won't go quietly

Arcadia was good at making friends, she was always kind and she liked to make people laugh. Why shouldn’t she make this man her friend? Maybe then he wouldn’t be so angry. She looks at his outstretched hand for a second and hesitantly takes it. The energy crackling around her fingers is visible, sparks igniting at every brush of their skin. She didn’t know why she was this way, it scared her.

“I can hold your hand for now,” she whispers, scooting a little closer. She sits on the floor and holds onto his hand. A couple minutes of silence pass as she stares at the door, waiting for the killer to walk in again. Hopefully in a better mood. It doesn’t take long before she’s slumping into his side, the sleepy way children do. It’s hard to keep her eyes open, she hasn’t slept in days.

“Thank you, I’ve been here for a long time. It’s nice to have a friend now.” he smiles at her and wonders what her parents must be feeling. She’s a sweet girl, naive as children are and much too innocent for this situation. It’s not fair. Freddy wishes he had the strength to tear the beast in pieces, but somehow he’s not even strong enough to break the chains binding him.

Arcadia eyes his hand like more than anything, she wants to hold it. She missed her parents, and she could use a bear hug like the ones her Papa gave her. Or a tender kiss on her forehead the way her Mami kissed her. Sniffling some more, she shakes her head. “He doesn’t hurt me, he’s just… mean.”

Really mean. She tries to be nice to him, the sweetest girl she can be. Nothing works, and he always get so mad. Why was he so mad? If she read his mind then… No, Papa said it was rude to do that. Inching forward, she considers taking Freddy’s hand. If she concentrates real hard, then maybe she won’t hurt him. “I’m trying to be his friend.”

Freddy stretches his hands out for her and nods, “It will be all right, c’mon.” He feels like he knows what she needs and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t need it too. Contact with someone other than the monster holding them hostage.

Cadi lets herself smile back, his was infectious it seemed.That is until he gets closer and she’s slowly inching back, folding her hands behind her back so that he couldn’t possibly touch her bare skin.

“You can call me Cadi,” she says quickly, “Just be careful.” Shifting from foot to foot,she tries to find the words to express why. Her parents didn’t know about her powers until recently, she’d been good at hiding them. This man, though, somehow he knew how to make them stronger. And now Cadi didn’t know how to make it stop. “You shouldn’t touch me, I could hurt you.”

He’d already made her hurt some people. It felt like the energy was buzzing off of her skin, like it wanted to hurt more. Tears fill her eyes again, and the look she gives Freddy is genuine fear. “I don’t want to hurt you, I promise. I’m a good girl.”

The smiles fade and he’s lowering his hands to place them on his knees. It dawns on him that she isn’t afraid of him and that hurts even worse. He raises his hands and scratches his eyebrow before putting his smile back on, “Cadi, it’ll be okay. You can’t hurt me any worse than he has, I trust you. I believe you.”

Offering his hand out again, he waits for her to come to him if she wants. He wishes he could keep her safe, but wishing for it to be true won’t make it happen. Hope was the only thing they had left, hope that someone would be looking for her. Freddy knows they’re out there somewhere knocking on doors or breaking them in to find her because he would be too if he was her father.

Freddy. She feels a smile tug at the corner of her lips. It sounded like a cartoon character’s name. Like someone nice, that she could trust. Standing up slowly, she tiptoed into the light so he could see her better. “I’m Arcadia.”

“But my family,” she continues quietly, “they call me Cadi.” She preferred it anyway, Arcadia sounded too…epic. Wiping the tears from her face with her dirty jacket sleeve, she steps a little closer to get a better look at him. He’s still mostly shrouded in darkness but she can make out his eyes. Kind eyes. “You.. don’t bite, do you?”

Her voice is so sweet, his heart breaks for her every second she’s in this house. Freddy wishes desperately that he could break out of his chains, but he already knows from experience he can’t. Freddy raises his hand to wave and his chains rustle behind him, he hopes it won’t frighten her too much. He smiles and tries his best to get into the light as much as he can for her.

It isn’t a scary house. It isn’t dark, or dirty. Nothing outright frightening or worrying. Nothing she’d expect from a guy who forced her to crush someone’s mind like a dandelion.

Crying softly to herself as not to anger him, she pushes her small body closer to the wall as he puts his jacket on. Cadi wonders what he does when he leaves the house, is he finding new victims? Sniffling, she feels her muscles ease as the door clicks shut behind him. It isn’t as hard when he isn’t here, she can pretend she’s just lost.

Looking into the dark corner across from her, her eyes search for the vampire. He’s quiet, kind. Watching her the way her Papa does. “Are you there?” she whispers, as if the other man is still home. “I don’t want to be alone.”

The man wasn’t kind. Freddy often wondered what happened to cause the man to hurt “others” as often as he did. Freddy had seen the man destroy magic, extinguish energy that shouldn’t be so easily destroyed by a human. It was strange that such a fragile creature had so much power over him. What kind of experiments had he done on his previous victims, how long would he keep Freddy alive?

If only the damn chains would break, how did they even work? Such measly metal should be able to snap, but instead they kept him confined to a corner until the man wanted his blood again. After nearly a year, Freddy was ready to just give up. That is, until the man brought her home.