Tears of Leyden Read Online Free PDF Page B

other is ignorant of it or wants it.”
    I can’t answer it. I instead direct him elsewhere. “Why?”
    He glances behind me. “I don’t know,” he sounds earnest, and I have a feeling he is.
    I push aside the words. “Where are we now?”
    “In a friend’s cottage…I must take you somewhere safer,” the last part was only to himself, but I can’t help it.
    “No.”
    He eyes me carefully. “I have to.”
    After a moment of my silence, he starts to rise.
    I watch, unsure of his action and my best interest being in it. He comes closer and the unsureness soon roils inside and turns into nothing but dead quiet. My heart pounds again. I shake my head in imploration, but he is already picking me up and dragging me towards the door.
    The loathing returns.
    I pull back but he brings me in tight in his hold. He is of the greater power. I nearly lose my balance as he pulls me to my feet too fast. I twist my wrist trying to get away, but he holds me in his hands, loosening and tightening depending on my force. I beg out in sobs, but he seems unmoved by it all. My head is spinning and it takes all my concentration not to stumble over myself as tears blur my vision. I don’t know why I am even fighting anymore. I couldn’t get to them even if I did free myself. I don’t stop even though I know this.
    We make a slight curve in our path along the wall and I find myself identifying the side of the city on the east. He pauses a moment and his grip tightens at a sound nearby. I want to scream. I almost scream. I should scream, but I don’t. He brings me forward another yard, and then without warning turns into an open doorway. The moment I feel him relax, I know we are in his desired place. I pull away. I glimpse a dirt grounded room with a table, a stove, and a book shelve before I smack against the floor.
    I let out one last sob as my knees wobble beneath my weight as I try to support myself. I crawl and drag myself away from him, cowering and then collapsing to the ground, never wanting to be touched again.
    He stands there panting and watching with an unreadable expression on his face. My eyes forcibly open and close as I shake with my consistent sappy sounding sobs. I hear him sigh and as my eyes open, I glace him from my awkward position as he turns and locks the door we came through and then starts towards the open doorway to the right. I close my eyes and keep crying and groaning into my hands, burrowing into myself.
    I am all I have left.

Chapter 3
     
     
    I don’t know how long I’ve lain here, but it is cold, my toes are numb, and my body is stiff against the hard floor. I slowly raise my head from its long endured cradle in my arms. I feel my stomach growl and remember that I haven’t eaten anything today. I hear something creak and a small scratching sound against steel is followed by the sound of silverware against glass. I conclude that I am not yet left to my freedom and lay back down my head, not wanting to be noticed but forgotten. I close my eyes and wait for silence. It comes too soon and I start to drift.
    Something warm and steamy wafts into my breath and I frown. I soften to it as it strengthens and become a little too comforting. I hear the muffled shuffle of feet over the ground close behind me, but my lethargy gives me no warning. The smell is irresistible.
    There is a soft brush against my shoulder and I freeze, my eyes shooting open at the unexpected contact with another object. I do not move.
    Then I hear it.
    “Are you hungry?”
    I swallow as I catch the scent of waving heat again. Without turning, after this past month of starvation, I know it is hot food.
    I ignore it.
    There are a few moments of quiet. I hear the sound of something being set against the floor by my head and glimpse a white bowl with something contained in its round circumference. I listen to him getting to his feet and wait until he is safely out of hearing. I gradually start to push up from my lying place.
    I peek into