Fighting Evil

FE: 13. Elevator Business

§ V A L E N T I N A §

What secret? What did he know I was hiding? How did he know I was hiding something? Did he already know that I was an elementalist? What else did he know?

"I...I...What secret?" I blurted out. By then I already knew that this wasn't going to go well.

"You were kidnapped for a reason, right? I want to know why," Louis demanded.

Using what Louis had told me, I realized something.

Louis had absolutely no idea why I was kidnapped, and it was only because he was told to just torture me. He never got told why, he just had to torture me.

To him, I was getting tortured for his entertainment. I was disgusted.

"It's not like I know why I was kidnapped," I half-lied. I had an idea about why I was kidnapped.

"You and I both know you're lying," Louis stated.

"But for real, I don't know why," I continued half-lying.

"Valentina, you know exactly why, and I just want to know," Louis explained. I took a deep breath.

"Louis, if I told you, I...I-I would...w–"

"You would what!? Just tell me!" Louis yelled, starting to get angry. I winced.

"I don't know...," I trailed off nervously. "I just can't tell you." Truth be told, I didn't want to tell Louis that I was an elementalist because I knew that I should keep my secret hidden, even if I was pretty sure nothing would happen if I told him.

Suddenly, Louis' body was pressing against me and his angry face was only inches from mine. He barely towered over me, and his fist banged into the wall. His heavy breath kept blowing in my face, but it was okay because he smelled amazing.

That didn't help me feel any less intimidated though.

My heart pounded and I felt claustrophobic, like I couldn't breathe, as I was trapped into the corner. I knew my hands were quite clammy and that butterflies in my stomach had become elephants running around in there.

"Tell. Me. Why. You're. Special," Louis demanded, and I swore that some spit landed on me.

"I told you already why I can't," I whimpered.

Louis pushed himself harder onto me. This time, I reacted immediately. I tried to wriggle or move or something, to get out of the awkward position. The tips of my ears went warm when I was unsuccessful to make any progress. I averted my gaze to the right and moved my head slightly away from him.

"I'm going to ask you one more time," Louis breathed heavily. "Why are you special?!"

Fucks sake, I couldn't take it anymore. I kicked as hard as I could on Louis' crotch as I used my hand to slap his face. He stumbled backwards and clutched his crotch in pain while yelling a few curse words.

And then it struck me that I had really fucked up.

He was definitely going to kill me now.

Unless I could kill him first.

I got away from the corner and to Louis. I raised my arm to strike him, but he caught it and twisted it to my back. Next thing I knew, I was on the floor, with Louis about to kill me.

I was scared shitless. I thought I stood a chance but he expected every move. My breathing was irregular and my heart was pumping so fast that my chest hurt. My legs were free and I used them to curl up into a position I felt safer in. If Louis had been mad before, this was a totally new mad.

Before I could stop myself, I had yelled, "Please don't hurt me," and then I could feel my cheeks getting wet.

I had definitely lost any confidence, self-control, or pain-numbing I had in the past. It felt horrible and embarrassing.

"The hell? Are you...Crying?" Louis asked me. The angry tone in his voice had completely diminished and it was replaced with a more caring tone. I was beyond puzzled at his sudden change in mood.

Suddenly I felt fingers brush the sides of my cheeks to wipe away my tears. I tilted my head away so that he would get the message to stop touching me. He obliged and slowly dropped his hand and left it lightly touching my hand.

I turned back towards him now that he wasn't making as much contact with me as he had before. He had a frown on his face or what was probably concern. I got up and did my best to ignore my painful shoulder.

"You bi-polar son of a bítch," I said with a shaky breath. My confidence had partially come back.

Louis' jaw tightened and I braced myself to be hit.

"You're not helping yourself by saying śhit about other people. I'm trying to fückïng help you from the people who kidnapped you, but you won't take my help because you're afraid the people who kidnapped you will kill you?! You're such a coward that you won't take help?! And how dare you call my mother a bítch, you don't even know her, so why are you assuming that you do?!" Louis was so angry, it was just like when I was in that cell. He was mad at me for a small thing that really bothered him.

This time it was a bit different though. His outrage didn't stop me this time.

"I'm making fun of other people?! I only offended your mother ever-so-slightly but you got extremely butt hurt over it. If anything, you need to stop being a coward and learn to accept some fückïng people being intimidated by you! I'm a coward? I have enough fückïng confidence to tell you that my secrets stay with me!" I breathed heavily in anger.

"I know you've gone through a lot, but it's been about a month now, it's about time to get over it. I don't know how I'm intimidating you when I did everything I could to save you in the critical condition you were in. The hospital almost ran out of blood to save you, I donated my blood to you so that you could stay alive."

Fück, I was part Louis.

I wanted to yell things like "I never asked for you to save me" and "I can't get over those three months because you're right in front of me" but then Louis spoke up again.

"We're on your floor, you can leave now."

I still had more arguments to express myself, but I decided that it actually was best if I just left, so I did.

When the elevator doors closed behind me as I left, I breathed a sigh of relief and went to spend the rest of my day in my room.