A blonde wisp of hair, the sickening sweet smell of dried blood, the warmth of another being. 

And Mina felt a strong presence lean against her back. A surge of unadulterated terror washed over her. Overwhelmed by the suffocating fear, she immediately retaliated by jerking her body away forcefully, only to have that person grab her by the wrist and yank her back like a rebound. Mina didn’t have the time to react before lithe arms wrapped around her torso, enclosing in a tight embrace. Her heart nearly stopped beating right out of her chest, her breath turned incredibly rapid.

Alarmed and too alert of her surroundings, Mina could sense the person breathing gently down her neck. It felt needy and desperate, like Mina was their air, the only thing keeping that person alive right then. 

Mina stood there for a moment, her fear manifesting in the clenching and twisting of her stomach but she didn’t pull away immediately. The warmth of the other person enveloped her, the scent of blood and sweat caressed her nostrils in odd ways she couldn’t fathom. Confounded and dazed, Mina breathed, momentarily relishing in the feeling of being wanted again. Mina hadn’t been loved, hadn’t been hugged like that before. Sure she had a long line of people willing to do that to her but none of them had shown her the same kind of need and yearn that the person had expressed to her through that hug, in that several keen seconds of it. It felt as… if the other person had let go of her, they would fall apart completely.

Then, the person rested their head onto the nape of Mina’s neck, fully entrusting Mina to not move away.. Immediately startled and terrified, she broke out of her reverie and tried to wrestle herself out of the embrace using as much force as her drained body would allow her to. She needed to escape, the person may be dangerous…they may kill her. It was a battle of desperation ; the desperation of the person wanting her close and Mina’s desperation of fleeing. 

The other force was unfortunately stronger, placing their hands on either sides of Mina’s face to hold it in place more than to actually hurt her. They were female hands, fingers thin and long. Again …her scent, Mina realised, smelt so pungent. The skin on her face tingled where the feminine hands were planted on. 

“Stop!” Mina choked out, trembling out of pure fear, it turned her distraught. Forget about emotions, life and death was on the line. She clutched onto the wrist of the woman, petrified, tugging it violently off her face. However, they stuck on firmly, one on the side of her hair and the other directly on her skin. The woman guided her assertively with her body weight backward, her front pressing directly onto Mina’s. Mina felt her face heat up. She stumbled back and her heel caught on something small and metallic. She fell to the ground, her hand catching inadvertently onto the palm of other woman’s. 

Mina scrambled away, the accumulating fear eating her alive. Out of bloodshot and shivering eyes, she saw a hand return a fallen lamp back to where it was and lit it with a match, swathing a small portion of the room in a yellow light. 

For the first time, she saw who that person was. It scared her half to death. Dry, tousled blonde hair was tied carelessly in a low ponytail. Her unkempt bangs were long and draped all over deranged eyes that were gazing at her. She was dressed in all black save for her legs. The woman was crouching and looking straight at Mina like one would look at an abandoned dog. The light illuminated the side of her face and body, casting jumpy shadows over her features and made her look dangerously demented. It horrified Mina. 

 Mina grasped her head, shivering, frazzled and overwrought. She shook her head violently, denying herself the reality that was violating her mind. She tore her eyes off the woman and stared at her hands. Mina heaved. It was so deafeningly silent that it was driving Mina crazy. Was she hearing things?

Look I’ve got you trapped in my little cage…

Despite hysterically sweeping the entire area with her shaky vision, Mina could not identify where in the world she was. Where were the bustling streets, the laughter, the light? She felt feverish, the breath in her lungs getting forced out with the sudden realisation. Even with the small bit of light, it was so dark. Darkness meeting light made Mina hallucinate shadows running along the floor, shadows projecting onto her pale skin. 

She shook away the taunting shadows and trained her eyes onto her kidnappers who was still crouched in front of her. “Who are you?” Mina spoke, the words formed by harsh, ragged breaths threatening to choke her. The words felt painful.

The woman smiled slowly, a trance-induced like smile, the smile of someone who wanted to have you tortured for days on end and enjoy every second of it…the smile of a deranged psychopath. It sent bone-breaking chills all over Mina’s body.

“Momo.”

Momo’s voice was barely even a whisper, Mina’s ear.

She stood up, Mina’s terrified stare trailing every movement Momo made. She walked around Mina, the smile on her face still adorning it. It made Mina feel so vulnerable and exposed. Momo’s eyes were half-lidded but full of intent, drilling onto Mina’s cowering frame. Mina knew she wanted to do something unspeakable to her, something so horrible that Mina wouldn’t be able to make it out of there alive. Momo would kill her. 

Mina looked at her surroundings her second time, not being any less frantic as before. She could faintly make out the metal bars of a cage glowing near the small lamp. Fear once again seized her by the neck, forcing her to get on her feet. On impulse, she sprung up, darting to the entrance where the lamp was. So close…she had to get out, it was her only chance, her only chance. She was going to fight Momo, she was going to live happily, get into that arranged marriage… As expected by the small screaming part of Mina’s mind, it shut tight, right as she was about to step out of it.

Silence. “Hey...don't cry.” Momo whispered to her from outside the cage, her tongue rolling off each word, her eyes dark and soulless. Her hand was still placed on one of the bars. For a moment, Mina could hear a hint of concern lacing those words. 

Stop believing in things that are never true.

Mina’s happy future slipped out of her grasp like water, fading away into the depths of that darkness that engulfed her entire being. 

Defeated, Mina leaned her forehead onto the freezing metal bars. A moment of prolonged silence, filled only by Mina’s pitiful sobs. She muttered more to herself more than at Momo, “why do you do this?” Tears were threatening to spill out of her painful eyes as she reluctantly accepted her fate. She was going to die in the hands of this stranger, this maniac, this psychopath whose skin under her sleeves was probably caked in dried blood. She was never going to love, never going to live her life the way she wanted it to. It was an undoubted fact that she was going to die.

Momo’s abnormal smile faded. She looked at her softly, her face hovering near the bars of the cage. It was a longing stare, like she had just gained back her sense and snapped out of her trance. Momo stood there and took in Mina’s face, her fear, her tears that were now streaming uncontrollably down her cheeks drying as it did. Momo blinked and continued looking, even as Mina dropped to her knees and hung her head helplessly. Her brown hair spilled down, shielding her eyes from her kidnapper. The light from the candle washed them both in a lenient, steady glow. Momo breathed, but her stare didn’t falter. 

They were there for a long while, Momo standing and staring.. Mina kneeling and crying.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

A plate of food was slid towards her in the dark. 

Mina’s pursed lips twitched as she eyed it tentatively from her spot at the back of the cage. Her starving stomach screamed at her to eat, but Mina had absolutely no appetite. One more glance at the food and she was sure the gurgling in her stomach would manifest itself as a pile of puke. Nausea and headaches plagued Mina during the hour she was left alone in the room with only her terrified thoughts to ricochet in her head.

Momo grinned, getting comfortable on the floor directly in front of the cage. When she came into the room holding a plate of food, the light from wherever it was outside flooded the room nearly blinded Mina. Luckily, it ended quickly with Momo quietly shutting the door behind her. She didn’t know how long she was kept in that dark room for to her to be blinded by simple lights. All she knew was that she was in a large bedroom, with a queen-sized bed lying adjacent to the cage. The sheets were a thick velvet. She thought she saw windows too, only covered or probably boarded up. Mina didn’t trust her mind, it, being accustomed to all the hallucinations that haunted her.

Mina was still in the back corner of the cage, far away from Momo but she could still see the amused glimmer that sparked in her eyes. She inched apprehensively, closer toward her, only because her stomach was literally holding a knife against . A pair of chopsticks sat on the rims of the plate, metal as well. It reminded her of the exact metal that was holding her captive. Mina’s heart softened though, as she thought of how decent it was for Momo to provide her with cutlery and not expect her to eat out of her hands. It seemed like Momo actually regarded her with a certain kind of respect that sent Mina’s heart throbbing. In these kinds of situation, kidnappers wouldn’t treat people in Mina’s place like how Momo treated her, she supposed. 

She was now seated cross-legged directly in front of Momo.

Two people at dinner. 

She lifted up the plate and starting eating the noodles hesitantly, half-expecting herself to die of food poisoning at any moment. Mina was eerily accepting of everything that was happening, she was going to die, she was letting herself because she could’t do anything about it. Even if she got away from Momo, her life wasn’t going to be worth it. Her rich step-father would set her on an arranged marriage with an arrogant man whom she never felt anything for, she didn’t know what she wanted to pursue in life and her friends probably didn’t care whether she was dead or alive neither did her parents.

Mina shuffled her quavering gaze between the noodles and Momo. The fear was still gnawing at her soul, slowly consuming her entirely. The fear never left her, it never would. She was a hysterical, sobbing, hopeless mess. As long as Momo was around her, those eyes gleaming with such amusement, Mina would always be afraid. She didn’t know when the blonde would suddenly snap and decide to kill her. There was something dangerous about the glint in Momo’s eyes, the way she moved and smelt that scared Mina until she couldn’t physically breathe.

She ate in silence, cautious with every bite, until a horrifying thought punched her in the face. She dug out the forgotten part of her memories, the part whereby the desperation of Momo’s embrace had triggered something inside of her. Mina wouldn’t have interpreted it wrongly, would she? It was right there, the yearn and need that poured into her relentlessly in waves, the desperation that had affected Mina so much ever since she felt it in her. It felt almost like love. Or was it love? Oh god.

“Why... me?” Mina dared to say quickly, looking at Momo with swollen eyes.

She was so tired from crying so much earlier. The floodgates opened and the tears gushed out, maybe because of how hopeless the situation is to her. And worse, she broke down in front of her kidnapper. She had shown her vulnerable side to someone who has the power to kill her. 

Momo paused, stiffening up like a puppet on strings. Mina could not even see her breathe.

She looked at Mina underneath her disheveled bangs. The light casted shadows that danced against her eyes. But she said nothing, stitched shut. Her gaze splintered and bore holes into Mina’s brown eyes, stripping her of everything whom she knew she was.

“I don’t... know…” Momo said slowly, almost as if she didn’t want Mina to hear it but she did and It sounded so painful, like for every word said, her skin would be pierced open revealing her soul to the world. Mina glanced up from her noodles to find Momo looking at her, so agonisingly, that it made Mina’s heart sink into her feet. 

She took a moment to turn the words over in her head. Momo’s voice sounded so innocuous and mild, nothing like how she would except her kidnapper to sound. 

The room fell into silence again. 

Mina finished up her noodles and handed it to Momo who took it. It just didn’t make sense. If she was going to kill her, why feed her in the first place? Do kidnappers work that way? Kidnap someone and then feed them? She supposed most slaughterhouses do that. She doubt that she was any different from being in that.

Momo cocked her head to the side curiously. She was smiling callously again though, the smile that still unnerved Mina no matter how much she got accustomed to it. It made Mina feel very self-conscious.

She used her remaining sanity to force a small smile.  

Even if Momo was proving herself to be a nice yet unhinged person, Mina still had to take extreme precaution. Even though Mina had accepted her fate to Momo like a pathetic little girl in a sweetshop with her father’s credit card, she still had no idea where Momo’s limits lie. Mina didn’t have idea any when she would lash out and kill her with nothing but her fists. 

And she still smelt like blood.

Momo took the plate and got on her feet, Mina’s eyes sticking to her slim back warily. Momo looked down at Mina, the smile still fixated on her face. And Mina looked right back up at her. As soon as their gazes met, Momo’s smile dropped off her own face for good minute. Every time Mina’s eyes met Momo’s ones, it send tremors down her spine. Ignorance is fear.  

“You can’t imagine the fun I’ll have, the things I’ll do to you…” Momo’s grin emerged again, this time more demonically as if she had fallen back, deep, into her trance again. She had lost herself. 

That sentence sent goosebumps along the the length of her arm. That clarified it, Mina was going to get tortured, painfully, painfully unhurried. It will most likely result in her death. That plate of noodles was most likely going to be her last meal, Momo’s emotionless face going to be the last thing she saw, her last breath going to be achingly hard to get out. Mina’s breath got stuck in . She was going to die. 

That was the last thing Momo said to her before turning away and walking out of the room with the empty plate in hand. The door opened, the light of heaven blinding Mina once again, sending arrays of colours scuttling up and down her vision. Mina missed the light, how it bounced over surfaces, how natural it seemed. It was the simple things in life that Mina took for granted, and now she was never going to see anything ever again, just the tiny candle flame dancing in the lamp and the darkness that taunted her mercilessly. 

Crawling back into the corner where she felt the safest, Mina awaited Momo’s return, knowing that what little shred of hope she had, got completely obliterated.