The Beast and Me Read Online Free

with its fingertips. Instinctively, I clenched my jaw, because... there were claws following those tips. They weren’t rupturing my skin, but they were effing claws. Apes do have fingernails, right? So what the hell is that beast?
    My heart did backflips and I did my best not to inhale through my teeth as I opened my mouth to bring in some air. And then, I was dead-still. I could feel how it touched my hair. Like... it was able to grab it. Fingers.
    Oh God, I really don’t want to think about where this seems to be heading.

Day 10
    Something to remember today... What can I think about? I have no idea. All that is in my head is the question if I’m going to go there again and what will happen. I don’t want to think about it. I just can’t. I need to distract myself. Can’t I skip Breakfast and go to the gym now?
     
    Same. I try not to think about it. After Lunch there was waiting, and then being bound to the bars again.
     
    I could feel how it plucked at my hair again; and how it smelled at it. It didn’t touch me. I guess it has some kind of conscience. Or maybe it’s afraid of punishment. After all, it is imprisoned, just like me. But... I don’t know. That would mean it has some sort of intelligence. How doesn’t it try to communicate with me then?
    Why am I even trying to make sense of this? My mind is racing in circles, just like I am doing in my cell. My head is driving me insane.
    Can’t I go to the gym a second time?
    Why can’t I just stop thinking?
    How am I supposed to sleep?

Day 11
    Somehow I know today will be different. Today is different. They are so silent. Like the whole world is silent. Even the hum of the light tubes seems lower.
     
    Everything appeared to the same routine – Breakfast, break, workout, Lunch, break – until they brought me there again.
     
    I was blindfolded after they shackled me against the wall again. I thought it would be like the days before, even though I had this strange feeling on my skin, because it was the wall, not the bars.
    Briefly after they left the room, I heard it: how those bars, which had always helped me pretend that I was safe, were moved away. Sliding to the side, like one of those typical gates, with that exact same sound. Just like that. Without any warning.
    That noise, the sound of the metal sliding on metal tracks, coming to a full stop, it was so terrifying. Such a simple noise, I never could have believed that it would crawl down my skin like an army of spiders, leaving a trail of goose bumps as footprints.
    I could hear it coming closer this time. Was it not stealthy because there was nothing separating us now? Like it was some sort of permission for it?
    Or did it want me to hear it? My cuffs felt like they were part of the wall. All I could do was to press my palms against the rough, uneven surface. 
    It didn’t even matter. It stopped just being close enough so that I could hear it breathing. It seemingly didn’t trust the fact that there was no wall between us. And it was being all stealthy again.
     
    I SWEAR it was hands. Hands! Not paws that touched my sides, moving up my back. I mean, I was wearing my usual clothes – training pants and a T-shirt – but I still could feel its touch through the fabric. It was, like, exploring my body, every part of it. I couldn’t move, even if I wanted to. I felt paralyzed, frozen, as if had I wanted to move I would have to break myself. It was so scary and still, so still. All I heard was my heart in my head and its breath outside. The way it touched me, so cautiously and carefully, made me appear as if I was the most precious and fragile thing on Earth.
    I probably am, compared to it.
    Its hands slid up my sides and down my back, to my rear down my legs, to the knees, down the outside and up the inside. It made me hold my breath until I saw stars.
    At the beginning the hands moved slowly, but as I kept still it moved more quickly. God, I hate to admit it, but it felt good. Its touch was so