A Little Something I'm Working On

This comes from a project I started for a final project in one of my writing classes.  I've loved writing it and never expected it to go as far as it continues to go.  It started out as a short story and, let's face it, it just keeps going.  This is just a little taste of it.  By now, I'm sure you all know how much I love to write dialogue, so of course this taste is a bit of dialogue for you.  If you want to know more about it I'll be glad to let you know! :)

“How did you find me?” I asked him for what seemed like the millionth time.

“Untie me and maybe I’ll tell you.”

Flustered, I turned my head away.  I knew I wasn’t going to get that answer out of him.  I’d asked him several times since he came here.  He refused to answer it, yet it still felt like he was just taunting me by not telling me.

“Is that really all you want to know about me?” he said, annoyed.

“What?” I said.

“That’s all you’ve asked me since I woke up tied to a water heater.”

“Well-“ like an idiot, that was all I could say.  I could feel my cheeks turning red.  I never thought about where he might have come from or what he had gone through.  I looked at the scar on his face.  It started at his left temple and curved down his cheek and ended just above his chin by the corner of his mouth.  It came from somewhere and somehow, but I never thought to ask.  I never cared until that point.  The animal was still inside me because I’d chosen to take care of only myself and not care about anyone other than myself.  I realized I’d let the hate take me over as well.  I noticed he had several other scars on his arms and neck.

He caught me looking at them and I turned my head away once again.  “You wanna know where they came from?” he asked.

I shook my head, not sure if I wanted to know what gruesome things happened to him.  “Where did you come from?” I asked.

He gave me a side smile on the side that wasn’t scarred and I realized there might have been a time when he was attractive.  “I’m from a community about twenty miles west of here.”

My head shot up and our eyes met.  “A community?”  No one lives in communities.  At least not that I knew of.  I didn’t think anyone could live together anymore.  It never even occurred to me.

“Yeah.  It’s not a big one, but we do alright,” he said with a shrug.

I was still shocked.  “And you all…get along?”

He let out a small laugh before he said, “Yeah.”  Something passed over his eyes when he looked at me then.  It was almost like sadness, but not for himself, for me.