Into the unknown

Chapter 7.

When my eyes opened, I felt as though I was still sleeping. I was surrounded by darkness, physical darkness, not the darkness that sometimes threatened to overrule my mind and take over my body by substituting the blue flowing blood for thick black venom. Slowly sitting up, with one hand, I did a little arm and back stretch, twisting and bending, before resting my back against the headboard. The events of earlier on settling in my mind.

I was no stranger to panic attacks, but I had never had one so intense before. One where I was incapable of getting myself out of it. If it hadn't been for Valentino, I'm not sure what would have happened and it scares me to think about how bad things could have gotten. At the same time, I was scared that he was the one who managed to coerce me out of it. A stranger whose intentions I was oblivious to.

Throwing the blanket off of my body, I was met by warm air circulating around my bare legs as I turned my body, my feet landing softly on the smooth floor. I got up from the bed and opened one of the doors that conjoined to another room. To my relief it was an en suite. This was definitely giving me luxury hotel vibes, not that I was complaining. It was nice to experience how the rich lived, even if it was for just a short time. I was well out of my comfort zone, but it was a comfort zone that I would have welcomed as my own any day of the week.

I had always fantasied about what my dream house would be like. Lots of open space and windows was a reoccurring image, something that allowed me to be free without the constraints of four suffocating walls and a tiny window that hardly opened. I didn't want my future children to be confined to one room for the rest of their lives, I wanted them to have full rein of their lives and the things they did. They would never have to endure the life that I did, that was one thing that was certain.

It was nice to dream. With the money I was saving, the reality of it was that I was going to live in a small apartment with one bedroom, maybe two, if I was lucky. For someone who had recently managed to obtain an undergraduate degree in fine arts and only had life experience in bartending, I wasn't exactly the top candidate people wanted to hire. Therefore, a one-bedroom apartment was all I could strive for. Simply just something to call my own, where I could live a, somewhat, happy life.

After using the toilet, I carefully washed and dried my hands, I searched in the cupboard underneath the sink, finding a first-aid box like I had in the other bathroom. Assessing my wound, it appeared to be healing quite well. The places where the glass had pierced into my skin were still a dark red with a little brown discoloration, looking quite disgusting, but the wounds seemed to be getting smaller showing signs of them closing up. The pain had mostly subsided, only hurting when I put pressure on the hand.

I put the first-aid box back in its place before walking into the bedroom. Looking at my appearance in the mirror, I used my good hand and ran it through my tangled hair, giving it a little oomph and pulling out a few knots that had formed during my slumber. Not bothering to change my clothes, I tried to quietly open the bedroom door, my eyes squeezing shut as a little creak was heard. Why I was being so quite and secretive was a mystery. Or, perhaps it was a result of the embarrassment that bubbled inside of me.

Although I felt a little icky wearing the clothes I had slept it, I didn't want to intrude this house by looking through the draws. It wasn't my place to invade. I was curious, however, as to why there was girl's clothes here. Did Valentino have a sister living here? Or a girlfriend, maybe? I wondered if she was a nice girl who would kill me when she found out I was here, or was she in on this whole kidnap and planned to torture me for taking up her boyfriend's time. Neither option was sounding too inviting right now.

As I walked through the house, the only sounds that could be heard was the gentle slapping of my bare feet hitting the floor. I tried my hardest to supress the sounds, but my feet were slightly sweaty, making them stick to the wooden flooring a little. I wasn't sure where I was going, half of me was looking for an escape and the other half of me was hoping to bump into Valentino or Cristian.

I tried to recall the route Cristian took me this morning to the dining room, but my mind was struggling to recall which way he took me. This house had way more hallways and rooms than I was used to. Every way I turned there was a corridor leading to some mystery destination. A one hallway house was all I was used to. My head turned from the left to the right and back again as I came to a cross-road like intersection, there was a wall in front of me and a hallway on either side. In the films, when someone comes to a situation like this one way is usually the good way and the other is normally the bad way. I tried to distinguish which was which, but to my dismay they were both symmetrical. Neither had a shadowed demon or the welcoming sun waiting for me at the end of the corridor.

As I stood there like a mad woman contemplating my fate, I could hear the hushed voices. They weren't loud or clear enough to make out what was being said, but it told me that there was some life in the hallway on my left. Every part of my body was screaming at me to run, go down the right-hand corridor and find an escape. Every part of my body except from my feet, which steered me down the corridor on my left. With each step I took, the voices got clearer, to the point where I would be able to hear the conversation if my heart wasn't thumping so loud and the blood would stop wooshing around in my head. I took a few deep breaths to calm my beating heart down, before continuing on my walk.

"What are you going to do with her?" A deep voice spoke. The voice sounded like it belonged to a man of age, making me feel bad for listening in on the discussion, but I couldn't help myself. 

"I don't know, dad." Another voice said, sounding like the smooth voice of Valentino. Only this time, his voice carried an emotion that I hadn't heard from his before – confusion, maybe?

The real question was who were they talking about? Was it me? When I was contemplating my fate a few minutes ago, I hadn't expected anyone else to be doing the same. My feet were glued to the spot, urging me on to listen to what they had in store for me. That was cut short by a heavy finger painfully poking me on the shoulder.

"Well, well, well." The, unfortunately, familiar voice snickered. "What do we have here?"

A took a big gulp of air and held my breath as I slowly and dramatically turned my upper body round. Of all the people who could have caught me sneaking around and eavesdropping, it just had to have been him. The story of my life was that I was unlucky, wherever I went. 

Before I had time to register what was happening, his overly large hand tightly gripped around my upper arm, causing me to cry out in pain as his fingernails dug into my bare flesh. I let out a whimper as he dragged me a little before throwing me onto the floor, my knees making a bang and my joints creaking a little as I hit the floor. My face winced up at the impact, before a mild pain spread through my legs

"What the fuck?"

Reluctantly, I lifted my head expecting to see an angry Valentino shooting daggers at me. Only, as I looked at him, his eyes were shooting lasers at Mr wanna-be-big-man, who loomed over me. Turning my head to the other side of the room, I saw an elderly man, sat back on a sofa, looking at me with no emotion whatsoever. His skin tone was slightly more tanned than Valentino's, like he had recently been out in the sun. For a man in, maybe his fifties or sixties, he had a good head of hair on him. His hair was shades of white and grey, short and wavy, combed towards the right-hand side of his head.

Whilst he had a similar facial structure to Valentino, his was a little fuller and plumper, with a few wrinkles on his forehead and under his eyes. He shared similar eyes with Valentino, only they had less of a green tint to them, the brown shades stood out more. If hearing Valentino say dad a few seconds ago hadn't already confirmed it, it was clear by looking at the two of them that they were related. Valentino was just a younger, and in my opinion, better looking version of the man who was currently staring at me.

"Hi." I weakly mumbled, feeling uncomfortable under his intense stare. A small smile broke out on his lips, like he hadn't expected to me say that. I turned my head back to Valentino, only to see his angry eyes now on me.

Oh, I was so dead. So damn dead.

Guardian angel, where are you now?