Nothing Is as It Seems

When we arrived back at Zacky’s place, he led me back to the same room I was in before. Everything was neat and tidy and perfectly put in place. I wondered who did the cleaning around here, I just couldn’t imagine Zack with a duster in hand.

“Thanks for coming for me, Jacoby was scary as hell.” I said this while I rested my hand against Zacky’s arm. I felt him tense under my touch.

He looked down at my hand and a few moments later grabbed it to pull it up to his lips. He kissed in then put it back at my side.

“I will send Matt in with your dinner later. I would appreciate it if you didn’t form any escape plans with him. It was very inconvenient to have to kill Johnny, I’d rather like to keep Matt.”

He gave a sinister smile before turning on his heel and leaving the room. I sank down on the bed and felt tears sting the back of my eyes. That was my one and only chance to get out of here and I had just walked into another trap.

I sat in silence, just staring at the floor for what seemed like hours. The only sign that time had passed was my stomach growling once I became hungry. I jumped when the door suddenly swung open, banging against the wall with a thud. Matt stepped inside with a tray in his hands. The wonderful aroma of fried chicken filled the room and my stomach growled again, an obnoxious dying whale sound that under normal circumstances would be embarrassing.

Matt sat the tray down then crouched down in front of me so we were at eye level.

“I can get you out of here,” he whispered and I slowly looked up. There was no way I could fall for that again.

“I don’t believe you,” I said simply.

“I’m not an idiot like Johnny. I can get you out of here and hidden where Zack can never find you.” He sounded so sincere that I actually felt a little bit of hope again.

“Okay, how will we do it?” Any bit of hope I had was snatched away like a rug being pulled out from under my feet when Matt grabbed me and pinned me against the wall.

“You idiot girl. You really think anyone else would be stupid enough to help you? You got my friend murdered and I will do everything in my power to make sure you never escape Zacky alive. Got that?” I nodded quickly, but he didn’t didn’t loosen his hold.

He had just opened his mouth to speak again when Zacky cleared his throat from the doorway. “That’s quite enough, Matthew. You can leave now.”

Matt shot me a death glare before releasing me and disappearing from the room. I slid down the wall, rubbing my arm where Matt had squeezed too hard. Zacky lowered himself to the floor beside me. It took everything in me to force myself to do it, but I flung myself against his chest and wrapped my arms around his neck. He awkwardly patted me on the back.

“You’re the only person that is good to me. I’m sorry I betrayed you.” My voice was muffled against his chest, but I know he heard me.

“I came in and ripped you away from the life you were used to. I can understand why you wanted to get away from me,” he said, his patting became rubbing. He rubbed my back from my shoulder blades down to the top of my jeans and back again. He did this over and over and I found myself wishing everything wasn’t so fucked up. I wished I was at home cuddled up with Adam.

Zacky didn’t move me, so I stayed where I was with my head against his chest. After a while, his breathing changed to the steady breath of someone who was asleep. The door was still wide open. I could easily make a run for it now, but how far would I really make it? Matt or one of the others could be waiting around the next corner.

I needed to show Zacky he could trust me to not run away again. So I peeled myself off of him and crossed over to the bed. I climbed under the covers and pulled them up to my chin. Shortly after I got situated I heard Zacky shuffling around. I sat up a little to look at him and he was smiling.

“Looks like you passed the test,” he said as he got to his feet. “I’ll leave this door open and from now on you can access the rest of the house.”

I smiled to myself as I snuggled back down in the blankets. My plan must already be working if he trusted me enough to do that already. At least I hoped that was it and he wasn’t just fucking with my head.