He pulled away pushing me backwards softly, grabbing a length of my hair. I stared at him my cheeks flushed, my eyes confused. He turned and grabbed the knife on the table cutting the chunk of my hair in his grasp.

"Wait! What are you doing?" I asked my voice shaking.

He smiled but didn't answer taking my hair and putting it in a jar that seemed to have mysteriously appeared while I wasn't looking. My body tensed as I watched him grab both containers, one holding my blood the other my hair and put them on the shelf under the masks I had noticed earlier.

"Now Cheri I'm afraid this is the difficult part" he said standing before me still holding his knife.

He smiled humorlessly sending waves of terror throughout my whole body. I stumbled backwards out of instinct and my back made contact with the wall sooner than I had hoped, I was trapped.

"Now all I need is for you to lure your husband here my love" he said walking towards me, tilting my head up with his hand so my eyes met his.

"I could never…" I choked

"Of course you can, you don't want him to hurt you anymore do you?"

"No…"

"Then I trust that u can bring him here."

He leaned towards me and kissed me softly then violently grabbed my wrist, taking the knife and carving an "F" into my wrist. I cried out in pain but he ignored me.

"You are now bound to your promise and if you don't follow through…well things won't turn out well for you Cheri."

"Ok I promise" I said tears running down my cheeks.

"Get out of here then" he threw my wrist down and opened the door.

I walked through it, expecting him to grab me and jam the knife into my neck but I made it all the way to the front door without a single word from him. On my way back to the party my whole body shook and my wrist dripped glistening crimson blood that looked black when it hit the dry, dusty streets.

My mind spun, how was I going to explain my appearance to Victor? What would he do to me when he had seen that I had left his side? Fresh tears rolled down my now raw cheeks.