Binds by Rebecca Espinoza

about what their wives were making for supper that evening, or looking forward to their kid’s little league game over the weekend. Planning the perfect way to propose to their girlfriend or maybe even something more benign like thinking about the indigestion that their McBreakfast gave them earlier in the morning. And then, in a flash, all of it was gone. All those thoughts, all those dreams … wiped away, like crumbs on a kitchen counter, one swipe of the rag into nonexistence.
    I turn to Spencer with a look of complete shock and disgust.
    “Ahhh, I love the smell of brimstone in the morning,” he states with an unaffected smile and a joviality that continues to muddle my mind, not meshing with the situation at hand.
    I’m aghast as he steers me away from the scene and the befuddlement continues as we traverse the hill to his PT Cruiser, and he helps to guide me back to the passenger seat. It’s the sound of the driver’s side door closing and the ignition catching as he starts the engine that stirs me from my shock.

The smoke from the blaze is still pouring from the scene below and I am out of my seat again, slamming the car door shut behind me, and running. It’s kind of hard to maneuver around all of the debris that was blasted up the hill from the explosion, but I have to get away from this maniac. I’m absolutely horrified of this man who just killed dozens of people with a smile on his face.
    My feet are moving as fast as I can get them, but I can hear his heavy footfalls behind me and he isn’t too far back.
    “Wait, let me explain!” Spencer calls out.
    Like hell I will. I leap over a couple of singed two-by-fours heading towards the road we drove in on. If I can just make it to that road, I tell myself, I can flag someone down for help and get away.
    Before I can even crest the berm where I would finally meet the pavement, I feel the tug. Spencer has a firm hold of the back of my jacket. I twist my shoulders and shrug out of it, only for him to lunge at me, successfully knocking me down with a cloud of dust. We both roll back down the hill and come to a halt with me on top of him. I go to jump up and get away, but he grabs ahold of my forearms and I am now straddling him, both of us covered in dirt with cuts and scrapes covering our faces and my arms.
    “ Stop .” He grunts and I can tell right away that he has used a Bind on me because I feel as if I have been frozen into place. I can’t even open my mouth to scream.
    “I am going to take the Bind off of you in a moment,” he says through clenched teeth. The anger he showed while arguing with Reece yesterday was nothing compared to the rage I now see displayed across his face. It looks like, at any second, he might burst a vessel in one of his eyes with the way he is glaring at me. “You are not going to run. You are not going to scream. Hell, I don’t even want you to fucking breathe. You hear me?”
    I gaze into his sapphire eyes trying to express as best as I can with mine what a dumbass he is for expecting a response while I am unable to give one, but he doesn’t seem to read the iris language, he just continues with his instructions.
    “When I remove the Bind, I want you to get the hell off of me and sit down Indian style right here.” He nods to the spot next to where we are currently positioned. “Keep in mind that I could force you to stay in place the whole time, just like I am right now, but I won’t… if you cooperate.”
    He takes a few seconds to catch his breath before uttering, “ Move .”
    And I can once more. I shake my head to try and get some of the dust off of my face and hair, sending it directly down onto him. I give him a smug smile. It’s childish, yeah, but if I’m to believe his threat, it’s the only retaliation I can give him for stealing my free will. I hastily remove myself from him and sit down as he instructed with my arms folded across my chest. If I am going to be forced to stay in the same vicinity