“Aw, do you have to leave so soon?” I say in a sarcastic, mocking voice. He turns around and runs the back of his hand across my cheek. I try to bite his hand. He laughs and smiles, “My little pet.” He pats my head and walks away. I scream in a high pitched scream and realize I am like an animal. I’m biting, screaming and my ankles and wrists are chained to the walls and floor.

A sharp bell sounds, marking the hour. At that exact moment the young maid comes in with my tray of food. I swear everyone here is a robot, doing exactly what they’re told with no question and every day is just about the same. The world is so predictable down here in my cell. It’s six in the afternoon, at this time every day the young maid brings food of stale bread, bitter soup and water. She has to feed me because I can’t be trusted for even one second to have one of my wrist unlocked. I take a bite of bread, tearing a piece off like a dog would rip meat from a bone. Still chewing, I ask the young maid her name. All this time I have yet to hear anyone’s name. My unruly manner brings a look of disgust to her face, but it quickly fades, the staff is supposed to be polite.

“Master calls me Vivian.” I roll my eyes and groan, I hate the Master. He thinks that he can control everything and everyone. He makes so many people fearful that some say that the dead wish to be buried deeper to be farther away and even the most powerful people in the world shake with fear.

“I mean what is your real name.”

“I’m never supposed to speak it to anyone ever.”

“Oh, come on! You can tell me. I hate the Master, I would never tell him in a million years. And I’m not going anywhere, who am I going to tell?” She’s still nervous, but she gives a small smile and whispers in my ear, “Alex.” Now I see why the Master renamed her, he likes pretty girls with pretty names; Alex was an unacceptable name for a pretty girl. I finish off the food without a word. She turns to leave, it is six fifteen and feeding time is over.

“Wait. Well Vivian, you told me your name, I’ll tell you mine. My name is Adler.”

“Oh, I know miss. Everyone here knows who you are and you’re never getting out of here,” she says without looking back.

“If I get out of here I’ll try to get the rest of you out,” she continues silently.

What she said was true to an extent. If the Master got his way, I would never be set free, but if I got my way I would get out of here, and soon. And I didn’t even do anything that bad… well I saw a few things, said a few things, and OK some people would say that the few things I did were worthy of death. The Master agrees with those people, but he said he thought death was too easy. I knew better. Death would be suitable for what I did, but he needs the information I have. If I died there would be no way for him to get it. He also very much enjoyed to two hours he spent interrogating me. But he doesn’t just ask me questions or try to beat them out of me; he tries to seduce me with manipulating words and softly touching my face and all sorts of things. But I am unbreakable; if I don’t want you to know something you will never know it. Other girls would say anything the Master wanted when he first sweeps their hair to the side and smile gently. I just laugh and spit in his face. I think my enmity and my animal-like behavior attracts him, and he takes it as the ultimate challenge to break me. Men are always more attracted to the one’s they can’t have.


“Good morning, sweetie,” says the Master, the words are syrupy sweet with underlying sarcasm. I blink a few times and realize that I was asleep; it’s so dark and boring I tend to not tell the difference between sleep and reality. He slaps me across the face, and then punches me in the stomach.

“Is that all you got? I know children who can hit harder than you.”

“Oh, sweetie, I don’t want to tarnish that beautiful face of yours,” he brushes my hair out of my eyes, “it’s our five month anniversary, you know.”

“Five months in hell with the devil and you.”

“They say the devil was a genius and great company.”

“They being you, I assume. You only listen to yourself and you only do what would benefit yourself. Do you even care about anyone else? I mean, there must be someone you care about.”

“I care about you.” He lifts my chin with his index finger. His voice sounds honest this time, no sarcasm. He’s such a good liar, that the look on his face makes me almost want to believe him. If I didn’t hate him and he wasn’t evil, I would believe him. And if I wasn’t who I am, I would be happy to hear that. He’s a genius and attractive, I’ll give him that.

“Oh? Is that why you have me locked up like a dangerous animal? You care about me too much to let me free?”

“I fear that if I don’t have you locked up you’d run away and never come back.” He speaks softly with his “honest” tone. This is the voice that he uses when he wants you to believe him. I have seen so many girls shiver with delight and smile when they hear him talk like this to them. I don’t believe his act for one second. He walks around so that he is behind me. He stands so close that I can feel his warm breath on the back of my neck. He speaks so quietly I can hardly hear him.

“It’s true. I want you here with me. I’ll wait until you can be trusted, until you feel the same way about me. We would be so great together. We could rule the world and do so many wonderful things.” He moves my long hair to the side, pushes the collar of my shirt over and kisses my shoulder slowly and carefully. Some other girl would melt into his arms, but not me. He kisses my shoulder again and then my neck and then under my jaw in the same way, slow and careful. His fingers glide over my waist lightly like feathers and settle with a loose grip. My reaction is not what I thought it would be. My heart is pounding a little harder. His touch is so warm and caring that I’m actually enjoying it. I take a deep breath and clear my head and remember who we really are. I violently swing my head back so that it bashes into his. He steps back, letting go of my waist, I can hear him groaning and cursing. He storms to stand in front of me. He is angry with a ravenous look in his eyes.

“What the hell was that? Did you really believe that I would fall and give into that?” I demand.

“You almost did. I could feel the tension leave you for a moment. You were attracted to me, admit it.” He says this with a smug smile.

“But,” his smile is now gone, “you didn’t give in. I’ll have to try to remember that you don’t act human, you are like an animal. And that is how you’ll be treated.” He punches me in the stomach, and I smile. He reaches behind him and pulls out a taser.

“Wow, that’s a little harsh. Is that any way to treat your sweetie?” An alarm sounds and the Master looks around confused.

“Oh, that sounds bad. You better go run and check it out.” He drops the taser and runs. I sigh with relief; I did not want to deal with the taser. Vivian, the young maid, comes running in and starts to unlock my chains.

“You have to hurry. We don’t have much time before the Master figures out that it was a false alarm.” She finishes and I run as fast as I can. There is no other way out of the basement other than the main stair case. I have no choice but to take these stairs up. I make it up to the second floor. The stairs end and armed guards are racing towards me. I push against the wall desperately. The wall moves back and reveals a back stair case that looks like it hasn’t been used for years; there are cobwebs in every corner. I run in, close the wall and race up the stairs. I can’t believe my luck, finding the stairs and they lead all the way up to the roof. Up on the roof I have no idea what to do. A few moments later the trap door opens up and the Master and his army emerge. I back up and look over the edge. The fall is about six stories, not the best for escape.

“Stop!” the Master yells. “I’ll give you a chance; we can do what we talked about.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but no way in hell.” I look over the edge again, look at the Master and smile. I stand on the edge and face him.

“Goodbye, sweetie.” And with that I spread out my arms and fall backwards.

“No!” the Master yells. He runs to the edge and looks down, and sees nothing but the street below.