Darren opened his eyes and saw Gale’s empty eyes peering into his. It was like that every morning for the past five weeks of summer. Darren gently pushed him aside and got out of bed and walked towards the kitchen, with Gale’s eyes all over him. He could go wherever he wanted as long as it was in the house. The first time he tried to escape, Gale wrapped his fingers in bandages as if he wasn’t the one who ripped off his nails. He also installed cameras and followed Darren everywhere he went. 

Darren sat down at the table and stabbed his fork into the gooey pile of pancakes drowned in maple syrup while Gale sat across from him and watched. Darren used to look at Gale that way too, before he was rejected in front of the entire school. Then he met Elise and Gale completely changed his mind about him. 

“Are you excited for school? We’re going to be the hottest couple in the junior class,” Gale asked.

“No. I’m not ready to go back to that teenage hellhole of maniacs who refuse to drink bleach,” was Darren’s response.

“Why should they drink bleach?” 

“You haven’t heard? It clears up your skin. I’ve had way less acne ever since I started drinking bleach.” 

“Are you sure about that, darling?”

“I’m sure about it. You said you trust me right?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then you’d try it out.”

Darren got up and rifled through the kitchen drawers, looking for a glass to drink bleach. When he found one, he made his way to the laundry room in the basement, Gale following suit as usual. Darren opened the door and allowed Gale to step inside first and flip on the light switch, illuminating the metallic washing and drying machines and the rows upon rows of laundry detergent, dryer sheets, and bleach. Darren handed the glass to Gale and he slowly poured the bleach in, the clear liquid sloshing in the glass as if it were water. He watched as his captor slowly lifted the glass toward his lips and took a sip of the poison. He started to retch but he kept going, fully believing the lies Darren fed him. Immediately after he finished the glass he let it drop to the floor and shatter into pieces, then he staggered over to the open washing machine and vomited. Darren used that moment to hoist Gale’s long legs over the top of the machine and turn it on, cleaning up the disoriented kidnapper. 

He left the haunted house and walked to his own, expecting to be met by his worried parents and a tackle hug from Elise. But when the door opened for him, he felt several sharp pains in his chest. The very last thing he heard before he hit the ground was Gale’s voice crooning, “Did you seriously think you could get rid of me, my love?”