Caging Cadence Ch. 06

She didn't move. She wasn't breathing.

***

He won't kill me. He won't kill me. He won't kill me.

His thrusts were brutal, vicious. He was punishing her. He had already come, but he was angry, and that anger kept him hard, kept his hands tight around her throat. With his cock impaling her, and his hands cutting off all air, the only thing she could do was take it.

Pleasure and pain were irrelevant. Life and death were hanging in the balance, and he controlled it all. Cadence waited, and for the first time in her life, she prayed. But what god out there would hear her now? David had emptied her of everything. There was only one thing left for him to take.

The beginning, when he first started fucking her, felt far away. But so did the end, and so did the present, because each time he pushed himself inside her, she slipped a little further away.

Please, god, if you somehow exist, don't let him kill me -

But the blackness came, hard and fast. Cadence couldn't fight it. She submitted, praying until she couldn't think anymore...

Time passed. It was impossible to know how long.

Cadence floated.

Somewhere in the distance, a phone buzzed. A strange sound, in this void. Familiar, but wrong.

Zzzt, zzt, zzt, pause. Zzzt, zzt, zzt, pause.

Lips were on hers, pushing stale air into her mouth, and someone else was praying out loud now, whispering soft and fast, near tears. The breath of these prayers hit her between the breath he pushed hard into her lungs.

Who was it? She knew his taste, knew his lips, but they brought no comfort, no pleasure, no sense of security.

Zzzt, zzt, zzt, pause. Zzzt, zzt, zzt, pause.

Her chest was tight. Her head was agony. She wanted to float again...

At that thought, fresh air burst into her lungs, as if her mouth were a door she finally kicked open.

"Cadence? Oh thank god - Cadence -"

She convulsed, gasped harder, and then, suddenly, she could remember how to breathe. This made her aware of her throat, which seemed to be on fire, or perhaps being scraped down from the inside by some angry ants. Her neck and shoulders ached even more.

These were all unwelcome realizations, as she suddenly became aware again of just how much she hurt, all over. Struggling to breathe through the pain, Cadence tried to sit up. Strong hands gently grasped her shoulders and held her firmly in place.

"Stay down, take your time. If you sit up too fast you might pass out again."

Zzzt, zzt, zzt, pause. Zzzt, zzt, zzt, pause.

She glanced for the source of the sound, but she was too woozy to focus on it properly. She choked, trying to speak.

David shook his head. "Bad idea." His voice sounded strained and hoarse, as if he'd been smoking or screaming.

Or...crying? She finally looked up at him.

He was crying.

Cadence stared at him, incredulous. He made no effort to hide his tears. His face was twisted in open anguish, red and blotchy, his cheeks streaked with tears. He looked like a little boy. Cadence felt the strangest mixture of pity and derision. How could he be crying, after all he had done to her? After he nearly killed her, just now?

Zzzt, zzt, zzt, pause. Zzzt, zzt, zzt, pause.

He didn't seem to notice her cell phone, buzzing in the background. She tried not to glance at it, now that she had identified the sound. She didn't want to draw his attention to it. She thought it was somewhere on the floor, given the direction it came from.

Who was calling her? Like most young women her age, Cadence rarely made or answered phone calls, so she rarely received them. Most people knew to just text her. People like Lily or her mother only called when it was important, or when they were worried. Was there was chance that someone had finally noticed something amiss? Or was this just a telemarketer with the world's worst timing?

"Cadence..." David whispered, but he seemed unable to find the words to go on.

She rubbed her throat unconsciously, her gaze flicking down to his hands, which were clasped tightly in front of him. She became aware that they were both still naked, and that the light outside her window hadn't changed that much. She hadn't been unconscious for very long. She did recognize that she was quickly becoming more in need of medical attention - losing consciousness twice in such a short amount of time couldn't be good for her.

But she had more to survive with David, it seemed, before he was ready to let her go.

If he was going to let her go...

Some of what she was thinking must have shown on her face. David found his words again.

"I really fucked you up," he whispered, taking in all of the damage on her body.

"In more ways than one," she retorted. Her voice was a raspy whip, so unlike her usual tone that it startled her.

"I know." His eyes were sad, his voice soft. "I know, Cadence. I'm not going to insult your intelligence by pretending the words 'I'm sorry' are enough, but...I am sorry. For going too far. For losing control too many times. For...for nearly killing you, just now. I know I'm a monster, but god. Even I didn't think I was capable of that. I hurt you. I'm sorry."

She stared at him, unsure of how to reply. What else could he possibly want from her? Did he really expect her to forgive him, just moments after he'd nearly strangled her to death? Mere minutes after taking the last of her first sexual experiences?

They were still in the thick of it. His remorse should have softened Cadence, but she found it stoked the anger still burning under the surface in her heart.

David continued, "But I'm not sorry for taking you. I'm not sorry for playing with you, or for fucking with your head, even if I went too far. I'm not sorry for caging you, or teasing you. I'm not sorry for kissing you. I'm not sorry for fucking you, in every way I could. I'll never regret that. I'll cherish the memories of what we've done together...of what I've done to you...forever. I know what I did was wrong. I know I hurt you - I wanted to hurt you. And I relished in it. I don't think I've ever been more myself. And I think, in time, you'll agree that the same is true about you. When you walk out of here, and go back to your normal life, I think you'll seek this out. Consensually. With someone you love back."

Cadence's eyes narrowed. She waited for him to get to the point.

"But Cadence...you can't tell anyone what happened here."

She stifled her laughter, but was unable to hide her incredulous expression. She shook her head, looking away from him.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." She said it under her breath, but David heard her.

His face was stern, serious. His apology, as rational as it was, was already in the past. Now, he wanted something else from her. Whether she accepted his apology or not was irrelevant to him.

"You told me it was my choice," she hissed, her jaw clenched. "Remember? You said that, once all was said and done, I'd be able to decide if you were going to leave or not. If I wanted to try to press charges after that."

"I didn't know how far I would go. I didn't plan on trying to kill you. I didn't plan on imprints of my fingers being on your neck when you walked back into your classroom tomorrow. If you press charges now, and I'm found guilty...Cadence, I'll be in prison for the rest of my life. I know I fucked up. I know I probably deserve it. But I'm asking you...no, I'm begging you. Please don't tell anyone. I can give you money to go stay at a hotel until you heal - Laura won't know the difference, she has too much going on in her own life -"

These words stung, because Cadence knew they were true. If Cadence texted her mom and told her she was staying at Lily's for a few days, Laura would probably only tell her to "have fun", and secretly her mother would be relieved to have her daughter gone. If the case was ending soon...

...but was it? When was her mom supposed to come home?

Cadence shook her head, hardly paying attention as David continued to appeal to her, trying hard to remember. When had she last seen her mom? Why did it feel...so wrong...to think about her? Cadence had already had complicated feelings towards her mother, but this was worse. This was dread, horror. Hot shame and wriggling disgust in her guts.

" - we can both just put this behind us. I know what I'm capable of now. I know how much more careful I have to be. Something like this will never happen to another girl -"

Another girl.

"I don't owe you anything, David," she snapped, cutting him off. "You've taken everything from me. I don't think you've even given me the truth, and that's the least of what you owe me."

She fixed her eyes on his, holding him in place. She was angrier than she was scared.

"What happened when I was alone in the closet?"

David stopped, his mouth dropping open. He recovered quickly. His face went carefully blank.

"You slept. You pretended to study. You masturbated, even when I told you not -"

"No. Not then. After you...after we...had a-anal sex." How could she still feel so embarrassed to say it? "I was strapped to the ceiling. I was alone. I was screaming. What happened? It wasn't on the video we watched, but I remember, David. And I know it was something bad, something worse than everything else."

She looked up at him evenly. The lie came easily.

"If you tell me the truth about that, I won't tell anyone. I'll let you go."

***

Guilt and shame were unfamiliar feelings to David. He was usually good enough at maintaining his self-confidence to the point of arrogance. Very little made him feel bad about himself. He very rarely regretted his actions, or felt that he was in the wrong. Even now, it had taken choking Cadence nearly to the point of no return to make him pause, to make him truly realize that he had gone too far.

Not a monster, just a man. But if he crossed that line, he couldn't claim that anymore. He loved hurting women, he loved fucking women, but he had never wanted to kill a woman.

Not until now.

This hazy Monday evening had changed him as much as it had changed Cadence, and now, he was feeling another thing, even stranger and more unwelcome than his guilt or his shame.

He was afraid.

Just as he had held Cadence's life in her hands, she now held his in hers. If he had limited his abuses to kinky escapades in the closet, he might have gotten away with it. There had still been a chance that she would let him exit the Clark family without a fuss.

But he had pushed her so far now. The only thing left to do was beg or bargain his way out.

He couldn't kill her. The few moments he thought she was dead, that he had been responsible for it, had been hell. If he actually followed through, he knew he'd be unable to live through another day. Of all the horrible things he'd done, that would be the most unforgivable. He had already diminished her light. He would not rob the world of this star - even he was not that selfish, that cruel.

But he also couldn't tell her this truth. If he told her, there was no way in hell she would let him go.

If he could fuck with her head one last time, maybe it would be enough to at least postpone legal action against him. He could slip away...live his empty life alone, fucking girls with red hair and blue eyes and innocent faces, forever wishing it was her.

"I can't tell you that, Cadence." He feigned chagrin, and the lie came easily. "If I tell you that, you'll hate yourself forever. You'll never forgive yourself for what you did."

She frowned. "What do you mean? What could I have even done? I was tied up."

He shook his head. "It's better that you've forgotten. I did you a favor when I drugged you."

Cadence blanched, looking sick to her stomach. Guilt twisted inside him, but David pushed it down.

"That's the only thing I want," she said, swallowing, but her voice was firm. "Whatever I did, I can take it. I'm more concerned with what you did."

"I really don't think you can handle it, Cadence. And I know it's the only thing you want, but it's also the only thing I can't give you."

Zzzt, zzt, zzt, pause. Zzzt, zzt, zzt, pause.

Cadence's cell phone was buzzing again. David suspected her friend, Lily, and felt a deep stab of annoyance. His last few moments with Cadence, which were precious enough without the pressure of trying to convince her to let him go free, kept being interrupted by this clingy little bitch and her cell phone addiction. He sighed deeply through his nose, closing his eyes.

Zzzt, zzt, zzt, pause. Zzzt, zzt, zzt, pause.

When he opened them, the damn phone had buzzed twice more, then finally fallen silent.

Cadence was frozen in front of him. She hadn't moved, but was staring at her phone without blinking. She sagged with disappointment when the buzzing stopped, then shot a guilty look in his direction.

It was easy to guess what she was thinking, but impossible to tell what she was going to do next. She connected that phone with her way out, with a chance to reach the outside world, to escape. But was she too frightened, too beaten down, to lunge for it the next time it inevitably rang?

It was starting to become a problem. David wanted to distract Cadence from it at any cost. The last thing he needed was Lily pounding on the front door, demanding to know why her best friend was ignoring her, but he also couldn't risk Cadence getting her hands on her cell phone again. It was sitting innocently on the floor beneath them and between them, a glaringly obvious conflict of interests. It seemed to push Cadence's quest for the truth out of her mind.

"Stand up, Cadence," he commanded.

His shift in tone clearly startled her. She glanced up at him, a bratty reply on her lips, but she hesitated when she saw the look on his face. A moment later, she slid off the bed, unable to stop herself from glancing at her cell phone. David followed her, but he crouched down and picked up the knife lying beside her phone. Her eyes widened in fear.

"I've been good," she whispered. She was near tears again. The knife clearly really scared her. "Please, David, I've been good."

She still thought him capable of killing her. Good. That worked in his favor.

"I know," he said lightly. He flipped the knife around in his hand, then flicked it open. "This is just to help you keep being good. Let's go wash off the evidence. Literally. We can talk again when you've had a few minutes to think." And once I've had the chance to turn off your cell phone and hide it somewhere, David thought.

As if it heard him, her phone started buzzing again. David cursed.

"It must be my mom," Cadence said. "She'll worry if I don't pick up. I know it seems like she doesn't care about me, but she still gets paranoid like any other mother. If you let me answer, I'll put her mind at ease."

"Not a chance, Cadence."

"She might come home if I don't, to check on me. Do you want her to barge in on us?"

It was David's turn to go white. He turned away from her to cover it, ignoring her question.

"Grab some clothes. Let's go."

David led her to the bathroom, then stood outside the shower while she fiddled with the knobs. He could still see the remnants of his ejaculate coating the inside of her thighs. He knew it must have been uncomfortable, but she hadn't complained. She was so desensitized to his vulgarity now.

Once she was standing under the spray of hot water, David left without warning, closing the door behind him. He sped back down the hallway and into her room. He quickly shook out his jeans, yanking them on. Then he snatched her cell phone off the ground. He punched in her pin number, glaring down at the screen, angry at whoever kept interrupting them.

As he did, the phone rang yet again, and in his clumsy and furious swiping through Cadence's notifications, he managed to answer it.

"Where the fuck have you been? I've been so - " an irritated, girlish voice snapped at the other end, the moment he picked up.

David cursed, ending the call, not knowing what else to do. There was no reason for him to be answering Cadence's cell phone. If he spoke, that alone would immediately alert Lily that something was wrong. She had called Cadence over a dozen times since that morning, left her three voice mails, and her text messages had gone from irritation to feigned nonchalance to worry to panic.

David was out of time. Fuck. He turned the phone off.

He heard the bathroom door open and whirled around, sprinting back down the hall. Cadence was still in the steaming bathroom, stepping into the sweatpants she had picked out, looking curious and unabashed. She was already wearing a big, baggy t-shirt. Her hair was only a little damp, but she looked refreshed, less cagey than she had before stepping into the hot water. He needed her to be more off-balance.

There was one goal now - escape, at nearly any cost.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked. "It didn't take me that long to get clean. I've taken enough showers in the past few days."

The knife and her cell phone trembled in his hands.

"Lily knows something is wrong, Cadence." He kept his tone even, but was unable to stop a note of danger from creeping in. "She's called you a dozen times. What a good friend."

The ice in his gaze and voice froze Cadence in place. She swallowed nervously, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear, glancing down at his hands. The energy in the air tightened, turned electric. Cadence seemed to be thinking quickly.

David pocketed her phone, moved the knife from hand to hand, trying to stifle his nervousness. The more calm and capable he seemed, the more likely she was to do as he said.

It was just like BDSM, but the stakes had never been higher. Well, he'd always loved odds like that. He was bound to put his own life on the line, sooner or later.

"Lily knows me," Cadence admitted, sounding defeated. "She can tell when things aren't right. I'm surprised it took her this long, honestly. I don't think I can convince her nothing is wrong..."

David furrowed his brow, regret apparent in his expression.

"I wanted more time - I needed more time - to convince you to do the right thing. But we're out of time now, Cadence. So you have a choice to make."

He took a few steps forward, closing the distance between them. Cadence tried to hold her ground, but he kept pushing, until they were inches from each other in the small bathroom.

Once he was blocking her exit, he lifted the knife up, holding it close to her face. She winced, tearing up, her lower lip trembling.

"David, you don't have to do this..."

"You're right. I don't. I don't want to do this. You're going to decide whether or not I do."

She bit her lip. "I promise I won't tell anyone. I promise. I don't have any proof anyway. My mom's seen rape cases with more evidence go down the drain..."

She didn't mention the videos, he noted. He wondered if she remembered them, or if she just assumed that he'd taken care of them. He tried not to let his relief show.

"You're right," he whispered. "Bu that's a chance I just can't take, Cadence. Not anymore. Not since I nearly killed you. I'll do anything to stay out of prison. But I don't want to hurt you anymore." His hand was shaking. He managed to keep it still, as he pressed the very tip against her cheek.

"So don't," she pleaded. She glanced sideways at the knife, nervous, then looked back at him. Her blue eyes were wide, beseeching him. "You don't have to hurt me. Just let me go, David. I swear I won't tell anyone."

"It's too late for that," he said sadly. He stroked her other cheek with his free hand. "You only have two choices now. You can come with me. Choose to stay with me, until the statue of limitations runs out. Then I'll let you go live your life, and I'll be free to live mine."