Every freak thunderstorm.4

Shrugging out of the arms I didn't want to admit existed, I shuffled over to the kitchen to check on the pie and chips, taking out my mobile phone to try and text my police contact under my blanket. A hand reached into my blanket and yanked the phone out of my grasp just as my finger brushed the send button, sending a garbled text.

There was an immediate reply and my phone pinged.

The man tapped a reply message quickly while I struggled to get my mobile phone back. He easily fended me off with one hand. That one hand reminded me of how strong he was compared to me and how weak I was.

"I'll keep a hold of this from now on," the man told me, pulling my blanket back over my head and pushing me away, while I was left panting in the kitchen from the exertion.

I pretended nothing had happened and shuffled to the freezer to get out a bag of peas to pour some into the boiling water. After replacing the rest of the frozen peas into the freezer, I got a bowl and a scoop strainer out to collect the cooked peas. At the same time, I contemplated how I should avoid the man's eyes to get to the landline phone that had a quick dial to the security office. While I was thinking and looking at the landline phone out the corner of my eye, the man appeared, blocking my view and pulled out the phone. I pretended I hadn't been looking at all and focussed on getting the cooked peas out and then washing the little pot.

The man took the bowl of peas over to the coffee table for me while I glanced at the pie and chips.

He came from behind to envelope me in his arms. His chin rested on the top of my head, over the top of my blanket.

"Those aren't going to be done for a while. We can come back to them after a bit and pause the movie."

Hugging my trembling body, he brought me over to the couch where he sat me beside him, holding me to his side by tucking me under his arm. He used the remote to press 'start'. When I attempted to glance up toward his face, he immediately covered my eyes with his big and calloused hand.

There were callouses on the web of his hand between thumb and forefinger and callouses at the bases of all his fingers on his palm as well as the tips of his fingers. I didn't know what any of that meant though.

"Focus and look at only what you are meant to look at," the man told me. "If you become as disobedient as you were last time, I'll blindfold you and tie you up again. I'll be here until the storm is over. Nobody, not even emergency services will be coming out during weather like this. Be good and you won't be harmed. All you have to do is be obedient and do what I say."

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out while the movie started. After just the first few scenes of the movie, I already knew it was the type of movie I did not like watching. It was a thriller or suspense movie or something. It might even be horror. I didn't want to watch and being unable to wriggle out from the man's firm grip, concentrated on nibbling and drinking my snacks, counting the time for when the chips would be ready.

Every now and then, my phone would ping and I would look over to see him sending a reply back without allowing me to see the phone screen.

"This policewoman is quite sharp," the man said after a few exchanges. "She already knows I'm here and pretending to be you on your phone. I'd love to meet her some time. Hmm. Perhaps I will."

I grasped the man's wrist and he chuckled, easily escaping my grasp with a strange twist of his forearm. I only wanted to tell him - warn him not to mess with the police, but he seemed to purposely misunderstand.

"Are you jealous? Don't be. You're still my favourite and preferred girl. Quiet, obedient and clever. I'd just like to have a professional exchange with her. Maybe see what her moves are like in bed. That sort of thing. It's completely different from teaching and breaking in a pure virgin like you who has never even been kissed."

I stiffened.

How did he know?

"How could I not know?" he pulled me onto his lap and whispered into my ear. "I had to make sure nobody steals my girl away."

I shivered.

He'd been watching me? All this time? He'd been watching me? He knew? He knew everything?

"One day, I might do that to you too and you'll enjoy it," the man indicated the violent scene on the screen of the girl being assaulted by her guardian and I buried my head in his chest so as not to have to see the violence, trembling and shaking. "But I probably won't be so violent with you. I'd take my time and make sure you enjoy it as much as I do. If not more."

A scream lay frozen in my throat, making it difficult to breath either in or out.

"You're too cute. Look at your reactions. Just this and you're already scared stiff?"

A hand wiped my eyes.

"If this is too scary, then let's change to something else. Let's see what else there is. Honestly, looking at you, I can tell what your preference is. So why do you have so many horror, thriller and crime dramas and movies? Do you have a boyfriend?"

I shook my head.

"So these are from a girl friend of yours?"

I nodded.

"Are you close?"

I tilted my head to think. We were. Used to be. Until her crush asked me out. And then it was war. She 'stole' him back from me - not that I had ever gotten together with that guy. I let her have him and think she had won. I hadn't been interested in him in the first place.

"Judging from the lack of recent movies in the past few years but at least one movie a year from previous years, I guess the two of you either had a falling out or lost contact."

I lowered my head. How could he tell just by looking at my things?

"Your habits and actions say quite a lot about you and what you're thinking. You're an open book to me."

With that, I shrank back, feeling even more vulnerable in front of him.

He left me on the couch, shaking in my loose house clothes and huddling in my blanket. I used my blanket like a little cave. I heard him along the kitchen at the oven. Probably taking the chips out of the oven.

"They're a bit overdone," his voice said, drifting over while he poured the chips into a bowl and put the pies back into the oven. I heard the clank of the bowl on the table and heard him browse through the DVDs again. "Let's go with Passengers," he said after a while, replacing the DVD again.

Still not quite my genre, but more acceptable than some of the other scary films on my DVD rack. I wondered which one he chose. There were two movies with that name. One from 2008 and one from 2016. I still hadn't watched either one of them, but from the blurbs on them, they didn't like the type of scary that would give me insomnia.

He started the movie and I was relieved to hear that they sounded pretty ordinary and boring. The actual content wasn't that great from the dialogue, but the music told you what feeling the filmmakers wanted.

I heard the man beside me yawn and then reach over to start munching while he watched. A fold of my blanket was opened to expose my face.

"Open your mouth," the man ordered, holding up a chip that had been dipped in a green dip. Maybe the avocado dip.

I opened my mouth to accept the chip. No. I had been wrong. It wasn't avocado. It was the basil mint one. It wasn't bad, but I felt it needed some rosemary for some reason, but couldn't figure out why. Maybe it would taste great with roast lamb and yoghurt.

That wasn't a bad idea for tomorrow's lunch and dinner. Roast lamb.

I wriggled out of the man's embrace and pattered to the kitchen to rummage in the freezer, taking out a leg of lamb that had been sitting there for a while because I had felt a whole leg of lamb way too much for one person to eat. I still didn't know why I had bought it in the first place. With this man here, he could eat the majority of it. The man had followed me silently. I knew only because his smell and the sense of his presence had followed me. Otherwise, the man moved silently. As silently as a killer or assassin.

Seeing me out the leg of lamb on the side of the sink to defrost, the man decided to take the pies out of the oven since we were already here. They were about done anyway.

The pies were slid onto plates and then he carried both plates over to the couch. Once I sat down, he waited for me to get comfortable where I had curled up hugging my knees and feet on the couch. Then he sat down next to me. He shook a few fries onto my plate and did the same for his.

Using the tomato sauce squeezie bottle, he drew a smiley face cat face with whiskers onto my pie with a small dollop of that green basil and mint dip for the nose. Then he held out the tomato sauce bottle to me and his plate.

I carefully drew a cute dog face on his pie, making him laugh and drop a kiss onto my forehead, making me cringe back, scrunching my eyes shut.

"I knew it. You're the girl for me."

He happily ate his pie and chips, occasionally taking a spoonful of peas and pressing them into his pie. When he did so, he also did the same for me.

How did he know that I liked to eat my pies like this? The tight iron ball in the pit of my stomach stirred uneasily. He must have been observing and watching me closely the past few years without me even noticing. What would my police contact say if she knew?

Probably, she'd give the excuse that they were understaffed. It was true, but still upsetting that the he'd been there - here, around me all along, but had never been noticed by the police.