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Tears trailed slowly down Ezra’s cheeks.
His wrists and ankles had been hurting for hours now, pressed tightly together by the ropes Maul had used to tie him up. He’d been shut away in this room for almost half a day now, and his throat was starting to burn from lack of water. Maul hadn’t come back or said a word to him since throwing him in here. Ezra thought he’d heard the front door slam shut, but he hadn’t dared to call out to see if Maul was still there. He just waited and waited, wondering if Maul was ever going to come back.
Ezra’s shoulders tensed when he heard the door creak open behind him. With his arms tied behind his back, a length of rope connecting them to his ankles, he couldn’t even roll over, but he didn’t need to to know it was Maul who entered the room.
Ezra bit back a whimper as Maul knelt down behind him. As Maul untied the ropes around his wrists, Ezra let out a soft sigh of relief. Maul gripped his arm, his other hand on Ezra’s back as he helped Ezra sit up. Ezra looked down at his stinging wrists to see marks from the ropes where they’d rubbed his skin raw as he struggled.
His hands were shaking as Maul placed a cup of water into them. As he quickly gulped it down, he felt Maul’s hand gently running across his hair, like the man was trying to comfort him.
“You need to stop trying to run away,” Maul said.
“I – I just want to go home,” Ezra said, wiping at the tears that clung to his skin only for more to take their place.
“You can't,” Maul said, his voice almost gentle, as if he wasn’t the reason for that. “There’s nowhere else for you to go.”
Ezra pressed his hands over his face as he began sobbing again. The image of his parents’ bodies on the floor, their eyes wide as they lay unmoving in pools of their own blood was burned into his mind. He could still feel Maul’s hand pressed over his mouth, stopping him from screaming as he was dragged through the house toward the back door. His parents had accepted him for what he was, protected him from people who would have hurt him for it. And now they were gone, and no one else would help him except Maul.
“I have something for you,” Maul said.
Ezra cautiously lowered his hands, looking up at Maul. He didn’t think that could mean anything good.
Maul reached to the side and Ezra glanced in the same direction, his eyes widening when he saw the object Maul was handing to him. It was Bunny, Ezra’s stuffed rabbit and constant companion since he was barely a year old.
“How did you –”
“The house is still a crime scene,” Maul said. Just hearing those words made Ezra’s stomach churn, but he was just distracted enough not to care. “Nothing’s been touched. I was able to sneak in and get this for you.”
A lump formed in Ezra’s throat as he hugged the rabbit against his chest.
“Th-thank you,” Ezra said, his voice shaking.
Maul stood, picking up the ropes as he did. Ezra couldn’t help but flinch at the sight of them dangling from Maul’s hand like a threat.
“I want you to be happy here, Ezra,” Maul said. “I’m sure one day you will be. But you need to stop trying to run away. I don’t want to keep punishing you like this.”
“I-I’m sorry,” Ezra said.
Guilt rose up like vomit in the back of his throat even as he tried to push it back down. He shouldn’t feel guilty about trying to escape. Maul was a kidnapper and a murderer. But sometimes it seemed like Maul really was trying, and all Ezra could do was push him away.
“You can leave your room if you want to,” Maul said, his voice strangely gentle. “I think you’ve learned your lesson.”
As the door closed behind him, Ezra crawled to the mattress in the corner and curled up on it, clutching Bunny to his chest. He buried his face in the stuffed animal, breathing in the scent of his old room, his old home. Maul had gone back to get it. Maul had somehow known it was important to him. Maul said he wanted Ezra to be happy.
Maybe things really weren’t so bad here.