*zap*
She clinches her eyes shut in pain as she tries to regain her breath. He’s training her to stop thinking of Sam, like you would train a dog to stop chewing on the sofa. But she doesn’t stop. She won’t stop. She loves Sam and Adam knows it, which pisses him the hell off.
………………………………………..
At the end of the day Melody’s neck and heart scream with ferocious anguish. Adam walks up to the case, looking her over with pleasure.
“How is my love doing tonight?” he asks, a joyous smile spread across his lips.
The heart monitor next to the glass case beeps, showing her quickening heart beat. “I hate you,” she sneers.
He smiles, letting his weight fall to the left. “No you don’t, that’s just what Sam was making you think. That’s why I saved you.”
She gawks at him in disbelief. “Saved me? If you wanted the best for me you would have left me with Sam! You don’t get how much I love him…” She breaks into tears, curling her fingers into fists at her side as she looks up at him.
Adam’s smile falls; there must be something inside of him that knows this is wrong. “But he doesn’t love you like I do… All he sees is your face not what’s underneath it.” His bottom lip trembles as he opens the door to the case, walking away as it swings open.
Melody peeks her head out before letting her toes hit the cold floor. Her heart races as her eyes bounce around the room, red painted walls each place her eyes wonder; why hadn’t she noticed the lack of windows and doors one of the many times she’s been here? She spots the hall way where she had found the glass case, if she can remember right she had seen a door at the end of the hall.
She tiptoes her way down the hall, swerving down its curves, her feet softly tapping against the tiled floor. At the end of the hall stands a single black door, cracked open to let out just enough light to beckon her towards it; the door creaks as she pushes it open enough to slip through. Blood red curtains hang over tall spheres, just like the one she had spent the night in. Two stand against the wall closest to her, while the rest sit in perfect rows going down to the other side of the room. Melody turns on her heels to study the curtain closest to her, a small light flickers beneath it. Her fingers grasp the soft, red silk, pulling it up so she can see what kind of secrete is hidden under it. There’s a glass case, like the one she was in all last night. The only difference between this case and hers is that there’s a woman inside of it. She is tall, tanned and tired, with her eyes a sad shade of blue. She looks up from the floor to Melody, her black hair falling to the side of her face.
“So he’s letting his new toy out to play?” Her voice is even, and smooth, almost like jazz to Melody’s ears.
Melody gives a baffled look as the woman continues, “You don’t know yet do you?” the woman sighs, like explaining this to her is eating into her time too much. “Adam likes to steal women and keep them for himself. He’s a huge player,”
Melody slinks to the floor, crossing her legs as she gets ready for blackmail information to use against Adam someday. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
The woman locks her blue and gray eyes on Melody. “That’s why we are all here. He sees what he wants, sweet talks you into falling in love with him and when you realize that you don’t love him he locks you up in one of his many trophy cases. Then he trains you out of feeling love for the person you truly do love.” A tear trickles down the woman’s face, her eyes red around the rims, but she quickly brushes it away.
Melody looks around the room, standing to her feet as she studies the many red sheets hanging around the room. “There are more like us?” she asks.
The woman nods, running her fingers through her hair, hiding her crying face. “Most of these cases of are full of them, except for a few, he’s still working on their hearts.”
Melody runs over to the closest curtain and tugs it down: another girl. She zigzags back and forth between each case, yanking the sheets down; each woman gives a relieved look to find her on the other side of the glass and not Adam. Melody runs back to the woman in the first case.
“What’s wrong with him?” she pants.
“He seems to have taken a liking to you more than the others, though. He’s told us about you and how much he thinks that you’re the one.” The woman shrugs, a hint of bitterness at the edge of her voice.
Melody opens her mouth, ready to say she can’t be “the one”, when Adam bursts into the room; his eyes stare in wonder as the women inside their cases stand up, the air in the room hot with their hatred towards him.
“She’s fine, Adam,” the woman in front of Melody assures him as she pulls her hair up onto her head, refusing to look at him.
Melody walks over to where he stands in the door frame, her fists clinched at her side. “We need to talk.”
Adam nods, motioning her to follow him back to the front of his apartment. Melody’s eyes bounce around the living room, the glass case lets out a low hum next to the far corner of the room.
He sits down on the couch with that sad, charming, look painted across his face. “I don’t want to keep you in a case, Melody. It hurts me to have you in there, but I’m scared that you would run if I didn't lock you up.” Adam admits, his manner has substantially changed from yesterday.
“Why are you keeping them in there? Do you think that you’re the only one who disserves love?” Melody asks as she leans forward, ready to slap him.
He looks away from her, being utterly over dramatic and emotional. “No one has ever loved me. They all just run away,” he shakes his head, laughing at himself, “Ha, my first girlfriend’s dad beat me up with a bat when I kept coming back to her house after she wouldn’t return my calls. Then my second ex’s new boyfriend came and beat me up with his friends on my date with my third girlfriend. Then I broke up with her; she got mad and came with a gun and shot me in the arm at my mom’s funeral.” He leans forward, resting his head in his hands.
“But how do we dream of you?” she asks, not wanting to dip too much into his past in fears of her feeling too connected to him.
He sits up, pushing his hair back. “I’m imprisoned here. I did something bad to someone I was close to so I was cursed to stay here until I could learn to love.” He thinks about the one he had hurt, she can tell. He continues, “He was my best friend, the person I wronged, but he didn't tell me that he was the one who made my mom slam on the car breaks and--- I was so mad when he told me… all I remember is him screaming at me to stop punching him and I did, but we weren’t friends anymore and all I have is hate toward any male.” He clinches his jaw and begins to cry on her shoulder.
Somehow Melody finds herself kissing him the next minute; crying, emotional boys have always done that to her.
Adam pulls away, pressing his forehead against hers. “I do love you. I have never lied to you about that and never will,” he whispers, his voice slow and emotional.
Melody wraps her arms around his neck, gently resting her head on his shoulder. “I love you,” she whispers.
They sit there for hours, just holding each other in their arms and being so nauseatingly cute.
……………………………………………
The next day Melody leans across the kitchen counter, breathing in the sweet and spicy sauce that is simmering on the stove, Adam gingerly stirs it.
“Can you let them go?” Melody asks.
Adam takes the sauce pan off of the stove and walks around the counter to her, wrapping his arms around Melody. “Yeah, I don’t need them.”
Adam and Melody spend the rest of the day de-chipping the women so they could leave, well all except Chloe, Adam kept her hidden away from Melody.
Adam numbs the skin on the back of Melody’s neck, using a pair of pliers to pull out the metal ball and the electric needle from her flesh.
She winces as the needle slides from her skin; Adam kisses the little hole that remains
at the bottom of her skull. Melody had explained to Adam that she won’t leave, that she loves him.
“Sam doesn’t need me. He probably already has a new girlfriend by now anyways.” she thinks to herself. But she is so wrong.