Captured

by Lauren Biel

The Man hadn’t been a whisker away from killing me. He’d already done it. I’d been dead inside since the day I drew a breath beneath his shadow. Since the day I was born with the Bruggar name.

“I don’t want to save you. The moment I fucked you, you became mine. I own you. Your body is mine to use whenever and however I want. Why the hell would I want to let you go? I’m nowhere near done with you.”

“Next time I get the urge to please you, fucking let me or I’ll drown you in my come,”

“I don’t do what I do because I’m a saint. I do it because I’m a demon disguised as one.”

“I’m not protecting you. I’m owning you. I’m keeping you from him because I don’t want anyone else touching you.

You can’t like me, Ophelia. If he thinks you like me, he’ll kill you. If he thinks I like you, he’ll kill me. No matter what, you have to be disgusted by me. You have to hate me around him.” I drew a sharp inhale. “You have to hate me anyway.”

We were heading for the deep end without a life preserver. No one was there to save us, and we were too caught up in each other to save ourselves.

I can’t let you go because I’ll lose the parts of me I found inside you.”

“I know we’re in hell, but it doesn’t have to be all fire and brimstone. It doesn’t always have to burn.”

“Maybe it’s not burning you, Alex, but I’m on fire.” He rested his chin on my chest. “I can’t give you heaven, but I can make hell feel good sometimes.”

Patience is a virtue, but I’m not a virtuous man.”

she was in hell and no matter how much I tried to shield her from the heat, I couldn’t stop the encroaching firestorm. And now the flames were burning me too.

Ophelia was the good part of me, the part that was beaten into oblivion, leaving just the monster in my skin.

He was a demon fighting the hold of the devil, steering his flames in other directions. He couldn’t save me. No matter how hard he tried, the devil still found ways to set me alight.

The Man wasn’t what I feared most. I feared love.

They say it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, but fuck that saying. Whoever came up with it didn’t know the true meaning behind it. They didn’t grasp the agonizing ache that came with loss.

How could she drag me from the depths of hell without leaving herself with mortal wounds?

“You’re shaking up everything I’ve ever known. Tearing apart decades of conditioning. It’s fucking terrifying. Feeling things is worse than feeling nothing at all.”

“No matter who you want me to be or who you think I am, I can never be what you deserve. Even if it’s not my fault, even if this is a disease someone else injected into my veins, I’m still harboring a sick infection.”

the devil’s disappointment doesn’t mean nearly as much as an angel’s pride.”

How can I say I want to be with you or I love you when I don’t fucking know what that means? Love has always hurt here, and I don’t want to love you if it means I’ll hurt you more than I already have.”

“You aren’t ruined in my eyes. You’re beautiful and broken, but you have the strength to pull yourself together. But if I go with you, I’ll only break you again.”

“I hate you for making me fall for you. I hate that the thought of a life without you makes me fucking sick, because it should be the opposite. I should be glad you want to leave!”

“If you walk out that door, you’re taking the only part of me that feels something. Haven’t you taken enough from me?”

“I know it’s hard to understand,” she said, “and I won’t pretend you didn’t break me, but you’re also the one who put me back together again. Now you’re the glue holding all those pieces in place.”

“I love you, Ophelia, and I refuse to let love hurt you this time.”

Somehow, she’d found freedom within captivity, but I found mine within her.