“You’re awake.” The man finally walked around so that Micah could see him. He knelt near Micah’s head. “I’m surprised. I thought you’d be out longer, but then, you’re a fighter, aren’t you?” He pointedly tapped his nose, which was noticeably swollen, the bruising extending to under his eyes. His glasses were nowhere in sight.

Micah didn’t know until that moment how he was going to play this.

If he was going to take on the role of docile prisoner, play nice, and attempt to appeal to Ren’s moral compass (assuming he had one) or the complete opposite – if he was going to snarl and spit at the man like a cornered animal, antagonize him until he snapped and maybe made a mistake.

“If you expect me to apologize for breaking your nose, you might want to consider the fact I’m currently tied up in some dank basement because you decided it would be a good idea to fucking take me like a goddamn psychopath.”

Option two, it was.

Ren frowned. “You’re scared. I understand that, but that’s no reason to take the Lord’s name in vain.”

Was this asshole serious right now?

Then Micah remembered the man’s strange religious-fueled comments at the bar. “What happened to everyone being a child of God? Treating everyone with love and respect? Was that just some line to bait me?”

“Of course not,” Ren denied, and Micah stiffened when he laid a hand on his hair, petting him. “You don’t understand right now. You’re too cloaked in sin to see. But I’m doing this to help you.”

“Help me?” Micah repeated incredulously. “How is drugging me or kidnapping me or taking my motherfucking clothes supposed to help me?”

“Did you know that people saw no need to cover up before Adam and Eve committed the original sin in the garden? That they felt no shame in their naked forms? They were made in the image of God, after all.”

Micah tried to lean away from the man’s wandering hands, but he couldn’t. fucking. move. “And yet you’re still wearing that ugly grandma sweater,” he muttered.

Ren pursed his lips. “It’s symbolic,” he said eventually. “I’m going to cleanse you of sin – make you pure like in the times before Satan’s wickedness ran rampant.”

“Really? Because I just think you like the view, you motherfucking pervert-” Micah cried out when the man suddenly grabbed him by the hair, tugging so hard that tears sprang into his eyes. His neck strained at the unnatural position. His shoulders screamed.