Stroke of Midnight (Closed)

“And I like playing poker with mafia dons, but its work not play,” Roland replied with a wild smile, “and no one wants to pay rent, that's life.”

Roland put Candace between him and the side of the car when she moved. He grabbed the rail, his hand almost on top of hers, and moved in close. “I want to know how you like to let loose, relax, unwind Candace. Think about it a little, what really lights your fire? What makes you stop and listen to the bushes late at night?” He was almost certain she'd understand what he was driving at. Her stop was fast approaching, but he would get an answer before she got off.
 
"Yeah, but this is also New York, last time I checked. In case you forgot, rent prices here are a complete bitch."

She didn't need to look up to see Roland's hand close to hers on the hand rail, or that he was standing close behind her. Personal space GOD DAMN IT!! she wanted to scream out. But they were the only two inside the car for the next minute. If something were to break out between the two, there wouldn't be witnesses to point him out should something happen to her. Her fingers gripped on to the hand rail a little tighter when she could feel him breathing down her neck.

When Roland mentioned about her listening to things that go on the bushes, she felt her blood draining from her face. How the hell did he know about that?

"Don't you mean stop and smell the roses?" Candace nearly slipped on that one but composed herself. At least her back was towards him so he couldn't see her reactions.

"You know, you seem so interested in getting to know me but you don't like telling me about yourself. Inconvenient, don't you think?"

The train had finally arrived at her stop. As fast as she could, Candace walked out of the train in to the station and headed up the stairs. The faster she can make the fifteen minute walk to her apartment, the better.
 
Roland let her go. He wasn't going to let her make him chase her, especially when he didn't need to. He waited instead, after half an hour he made his way to Candace's apartment. This way he hadn't followed her, she would know he knew where she lived. Watching the street before he did, Roland picked the lock on her building door and slipped in. He prowled the hallways until he found her door.

These games with her were fun, but he was beginning to want more. He could just take her, but that seemed like so much trouble. Draw her to him first? Many ideas floated through Roland's head as he knocked three times on Candace's door.
 
Candace had just plopped down on to her bed to sleep off the all nighters wearing nothing more than a pair of shorts, a tank top, and an oversized black hoodie. In fact, she had just started to sleep when she heard the door knocking. Shit...now what? It couldn't be her neighbors because those on her floor (at the very least) knew better than to at least approach her when she was in her exam mode.

Groggy, or so the term comes close to when describing her crankiness of the lack of sleep, she sat up on the bed and dragged her feet out of the room and to the main door in the living room, not bothering to turn on any lights. Candace leaned up against the door, cleared her throat, and in a tired voice, answered.

"Who is it?"
 
Roland knocked again hearing her words from beyond the door. As she drew closer he leaned lazily against the wood, putting all of his weight on the door. “You know,” he started simply before starting into the rest of his oration , “You shouldn't have left poor me alone there. You went so fast, I lost you in the crowds and thought I might never see you again. You could have gone anyway, but you didn't go anywhere so I came here. Let me in Candace. I know you think you're furious, but you don't know fury like I do, or pleasure for that matter, and it would really be best if you ... let me in.” Those last three words departed the almost absurd tone he'd been using and took on a frightening quality. No louder than anything else he'd said, but the intent was clear.

He had almost felt her ready to yell, call the cops, or do any number of other irritating things and Roland was getting tired of having his games interrupted or pushed aside.
 
Upon recognition of his voice, the fact that it was Roland was enough to wake Candace up. So he was stalking her! He had to be if he found out not only how to get inside the main building of the apartment complex but also which floor and room she resided in. She checked to see if the door was chained and locked shut, nodding to herself in satisfaction when she determined it was.

It wasn't enough, however.

Candace slowly took steps back as Roland continued to speak, making her way to the kitchen. She grabbed her cel phone from the counter and stuffed it in her pocket. The more Roland spoke, the more scary his calm demeanor was. His last three words she perceived as something deadly. A threat that if she didn't open the door, the chances of her being attacked, or worse, were high. She then, as quietly as she could, open the drawer and took out the largest knife she could get her hands on.

There was always the fire escape in her living room. The problem was the window to open it was jammed and that the repairman was dropping by next week to have a look at it.

"Why do you keep following me?" She shouted in a shaky voice, gripping tight on the knife handle. She had never experienced this whole new level of fear and to now be going through it was similar to being approached by the devil himself. Candace continued to back from the door and headed towards her bedroom.

"I'm calling the cops if you don't get out of my fucking sight!" Her voice angrier, the malice in her tone was more of a cover up. Stalkers had a tendency to smell fear and take pleasure and advantage over that. Candace set her cel phone on to vibrate before locking herself in her bedroom and hid in her closet.

Who the hell was this guy?

Her heart began to beat a little faster. Those several nights of being stalked, followed, "coincidentally" running in to each other in the coffee shop and subway. That's not a coincidence.
 
She had reacted just in the way he hadn't wanted, but to back off now would kill what he wanted. Roland reared back and kicked the door. The lock broke and even the hinges on the door bent, but the door was still held by the chain. He reached through the gap in the doorway and tore the chain's mounting out of the wall, letting the door swing unevenly open.

“You're making a mistake Candace,” he called out as he stalked through her apartment, “You want to know who I am. I saved your mother, once. I bet you don't believe me, but I did and I didn't do it for free.” Her scent was everywhere so he couldn't find her that way and he could hear her breathing, but it was so shallow he couldn't pin point where it was coming from. Roland made his way into her bedroom, he could almost feel her there.

“You were the price, my girl. You are owed to me to make the bargain complete, even if I were to take her life back you would still owe me the length of your life so far. Come out Candace, don't make me wait, you've already upset me with your behavior.”
 
Candace was just about to call the cops when she heard Roland break through her bedroom door. Gripping the handle of the knife a little tighter, she pressed her back up against the wall in the darkness, staring at the direction of the closet door. She heard something about Roland having saved her mother once and that she was his prize when she turned of age. Candace didn't want to believe it. Her mother wouldn't give up on her like that, would she?

Her heart began to beat a little faster when she heard his footsteps paced around the room looking for her. Maybe if she stayed quiet long enough, he'll leave her alone.
 
Roland strolled about the bedroom. First looking behind the door and then bending down to look under the bed for her.

“You're making me look, Candace,” he chided her, as if it was some mistake on her part. Then his eyes turned to the closet and as soon as he saw it he knew that must be it. Stepping across the carpet silently, he made his way to the door and gently placed his hand on the knob.

“We could have such fun, you and I,” he called out as if he still didn't know where she was, “You have no idea the kinds of things I could show you.” Roland waited a moment, giving her the chance to come quietly, but she didn't make a sound. After a mental count of three, he threw open the closet door.
 
Startled, Candace let out a scream. Moving back as far as she could, her back pressed up against the wall. She gripped on the knife handle tight, pointing the blade at him.

"Stay back! Get the fuck away from me you son of a bitch!"

Her hands trembled slightly out of fear, keeping her grip tight. Candace's voice, while angered, did have a hint of quiver in its tone, though she kept her eyes on Roland. As he approached closer to her, she swung the knife at him. While Candace was not successful in stabbing him, she did slashed a line on Roland's shirt.
 
She was quicker than he'd expected and he had been playing games with her. “You're lucky I don't like this shirt much,” he laughed and then lunged for her wrist. She was off balance and it would have been easy even if she wasn't Roland twisted her wrist with one hand and plucked the knife with the other. With a flash of movement he threw the knife across the room into the bedroom door, buried it there to the hilt.

Then Roland turned serious and he snagged her arm, grip like a vise. His other hand grabbed her hair and forced him to look him in the eyes. With a dead stare he told her, “Scream to find out if I can kill you with bare hands,” he told her coldly, “I like to play games and I hate it when people ruin them. Think for a moment, wouldn't you rather play my games than find out what I'm like when I'm not having any fun?” His fingers dug into her arm as if to drive home what could happen to her. Candace was his and if he needed he would use fear and force to take what was his.
 
Everything happened so fast that Candace had no time to react or fight against Roland when he grabbed her only means of a weapon and hurled it across the bedroom. She was forced to look up at him when he grabbed her wrist and hair. She cringed, trying not to scream as he dug his fingers in her flesh. Out of desperation, she tried to kick him on the knee but his hold on her made it difficult for her to move, causing some of her kicks to barely reaching him.

"And exactly what kind of games are you in to, pray tell?" she asked maliciously.
 
With her question the wide smile returned to Roland's face. “Much better,” he said in creamy satisfied tone, “The games we would be play would make your scream and ask for more. You could gain your freedom and enslavement in the perfect win of a game.”

Roland pulled her in close and ran his tongue quickly across her face to make sure she understood what she would be to him, as well as she could right now anyway. “I'm only a sore loser when the match is a forfeit, cheating doesn't make a game. If you make this hard though, you'll live to die of old age, even if you never breath fresh air again.” She was still trying to fight him, he knew, but Roland didn't care about that as long as she fought in the ways he liked. Even her attempts to kick him meant little. She connected fairly well with one of them even, but Roland didn't flinch for her, little she could do to him would really be that upsetting.
 
"You could gain your freedom and enslavement in the perfect win of a game."

"That's a fucking contradiction!" Freedom and enslavement were entire polar opposites of one another. How does winning a game and having the prize of both be as great as Roland was trying to make it out to be?

When Roland licked her on the face, anger briefly overtook her fear and being intimidated. She used her open free hand and slapped Roland on the side of his head as hard as she could. How dare he? As if he sees her head as some sort of candy. Lollipop if that's what he was going for.

Candace wondered what he meant when he said that if she makes the game hard for him, that she would live to die an old age. If anything, she was certain that many people would want to live to a very old age before passing.

"So how do we play these games of yours?"
 
Roland just laughed when she hit him. If she kept that behavior up though he'd have to spend some time teaching her better. “There are lots of ways to play,” he told her and then threw her against the bed. It wasn't anything that would do permanent damage, but enough to make her think about running now that he'd let her go for the moment.

“Tonight will be easy, questions you can't answer wrong. Just answer and don't hold back. Candace why did you stop when you heard the people in the bushes the other night? What ran through your mind?” He looked down at her, waiting for an answer and ready if she wouldn't give one.
 
Her body flew when Roland tossed her Candace would run. She would run but at this point, she knew she was trapped when Roland was still in her room. And even if she did run, Roland was bound to do so much worse. Her head throbbed lightly as she landed on the bed, her body sprawled on her back on the mattress. Groaning, she rubbed back of her head, staring more up at the ceiling than at Roland.

Was he really stalking her that night she had that encounter in the bushes. Or maybe he was the one that was there that night.`How else would he have known.

"I was just curious." Candace replied. "I heard something and wondered what it was."
 
“Candace, Candace,” Roland said disappointedly, “I expected to hear more from you. I don't believe that's it, but I'll give you a chance to fix that later, a free pass.” He walked towards the bed before speaking again, “When was the last time you had sex. And this time I'd better see your eyes and hear the truth.”
 
"God damn it! I was being curious!" Candace's fear anger mix had slowly returned to her as she glared at Roland's direction. "If you hear someone screaming in the dead of the night, wouldn't you wonder what the hell was going on?"

But even in her little rant, Candace intentionally held back what was going through her mind. It wasn't concern for whoever it was that was behind the bushes that night. Rather, it was the strange yearning for lust. Candace never had a steady boyfriend, not to mention that she and her mother had constantly moved every other year so having a friend or even a steady boyfriend was difficult. Why she had felt turned on after the noise incident in the bush was beyond her that time.

As far as the question, she sat up on the bed, keeping the hard stare at Roland as he approached closer to her.

"Why is that something you want to know?"

She smoothed out her hair, keeping her eyes on him.

"If I didn't know better, all these questions of what I was thinking when I heard the noises in the park, you were probably the one doing it yourself with whoever that woman was."

Candace intended that as a joke. Sarcasm at most.
 
Roland wished he'd brought some of his tools with him, but he hadn't realized he would need them. It was hard to inflict real pain without causing lasting damage when he didn't have them. Still with a smile on his face he hit her across the face with the back of his hand knocking her onto her back again.

“I really want you in one piece, Candace,” he told her half singing, “but if you don't answer my questions ...” He jumped onto the bed landing on his knees next to her and his right hand found her throat. He didn't grip her hard, just enough to threaten.

“Both, answer them.”
 
The stinging pain of Roland's slap sent her falling back on to her own bed. Just as she was about to move, however, Roland decided to take it a step further and jumped on to the bed beside her, holding his hand on her neck. Candace managed to get a glance at his fingers more than ready to squeeze her neck.

She had no choice but to finally come clean.

"I never had a boyfriend. Or a steady boyfriend if you want to call it. My mom and I moved every other year because of her job. As far as sex goes, I only experienced it once during my freshman year in college. Just with a mutual friend, that's all."

If only she could just stop there. No matter how calm and level headed she tried to sound, this was the last thing she wanted to talk about. But no, he just had to get to the part about wanting to know why she lingered around the park that night.

"Like I said, I got curious. Except at the same time, it kind of reminded me about that night with my friend. Been almost a year now...actually."
 
“Isn't better when you answer,” he teased her and then his hand slipped off her throat and slowly ran along her body. He avoided her breasts, knowing she'd start fighting back against him.

“Only once and its been a year, no wonder you stopped to listen. Tell me about your mutual friend Candace. Tell me what it was like.”

He smiled as his hand finally came to rest between her legs. He didn't rub her or anything, he kept his hand very still while he waited for her answer again. She wasn't as experienced as he'd expected, but that could be a good thing. He could be her teacher and he had a feeling that no matter what else she felt about him she would make an eager student once he got his metaphorical claws and literal fangs into her.
 
Oh no! She was definitely not going to drag her mutual friend in to this. Sure, it was a one night experiment and he had moved to a different country since then. Candace felt his hand between her legs and even if he did not move them, she scooted away from him until her head was close to the edge of her bed. She had to find a way to get out, but at the same time, find a way to trick him.

Should she tell him what he wants to hear? Maybe he would let her go afterwards. But after earlier when he saw through her holding back, she didn't think she could take that chance.

"It was...interesting. If you want to call it that. Painful even. So I lost my virginity when I was twenty, okay? Sorry if I didn't lose it when I was younger."

The last two sentences she spoke out of spite.
 
Roland chuckled again. “You really don't understand, do you? This game is about learning about you. I could ask if you like red as easily as I could ask you about sex, but you stopped at the bushes the other night so I don't ask about red. There is no wrong way for you to be except not mine, and that is not within your control. Give me a long pleasing answer to the question I just asked and I'll leave you in the safety of your bed tonight.”

His hand began to rub through the fabric of her shorts, something she had already been trying to back away from. “And you will not back away from me,” he told her cheerfully if plainly. Even such a simple game was getting to be fun, he wondered if he'd really let Candace go.
 
"And if I refuse?" Candace tried to keep her distance between her and Roland. Her back pressed up against the wall as she stared down at him. What disturbed her was what he said about how there is no wrong way for her to be except not be his.

She couldn't help but wonder about what Roland said about her mom. That he had saved her life at one point. Maybe it was all a trick to coerce her in to putting her trust in him.

Whatever trust she had for him the past several days had disintegrated completely.

"I think you're lying about my mom." She kept her gaze at him, while balling up her fist. "If you supposedly saved her life, why didn't she say anything about you in the first place?"
 
Candace tried to scoot further away from him, but she had no where left to go she his hand was left to stroke her through her shorts.

“And if I refuse?” Roland shook his head in disappointment, but didn't yet lash out at her. “I think you'll agree I am in control of whatever happens next,” he started, “and since I want you to talk I had better give you incentive to, which I have. My consideration of ending this night, but as for consequences ... If you continue to fight me at every turn Candace, I guess you just weren't worth the bargain I made. I'll have to make a return, plus what I'm owed.”

Then she claimed he was lying. Roland wasn't surprised the girl couldn't accept the truth, but he wouldn't abide by it. She was owed to him and he needed her to understand that. Why, he could quite tell himself, but he needed her to.

“She didn't move because of work, little girl. She was running from me. She was weak and afraid and that's why she struck our deal, but why she didn't tell you, I don't know. Maybe she tried to pretend it never happened, maybe shame. There could be so many reasons.”

With the hand that wasn't pressed between her legs Roland grabbed a fistful of Candace's hair and pulled her head back to display the tempting flesh of her neck. She didn't even know how frightened she should be right now. He gave a long slow lick along her neck demanding the time to do it with the force he gripped her hair.

“Now do as I asked you or I'll be done playing for the night.”
 
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