𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐍✔️

FIVE|COLOUR

  "YOUR NAME IS Arden?"

I nodded my head in answer.

He paused for a minute before a jovial nature I had never seen before took over him, "Well then, do you want to play a game, Arden?"

"What sort of game?" I asked dryly. I had never much been one for games. The monster enjoyed games, ones that involved hurting me, seeing how much pain I could take before passing out, how long I could last without food, how many things he could fit inside of me.

"Don't worry," He said as if sensing my nervousness. "It's just a questions game, to help us find out more about each other." He studied my face for a reaction but found none.

"What are the rules?"

"It's pretty simple. I'll ask you a question and you have to answer... Honestly."

"So you can ask me any question and I have to answer honestly, no matter what?"

He nodded. I understood the game, but I was scared. Scared that he would ask me a question that I could not answer. Or that he would ask what happened to me, or why I did what I did.

"What happens if I can't answer the question that you ask?" I said quietly, unable to meet the pressing ask of his eyes. It felt as though he wasn't just trying to see me, instead, he was trying to see into me. Pulling me apart and laying me bare before him, all my secrets exposed and open for him to read like a book.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "We'll deal with that if it happens. For the moment, let's start nice and easy, okay. How old are you?"

"Eighteen, at least, I think I'm eighteen, what about you?"

"Twenty-four."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, "You're really old." I mumbled, more to myself than him, but he heard and let out a deep, rumbling laugh that had the tightening sensation within my stomach returning full force. Only this time I kept control and hurried the feeling to fading. Shoving it deep down where it could never be found, let alone felt.

" — And you're really young. Scarcely more than a child." He replied, trying to get a rise out of me. But I had no fight, no strength or will left within me. That flame had been stamped out long ago.

I couldn't help the frown that took over my face. I'm not that young, I thought disdainfully. It was my turn.

"What's your favourite colour?" It was a terrible question. But I couldn't think of anything so I figured I might as well start with the basics.

"Green," He answered softly. "...But not like bright green, I mean a dark emerald green, like the colour of your eyes."

My eyes were green?

I had never given my eyes much thought and it has been so long since the last time I had seen a mirror. In fact, it had been years.

I didn't even know what I looked like anymore. I doubted I would even recognise myself if I had the chance. I tried my best to picture myself in my head, but an image of the last time I saw myself, when I was thirteen, back before I was taken, was all that I could conjour.

My waist-length chestnut brown hair was wild and unkempt, eyes wide and fearful, the last time I had seen my reflection was the day that the monster took me, as I stood before my bathroom mirror, combing the day's knots from my hair. That little girl was so pure, so innocent, she had no idea of the hell that awaited her.

I felt myself beginning to flashback to that horrid day when I heard Kaden calling my name, calling me back to reality.

"Arden?..." Then again, "Arden? It's your turn to answer"