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Celina had no idea where she was, no idea if it was day or night and even less of a clue to what day it was. There wasn’t much she could remember except driving home from work, stopping for whatever reason and then- pain flared up in her head.
It had been Oscar, she knew that now. The ‘why’, however, was beyond her.
When she regained consciousness that time ago, tied to a chair, he sat across from her and almost couldn’t stop rambling. Though Celina didn’t understand a thing. He mentioned something about diamonds but that was about it. And ever since then, he kept her from sleeping. Fully. If her eyes fell shut, he’d slam a door, if she dissociated, he’d kick her chair and if she - god forbid - actually fell asleep for once, he’d pour freezing cold water into her face, leaving her not only dead tired but shivering and irritated.
Celina looked around without lifting her head. She was alone. And that was more than enough to prompt her nervous system to shut down and close her eyes, the warmth of impending sleep hauling her in like a cozy blanket-
Just one minute… maybe just half a minute but just shortly-
A door slammed. She startled awake, gasping so suddenly that she almost choked, the back of her neck tingling with panic and rage at the same time. Ropes cut into her skin from the way she jumped and that fucker was grinning. She never wanted to kill anyone so bad in her entire life.
“Why the hell are you doing this?”, she hissed, though it came out more as a slurred mumble. Her mouth felt strange, tongue heavy.
“Well…”, Oscar began. “The last time your TO and I met, we didn’t quite… end on a good note. This isn’t about you, you know.”, he brabbled, pacing up and down the room, talking as if hundreds of people were listening. “I mean, I was a little hurt when you told me I was gonna die, but this isn’t about that. This is about John and the diamonds he owes me. I needed some kind of leverage to convince him to give them back to me. And you know what’s very curious about him? He seems to suffer more when someone he loves suffers, rather than himself. And I’m not stupid enough to go anywhere near his wife, though I’d really love to see him squirm under that knowledge, so…”
He purposely stopped pacing just to tower over her, leaning down slowly and grinning.
“You were the next best thing.”
Celina only scoffed at his explanation but the moment she tried to answer, there were merely incoherent words tumbling from her lips and no matter how hard she tried, her mouth would not listen to what she wanted. And god, her eyes were heavy…
“Oh, look at you.”, Oscar frolicked, still towering over her; still staring. “Stumbling over your own words, forgetting what you just said… isn’t it fascinating how quickly you can break a persons mind by merely taking away their ability to take a nap?”
With every word he spoke, her irritation got only worse. Her mind zoning out, her body feeling alien. Oscar said something she didn’t register before she pulled back to reality.
“John and me… that’s the most stable relationship I have ever had in my life, except for my prison guard. God rest his soul…”, he hummed. “But my point is, the last time, I felt like John didn’t really take me seriously. And so I feel like I have to remind him that I’m not just all words.”
He leaned closer, a smug grin on his face as he rested his hands on the arms of the chair Celina was tied to.
“Remind him that I can break everyone dear to him without even touching them.”
Celina stared into his face, the same face she had seen for the past few days or hours, or whatever but the more she looked at it, the less she recognized it. Had he always had funny eyes? Had his mouth always been this tilted?
For a moment, Oscar looked confused, almost hurt as to why she wasn‘t answering- but then, his face relaxed and he even smiled… why was he smiling?
“You‘re starting to see things, aren’t you? Tell me, what is it? Bugs? Spiders? Are the shadows moving yet? Are they talking? I’d love to know.”, he brabbled, as if he was a child getting excited about his science project.
But there was no coherent thought left in Celina’s mind, not even as Oscar grabbed her hair and pulled her head back, forcing her to look at him. She hardly even felt his grasp… just a faint distant pain.
“You know, Celina… you can sleep all you want. But sleep won’t save you. Not from me.”
Yeah. That was right. That felt right. But… why did she need saving from him? She blinked, his voice still echoing in her mind, only to find a strange old man towering over her. Who even was he..?