#smaf

   It didn’t matter now. Nothing mattered. There’s no way around this. I’m stuck, hopelessly, despairingly stuck. I can barely bring myself to lift my head as my captor enters the room. I don’t want to do this. I can’t do this.

    “So, dear, are you ready for today? I thought we’d start with something nice and hot, just for you! I have matches, and some irons, and-”

    “Please,” I whispers, straining my throat to speak, “please, no...I can’t…”

    He sighs deeply, bouncing on the balls of his feet and drumming his fingers against his leg in irritation. My own feet hurt, still sore from the day before, and two of my fingers are broken, bent at unnatural angles.

    “Now, sweetheart we’ve been over this! There’s only one way I’ll stop and you begging isn’t one of them. You know what I want to hear my precious star.” 

    How could I not know? The words were seared into my brain, but before this I couldn’t, no, I wouldn’t say them, but now… Now I have no reason to fight. Nobody was looking for me, not anymore. My heart drops when my captor sighs in boredom striking a match as he does. 

    “I-I love you! I-I l-love you and I n-need you m-my saviour!” 

    He stops, I hold my breath in anticipation. A yelp tumbles from my chapped lips as he jerks my head back by my matted dark hair. Manic green eyes bore into my own hollowed dark ones. 

    “Care to repeat that my dear?” He asks. 

    “I-I love you… I-I need y-you my saviour.” 

    Part of me screams that I’m making a mistake, that I need to stop, but I’m tired. So tired of fighting, I just want this hell to be over. A wide grin breaks out against my captor’s face, making him seem even more demented than he actually was. 

    I close my eyes tight when he crashes his mouth against mine, trying hard to reciprocate the kiss. It only lasts a couple seconds but it still leaves me winded. 

    “I love you too, my precious star! But my dear that still isn’t enough… We’ll give it another week, now! What would you like me to use first? The matches or the irons?” 

    Tears slip down my bruised face, I take a shuddering breath, “T-The matches… my saviour.” 

    I let my head slump as my captor - no, saviour - strikes a new match. Breathing is hard. I want this to be over.

    “Are you going to ask nicely?” my saviour asks me.

    “...Please, the...the matches, please, my saviour...please…”

    I’m pathetic. I know I’m pathetic. I want this to be over. I don’t care what I have to do. I’ll do whatever he says, say whatever he wants. I need this to be over with, and that’s all I care about anymore.

    He kisses the burns after it’s over, murmurs that I look beautiful, and that I’ll look even more so on our wedding day.

    “Wed...ding…?” I echo softly, my voice seeming louder than it truly is in the otherwise empty room.

    “Well of course! I’ll ask you properly in a week's time, but we both know you’ll say yes!”

    Part of me wants to argue, to tell him that it would never happen, but I know better. I force a smile, wincing as a cut on my bottom lip splits open from the movement. 

    “O-Of course… I wouldn’t dream of telling you no my saviour…” 

    I’m startled awake when the door to the room I’m in swings open, I squint my eyes when a ray of light shines over my face. ‘What’s happening?’ My thoughts were interrupted when a deep and unfamiliar voice spoke from the doorway. 

    “My God, the kid was right. Get the EMT’s in here! Mr. Sanders, can you hear me?”

    My heart leaps into my throat as I shield my eyes from the light, a man in a dark blue police uniform walks over to me. When the officer gets close enough I immediately reach my hand out to touch his chest, a cry of relief leaves my chapped lips when I touch a solid body. ‘Not a hallucination this time.’

    I throw myself at the officer and cling to him desperately, my knuckles turning white due to how tight I held onto his uniform shirt. My body trembles from the sobs that leave me, everything was finally over after all this time. 

    The officer places a comforting hand on my back, softly telling me that it was okay now, that I  was safe and that an upstanding citizen led them to me. 

    My crying left me tired once more, I struggled to keep my eyes open. 

    “Go on and rest, you’re safe now.” 

    I feel myself relax and sigh, unconsciously snuggling into the officer’s chest. I close my eyes and allow a genuine smile to come to my face. 

    ‘It’s finally over…’ 

    “Look at how pretty you are… My precious star sleeping so peacefully!” 

    My eyes snap open and I’m staring face to face with my saviour, his manic green eyes opened wide and rung in purple eyeshadow, something I hadn’t noticed before until now. I open my mouth to scream only for him to place his hand over my mouth, he gives me a knowing smirk and clicks his tongue. 

    “Now, star, it’s not nice to scream in a hospital, trust me I know I did it once before and got kicked out!” 

    I glanced around the room, it was much brighter than the room in the abandoned building. A heart monitor and IV stand was to my left, the heart monitor going off erratically due to my fast heartbeat. 

    “Do you promise not to scream if I move my hand? Because this kind of gagging is not sexy at all!” My saviour exclaims. 

    I flick my eyes back to him and slowly nod, he removes his hand. We stare at each other in complete silence for several seconds. 

    “W-Why?..” 

    “Why are you here? Simple! I couldn’t just waltz into a courthouse with a known kidnapped victim and get married! No, far too suspicious my dear. That’s why I had to save you first. The town sees me as a hero because I saved you!” 

    I stare at my saviour, waiting for him to say that this was a joke, but it never came. 

    “Y-You…” 

    He cut me off by grabbing my left hand, his touch was gentle and foreign. 

    “Look, star, I know these past two years have been difficult for the both of us, but I was serious about marrying you. I didn’t want to hurt you, but I had to make you love me. And now you do! So… Would you do me the honour of making me the happiest man alive and becoming my husband?” 

    My stomach drops, he did say he was going to ask me to marry him properly within a week, had it really been a week? And had it really been two years since I was taken? Every part of me screams to say no, to scream for help and tell whoever would listen that this man was the person who took me, but the tight squeeze told me that that would be a bad idea. I swallow thickly and close my eyes tight to stop the tears from falling. 

    “Y-Yes… I-I’ll marry you, m-my saviour.” 

    I stand rigid in a judge's chambers, wearing a plain white dress and a bouquet of white lilies clenched tightly in my hands. I zone out most of the ceremony as the officiator went over sacred passages and then my saviours vows. I come to when my name is said. 

    “Do you Logan Sanders take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, til death do you part?” 

    ‘Say no! Tell them the truth, don’t do this! Protect yourself!!’ 

    “I do…”