Into the unknown

Chapter 15.

I stared up at the sparking stars in the sky. The beauty of it all making me feel at such ease. It was amazing how such a simple sight that graced the earth everyday could make you feel. "How long are you going to keep me here?" I asked.

There was always something I found so beautiful about the dark night sky. It allowed the stars to shine as bright as they wanted to. It showed that even in the darkest of situations, things could still glimmer and shimmer. Even in the darkest of times, the good could come out. But some nights, the stars struggle to shine and the fog overtook them. Sometimes the darkness won, but it was temporary.

"I already told you that." Valentino's deep voice rippled through the silence of the night, so smoothly, like a warm knife cutting through an ice-cream cake. "When Darren pays me back."

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, turning my body to the side slightly to look at Valentino's side profile. He replicated my actions, so we were both now looking at each other. A sight that was nearly as nice as the one the sky was giving, only I would never admit that to him.

"You don't understand!" I shook my head, more at his naivety than anything else. "He won't pay you back, he can't."

"I'm holding his daughter hostage. I'm sure he'll find a way to get my money to me, if he wants you back, safe and sound." He shrugged as if he knew his plan was going to work, like it was going to go so smoothly with no hiccups. He couldn't have been more wrong.

"You told me you were a man who needed to know everything about the people he associated himself with." I said, remembering that day at breakfast when I called him a stalker. He nodded his head, also seeming to remember that day. I took his silence as a cue for me to carry on speaking.

"But there's so much you don't know, about me, about Darren. There's so much you don't know, Valentino. This isn't going to go the way you've planned it to." I turned my head to look back out in front of me, not wanting to see his facial reaction to me telling him that his plan was going to shit.

"Then tell me what I don't know." He replied, the words rolling so fluently off of his tongue, but appeared to be laced with some kind of annoyance, like he didn't think his grand scheme could be derailed. It was as though he had thought through every step of his plan, more than once and any kind of deviation would mean that he failed, and for Valentino, failure didn't seem to be an option. He could not fail, it was not in his blood.

I took a second to think before I spoke. If I told him everything, he could use it all against me, making my time here harder than it already was, or he could use it to find a way to get at Darren, meaning I could be out of here sooner than I was expecting. I wasn't sure if it was the tranquillity of the night or the current comforting emissions he was emitting, but it didn't take me long to make my decision.

"Darren's not my father, he's my step-father. He doesn't care about me, Valentino. He's not bothered whether I live or die. To him, all I'm good for is giving him money and being his human punchbag. Using me as a motivator to get him to pay you back will not work." I explained, pulling the blanket closer to my body. I wasn't sure if I was trying to conceal myself from the chilly air or from the memories of the pain and damage Darren had caused me. My mind had filed those torturous images in the back of my mind, thinking and talking about them made them resurface. My heart ached as visions flashed through my head, making me hate myself for how weak I was for not doing anything to stop or fight against him.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, his upper body moving forward off of the back of the chair so that he could  get a better look at my face.

I was thankful that we were submerged in darkness, knowing that my face probably portrayed so much sadness right now, and if I was to let a tear or two fall, they wouldn't be visible to him, but instead, lost within the dark. Much like my existence in this world.