No more rules

"I don't-", the flood of tears overwhelmed her before she could complete her sentence, she was taken over by fear and although she knew what to say, she was too afraid to complete it.

Despite her emotional turmoil, Richard remained unfazed by the whole thing, his expression was as unchanged as ever, he looked directly into her eyes and shook his head.

She knew what it meant and hated obeying every order of his but knew very well the consequences of rebelling, fear was a powerful emotion and living with Richard, she had experienced it's immense power firsthand.

She quietly went back to her room, she felt defeated but had no other option and knew she had to accept the defeat, no matter how humiliating it felt.

There were so many rules to follow, she had stopped counting the number of rules long back and was exhausted by them but Richard was her guardian and she had to follow every rule he dictated, no matter how absurd, failure to follow them would result in punishment.

The word punishment had meant nothing to her before but being with Richard, it frightened her and dug deep inside her soul, there were different kinds of punishments and there was no telling which one she would get.

She never felt like a college student, she so desperately wanted to live her life but was unable to, burdened by all the absurd and cruel rules she had to adhere to. Richard kept a track of everything in her life, she couldn't go out anywhere without his permission nor could she keep any friends.

Permission was extremely rare to get and she at times felt that Richard was more of an obsessive lover than her guardian, always controlling her every move, she had to report every tiny detail about her day to him and if he felt she was hiding something, he had his ways to get it out of her.

She felt lucky enough to be allowed to keep a phone but Richard checked it twice daily and he had a keen eye, there was no way she could hide anything, she had tried to befriend people online, the thought of having online friends had excited her, she felt brave enough to surpass Richard's restrictions.

But in hindsight, she knew she was a fool, there was no way to beat Richard's rules and he soon found out about her online friends and made her delete all her social media accounts, she had recently started to feel that the only reason Richard allowed her to keep a phone was so that he could track her location, in case she escaped.

As she wrote her daily report, she felt overwhelmed and tears soon started falling onto the sheet of paper, she was afraid to spoil it but her emotions were too intense to be controlled, she just wanted a normal life like everyone else, she had never desired anything else in life but it seemed even a normal life was far out of her reach.

As she cried, she thought about Clara, the girl in her college who had tried to befriend her many times, she really liked Clara too and had often thought about how great it would be to hang out with her but she had to push her aside in fear of breaking Richard's rules.

The rule of not forming any friendships was the most absurd of all the rules she had to follow and it was the hardest to follow as well too, it was really difficult as a college student to shun people but she had tried her best to keep a distance from people without coming off as rude.

Sometimes she wondered why was she even allowed to go to college, why didn't Richard just trap her at home but then Richard insisted that education was important for building character and told her to focus on her studies and think of nothing else.

She could never wrap her head around what character was being built in her case, what was she expected to grow into, what was she going to learn with all the rules that restrained her, they had left no opportunity nor freedom to grow into anything else other than a meek woman.

Sometimes she felt even caged birds were better than her, they didn't have as many rules as her, she wanted to compare herself to a caged bird but realized she was perhaps worse than one, there was nothing to compare herself too and that brought great despair to her.

She wished at least Richard would allow her some freedom to eat what she wanted, there were so many things she craved but he only allowed her to have certain diet foods, as she looked at her thin bony arms, she realized there was no need for her to be dieting.

She hated breakfast and lunch, it was the same salad with everything she hated, it was supposed to be healthy but it wasn't giving her any health, dinner was a little better with a whole assortment of fruits, she was grateful that he allowed her to have her favorite fruit, apple, once a week during dinner.

Apple provided a temporary respite to her situation, it wasn't much but she clung onto the little comfort it brought. She thought about Clara constantly, what she would think, how much freedom she had, what she would use her freedom for, what all foods she liked and most importantly how much she was loved.

That emotion called love was something she had never felt from Richard, she had always wondered what it felt like to be loved, she had even searched it on the internet and had been punished by Richard for searching things without his permission.

It wasn't always stated by him for what things she needed permission, she only came to know when she was punished for doing something without his permission, the list kept adding up as well as the punishments but there was always something that was left out, that she found out the hard way.

One day, Richard was cleaning the room and had left the bunch of keys on the table, she knew she could grab the keys and run but her mind froze in fear, the thought was enough to make her soul shake with fear, she tried to shake off the thought but it stuck.

It was now or never, this was her only chance, it wasn't going to come again, she had to choose between her fear and freedom and there was no time to waste. She quickly grabbed the keys and before Richard could react, she locked the door and ran as fast as she could.

She could hear Richard screaming his throat out but it didn't bother her anymore, she was too far from his reach and there was no one coming to catch her, she chuckled at the thought.

She slid her sleeve revealing a number written on her arm, her long sleeved shirt had made it easier to hide it from Richard, she took out her phone and threw it in the trash, she was sure he would track her if she kept it with her.

She sighed and called Clara from a payphone and told her to come to the park, she told her she was free now to form friendship with her and that she needed her help, Clara seemed to understand her situation and she was grateful for that.

It was a little late by the time Clara showed up, there was no one besides themselves and she smiled at Clara as she saw her walking towards her but the smile seemed to make Clara nervous, before Clara could react, she ran towards her and bit her shoulder, Clara tried to scream but no sound escaped her throat.

As she chewed, she relished every bite and every drop of blood, she was tasting freedom at last, there was no one to stop her anymore, no one to punish her and she made up her mind to enjoy every moment of this freedom and enjoy all the foods she had craved before.