Rat In A Maze

                                    

                                          
"Come on, let's get you to the security room. It's not long until midnight." William took your arm in his grasp, squeezing it tightly for a second before letting go again.
You were still frozen. Terrified was the only way you could put it. The worst part was that you couldn't show this terror. He must have known that you had been snooping around his office.
But how much did he know you knew?
William was still staring down at you expectantly. His gaze was cold as though it was freezing you where you stood and yet you had to thaw yourself out and choke out some speech.
"...yeah. You're right." You answered after a long pause, your throat was scratchy and your voice cracked slightly under the pressure. Lies. You can't lie. You then coughed awkwardly in an attempt to act natural, "So... are you staying or..."
"I thought I'd keep you company for the night. Let you get some sleep." William responded, his words still empty and unreadable. It was threatening. He looked back at you and gestured at you to follow.
You took a shaky step forward in the direction of the office before William stopped you again, his hand grabbing onto your shoulder, his nails digging into it slightly causing you to wince slightly.
"Before I forget, could you give me the keys so I can lock up? You must have forgotten to do that when you arrived here." William's voice was cold. Tense. An unmistakable undertone of bitterness looked in them, "That's how I got in. So since you clearly can't be trusted with locking up, I'll do it." He held out his hand expectantly.
At that point you had no option. No choice but to give him the keys. The majority of you wanted to believe that he didn't know as much as you thought he did. Maybe he just thought you had snooped around his office again and that it annoyed him like last time. Or you leaving early to work without him annoyed him. Or just anything. Just that he didn't know.
If you could take back what you knew and what you had done in the last hour then you would have. In an instant. Blissful ignorance was nicer.
"Here." You mumbled as you reluctantly handed the key over, dropping it into his palm and watched as he locked the doors of the pizzeria. Now you were trapped with a serial killer inside of a dark and empty restaurant.
He then turned back to you before silently walking in the direction of the security office, his footsteps echoing on the linoleum black and white chequered floor as he stepped down the long corridor to the office. You followed along, obedient to him always. You could see the children's drawing on the wall as you walked.
'It's me.'
Once more the scrawled words amongst the drawings draw your attention, but only for a second as you continued your walk.
Everything felt claustrophobic. You felt suffocated by the time you walked into the security office and awkwardly and silently sat beside him. Then it was quiet. You watched William place the keys to the door on the desk in front of the monitors but he said nothing.
The only sound in that room was the buzz of the monitors and the sound of breathing.
The whole thing felt like drowning. You felt terrified and especially vulnerable at that moment. William's gaze was set on the monitors.
It sickened you to think about the vials. The blood he had been extracting from you and melting down to make remnant. You didn't even really understand any of it. He had treated you as a science experiment. Taking and taking from you when you were at your weakest. Making you trust him and rely on him for this? Or did he love you? Part of you was desperate to believe that there was some other explanation to this. An explanation that ended with you being happy with him. Safe with him.