Locked In

10

AINSLEY

The air had that sharp bite to it, the kind that clung to your skin and made you wish you’d worn something warmer. October was always like this—cold, but not freezing, just enough to remind you that winter was on its way. The rain had stopped not too long ago, leaving the streets wet and slick, the puddles reflecting the dull grey sky above. I could feel the chill creep up through the soles of my boots as I walked, the plastic bags in my hands rustling with each step.

Halloween was still weeks away, but people were already getting into the spirit. I passed houses with pumpkins on the porch, some carved, some just sitting there, waiting for their turn under the knife. Fake cobwebs hung from fences, and I even spotted a skeleton sitting on a lawn chair in someone’s yard, like he was just enjoying the brisk October air. The decorations were premature, but they already gave the neighbourhood a bit of that eerie, festive atmosphere.

I pulled my jacket tighter around myself, my breath misting in the cold air as I made my way back to Vin’s. The trees lining the street were starting to turn, their leaves more yellow than green, but most were still clinging to the branches. It wouldn’t be long before they all fell, littering the ground in a sea of gold and brown. There was something about October that always felt like the calm before the storm—quiet, but full of anticipation.

It was nice.

“Hey, Ainz!” A boy ran past me, his loud voice echoing round the blocks. I smiled and waved when he looked back briefly. I was quite often at his grandpa’s house, and he helped out sometimes.

“Careful, Cal,” I shouted after him when he tripped and almost fell. He waved without glancing back.

My phone buzzed, drawing my focus from the running boy. I unlocked it to find a message from Blake. The last message was the get-together location, he’d shared it four days ago, along with a pleading emoji to be present.

The new message read:

Blake: The party is tomorrow. Sure you still can’t make it?

Why was he so hell bent on making me come? I wasn’t even a popular freak in high school.

Me: Sorry. Got business to take care of.

Blake: What business? Where?

Me: ??

Blake: I’m sorry. I just want you to be there? Where are you now?

Me: I won’t, Blake. Forget about it. I’m very far from New Orleans and also very busy.

Blake: Where are you? I’ll pay for your ticket. Everything.

The heck?

I stopped walking, scowling at my phone screen. What the fuck was happening? Did he only want everyone together, or was there something more to it? I’d seen get-togethers on the internet, and most of them barely had half their old classmates present. Everyone was busy with life, Blake should understand that.

“Far from New Orleans, huh?”

My blood turned ice, phone almost slipping free at the sound of that voice. Blake’s voice. I looked up from my screen, and he was there, leaning casually against a tree that stood between two houses, his phone dangling loosely in one hand. Golden leaves, still wet from the earlier rain, scattered around his feet, their edges curling as they clung to the damp ground. He was dressed down—jeans, a plain grey t-shirt, and a jacket thrown over it. Nothing out of the ordinary, but he was the last person I expected to see. Or wanted to see.

He wore a look that said he wasn’t at all surprised to run into me. Like he hadn’t just caught me in a lie. I’d said I was far from New Orleans, but it was just five hours away from where I was—South Highland, Shreveport. I was very, very close.

“Do you not want to come to the party or you’re really busy? I thought you’d have left here by now.”

“Why are you here?” I put my phone away and walked straight, not looking at him.

“To convince you.” He pushed himself away from the tree and followed me. Why was he being clingy? Was he always like this?

“There’s no way you can bring everyone together. People’s got life now. We’re not kids anymore. People who are too busy and don’t wanna go.”

He walked beside me, shrugging. “Everyone’s coming. Except you.”

I snorted. “That’s impossible. People are eventually going to cancel.”

“No one is. As far as I know, everyone’s so stoked to meet their friends again. You should come see your friends, too. I’m sure they miss you.”

I sighed, shaking my head. I’d cut ties with them two years ago, and they would have forgotten about me. “No, they don’t.”

“Hmm, you sure about that?”

I stared briefly at him. “What?”

He sighed, brought up his phone and typed.

“What are you doing?” I knew what he was doing. “Don’t. Blake—” The grocery bag hit the ground as I tried to stop Blake from contacting anybody, but it was too late, a feminine voice filtered through his phone speaker, halting me.

Not just one voice, three voices. All girls. I shifted away from Blake as he brought his phone screen to his face and waved.

“Hi.”

“Hey, Blake,” they chorused.

My heart hammered in my ears. Gosh, I’d missed them.

“Jade, remember I said I have a surprise for you,” Blake said, and I glared at him, though he wasn’t looking at me.

“What surprise? You didn’t tell us you’ve been hooking up with a posh boy,” Katy teased, and the other two laughed. Jade had the same unique voice, one she got from her singer motherwho gave birth when she was a teenager, just two weeks after she got married to jade’s father.

“C'mon. He told me that around two hours ago. Shortly after you guys came in. What is it, Blake?”

“Well,” Blake glanced at me before bringing me close. “ Tadaa! ”

A collective gasp, silence, then screaming.

I couldn’t keep the smile that brightened my face, seeing three of them in the same frame. I searched the nook of my brain for anything appropriate to say, but nothing was clicking. “Hey guys.”

Laura slammed her fist down on a surface. “ Hey guys ? Girl, where in the fucking world have you been?”

“Yeah, we tried getting to you, asked a lot of people. Why did you cut us off like that?” Jade screamed, a pink lipstick in her hand.

Questions after questions poured from them, not sparing me a second to explain myself. What would I even say? That I deleted them on purpose? Judging from the way they kept repeating how much they missed me, it’d be cruel to say I didn’t want to speak to them, that I didn’t love and care for them as much as they cared for me. Laura, Jade and Katy—my closest and oldest friends.

“I’m so glad to see you three still sticking together,” I interjected, my voice low.

“What are you saying? You sound like my mom. It would have been the four of us if you didn’t disappear so suddenly. We all thought something bad happened to you, baby girl.” Katy pouted.

“No, we all thought you were dead. Look at this.” Laura took the phone from Katy, walking around the room. She stopped next to a vase and lifted it. Inside it was a purple forget me not flower, and on it was a writing that read:

Dedicated to Ainsley, our one true friend.

Moist gathered on my lids as I choked back my tears.

“You liked this flower in high school, and we decided to make it plastic two years ago so it doesn’t die like we thought you did. I suggested ‘In Memory Of Our Loving Friend’ instead of dedication, but Jade objected and insisted you weren’t dead. I’m glad she’s right.”

I laughed with a roll of my eyes, and she smiled, giving the phone to Jade. “We each have this in our room. I’m happy to see you’re doing well.”

“Thanks, guys. I’m sorry—”

“Uh uh, no. Save it,” Katy chirped in from where she was forcing in her shoes. “You’ll apologise properly when we see. Give us your number.”

“No, she’s coming to the get-together, right? We’ll see tomorrow, won’t we, Ainsley?”

Shit... this was the asshole’s plan—to have my friends convince me. He knew I wouldn’t be able to say no to them, seeing them was tugging on my heart strings, longing and desire eating up my wall.

This wasn’t right...

“Ainsley, will you be there? Tell us you will. We have somewhere to be right now and we’re so late. We’ll talk better tomorrow, okay?”

I swallowed, smiled and nodded. I can do this. I can. I just have to avoid any questions related to my personal life and job. “I will see you all tomorrow.”

“Yay. Okay now, we’ve gotta go. Bye, Love you.” Katy blew me a kiss.

“Thanks, Blake. You’re awesome!” Jade screamed right before the line went dead.

I took a deep breath, shook my head and picked my grocery bag. “You’re so lucky. You got what you wanted,” I told him dryly and walked.

“I had to make you present by all means.” He didn’t follow.

I could feel myself getting angry, but I was happy at the same time to see my friends. But I was angry nonetheless. “That was an asshole move.”

I stepped into Vin’s house, the familiar scent of his place calming me for a second, until I noticed a white letter on the couch. No name. No address. Just sitting there, out of place. At first, I thought about ignoring it. Maybe it wasn’t meant for me, but then I paused. The door had been locked when I arrived, and Vin wasn’t here. My pulse quickened. The only person who could’ve gotten in and left something...was Theon.

Frustration and dread curled inside me. Breaking into my friend’s house now? Really? I hesitated, glaring at the envelope before snatching it up and ripping it open.

I glowered at the scrawny handwriting, then at the message.

I can’t wait to finish what we started that night. To take back what you owe me.

What the heck? What was he getting at now? What was this supposed to mean? I turned the letter, suddenly confused. Why would he send this? Was he talking about that night?

I could feel the buzz from the gate, a low hum of music and voices vibrating through the air, seeping out from Blake’s dad’s mansion. The extravagance of it hit me hard, almost stopping me in my tracks as I hesitated at the gate. It was overwhelming—everything from the grand pillars to the sprawling lawn that seemed to stretch forever. This wasn’t just a house; it was a damn estate.

The music inside was already pumping, the kind you could feel in your chest. I was an hour late. Half of that time had been spent shopping for ideal clothes, second-guessing whether this was even a good idea. My heart had raced with a hundred reasons not to come, but now, here I was, standing at the door, trying to shake off the last shreds of doubt.

I stepped inside, nerves bubbling under my skin, but they evaporated as soon as I spotted them—my three friends, among the familiar faces scattered across the vast living room. It had been six years, but in that moment, it was as though I had stepped into a time warp. A strange mix of nostalgia and anxiety hit me all at once. Seeing them—faces I’d shared laughs, secrets, and stupid high school drama with—made my heart twist in a way I hadn’t expected.

The living room was alive, full of people dancing, drinks in hand, laughing like no time had passed since school. The place was big, but all I could see were those faces from my past; Jade, Laura and Katy, standing by the bar, mixing drinks like it was still a Friday night, and we had no worries in the world. A rock formed in my chest as I walked towards them, every step bringing a flood of memories and a nervous anticipation.

Laura saw me first, and the scream she let out was monstrous, snatching everyone’s focus. Katy and Jade turned and joined immediately, and suddenly, the trio were jumping, half of the room staring at us. When they rushed to me at once, we almost tripped and fell, a joy I’d not felt in years filling me.

With the way they wouldn’t stop jumping and screaming, I could tell they were tipsy. I interacted with people I was familiar with, hardly, the three girls never wanted to let me go.

We went to a corner and settled down, and I watched them as they filled me in on what I’d missed. They laughed, we laughed, but I was quiet and let them speak. They wouldn’t stop talking. They had a lot to say. A lot to tell me.

Laura had never stopped rocking her afro, she rarely braided her hair. And Jade had dyed hers pink like she said she would in school. Katy’s hair was the same, but she had piercings and tattoos now. It suited her. They all looked new, fresh, rich.

I took a deep breath in and sipped my drink, nodding to what Katy was saying. It went on for a while until they suddenly had nothing to say. They went quiet and began to stare at me.

“What?” I chuckled, my heart racing. I knew what. It was my turn to share what I’d been up to for two years.

Jade offered. “You’ve been quiet. The Ainsley in high school would have finished this cup and gotten drunk by now. What’s wrong? Tell us about...everything. Why didn’t you try to reach out to us?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I missed you guys so much, I just didn’t know how to reach you.”

“Lies. You know my family came here after we moved out of South Highland.” Katy frowned.

“That’s not the point. I’m just glad to see you aren’t dead. So tell us about you. Your life, boyfriend, job,” Laura said.

It was funny. I didn’t have any of the things she wanted to hear from me. No life, no boyfriend, no job. If I understood them correctly earlier, the three of them had decent jobs. In fact, they had their dream jobs and were doing so well. And I found myself questioning what I did wrong, where it all went wrong.

I graduated college two years ago, had gotten rejected by sixteen companies, and been on seven waiting lists. I was happy for them. I was happy because they deserved it. They were lovely people who wouldn’t cut people off at the slightest inconvenience.

Laura was the first to understand the look on my face, clapping when the silence dragged on for a while.

“Come on, girls! Let’s party like it’s Friday night again. You’re drinking to death today, Ainsley. No leniency.”

The others were quick to pick up, rising to their feet and dragging me to stand. We went to the bar, and Jade did what she was best at—concocting drinks.

Everything was going smoothly. So fucking good. Until Theon walked in.

The living room that’d been humming and howling with the guys’ laughter quieted a little, whispers and murmurs taking roots as more than half of us stared at him in awe. The other half were trying to figure out who he was.

The energy in the room shifted.

His black hair was a perfect mess, like he’d just run his fingers through it, leaving it slightly dishevelled but in a deliberate, effortless way. It gave him that rugged, bad-boy edge—wild, untamed, and maddeningly attractive.

He wore an unzipped black leather jacket, revealing a fitted black shirt underneath that hugged his chest and shoulders in ways that should be questionable. His jeans were dark, snug enough to hint at his athletic build. Theon’s sleeve tattoo—that I’d seen once—was hidden beneath the jacket, but it didn’t make him look any less dangerous, like he didn’t belong here, yet commanded the attention of everyone in the room, including mine.

“Look who is here. He’s so hot, he makes me want to die,” Jade said beside me.

“How is he here? Didn’t he like...dropout of school and disappear?” Laura passed around another round of Jade’s concoction. She paused when she got to me, her brows shooting up.

I shook my head. “No. I didn’t invite him.”

Katy burst into laughter, her eyes wide. “That means you’ve been keeping in touch with him.”

“What? No.”

“I mean, the first thing you were supposed to say is, ‘I haven’t seen him in years’, and not that. Unless you’ve been seeing him.”

The trio pressed in.

“So, you guys are like married now?” she asked.

I almost choked. Stealing a glance at him, I shook my head and took my drink from her. “No. Why would you say that?”

“Okay, but you’ve...you know, slept toge—”

“Fucked,” Laura cut Jade off. “You’ve given in and fucked him.”

“No.” I almost screamed the word. Or maybe I did, because his eyes found me, instantly scanning the people around me. Did he come because I was here? He wasn’t one to be interested in this kind of party.

“Oh, shit. He’s staring at you. He’s still fucking in love with you.” Laura blocked my view of him to say in my face. “You should totally fuck this man, I mean, why do you keep playing hard to get?”

My stomach flipped, and I shoved her playfully. “Get the heck out of my face.”

When she moved, he wasn’t near the door again. I looked around, searching the small crowd for him, but he was nowhere to be found. Did he go back outside? Or up the stairs? Why would he just come in and leave like that?

“Have you guys been seeing each other? Doesn’t look like you just met. Hold on, you’ve been keeping in touch with him and not us!”

Oh God.

“No, no, you’re wrong—”

“She hated him in school. I bet she didn’t,” Katy said, looking at me.

Did I? Right, they didn’t know about the butterflies that used to assault my stomach whenever I caught him staring at me.

Laura laughed like she just remembered something. “You’re right. That guy is cracked. Remember how he got chemistry teacher admitted to the hospital for three weeks because he kept eye-fucking Ainsley in class?”

My face heated with the memory “I thought that was a rumour.”

Jade nodded. “Me too. Until all the guys in our year started avoiding you, and the chemistry teacher stopped coming to our class. It was him.”

“I don’t think he’s normal,” I said, hoping they’d back me up on it. I’d had a lot of time to think about it, google it, and compare him to every other man I’d met, and realised for a fact that he was different.

“He just loves you harder than any man on this planet. Obvious from the way he hasn’t stopped looking at you like you’re the only one in the room. He’s not even shy about it. Never have.”

Laura said, “I stand on my point. You should definitely fuck him. I bet he’s good,” then sauntered off to the beer pong game table.

After several minutes of discussing at the bar, the three of us decided to go watch the people playing ‘truth or dare’ next to the beer pong. Jade joined the game after the round ended and kissed two different guys within ten minutes. Laura hopped in, finding this more entertaining. Katy and I sat on opposite arm chairs, fine with just watching. It was better than kissing a guy and having him ask what we were the next morning.

“If you were to have sex with anyone back in school, who would it have been?” Laura was asked.

“Uhm...” Her eyes swept to the left slowly. “It would be Lancaster.”

Everyone roared, the guys hailing Lan. I had a hunch she was going to say that. If there was anyone she’d become a whore for, it would be the student rep.

They took turns confessing their old feelings for each other, and then it happened.

A guy, Mark, was dared to kiss a girl in the circle. I had no clue what kind of pill he swallowed to make him look at me, but my smile dropped.

“In the circle,” I clarified quickly. “I’m not one of you.”

Mark stood up, crossing over with a smirk that made my stomach twist with irritation. “You’re in the circle. You’re sitting among us.”

I glanced over at Jason, the one in charge, and he nodded, like he was giving his blessing to this madness. “He’s right. It’s one of the rules we set.”

“That’s ridiculous. You can’t—” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, sharp and defensive. But the rest died the second I felt it—the unmistakable feeling of someone boring holes into my skin. A sudden chill ran down my spine, and I didn’t need to look, but I did anyway. My gaze drifted towards the stairs, and there he was.

Theon.

His eyes were hard, daring, unblinking, drilling into me with the kind of intensity that made my breath hitch, every line of his body rigid and simmering beneath the surface.

Suddenly, Mark’s approach felt wrong. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, the pulse so loud I thought everyone must hear it.

This wasn’t right.

But then, another thought crept in, just as fast as the panic had settled. What the hell was I doing? He didn’t own me. Theon had no right to look at me like that, no right to make me feel like I was the one crossing the line. We weren’t in a relationship, and whatever twisted game he thought he was playing didn’t mean I had to bow to his silent orders.

If anything, I had every reason to turn the tables. After everything he’d done—sneaking into my house, leaving that letter at my friend’s place like some psychotic stalker—he had no claim over me.

Mark was close now, standing right in front of me, his eyes flicking between my eyes and my lips. I straightened my back, chin tilting up.

Maybe this was my chance to get back at him. If kissing him would get under Theon’s skin, then maybe, just maybe, it was worth it.

I stood up, and Mark’s palm rested on my cheek. The circle was close to quiet, quiet enough for my friends’ warning whispers to get to me. Everyone must have seen him, except Mark, because he was backing Theon.

I doubted he would say anything to stop this. He rarely spoke in public, like the world wasn’t worth the air and strength he’d waste communicating.

As I tore my gaze from him and lowered Mark’s head, he proved me wrong.

Not entirely. His voice was quiet, but so fucking audible in our ears. “You’re really going to make him do it,” he drawled, his eyes pinned on me.

Mark turned, and his jaw clenched.

Theon shrugged, casually leaning against the bannister. “Do it.” He was looking at Mark now. “Kiss her.”

He could have also told him to take a knife and stab himself. His eyes held no friendliness. They seemed bored, but I was aware of what was lurking under that nonchalant mask of his.

The air was tense, Mark was torn between kissing me and sitting his ass down. Saving him the trouble, I pushed past him to the stairs where Theon stood.

“You’re a dick,” I told him and went into the kitchen to hydrate myself. I opened the fridge, grabbed a bottle, and almost hissed when I turned to find him standing close to me.

Finally, he let his true self bleed into his eyes. “That was very stupid.”

I was dumbstruck. Insulted even. “Excuse you. I’ve told you to stop acting like you own me.”

“Must sting, thinking you can keep running from me.”

I retorted. “Must be exhausting, trying and failing to keep me out of your head. You’re such an asshole. Couldn’t you have walked away?”

“Walked away?” His voice was low, the kind of low that sent spiders crawling up my spine. “If I had the mind to pretend I didn’t see that, you’d have been long dead.” His hand snaked around my neck, pulling me closer until I felt the heat radiating off him, his body caging mine against the fridge. “Breaking you would have been easier. Exhilarating.”

My cheeks flared hot, my pulse hammering in my ears as I caught the unhinged truth swirling in his hazel eyes. It was raw, unfiltered, and terrifyingly familiar. Obsession. It pounded.

I had looked it up last night before I went to sleep, as if knowing the meaning would make sense of the chaos that was Theon Ryder. The dictionary described it clinically: an uncontrollable, persistent preoccupation with someone or something. A condition, they called it—something dark and twisted, far deeper than love, more volatile than lust. Something you couldn’t switch off, even if you wanted to. It wasn’t romantic. It wasn’t healthy.

But what I saw in his eyes each time, this…this was beyond words.

His grip on my neck was firm, but not painful, the pressure making my skin tingle. The way he stared at me wasn’t just about control; it was possession, it made me feel like I wasn’t a person anymore but a thing—something he could claim. Something he had already decided was his, whether I agreed or not. I knew.

And the worst part? The terrifying part?

It wasn’t just him.

I was starting to feel it too—the pull. It was coming back.

His thumb was pressed against the side of my throat, pulse beating beneath it, his mouth hovering inches from mine, and I couldn’t tear my gaze away.

“Whatever you saw in me to have you...hooked,” I managed, my voice tight, “it’s not real. You can’t just take me and—”

He cut me off, his grip tightening just a fraction. “You think I want to? That I want you trapped in here—” he tapped a finger against his temple “—for six bloody years?”

His words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating, as though the oxygen had been sucked out right from my lungs. Six years. This was the thing I’d read about, studied, even feared. But seeing it, feeling it—God, it was terrifying.

Theon’s grip on me loosened, but my pulse still raced from his touch.

A chime echoed a few feet from us.

Then another.

And another.

Like a ripple through the crowd, the buzz of notifications filled the room. One by one, heads turned down, phones pulled from pockets, expressions shifting. At first, it didn’t seem like much—until their eyes lifted, slowly but unmistakably, to land on me. Every glance felt like a dart.

What the hell?

My heart dropped as more people checked their screens, the same reaction playing out across their faces: shock, confusion, then something else—recognition. A quiet tension built, filling the air. I stood there, frozen, while whispers hummed like an approaching storm.

“Hey…what’s going on?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. I didn’t want to ask him, didn’t want to know, but I couldn’t stop myself.

He stepped away from me without a word, his body rigid, and snatched a phone from a guy sitting on the kitchen island. His eyes flicked down to the screen for a second, then his hand clenched hard around the phone, his jaw tightening.

I didn’t need to ask to know it was bad.

No, it was worse than bad.

The air in the room was hot, thickening with judgement as if the walls themselves were closing in on me. I moved closer to him to see why I was suddenly the centre of—

My breath caught in my throat as the video played on the screen. It was me. Scrubbing the floor. From one of the houses I worked in. The owner—man—walked past me, telling me where else I needed to pay attention to.

My mouth went dry.

The music stopped, leaving a suffocating silence in its wake. It was like the ground had been ripped from under me, my chest caving in on itself. I could feel the heavy weight of every gaze boring into me, every silent accusation hanging in the air.

Blake. This was Blake. He had done this. He’d forced me here just to make a mockery of me in front of these people. He knew. He knew, and pretended he didn’t. I felt like I was drowning in their stares—glares that told me everything I’d feared: You’re nothing. You’re beneath us.

Theon’s hand trembled with rage as he dropped the phone, his expression livid. Without a word, he turned and stormed up the stairs, his footsteps echoing through the suddenly too-silent house. But I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t breathe.

Ignoring the sound of my name being called, I bolted for the door, crashing through the crowd, pushing past hands that tried to stop me.

Hours later, almost three in the morning, I stood in front of my door. I should have gone straight to Vin’s, but I wasn’t thinking straight. Somehow, my instincts had brought me here. My hand trembled slightly as I unlocked the door, expecting to be greeted by darkness, cold, and the thin coat of dust that should have gathered over the days. But no.

The porch didn’t creak under my feet. The front door light was on, casting a warm glow over the entryway. Confused, I flicked on the living room lights. Then gasped.

My house looked nothing like it had before.

My mind scrambled as I took in the freshly painted walls, the new furniture , and the clean, gleaming surfaces. Everything was…fixed. New. The cracked ceiling was smooth, the broken windows replaced, and the floors polished to a shine.

No one else would have done this. No one but him.

Why? Hold on. I shook my head as the reason broke through my foggy mind.

He wanted me to come back.

He had been here—fixing, renovating, invading every corner of my life even when I wasn’t around just because he wanted me to come back?

I moved through the house in a daze, my feet leading me into the kitchen. The cabinets that had been falling apart were now sturdy and new. The countertops were pristine, no longer chipped or stained. Even the leaky faucet had been replaced.

I couldn’t take it anymore. Another round of tears rushed out.

I collapsed onto the cold tiles of the kitchen floor, my chest tightening as everything crashed down on me, my palms holding my face.

Tears slipped through my fingers, the sobs coming harder and faster until I was curled up, unable to stop.

I hated him. I hated me . I hated everything.

Eventually, drained and devastated, I plodded to my room. I didn’t bother to change out of my clothes as I collapsed onto the bed, pulling the covers over myself. My head spun, my body heavy with exhaustion and defeat.

I lay there, closing my eyes, hoping I’d never wake up.