes of searching the entire house and I realized there was one room I missed. It was the last room down the hall in the basement. The door was closed but it wasn't locked.

I open it a crack and knock.

"Stephen?"

No one answered but when I peer in I see red light glowing.

The red light creeps me out. I don't like it. I feel uneasy.

It was a darkroom, for photography. They had one at my high school but I had only been in it once because it gave me bad vibes.

Does he even have time for photography? You know being a crime lord and all?

Maybe they're just pictures of him and his criminal buddies. His criminal homies, if you will.

His cromies.

I giggle at myself and then step inside the room.

I go in further and look at the pictures that are drying. My amused attitude quickly becomes sour and I feel my stomach drop.

My blood runs cold and my mouth opens in horror.

They are of me. All the pictures are of me. Some are when I'm out and at school. And some are when I'm in my room, a place that should be private, but I guess I never had the privilege.

And he has so many, too many.

How long has he been watching me?

I think I'm going to throw up. I turn to leave, clutching my head and my stomach.

My footsteps stop when I see him standing in the doorway and murderous gleam in his eyes. He looked live the devil himself, the red light casting over him like a blanket.

"You are not supposed to be in here babydoll."