Durante

"He keeps staring at you."

I glanced at Jenny, then looked up at the front of the class. Professor Harding looked down quickly, but he had been looking at me. Watching me.

He'd taken over for Professor Ruttledge the week before, a quiet, younger man compared to her old, loud, boisterous and activist self. I'd liked Professor Ruttledge a lot... the new guy I liked a bit less.

It wasn't just that he was quiet... he was also boring as pond water and his teaching style was bland. He read from the book in monotone and it seemed a lot like he was learning the material along with us as he read it.

Jenny had informed me before this class that she finally heard what had happened. Professor Ruttledge had been taken by ambulance to the hospital late at night and hadn't been released since. She was alive, but in ICU and no one knew what had happened, though some said stroke.

Professor Harding had applied for a position with the math department where he'd been a TA for 3 years, but got asked to step in to the open Lit position until they could find a replacement.

I glanced up again and he was watching me again, his head down like he was looking at a book, but his eyes on me across the room.

"What's his deal?" I asked grumpily.

"I mean... he's not unattractive?" Jenny offered. "And you're cute as hell. He just likes what he sees, is all."

"It's creepy... Do you think he might be the reason all the girls are going missing on campus?"

"Hah! Not a chance, he's too mousy. Would the 'looking' be creepy if it was Professor Carmichael?" she asked too sweetly.

I grinned, blushing. "Shut up... the dude is just... so hot. And when he gets all passionate about civil rights and everything..."

Jenny giggled, leaning in closer. "Right? Oh my god! Like dude, your fine black ass matters to me. You think he would cheat on his wife? For like, you know, a threesome or something?"

"Half the reason he's so hot is his convictions! He loves his wife and he's all about her and that's hot! I want a guy like that, like 'this is my lady is she's fucking perfect! Look at her world, this fine goddess is MINE!' You know? I would lose every ounce of respect AND my crush if I found out he cheated on her with coeds."

"I would not fucking care at all if I got to see his dick."

"We SEE his dick every week," I giggled.

"We see his dickprint. There's a difference! You think that's real, though? Simon told me he stuffs, but he can't make it look exactly the same every day in every pair of tight ass pants, right? Unless he has like, a dildo or somethin' he uses? Puts it in there, straps it on or somethin'? Shit... I don't even care if he straps on, I'd let him fuck me with both dicks."

"Jesus, Jenny!" I laughed, shaking my head.

"Ladies."

I jerked and flinched hard, ducking down and cringing as I turned to Professor Harding who was directly in front of me now.

"I didn't mean to startle you, Miss Brandtley? Are you alright?" he asked quickly, leaning over me.

"Fine!" I answered quickly, horrified.

"You're ok," Jenny told me quickly, taking my hand and stroking my arm. "You're good."

"I was just going to see if you needed help on your assignment? You didn't have your books open and..."

"How about you back off her?" Jenny demanded loudly. "Her books closed cause she read it already! This was the fourth time, too! She did the work, so how 'bout you take a step back! You already scared the shit outta her, you need to step off!"

"Jenny!" I cried softly, more horrified now. "I'm sorry!" I told him, unable to look at him as I stood up. "I did! I've read it... I'm sorry!" I cried in a whisper, trying not to look around at everyone staring at me. "I'm sorry!" I told him again, then stood, turned and fled.

"God damn creeper!" I heard Jenny yell, then she was catching up to me on the quad. "You ok? Let's sit down here, ok? You have your inhaler? Bella? Look at me, babe, ok? Ok, good, you're ok. Sit down here with me for a few. What the FUCK, man?" Jenny yelled the last angrily, facing the way we'd come.

"Is she alright?" Professor Harding asked, stopping a few feet away.

"No she's not ok! You need to leave her alone!"

"Jenny! Stop, please!" I begged her softly.

"Isabella?" he called to me, taking a single step closer. "Should I call a medic, or...?"

"No! I just needed some air, I'm fine."

"Ok... can I walk you back into class?"

"I'm not coming back to class today," I told him quickly, hugging myself as Jenny stroked my arm.

"Can you tell me what's wrong? If you..."

"She has anxiety," Jenny snapped. "That's all you really need to know."

"Ok. Ok, Isabella, if you need to take the day and..."

"You can call her Miss Brantley," Jenny interrupted him. "She don't go by her whole first name at all. Go on back to your class, I got her."

He sighed, looking stressed, but took a step back. "If you need anything, just let me know, ok?" he asked.

I said nothing, letting Jenny hug me to her chest.

As soon as he was gone, Jenny sat back up and held me at arms length. "You good, babe? Wanna go to that tea place you like so much?"

"Not today, I think I wanna just go home."

"Ok... but we're still goin' to that party tonight, right?" she asked in a warning tone.

I'd bailed the last three parties, I knew she'd get upset if I did it again. "I'll try," I promised her.

That was how I found myself at 8 PM, all dressed up in clothes she'd picked out for me, make-up, hair done up, everything and in her car on the way to a stupid frat party.

"Promise we can leave when I say?" I asked her for the tenth time.

She smirked. "Promise you'll have the keys to my car since you don't drink. You can come hide away in her any time you want!"

I sighed, hating that answer.

We had to park three blocks away from the frat house and walk there. I hugged myself, freezing and wishing I'd brought a coat. According to Jenny, you didn't wear coats to parties, there was no place to put them.

Ugh.

Inside was packed, there were people shoulder to shoulder and I immediately hated it as Jenny waded right in, pulling me with her. She headed right for the keg and got herself a drink before leading me to one of the side rooms and ensconcing me in the corner before joining one of her guy friends at the pool table.

The room was full of college frat boys playing pool and three of their girlfriends hanging on them. And me in the corner.

I watched them play, watched Jenny get tipsy, then drunk with the popular boys on campus. It was her thing. She refused to date them, but she flirted and kept them on strings. I watched her as the boys grinned and flirted and watched her.

Durante Abrams did not.

Durante was the popular guy that was popular by proximity, at least as far as I knew. He wasn't outgoing or athletic, he was always quiet, but always there with the others. Hands in his pockets, watching them and everyone around them as if he were always bored. He occupied the corner opposite me, watching his friends play pool.

Around midnight when I looked away from Jenny for a moment, I locked eyes with him.

He didn't move or look away, he stared across the room at me and stood motionless as we stared at each other.

I finally dropped my eyes and looked away, wondering why he was watching me that way. When I glanced up again, he was off the wall and speaking to one of the men, leaning in close to whisper.

I turned to Jenny and signaled to her, showing her the car keys. She grinned and nodded, giving me a thumbs up and I slipped out of the loud party and headed back to the car.

I would sleep until she decided she was ready to go.

Laying the seat back, I curled up on my side with a sigh, wishing I at least had a blanket.

The door opened after a short time and I jerked awake, turning to look at Jenny, but was met with darkness as something was thrown over the top of my face, something soft like a blanket or shirt. Trying to sit up and grab at the fabric, I screamed as something stung my hip. Hands caught my wrist, then more grabbed my legs and I was lifted from the car as my body went relaxed and I passed out from whatever they'd drugged me with.

I woke moments later, my body aching as I blinked at my surroundings, trying to understand what I was seeing.

I was in a small room? One wall was made of bars, though, like a cage.

Sitting up, I looked out the bars into the room beyond and stared at the four men leaning on the back of a couch, watching me.

They all wore masks.

The largest one was wearing a mask of a crying baby. Another had a hockey mask, and another a cartoonish big bad wolf mask. The last had a melting face mask.

They all looked terrifying as they watched me.

"Hunt or draw?" the large man with the crying baby mask asked, his voice deep.

"Hunt," hockey mask spoke up quickly. "I'd love to ride her down and rip her to pieces."

"No," Wolf mask called, his voice far too calm for what they were all suggesting. "I want this one."

"You?" hockey mask asked, surprised. "Since when do you do anything but watch?"

"I want this one," wolf mask repeated.

"Can we at least watch?" melting face asked.

"I'll let you know when," wolf mask agreed.

"I don't care about the fucking, I only want to watch when you kill her," hockey mask sneered.

"I'll let you know," wolf mask repeated.

"We at least get a turn with her?" crybaby mask asked dejectedly. "Bet her cunts tight as fuck."

"I'll let you know," wolf mask repeated again.

Crybaby mask growled, but he left, along with melting face mask. Hockey mask stayed a moment longer, then looked at wolf mask and left, his body language angry.

Wolf mask put his hands in his pockets and leaned back on the couch again, watching me.

I said nothing, hugging myself as I scooted back to the wall and watched him.

They were going to kill me. They were the reason coeds had been disappearing.

Wolf mask stood up and left the room, turning off the light when he did.

As soon as he was gone, I got up and went to the bars, reaching through and trying to feel around in the dark. There was a padlock on the door, one that took a key. Still, I tried twisting it and pushing on the bars. When that yielded nothing, I got down on my knees and felt around on the floor, trying to reach something. All there was was carpet in every direction.

Moving back, I felt around the concrete room I was trapped in and discovered stubs for a washer and dryer. So that was what this little inset was, I was in a basement somewhere and they'd turned the washer and dryer inset into a cage.

How many girls had they held in here? Were they all dead now?

I was next.

My phone was gone, all I had was a mans t-shirt I hadn't been wearing before and my underwear, that was all. My own clothes were gone, so was everything else I'd had with me.

Curling up in the corner, I hugged my knees and tried to think of what I should do.

Hours passed and finally, the light came back on.

I sat up against the back wall and watched, my eyes tracking 'wolf mask' as he came back into view. Putting his hands in his pockets again, he leaned back on the couch, wearing different clothes than he'd been wearing before.

Was it a new day?

I looked over him, his stance, and the way he watched me with that cant to his head. After several long, quiet moments, I finally spoke up.

"Are you going to kill me, Durante?"

His head tilted the other direction, then he reached up and slid the mask off, still watching me.

He didn't answer the question, just looked over me and leaned against the couch.

I knew he was expecting me to beg, to cry and plead and make promises. I refused to play their game.

Instead, I turned and curled up on my side, facing away from him so I didn't have to see him watching me.

He left, I heard him slip out, but he left the light on this time. Coming back down moments later, he pushed a pillow and blanket through the bars, then a sleeping bag. Leaving and coming back again, he set a six pack of water bottles inside the cage and two uncrustables sandwiches, as well as two string cheeses and two lunchables.

Standing back, he leaned on the couch again and put his hands in his pockets, watching me.

I ignored him, making myself a small bed, then opening a water before wrapping in the blanket and leaning on the wall to drink it. As soon as it was half gone, I laid down, curling up and facing the wall again.

I heard him move, then I heard metal on metal as the cage was unlocked, then opened. He lay down on the sleeping bag behind me and spooned me, putting an arm around me and the other under the pillow for me to lay my head on.

I stayed still and tense, but he did nothing else, just curled around me.

He didn't make a sound and I stayed quiet, not really knowing what to say. I should be begging for my life, but all I could think of was that the cage was open right now. I needed to get away. I should put the moves on him or something and get him to let his guard down, then run.

He was probably planning on that.

If this was the basement of the frat house, there were 30 guys upstairs who would stop me.

No, I had to play this a different way.

I wasn't sure what way, yet, but I knew I wasn't going to be able to run.

Half an hour later, he eased up, then left, relocking the cage and leaving. He did leave the light on, though.

I ate one of the sandwiches and hid everything else behind the pillow in case the others came down and got mad that he'd fed me.

A few hours later, he came down again, this time with a bucket. Opening the cage, he set it in the corner, then pulled two books out of it and set them at the foot of my sleeping bag. Reaching back into it, he pulled out toilet paper and set it next to the bucket.

Moving back out, he shut and locked the cage, then watched me again with his hands in his pockets.

I said nothing, turning to the wall and not looking at him, though I knew he was waiting for me to speak.

Thank him, at least.

I refused.

After twenty minutes of me ignoring him, he left again, leaving the light on.

I scooted down and looked at the books, then opened the first one and leaned against the bars to read it in the light.

When I finally looked up, stretching my neck and readjusting my seat, I saw him.

He hadn't left at all, he'd pretended to and stood at the base of the stairs where he could see the cage, and me if I moved so I could use the light.

I looked back down quickly, my cheeks burning, but I refused to acknowledge him. Instead, I adjusted and went back to the book, but I was acutely aware of him watching me.

Why? What was he watching for? Was he waiting for me to do something, or was watching a thing for him?

The next time I looked up, he was gone.

Hours passed again and I ate the cheese, then a lunchable before having another bottle of water.

I wasn't keen on using the bucket, but it was better than nothing. Still, I was going to hold it as long as I could and be sparing with the water.

How long did I have before he decided to kill me?

I curled up in the blankets, thinking about it.

Sound made me wake and I sat up, wiping my eyes as he came back and leaned on the couch again. He was wearing new clothes, so I imagined it was a new day again.

I met his stare for a moment, then turned away from him and rolled back over, huddled in on myself and trying to ease my headache.

Again, I heard the metal on metal of the lock, then the door eased open and he laid down behind me, spooning me.

His arm pulled me close, the other sliding under my pillow so I was laying on him.

What was his deal?

I didn't move or make a sound, I lay there quietly, not moving or pulling away. I knew he was awake as well, his face in my neck as he held me against him.

What was I supposed to do?

I refused to beg, and I knew better than to fight, so it all seemed futile.

The door at the stairs opened and he sat up quickly, jumping up and hurriedly closing the door and locking it as the other three men came down with masks on again.

"Dude, wat the fuck? Where's your mask?" crybaby asked angrily.

"She knew who I was," Durante shrugged. "What do you guys want?"

"How much longer? If you're not done with her yet, at least move her out of the cage so we can use it... did you give her blankets? What the fuck, man?"

"He wants to fuck with her for longer," melty face offered.

"Her cunt tight?" crybaby asked, moving closer to the bars to look in at me.

"If you aren't ready to kill her, move her so we can get a new bitch," hockey mask growled.

"Can we fuck her yet?" crybaby asked. "Drag her out here, let's take turns."

"I'll let you know," Durante told him blandly.

Hockey mask snorted. "That means never. You even fucked her yet?"

"Why do you care?" Durante asked, an eyebrow high.

"At least move her so we can use the cage!" crybaby grumped.

"This is my house, I can use it as long as I like for whatever I like," Durante scowled.

"How much longer?" hockey mask demanded.

"She'll be gone before tonight, but you're all cleaning the cage after the next one this time. The maid lost her shit last time. Go on and find your next target."

"I say we grab Jenny, bitch won't let this cunt go, had the cops come by the frat three fucking times," hockey mask snarled.

"Not Jenny," crybaby said quickly.

"Yeah, they only came because she went missing from the party, they don't suspect anything. She doesn't even suspect us, she thinks it was some stupid professor," melty face agreed.

"Come back later," Durante told them, watching me as I watched all of them warily. "It'll be open."

"What are you doing with her?" hockey mask demanded.

"Not your concern," Durante told him darkly, finally looking away from me to look at the taller man.

Hockey mask looked away, then spun and left without a word. The others followed, grumbling.

Durante waited until they were all gone, then turned back to me, looking me over. "Fold those blankets and stack them up, then put all the food, water and books back in that empty bucket," he ordered me.

I got up and did as he told me, being quick.

This might be my chance!

Apparently I wasn't in the frat, we were in his house and that meant I had a better chance of getting away!

I turned back to him when I finished and he was still leaning on the couch with his hands in his pockets. The look on his face as he stared at me was... almost pleased. Like I'd done something he'd liked.

"Pick up all the blankets and pillow," he told me.

I picked them up, then stepped back as he moved closer to the door and unlocked it.

Opening it, he picked up the bucket, then stood to the side so I could step through the door.

I stepped through warily, feeling like any moment he was going to laugh at me, then hurt me.

He did neither as he gestured me to go to the stairs and up.

Opening the door, I looked around, confused.

Wherever we were, it wasn't really a house like I'd imagined at all. Apparently, Durante was well off... very well off.

"Left," he demanded from behind me.

I turned left and he followed close behind as if waiting for me to make a wrong move.

"Left again," he told me when we entered a huge foyer.

I went left and he herded me to a huge stairwell and up.

"Right," he told me near the top.

I went right, feeling dread welling up as I entered a hallway.

"All the way down, last door."

I kept going, looking at the door at the end of the hall and feeling sick.

I paused outside of it and he leaned in close, opening the door and pushing it open for me.

It was a huge bedroom, immaculate and very masculine.

"Set those down there, then go sit in that chair."

I put the blankets and pillow down and crossed the room to sit down where he'd told me, watching him as he set the bucket down and watched me.