Their fingers wrap tight around you, whorls of fingertips pressed to your spine, thick thumbs at your front. More pinning than either of these is their gaze, directly locked on you as you dangle in front of their face.
"I could bend you," they say, voice rumbling like thunder. "With my finger and my thumb."
The fingers tighten around you in the smallest incriment, just enough to push the wind out of your lungs, to hammer in the weight of their words.
"A mere reed you feel in my hands."
The hands shift, fingers loosening to drop you in their cupped palms. You can't do anything but try to keep your balance, unable to look away from their eyes, their expression, the way they loom over you.
Their face is unreadable for a moment. They swallow thickly, and their eyes soften in the slightest. Something flashes across their features that you cannot name; anticipation, regret, fear, love, some combination of all four.
They fall to their knees. The drop is short for them, but long for you, and even in their cupped hands you feel as if you're falling miles. Your hammering heart flies into your throat. Giant hands are swept close to their face, and they tip their head down. They press their forehead to you gently, wisps of their hair brushing the top of your head. You can see the familiar wrinkles in their forehead, knowing their eyes are screwed tight, face twisted in anguish.
"But whatever I do with this cage-" Their fingers dip in closer, as if having you cupped in their palms and pressed to their forehead isn't enough contact. You’re surrounded on all sides, utterly consumed by them. "I cannot get at you, and it is your soul I want."
You both stay still for a moment, no movement aside from the tremble of their hands and the pulse in their thumbs.
They pull you back down to look at you, eyes hard and soft, mouth terrifying and enticing. The hands continue to lower, until you realize you're being placed deep in a pocket. You can hear them speak, ever so softly.
"Why won't you come of your own free will?"
Without letting you answer, they zip the pocket shut.