CHAPTER 10

"What is in that room?" she demanded.

"None of your concern," he hissed.

She rolled her eyes. Getting a straight answer from him was turning into vigorous work.

"Don't you have an ounce of humanity in you? At least a drop of kindness? You're going to burn in hell if you keep this up," she warned.

He laughed at her warning, "Honey, I vacation in hell."

She could barely get the words out without choking, "Says the devil himself."

"Would you like me to lock you up in that room? Since you're so intrigued by whatever is in it."

His suggestion horrified her.

"Well, looks like there are two things I could use against you; fucking you vaginally or locking you up in that forbidden room. Maybe even both."

Bastard! She thought to herself.

The look of horror on her face satisfied his diabolical needs. He produced a wicked smirk, confident that he was in control of the woman. "Oh, yes, maybe even both."

"No." She stopped when she heard the panic in her voice, quite obvious. Taking a couple of deep breaths, she whispered, "I'll stop asking about it." Her throat ached significantly from the strain of being obedient to him.

"Good."

She yearned for another shower, wanting to wash every spot of skin that he had touched. But that only meant drenching herself in a bath full of bleach because he had touched her everywhere.

He grabbed his laptop and brought it with him as he ushered her out.

"Where are we going?"

"Last time I checked, the library was a hot mess. Somebody is going to have to clean it," he said and eyed her.

Of course, he was going to make her clean it, she thought.

Once they have entered the library, he sat his laptop down on one of the table and began to work. His eyes met hers, "Well, start cleaning."

She scoffed at his demand and regretted it immediately.

Kaiba fumed his best angry glare at her and shot up his seat. "What the fuck did you just do?"

She shook her head. "N-nothing," she stuttered. God, she almost thought that he was going to tackle her to the ground or something.

"You fucking did this!" he shouted, "all of this!" he threw his hands around the library.

It would be in vain to retaliate against him.

She moved away from him, closed her eyes, and said a small prayer to herself.

It didn't take long for him to find his composure. He counted to ten before saying anything else, hoping to calm his temper. But, there was still a harsh sting to his voice when he said, "I'm going to start working you like a Siberian prisoner if you start giving me anymore attitude."

Damn it all, she thought and headed towards the piles of book on the ground.

"Alphabetically!" he shouted.

"Whatever," she whispered so low that only she could hear and started by first trying to stand up a fallen bookcase, struggling to push it upward with all her strength, "I can't get it to stand up."

She watched as he shrugged from where he sat; too busy typing up some documents to even bother looking at her. "Not my problem," she heard him say.

How could that imbecile expect her to stand all of these heavy bookcases up by herself? She tried again, forcing all the strength in her body out and finally got one of the cases off of the ground and up. She began to organize the book alphabetically. When she picked up a large book with a black leather cover, something from inside it dropped to the ground. It was a dusty, old piece of paper. She dropped to her knees to pick it up, unfolded it, and read it.

WHEN TRAPPED IN THE DEPTH OF HELL, ONLY SATAN CAN HELP YOU FIND YOUR WAY OUT.

"Satan?" she whispered. Who wrote this letter?

The lights began to flicker a few times before completely cutting off and it spooked her to the very core, especially after reading a note about hell and Satan. "Kaiba!" she called out and began feeling her way around the library. "Kaiba?"

How ironic, searching for her kidnapper to feel safe. She called his name out again for the third time but heard nothing back. Why wasn't he answering?

When the lights shot back on, she found herself staring at the desk Kaiba had sat in. He was gone and she skimmed the entire area for him, roaming around library aimlessly.

She knew something was wrong with him. Of course, something was wrong with him! He had kidnapped her and was holding her captive. But, there was something else…just something else about him that she couldn't put together. He literally, literally did not have a soul.

Her throat tightened and her heart pounded more rapidly than ever as she ventured on for him. When she turned around, her heart nearly stopped. "AHH!"

"Thank you! And now I'm deaf!" he stated sarcastically.

It was just Kaiba, appearing out from behind a bookcase. "I was looking for you because I got scared when the lights turned off," she told him.

"So what? The power got cut out for a moment. You should be more scared of me than a few seconds without some lights," he hissed. It was almost as if he had been offended by her seeking him for protection during a short black out. "What the hell did you think I was going to do? Protect you?" Then his eyes fell upon the piece of paper she was holding. "What is that?" He snatched the paper out of her hands.

"It fell out from a book," she said.

He examined the paper. "It's just a blank piece of paper," he said and tossed it aside.

She creased her eyebrows. "It had something written on it."

Kaiba watched as she plucked the paper off of the floor by a pile of antique books. She analyzed the paper, turning it around in disbelief. "I swear there was something written on it," she said, disappointed.

"Well, it's blank now," he said.

Just as he was about to walk away, she ceased him by grabbing a hold of her arm. He was surprised by her boldness, but yanked his arms away from her.

"Tell me what's in that room," she demanded.

"I thought you were just going to drop it."

"Something is going on. I know it! Why won't you tell me?"

"Because telling you won't do me any good. It certainly won't do you any good, either."

She led out a long audible sigh, "You wanna know what I think?"

"I don't care what you think," he sneered.

She went on anyway, "I know a little bit about you from public records. I know that you were an orphanage, you and your little brother. Then you were adopted by a rich man. Somehow, you were able to take over his company and that drove him to suicide. It all sounds so convenient."

"Because I'm smart and I knew how to play him," he boasted arrogantly. "Plus, nothing is convenient about having your parents die and ending up at an orphanage, Serenity."

"I'm saying, someone helped you through all of it, starting at the orphanage. I think you made some kind of a deal with the devil to help you and your little brother out of that orphanage."

"Yes, I suppose I did. Gozaburo Kaiba really was a devil and I had made a deal with him to get out of that orphanage. That son of a bitch."

"But, that's not what I mean-"

He held his hands up to quiet her. "Do not insult my intelligent, Serenity. You think I sold my soul to the devil to get out of the orphanage and become rich and famous?" He watched as she nodded slowly. "That shit isn't real! There is no such thing as selling your soul to the devil to become rich and powerful. If it is, then everyone would be a soulless being. You know how greedy people are. And then what did you think I did next? Took a trip to hell to kidnap the devil and locked him up in that room until he agrees to give me back my soul?"

"I don't know," she answered.

"For a girl who got accepted into Harvard, I'm so disappointed in your lack of intelligence," he said and stormed off.

He was right, it did sound rather stupid, but it was the only idea that she had. No, she corrected herself. There was something else to all of this…something that involved her.

…TWO MONTHS LATER

While Serenity was in the shower, Kaiba was in the bedroom surfing the web on his laptop. He came across a news clip with Joey in it so he clicked on it, turning the volume down so that Serenity would not over hear.

"My sister, Serenity Wheeler, had disappeared on the night of her graduation. I know, wholeheartedly, that she had been kidnapped by a sick psycho. Serenity would never abandon her friends and family."

His eyes were swollen red and cheeks all puffy from weeping so much.

"If you can say anything to your sister's kidnapper, what would you say?" asked the female interviewer.

Joey glared into the camera lens to deliver his message, "You sick psycho! You better let my sister go! I'm going to *beep* beat the *beep* out of you if you don't *beep* let her go! Let her go, you *Beep*! You are a *Beep* *Beep*! "Then he burst into tears and walked away from the camera.

"Idiot," Kaiba murmured. That mutt was never going to give up.

After months, they were still searching for Serenity and the S.F.S foundation was getting even more popular than ever. He needed to put an end to their search party somehow.

He slammed his laptop shut when Serenity entered the room.

She toweled her hair dry as she took a seat by the window. She had been giving him the silent treatment for a while, but he didn't care. It was much better than her asking him a bunch of annoying questions.

Two dreadful months had dragged by and she found herself still stuck in the same place. By now, all of her classmates were probably starting class, moving into their college dormitory, and living the college dream.

Her life held no future, breaking free never seemed to work. Why was he keeping her here? Surely he must have a reason, but she could never pin point it. Maybe she should just accept the fact that he had no real reason and that he was just a psycho. Plain and simple.

"I need to go somewhere," he announced, urgently.

She shrugged, staring out of the window. She heard him leaving and locking the door to trap her inside of his master bedroom.

Sunlight that leaked through the window warmed her skin and she watched as some birds flew around in the sky, so close to heaven. They were all so free and happy.

A humming bird hovered around by the window, and she produce a small smile at it, wishing that she could be one too. Better a bird than a prisoner, she thought.

She soothed herself by singing "Somewhere over the rainbow" softly.

God, what could possibly be in the future for her, she thought as she led out a heavy sigh.