Freedom

The man walked into the room and stood in front of Leon and Layla.

Leon pretended to be asleep, and Layla was sitting with her body curled up in the corner of the room.

The man walked around the room and picked up the belt from the ground that he had forgotten to take with him. After glancing at Leon and Layla, he left the room with his belt.

He never kept anything in his room. Even the food he served to them was always either leftovers or spoiled.

Layla glanced at Leon and said, "He is gone."

Leon opened his eyes and smirked after staring into the darkness of the room.

Layla rolled on the ground and fell asleep beside Leon.

After a few minutes, Leon also dozed off.

They were woken up by the loud bang on the door when the man came back after a few hours.

"I was waiting for 12:00 AM, but it's taking forever, so I came to give you some extra daily dose of torture," the man asserted with an evil smile on his face.

"I said I was going to make a list, right? Well, you two are the first ones on the list," he scoffed.

"If… you kill us, then you won't get any money from the bank," Layla uttered in a low voice.

"Hah!" he laughed out loud. "Do you remember I had you two sign some documents last week? Those were the transfer documents. Now everything that belongs to you and your parents is mine. So I don't need you two anymore. I will take all the money and run away from here after killing you two here."

Layla's face turned pale after hearing that, and she began to tremble in fear.

The smirk on the man's face widened as he uttered, "Now that face is similar to what your mother made when I killed her."

"Wha...t?" Layla stammered after hearing that.

"Your mother, yes! I killed that bitch!"

"But… father said she… ran away with someone," Layla murmured.

"When your father got married, I took a liking to your mother. So one day, when your father— my stupid brother was on a trip, I r*ped her. She threatened me that she would call the cops and tell my brother, so I killed her," the man stated.

The man laughed maniacally and continued, "Then, when your father came back, I told him she ran away with someone, and that stupid believed it! While in truth, her body was buried under the porch right in front of your house."

After a brief pause, the man looked at Leon and said, "But then, he got married to his mother— who already had two sons and worked at the same place as him."

He frowned his face and said, "But that bitch always had her guard up. She didn't let anyone inside the house. I loathed her."

"And you!" He kicked Leon in the stomach and uttered, "I have always hated you, you son of a bitch!"

Leon raised his head and gazed at the man with an emotionless expression on his face.

The man kicked Leon a couple of times after saying, "Don't look at me like that!"

Suddenly, Leon's gaze turned into a glare, and a creepy smile appeared on his face.

The man frowned his face and crouched down after seeing a smile on Leon's face. He grabbed Leon's face and uttered, "Why the hell are you smiling like that?"

"Heh!" Leon scoffed. "Heheheheheheh!"

He snickered without opening his mouth.

The man's face twitched in anger, and he raised his hand to slap Leon.

The moment the man slapped Leon, Leon turned his face to the side and stabbed the man's palm with the paper pin. Then, he stood up and wrapped the handcuff chain around the man's neck.

The man struggled to break free by stretching the chains away from his neck, but Leon pulled it back with all his strength.

After some seconds, the man stopped struggling, and his hand dropped to the ground. However, Leon kept pulling the chain in case the man was pretending to be unconscious.

Leon removed the chain and panted as he gasped for air.

Layla looked at the man and wondered, "Is he dead?"

Leon shook his hand and uttered, "He is not going to die this easily."

Layla stood up and said, "Let's go! This is our chance to run away!"

"What's the hurry?" Leon looked at the man and uttered, "Don't you want to have some fun."

Leon stood up and dragged the man's body out of the room.

"Bring the chair."

Layla brought the chair from the corner of the living room, and Leon placed the man on it. Then, he asked Layla to bring the handcuffs from the shelf.

"How many?" Layla asked.

"All of them."

Leon handcuffed the man's hands and legs. Then, he tied the man with the chair using the remaining handcuffs and used rope to restrain him further.

After that, they unlocked the handcuffs from their hands and threw the keys in the corner of the room.

"What now?" Layla asked with a confused look on her face.

"Nothing. We wait for him to wake up, so we can hear his screams when we kill him. Until then…" Leon glanced around the room and spotted the refrigerator. He quickly rushed to it and took out the leftovers.

"Let's eat," Leon suggested.

Layla looked at her almost-naked body and said, "I want clothes."

After searching the apartment, Leon found two old hoodies. There were many hoodies, but all of them were either dirty or tattered, so they wore the best ones. They sat on the couch in front of the television and began eating all the food they could find in the apartment.

Layla glanced at Leon, who was engrossed in watching the King's game show. She tapped on his shoulder and asked, "Can't we kill him when he is unconscious?"

"I want to have some fun with him," Leon replied with a vicious smile on his face.

"But what if he starts screaming and his friends come over to help him?"

Leon pondered for a while and nodded: "You are right."

He grabbed the remote and turned up the volume to the max."Problem solved."

Layla puckered her lips and leaned on Leon's shoulder.