The alarm beeped on the bedside table and Adalyn groaned.

In a house where she was being held against her will, her captor decided not to kill her and instead had her waking up at 6:30 in the morning.

She wasn't sure which was worse.

Adalyn forced herself out of the warm bed and went inside the closet to pull out some clothes. To be safe, she changed inside the bathroom. From what she could tell, there weren't any places to put hidden entrances in there which meant it was the one place she felt safe from Brahms's peering eyes.

She splashed some water on her face and tossed her hair up into a messy bun.

As she looked at herself in the mirror, she took a deep breath.

She could do this. Follow the schedule, follow the rules, keep Brahms happy, wait until help came.

But Adalyn had to face the facts. Help might not ever come. It was entirely possible that she just hadn't been able to give any useful information to her mother in that one conversation, and she was in a pretty remote location in a country where she didn't know anyone. And if she called her mother again and Brahms found out that she was trying to leave, who knew what he would do to her then?

What would she do if she was never found?

One concern that was high on her list was the food. Once they ran out of what Brahms had stored up, how were they going to get more? She was sure Brahms wouldn't let her leave to go get some and he probably wouldn't let her call to get anything delivered either.

What she wouldn't give for a pizza…

Okay, time to stop worrying and start another day trapped in the mansion with someone who was not completely sane.

Easy.

Adalyn went across the hall, opened the door to Brahms's bedroom, and went over to the bed, trying not to laugh at his huge body sprawled out on it.

"Brahms, it's time to get up," she told him.

He didn't move.

"Brahms?" She put her hand on his arm. "Come on, time to wake up."

Brahms's eyes slowly opened and he looked at Adalyn with that piercing stare.

"Good morning. I got you up on time today. I'll go downstairs and see if I can find something to make for breakfast. Come down whenever you're ready."

She somehow managed to make it out of the bedroom before Brahms could snatch her wrist to keep her by his side.

The rest of the morning went by smoothly. They ate breakfast together, washed and put away the dishes, did some morning stretches and exercises out in the garden for the Physical Exercise hour, and washed the sheets from yesterday then hung them outside to dry.

After lunch came time for reading.

Adalyn sat down onto the couch in the reading room and looked at Brahms. "Okay, what would you like me to read? Some poetry? I noticed you have a lot of poetry books."

Brahms scanned the shelves for several minutes then finally opened one of the glass doors and pulled out a pretty thick book.

Adalyn wondered why he had chosen something so incredibly dense, but then he handed it to her and her eyes widened in shock. "You have a copy of Les Misérables?"

Brahms sat on the other end of the couch, and like yesterday, he rested her legs on his lap and began rubbing one of them.

"You want me to read this to you?"

Brahms nodded.

"Are you sure? It's…a pretty complicated book."

He nodded again.

Adalyn couldn't help smiling as she opened the book to the worn first page. "'In 1815, Monsieur Charles-Francois-Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of Digne'."

Adalyn read on and on from the book, losing herself in the text so much that she nearly forgot that she was actually reading to someone else. Normally, her brain could never process things written from so long ago, but for some reason, she'd always been able to understand this book perfectly and pick up new things every time she read it.

She had no idea if Brahms understood anything she read since the book was so old and complex, but given his apparent love for things from the 19th and 20th centuries, maybe his brain was wired to perfectly grasp material like this.

When Adalyn looked at the clock on the wall, she realized that she'd read hours past when she was supposed to.

She hastily snapped the book shut. "I'm so sorry, I got carried away. I know I was only supposed to read this for an hour."

However, the lapse didn't seem to bother him in the slightest which surprised her.

"Did you…like it?"

Brahms nodded.

"Well, good. I'm glad I wasn't completely boring you. I know a lot of people who couldn't make it past the first page. Well, let's get back on schedule then."

She went outside and emptied all of the rat traps which to her dismay were almost all full of dead rats because they hadn't been emptied in two days. After that disgusting chore was over and done with, she thoroughly washed her hands and then brought the sheets in from the lines outside before making some dinner for both of them. She tried not to think about their food supply getting lower and lower.

Following dinner came the usual bath time. Her attempt to get him to bathe himself once again failed.

After he'd gotten into some new clean clothes, she gently tucked him into bed.

Adalyn went to go kiss his forehead like she had twice now, but instead, Brahms clutched onto her arms and moved his head so that she kissed the porcelain lips on the mask instead.

Adalyn let out a quiet cry of surprise, and she was so stunned that she didn't move for a total of two seconds before she tried to push herself away. But to her horror, Brahms kept a tight hold on her arms and refused to let her pull back. Adalyn tried to frantically determine if she should hit him or punch him or kick him or something to make him let go of her, but what if he hurt her in retaliation…or worse?

After what felt like an eternity, Brahms finally let go of her arms and rested his head back onto the pillow.

Adalyn stepped away from the bed as she looked at Brahms with wide eyes. Trying to catch her breath, she mustered out, "Good night, Brahms."

"Good night, Adalyn."

Adalyn quickly turned off the light and shut the door, needing more than anything at that moment to get out of the room.

Brahms was getting bolder.

And she'd gotten much too comfortable around him.

That little incident served as a painful and necessary reminder that as much as Brahms usually acted like a child, he was a fully grown 28-year-old man which meant that he most likely had certain…desires. Desires she had no interest in fulfilling.

Even though she knew it was unlikely, she hoped that a kiss on the lips was all he wanted from her.

The alarm went off right on time at 6:30 and Adalyn desired nothing more than to shatter the stupid clock into a thousand pieces. She wondered if she could somehow convince Brahms to start his day three hours later.

She slowly sat up and realized something was resting on the dresser. When she got up to look at it, she saw that it was the same long-sleeved black dress Brahms had wanted her to wear on the first day.

Her heart hammered fiercely in her chest.

He'd been inside the room last night. While she was sleeping.

It shouldn't have surprised her really, but after last night's episode with the goodnight kiss, she was a lot more wary about him sneaking around.

Adalyn picked up the black dress. She still didn't want to wear this around him and especially not after what happened last night, but it probably wouldn't be great to deny him the sight of her wearing this twice.

She decided to compromise. Searching the dresser drawers, she found a pair of shorts she could wear under the dress. At least this would make her feel a little safer.

The rest of the morning went very much like yesterday. Brahms seemed to be thrilled that she'd put on the black dress and his intense stare made Adalyn very glad that she'd decided to put on the shorts. Somehow, his eyes watched her more vividly than usual which she hadn't even thought possible.

After their reading time where Adalyn kept a closer eye on the clock so she didn't go over again (even if it killed her to put down the huge book she adored), she took another look at the schedule to see what was next.

"Music Appreciation?" she asked. "What do you do for that?"

Brahms went over to the record player and set a record onto it. Adalyn expected to hear more opera music, but she was stunned when soft jazz from the 1920s and 30s began to fill the room instead.

Brahms turned to Adalyn and held out a hand.

Thinking that he wanted to take her somewhere to show her something, she slowly put her hand into his.

Brahms then roughly pulled her close to him and put his other hand onto the small of her back to keep her pressed up against him. She looked up at him in surprise and alarm, unfortunately recalling just how much he towered over her. The top of her head only reached just below his chin. How could a human man be so tall and imposing?

Her breathing quickened a little at the sudden turn of events and she tried to figure out what he was doing and what he wanted.

Then Brahms very slowly started to move around in a tiny circle.

Was he…dancing with her?

Adalyn let her left hand fall onto his right arm holding her in place.

Okay, a slow dance. She could do this. It was only one song, right?

Nope. As soon as one song ended, another began and Brahms never released his gentle hold on her.

Well, he couldn't dance forever, so Adalyn just let herself relax as much as she could and allowed Brahms to slowly sway her around in circles.

She couldn't keep eye contact with him, mainly because it strained her neck to look so far up, and when she turned her head to the left, she felt Brahms lean his head down and lightly press it against hers.

As more and more songs played on the record, Adalyn felt that this really wasn't so bad. It could've been worse. Sharing a few slow dances was reasonably harmless, all things considered.

It was fairly safe to assume that Brahms had never had the chance to share a dance with someone else before. Something told her that Greta probably hadn't stuck around for one.

The thing was, Adalyn had never slow danced with anyone either. At least not like this.

His touch was so gentle. She nearly found herself actually enjoying their slow dance. As much as she tried to remind herself that she was getting too comfortable around him again and letting her guard down, it was simply too easy to lose herself in the moment.

Against her better judgment, she closed her eyes and let her head rest against his broad chest while they continued swaying in circles.

Really…this felt kind of nice.

After a little over an hour, the songs on the record ran out and the music stopped.

But even though they stopped swaying, Brahms still continued to hold her in his arms as if trying to hold onto that perfect dance with her.

He ran his porcelain mask over her dark blonde hair and slowly slid the hand on her back up to entwine some of it in his fingers.

"Brahms," she said softly, quickly beginning to remember her initial reservations about him.

He then allowed the porcelain nose of the mask to trail along her cheek and jawline while the hand that wasn't tangled in her hair slid down her waist.

Adalyn held a hand up and tried to push him away. "Brahms, stop."

But it appeared the time of listening to her was over. He continued to move his masked face along her own all while moving his hands through her hair and up and down her back and waist.

Adalyn attempted to step backwards. "Stop."

Brahms didn't release her.

"Brahms, let go!"

She tried to step back again, but she tripped and fell backwards taking Brahms down with her.

Well, this was much worse.

Now she was flat on her back with Brahms kneeling overtop of her. He gently fondled a strand of her hair and ran his thumb over her temple.

Adalyn put her hands to his chest. "Brahms."

He met her terrified eyes and something seemed to click, like he'd been trying to restrain himself around her and had accidentally lapsed. It seemed to take a lot of effort, but he very slowly sat back onto his knees.

Adalyn quickly stood up again and adjusted the bottom of her dress. "Um…what's…what's next?" she mustered out.

Brahms didn't move.

"The…The schedule. We have to do what's next on it, right? That's…That's the rules."

Seeming to realize that she was right, Brahms reluctantly got up to his feet and moved over to one of the shelves in the back of the room.

Adalyn watched him carefully, feeling exactly as she had the first time she ever saw him: completely unaware of what he was going to do next and unsure of how to handle whatever he decided on.

A noise broke through the quiet room so suddenly that it sounded as loud as thunder.

It was a knock on the front doors.

Brahms frantically spun around.

"Police!" someone called. "Anyone in there?"

Adalyn's heart nearly burst with relief. Help had come. Either her mother had come through for her or she was just insanely lucky. It didn't matter. The important thing was that someone had finally come to help her.

After what had just happened, she'd had enough. She wanted to get out of here.

Her wide eyes met Brahms's frantic ones and both of them stared at each other for a few seconds, Brahms seemingly daring her to make a move.

Brahms had unintentionally put several feet of distance between them, and Adalyn figured she had about five seconds to reach the door before he could catch her.

She turned around and tried to race to the front entrance as fast as she could before the help she'd so long awaited disappeared for good.

"Help me!" she called as she ran. "Please!"

A strong arm wrapped around her waist and yanked her backwards.

"No!"

Brahms quickly clapped a hand over her mouth and attempted to pull her backwards through the walls.

Adalyn kicked and struggled against him, but much like their first encounter, it did absolutely nothing. He was just so much stronger than her.

Then to Brahms's horror and Adalyn's relief, the front doors burst open and three police officers entered the mansion, guns raised.

"Police! Show me your hands!" one of them yelled.

Adalyn felt Brahms's chest frantically moving up and down behind her.

The officers pointed their guns at Brahms. "No one needs to get hurt here. Just let her go."

Adalyn could feel Brahms's hold on her tighten as all of the worst-case-scenarios both of them had imagined started to come true.

"Come on now," another offered. "It's going to be okay. I just need you to let her go and we can work this out."

More officers appeared behind them and unintentionally cut off his escape into the passages behind the walls.

Brahms's hold on her became so tight that Adalyn worried he might accidentally snap her neck in his desperation to keep her here. Urgently needing to get away from him, she lifted her right foot up and stomped on his as hard as she could. The surprise more than the pain made his arms loosen just enough for her to break free from his hold, and she fell onto the floor as multiple officers converged on him all at once.

Brahms fought back as hard as he could, but as strong as he was, even he couldn't fight off all of the trained officers at one time.

"You lied to me!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

Adalyn's eyes widened as she heard Brahms's real adult voice for the first time.

"You promised! I'll kill you! I'll kill you, Adalyn! You said you wouldn't leave!"

Adalyn watched in horror as his porcelain mask, already fragile from having been cracked and glued back together, broke and fell away from his face in the struggle.

With the mask gone, she saw what he had always hidden from her.

Much like his body, half of his face was covered in severe burn scars.

"Don't look at me!" he screamed out, his adult voice angry and strained. "Don't look at me! I'll kill you! You promised! You betrayed me!"

Another officer knelt down next to her and gently put his arm around her. "Come along, miss. It's all right. You're safe now."

With Brahms's threats and yells still reaching her ears and her heart hammering at the sheer intensity of all that had happened and was still happening in front of her, Adalyn curled into herself and began to sob.