Sleep begged to pull me back under, but there was someone watching me, I could feel it. Rather unwillingly, I opened my eyes, startled to find it was Klaus.

Though I really shouldn't be surprised.

He was seated in a chair next to a bed that wasn't mine, it had deep red sheets, and it smelled overwhelmingly like him.

Was I in his bed?

The confusion plaguing my mind began to lift and an anger burned in my gut, reminding me why I was there and I lunged at him. "You bastard!"

He caught my arms before they could land and forced them down to the mattress, effectively squashing any effort to hurt him.

As if I could in the first place.

"Let me go!" I fought, trying to quell the panic crawling under my skin as a horrifying realization struck me, because despite my hybrid strength, he was clearly stronger.

Klaus patiently waited me out, merely raising a brow.

Fuck him.

Fuck the dwindling energy I had.

I was losing, horribly. Instead of replying to him, I spat in his face.

He froze, the muscle in his jaw twitching. "Are you finished?" His tone sent chills down my back.

Fear curled in my gut.

Klaus adjusted his grip until he had my wrists secured in one hand and he used his other to grab the end of my shirt, and wipe my spit off.

"I'll never stop fighting you."

"Oh? Perhaps you'd prefer to go back to your room?"

"No!" Gods, anything but that.

"Then behave."

Not like I had another option. "Fine."

Klaus leaned closer. "Promise?"

"I-" I hated to admit it, but I was soaking up the contact, basking in the fact that there was someone real I was talking to. "Fuck you."

He chuckled, and it was the best thing I'd ever heard. It irked me. "This is how it's going to work. I let you out of your cage, you follow my every instruction." I had already promised that, hadn't I?

There was no way I couldn't agree. "Please just let me go. I'll disappear, you won't ever have to see me again."

"If I wanted you to disappear, I wouldn't have gone through all this trouble." Klaus slowly let go of me, moving back into his seat. Was it wrong that I missed his touch? "I do not lose."

"It wasn't personal." Well it was. We wanted our freedom. "And you didn't have to kill them."

"Oh but I did." He laced his fingers together. "I have little patience for those who disappoint me. In your case death would be too sweet, no, making you face your demons is much more satisfying."

As if on cue, a shadowy figure flickered out of the corner of my eye.

Fuck.

"When are they going to go away?" I was itching to pull the sheets back up, preparing for the onslaught of jeers and laughter.

"Many have had them last the rest of their time on this earth, however short it may be, they were driven mad by those that haunted them." Klaus shrugged. "Who knows, you might be one of the lucky few that can tuck them away."

Lovely.

"So I'm going crazy."

"If I had left you in there any longer, you would have. Only the strongest of minds have ever escaped those shadows."

How did he-

Actually, I didn't want to know. This was probably all part of some plot and I didn't want to play into it. "Don't make me go back there."

Klaus stood, offering his hand. "Come. You haven't eaten in days. I'm sure some blood and food will do you good."

It would be so easy to tell him no, to hide under the covers until the monsters went away. But he wouldn't, and I didn't want to make him more angry than he already was.

I just had to play it safe. I'd done it before with... him. Klaus was just another in the long list of men who'd do as they pleased, didn't matter how I felt about it.

Survive, that was the only goal.

Who knows, maybe one day, I'll earn his trust enough that I can escape, just as I did on that day all those years ago.

Although, that had not go over well, and it had ended with my own father dragging his teenage daughter back toward her husband's house.

Focus Maverick.

Just had to step back into that role.

I took his hand reluctantly, well, maybe a few tweaks here and there in the behavior. Couldn't make it too easy.