I'm SO sorry that I haven't updated in a while, I just had my appendix drained and I've been in the hospital. Bad part: It hurt a lot. Good Part: I have THE COOLEST scar (even though it's little.)

…

Dancing was always a passion of Clare's.

She loved the feeling of labored breathing afterwards, the way little sweat beads glistened at the top of her forehead, the way that when she did dance the crowd just stared. Unknown to many people, she was in ballet. She was a serious dancer and often danced in her bedroom.

Though, when she got kidnapped it all changed. The second night He had her He sat her down in the living room. He stretched lazily on the couch, watching as she nervously sat in the chair across from him. He waved his hand at her and smirked a little. "Well," he said. "What are you waiting for?" he asked while grinning at her sadistically

Clare had flinched when he first spoke at her, and she was confused at the thing he was telling her. Her jaw trembled a little and she felt her body tense up ever so slightly. "I don't know what you mean," she said, her voice trembling and scared for fear she would upset him.

The grin grew larger. "Dance for me."

Opening her mouth to ask the sickening question: how do you know that? But decided not to, deciding that her kidnapper had probably done research for her.

Slowly standing up and shaking head to toe, Clare walked to the middle of the room. 'Where's the music?" she asked quietly. He just shook his head. "No music."

She gulped and started beginning one of the routines she knew the best. It was an excerpt from Swan Lake, and she found the silence as she danced suffocating. Though, He didn't care. He just watched her lazily with a perverted look in his eyes as he sipped his beer.

That night, resting on her cot with a single pillow, she threw up and was only comforted with the thought that she would be alive tomorrow and nothing had happened to her yet. Instead of getting up and risking the chance to ask him for new sheets or a pillow, she found herself flipping the pillow on the other side and resting on the ground.

When she had woken up, He had walked into the room and upon seeing the mess she had caused that night, chuckled to him slightly. "Now, now Clare," He chided as if she were a little girl. "We can't make messes like these. "Guess you'll have to sleep in my bed tonight." He said before walking away. Pausing at the doorway, he suddenly spun around and faced a terrified Clare. He walked back sharply and tucked a lock of hair behind Clare's ear before kissing her forehead tenderly.

Another night was spent in fear. Clare was sitting on the absolute edge of the bed, forbidding herself to sleep in case something was to happen.

…..

Eli rapped his fist hastily on Clare's door.

It was almost noon, and he had told himself that right now was the best time to talk to her- rather sooner than later.

He could hear shuffling behind the door and his heart sped up to the fast beat of a humming bird, or a broken metronome. When He saw Clare's mother opening up the door, he didn't even need to say any words before he was let in. He bounded up the steps of the stairs, and he trembled with excitement as shivers went down his spine.

When he reached Clare's door, he felt a flurry of emotions and panic as knocked quietly on it. It was as if the butterflies in his stomach had reproduced to make millions more as they fluttered around.

"Come in." came the cold, hard voice from the inside. It was the first Eli had heard of her speaking when she had come back and the voice (though it belonged to her) did not sound as her own. He slowly opened up the door, afraid of what he might see if he walked into her room.

Instead of picturing a bloody and gory suicide, he saw her sitting at her desk and looking off into the air blankly.

Her eyes were still a slate of nothing; it was like all emotion had been drained from them. The laugh lines that she had developed around her mouth looked like they never existed. Her mouth was in a perpetual neutral position. Her arms were folded across her chest and her legs were crossed. Walking further into the room, Eli noticed that Clare was just staring at a blank part of the wall.

"We really need to talk." He admitted that he sounded needy and that he sounded like he had been crying. Normally Eli would have felt the slightest bit embarrassed at how weak he was sounding. Though, assessing the current situation, he found that being embarrassed at the tone of his voice was not called for.

"I know." Okay, so she was keeping it simple. Their conversation do far never really consisted of more than five words from each. It was like they were both afraid to start an actual conversation; they both felt as if they were walking on thin ice among the other.

Before Eli could talk back to her, Clare interrupted. "I'm not a virgin anymore." The words were hard and determined. Like she was trying to tell herself it was no big deal.

Eli shook his head roughly- that was what she was thinking about?

"Clare, you know that I didn't base our relationship on that." He said, daring her to disagree.

She only let out a little sigh. "I know, I just thought you would want to be informed." Eli was about to reply again when she continued. "Eli, listen. I don't know if you actually wanna keep dating me, but I feel like a wreck right now. I don't like being touched, I have these night mares that . . . "she trailed off, shaking her head and closing her eyes.

Eli shook his head once again, too. "I know that you're not in a good place right now Clare, but I want you to know that my feelings haven't changed at all. I would like to give it a shot, but only if you're comfortable with it." He said solemnly, hoping she would read the sincerity behind each word.

Clare looked up, her face littered with conflicting emotions before she softly replied, "Okay."

…

Okay, not to sound rude or anything, but I really need you guys to review. I make it a goal to write at least 1,000 words a chapter and I know it's not enough but it's all I can manage. I really want your feedback; I don't know if you like the story or if you've fallen out with it. And thank ourfragilesouls for motivating me to send out this chapter. Like, when I told her I hadn't updated, she glared at me and turned her head. So, ya.