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  His nose flared, sniffing the air.

  "Big words for an asshole."

  "I'm leaving before you decide to take everything I say in guise of

  your vanity." Patryk moved backwards keeping her insight as he

  navigated blindly to the door.

  "What, you think I'm going to leverage an attack if you turn

  around? You think I'm an animal? Isn't that your role?" She watched

  his hands clench into fists and move up momentarily into a ready

  fighter position.

  "You think too much for your own good." He backed up quickly to

  the door until his back and it connected with a thud.

  "That is the most sexist put down I've gotten in a while. Thanks for

  adding to the level of hatred I'm now growing on your image in my

  mind. Right now you are becoming an infectious fungus pretty soon

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  you'll be a virus. Maybe you should take your own puritan advice and

  shut up."

  Patryk's hand scratched against the door until he found the knob.

  "Maybe I should." He slowly moved forward with the door.

  "Jesus, you're acting like I'm a serial killer about to skin you alive.

  If I was going to jump you and take you down don't you think I would

  have by now? Do you think I'm faking being lame compared to you?

  You did a pretty good job of proving I'm weaker than you." Gillian

  toyed with the corner of a pillow, slightly lowering her eyes but then

  making them go back to a vigilant watch of him.

  "You can never be too sure, Gillian." He slipped sideways into the

  space between door frame and door then closed it in his own face.

  Gillian watched as the image glaring onto her retina morphed into

  her own very familiar door. She'd never stared at it this long and

  intensely before, though. She understood the door. It was a carved

  piece of wood that was painted and adorned to be useful.

  Him ... Patryk ... she totally didn't get. The only thing he'd done

  useful was erase the pent up horniness of three months of solitary

  sleeping, a slightly better version of the vibrator that she'd slept with

  every night since the last mutual breakup, but the vibrator never talked

  back or dissed her afterwards.

  * * * *

  On the other side of the door, Patryk leaned against it and shook his

  head violently, punching himself in the cheek as his head whipped

  back to being upright. He whacked himself three times on each side

  until his vision blurred enough to make his senses reload and cope

  with the here and now.

  Idiot, idiot, idiot. This was a stupid Sebastian move. What was he

  thinking? Clearly he wasn't. Sure he'd wanted her, but so what. He'd

  wanted other women before. Following her and fucking her? That

  was like signing a death warrant on her, one he'd have to deliver by

  his own rules.

  One thing was certain. Sebastian could never, ever find out. And

  God damn it why had she been so warm and receptive?

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  Humans and their weak survival skills deserved what they got. But

  ... maybe not her, she'd sensed something, but clearly didn't know

  what. He couldn't get near her again. Another whiff of her and he'd

  do something that would add to her case against him.

  He bit his lip, drawing blood, and made his legs put distance

  between them. What he needed was winter air and lot of it to put out

  the heat she'd stirred in him. If it came to it, he'd take a swim in the

  bay until the only thing throbbing was the muscles trying to make

  enough heat to keep him alive, hopefully consciousness would be

  frozen.

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  CHAPTER THREE

  Gillian grabbed as many pillows as she could and made a sandwich

  of them with her in between. Shambling, she scuffled into the

  bedroom and turned off the light with her shoulder. She wanted the

  rest of the lights to stay on in case she woke up before dawn. Light

  wasn't her friend, but darkness was a worse enemy and the pillows

  would shield her eyes and body from anything physical that might

  attack. Hopefully her brain was too exhausted to set up an ambush of

  dreams.

  Carefully buttressing pillows over and around her, Gillian only

  closed her eyes when she was sure little skin showed. She had never

  felt more naked or exposed in her life. Knowing that her door auto-

  locked did little to convince her all the demons were on the other side.

  Between the dock and Patryk fiasco, her brain could go on for years

  turning shadows and sounds into C4 incendiary devices for tearing

  down sanity.

  * * * *

  Gillian sat at her desk over the warehouse. The warehouse was

  reinforced steel and concrete, not likely to rumble and shake; and

  since they weren't situated over a fault line in the earth's crust, the

  quivering had to be completely of her making.

  She twitched every time a co-worker rustled a piece of paper or

  breathed audibly. It was barely closing time on a Tuesday and she

  already felt she'd put in a two-week run with no days off for good

  behavior. Her heart and body couldn't take much more, and watching

  the clock tick towards 5:00 was driving her to the edge of the chair

  and causing her to gouge the metal desk with her fingers.

  Her ears ached from tracking every sound's location and the

  pounding in her head began to drown out peripheral noise and leave

  only her throbbing brain working overtime. The only reason her torso

  remained upright and not hidden under the desk was that she'd pushed

  her chair so far in her knees were mated with the underside and now

  firmly implanted in the metal. Chair arms kept her elbows separated

  and away from her chest so she was forced into a non-fetal position.

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  Eyes twitched as co-workers groaned and extracted themselves

  from work stations to make their way home. Reason told her that

  Patryk and Sebastian never showed their faces at work so today would

  be no different. After all the only reason she'd met them was because

  she'd come back to work late. No amount of repeating the mantra that

  they didn't show up during open hours worked though, but still she

  couldn't be the first to flee.

  There was the chance her knees would buckle, drawing attention to

  her. That was the last thing she wanted. Attention could mean things

  getting out of control again. No, she had to stay at her desk and move

  slowly with the last of the workers, trailing them out the door on their

  shadows, not heels.

  She focused on watching her neighboring desk and its inhabitant

  gather personal items together in preparation for going home. All her

  pent up frustration and agitation came barreling down in that one

  direction and she cursed at the person to speed things up.

  He was always the last one to leave so at worst she'd have one

  witness to her collapsing, but couldn't he get his act in gear? It wasn't

  like he didn't leave work five times a week. You'd think he'd have it

  down to a science after ten years of employment.

  Neighboring employee started to mosey in her direction. As she

  was about to eject herself from the pen of chair and desk, a large
hand

  boomed down on her shoulder, preventing the knee-jerk jumping

  reaction from gaining any ground.

  "You must be the newest employee. It's Gillian, right?" Fingers

  tightened, pushing muscles away from her collar bone.

  Gillian didn't have to turn or angle her head to know who was

  speaking at her. The reverberations of the voice instantly fired her

  fight or flight response just like the other night when Sebastian had

  talked to Patryk from the other room, but now the voice was close to

  her ear and infiltrating her ear canal until she was awash in heat

  shattering adrenaline.

  She would have chosen to run, even if her buckling knees had little

  chance of succeeding, but the chair and desk removed that option.

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  She could only whimper when her neighbor left in record breaking

  time, leaving her alone under Sebastian's hand and gaze.

  His eyes bored through her head, trying to pick up her thought

  waves. All evil monsters could do that, and there was no doubt in her

  sinews that he was both a monster and evil. Nothing good could

  cause her body to turn molten with fear from a simple presence and a

  few words.

  Patryk might scare her, but Sebastian terrified her and she'd spent

  no time in his presence before. Already she had more one-on-one

  time with him than she ever cared to experience. The hand remained

  on Gillian's shoulder until only two pairs of lungs remained in the

  office, one clamoring to limit oxygen intake and the other calm and

  steady.

  "As a new employee, I realized there are some areas of the

  premises you have not seen yet or realize exist. I wanted to remedy

  that right away. You don't mind staying a little late tonight do you? I

  sense you are the type that works off the clock." Sebastian flexed his

  fingers to pull up on her shoulder.

  Gillian wanted to say no, but it wasn't an integral part of her

  vocabulary. The word tried to form from deep within her throat and

  percolate over her lips, but even without looking at him she failed

  from his presence alone. Trying again, the word destructed before it

  even got to her tongue.

  "Glad you don't mind, but there are some areas not on the normal

  tour. We like to wait until an employee has made it past the first few

  days."

  Gillian's face was frozen, locked onto the dancing screen saver that

  flickered with the company logo Medical Supplies International. She

  couldn't get herself to look at him anymore than she could formulate a

  no. To her horror, her chair started moving backwards, knees banging

  into the desk and feet dragging against carpet. Like a rag doll, she

  was brought to her feet.

  "I want you to feel like you're part of a family here. So let there be

  no secrets about this place, no hidden corner you aren't familiar with."

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  Sebastian squeezed her shoulder so Gillian was angled into his chest

  and he could help escort her out of the office space.

  Gillian's cheek burned against his chest. She wanted to cry and let

  the tears cool down her inflamed skin, but not even her tear ducts

  were up to working. Everything happened in slow motion, like snap

  shots to take to her grave for comfort in a dark crypt sealed off from

  air and life.

  Maybe they would serve as mental wallpaper when she was in an

  insane asylum and screaming for the demons to leave her alone. She

  thought of screaming, but that was more daunting then saying no so

  she quickly went back to taking in her surroundings in an out-of-focus

  gaze.

  He made a beeline for a hallway labeled service deliveries only.

  The number of crates and carts littering the entrance way had

  discouraged even a vague interest on her part. Not to mention that the

  ceiling lights ended a good foot away to shroud the entire area in

  shadows and quiet from the buzzing hum of old-time fluorescent

  lights.

  Gillian feared she was going to choke.

  Sebastian battered the blocking detritus aside with his shoulder and

  pulled her sideways through the opening he'd created.

  Her throat began to constrict.

  Crates bounced off the floor.

  She jumped.

  Carts branded the walls with metal scuff marks. Her throat forgot

  which way was up and which was down, causing her to gag on her

  own saliva and sputter.

  Sebastian squeezed her tighter. "You feel okay? Don't want you

  getting sick on us. We like our people healthy and full of warm-

  blooded life."

  Gillian didn't hear him chuckle, but felt the reverberations of his

  chest as it thudded into her repeatedly, draining any reserves she

  might have had left to muster up a fight. It was like he was feeding

  off her energy, leaving nothing for her to use and forcing her to use

  him as a pillar to keep her feet lower than her head.

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  Heat washed over her, melting her brain into swirling levels of

  endorphins and adrenaline battling to rewire her legs and arms for

  flight, but all the chemicals managed to do was get her to tremble in

  Sebastian's arms as he navigated the maze of boxes in the dark

  hallway. Her eyes kept trying to focus and refocus, but fear of what

  she might see clouded her vision, leaving her blinking until her eyes

  burned as much as her skin prickled.

  What terrified her was how time dilated like her pupils. They

  couldn't have been in the hallway more than a minute tops, but the end

  of the hall kept eluding them with more dark objects set up to break

  ankles and grind knees into floor.

  She'd been in enough buildings in her life to know the door now in

  front of them was an emergency exit door complete with a bar handle

  that would bleep if not disarmed. She started to sneeze but realized

  there wasn't enough dust in the air to finish the action; it had been a

  knee-jerk reaction to piled boxes and the dark.

  It occurred to her this was a well-used hall despite appearances.

  Around that time she heard Sebastian wiggle a key into the lock and

  turn it hard to disarm the system.

  Luckily the autonomous part of her body could take over heart

  beats and breathing, because right now she wasn't capable.

  Sebastian pulled her through the door after him and let it thud

  behind them, putting them in complete dark. Touching her finger to

  her nose, she was incapable of seeing her hand.

  "Oops, forgot you might not like the calmness of dark. Let me turn

  on the lights."

  Gillian collapsed inwards, her arms and legs twisting around her

  body in a helix. She could hear Sebastian moving behind her, his

  fingers slithering over the wall, tapping a tempo.

  "You sure you don't want to stay in the dark? I find it very

  comforting. It lets the mind free to roam wherever it wants to,

  untethered to the shackles of sight." His finger nails raked over the

  metal walls.

  Gillian cringed at the sound assault of nails trying to gouge metal

  and slipping to start again. "Please stop."

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  "So no to the lights then?"

 
Gillian could tell by his tapping nails that he was honing in on her.

  Of course he knew where she was standing, but she had an eerie

  feeling he was looking her in the eyes though she had no proof but the

  hairs on her neck trying to track him. "Turn on the lights."

  "Fine, take all the fun out of it."

  The sound of his voice brought back endless sleepovers where her

  sister thought it hilarious to turn off the lights on people and mock

  them for falling over, and it made her feel like a ten year old wanting

  to scream for her mother to come save the day, yet again. Damn him

  for toying with her like everyone else did. She was a good person,

  wasn't that enough for people? Did she have to sprout fangs and snarl

  for people to take her seriously?

  The lights came on with a click, fluorescent beams frying her

  dilated eyes which tried to bury back in the sockets. An onslaught of

  tears clouded her vision, requiring incessant blinking before she could

  take in her surroundings.

  Sebastian leaned sideways against the wall, his legs entwined for

  the relaxed college boy look with anything but a casual expression on

  his face, the cocked grin denying any chance he felt cool.

  Gillian looked around, her head bobbing up and down and

  swiveling side to side as she covered the door with her back. Her lips

  felt mushy and numb. White was the first thing that got into her brain

  for processing. The second adjective was cold. White, cold, and

  sterile was the triplet her brain came up with on first inventory for a

  working analysis.

  "Surprised?" Sebastian pushed himself slowly off the wall and

  retraced his steps from the light switch across the room towards where

  she was standing, guarding the door.

  Gillian made her head do a second furtive sweep, keeping track of

  where he was from the corner of her eye. It was a cross between a

  padded cell and a surgical room. Instead of padding though the room

  was floor to ceiling white tile scrubbed to the point of reflecting the

  fluorescent lights in a chaotic mess of colliding light beams.

  He half circled her, following where her eyes went.

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  He started to close in on her, her eyes memorizing the only two

  things in the room that weren't stark white, a metal oven like door in