When he moved again, Chloe found herself still gasping for air as he took a seat in a chair that sat in the corner.
Moments seemed to pass under his unwavering gaze. He didn’t speak, seeming content to just sit there and watch her.
With the distance between them and the deafening silence getting to her, she tried again to find words. “H-How did I-I …?” Her voice trailed off, losing confidence when his eyes seemed to trail down her body.
“How did you get here?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
She slowly nodded.
“I brought you here.”
If he hadn’t said it so matter-of-factly, she would have thought she misheard him.
“W-Why?”
A matter-of-fact answer didn’t come out. Instead, you could see him thinking carefully about his next words. His eyes seemed to turn green while his words began to envelope her, his voice almost warm. “I brought you here … to save you.”
Chloe unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself, trying to keep the warmth from his voice, as she took one step toward him. “S-Save me from w-what?”
With one blink, Lucca’s eyes turned back to his strange shade of blue-green, making her feel like she imagined them turning green. The warmth in his voice seemed to have been in her imagination as well.
“To save you from making the mistake of leaving.”
What!
“Why would you do that? Why would you care?” Anger coursed through her. She had barely tasted freedom from this city, only for it to have been taken from her.
A smile touched his lips. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see, darlin’.”
Her eyes went wide at his cynical tone. She quickly lost any confidence she had gained from her anger.
For a moment, she thought she had seen something different in him, but now she saw only the darkness in him. The smile on his face brought back the memory of the night he revealed his true self …
Crack.
The sound of broken bones greeted her ears as a baseball bat slammed down onto a limp body.
Snap.
Another flash of the bat making contact with the man’s leg, the man who lay practically lifeless on the floor.
He raised the bat once more, pausing only to look her in the eyes. An evil pair of blue-green eyes stared back at her, making her blood run cold. She watched his hands grip the neck of the bat with a force so intense she was positive it was going to shatter before the bat was brought down for its final time.
Crunch.
As she watched the man inhale the air around him, he looked crazed, his appearance disheveled. Then he slicked his overgrown hair back in place, and you could see the slight smile come to his lips …
Taking the small step back she had taken forward, she realized the true danger she was in.
“A-Are you going to h-hurt m-me?”
She saw something flash in his eyes, his smile disappearing.
As he got up from the chair, Chloe held her breath once more. Then, as he stalked toward her, she backed up as far as she could with each step he took toward her until her back met the wall.
Lucca stopped when his body was mere inches from hers, leaning down ever so slightly to bring his tall stature closer to hers. “Have I ever hurt you, Chloe?” His voice was an octave deeper, coming out darker than she had ever heard him speak before.
She slowly shook her head, afraid not to answer the demon who had her in his grasp.
His gaze trailed down the scar that ran from her eyebrow to her cheek, making her swear she could almost feel his light caress.
“P-Please, can I-I go?” she pleaded, fearing what her future might hold from this moment forward.
Lucca stared down at her, bringing his hand up close to her face. “I don’t think you understand.”
Chloe’s breath caught in her throat. She desperately wanted to close her eyes, but his wouldn’t let her, forcing her to remain looking up at him.
“There is no leaving,” he continued, careful not to touch her, though he twirled a strand of her silky black hair around his finger. “You’re mine now, Chloe.” He dropped the strand, and it fell upon her chest that was now rising and falling heavily.
Watching the demon back up toward the nightstand, she started to realize that the devil was never her worst nightmare.
Lucca opened the music box once more, letting her lullaby fill the room, before disappearing and closing her inside her new prison.
He is. The Boogieman.
Her legs gave out, and she slowly sunk to the floor. She grasped her legs close to her chest as the beautiful melody started to trail off, almost coming to an end.
You’re mine now, Chloe.
Four
If I Catch You, I Won’t Be Able to Stop Myself
The devil had been the one to always haunt her, but he never came. In his place was the boogieman, promising her his kidnapping was going to be so much worse than her first by the devil.