Elle - Book 2

Prologue

Elle

Friday 11th June

      Pain rippled through my body as I awoke on the hard, cold floor of what looked like a prison cell. My nose throbbed in agony and I looked around in sheer confusion, my body feeling weak and shaking. My eyes took a minute to adjust to the darkness and I squinted, trying to figure out where I was and how I ended up somewhere like this.

 A dark figure appeared in the meek doorway and I felt a cold shiver run down my spine, warning me of danger approaching. "Where am I?" My voice ripped through my dry throat, as if I hadn't spoken or had a drop of water in months.

 The figure walked into the light that bled in from the small window on the bleak wall, revealing the face that had haunted my nightmares for years. Theo Grey. His smile was unwavering and evil, his eyes fixated on my shivering and shaking body on the floor, too weak to stand up and face him. "Aw, did you forget me, Elle?" He said, his voice cold. His eyes mirrored Ace's, but there was no emotion behind them, no light.

 My bottom lip wobbled and I started pathetically crawling away from him, my eyes scanning the room. I had never been here before, he had never trapped me in a room like it and yet I could see it so perfectly. He began walking towards me, and then I watched him remove a weapon from his pocket and hold it up towards me. A gun, he was holding a gun to my head.

 I started screaming. A painful roar ripped from my throat as I crumpled into a ball on the floor, waiting for the pain to ripple through me as a bullet sliced through me.

 "Elle," a different voice said in the distance, slowly growing louder as it repeated my name in a panicked voice.

 "Ace?" My pathetically weak voice called out, hopeful that he was here to protect me. "Ace?" I screamed his name that time.

I shot up in bed, a thin sheen of sweat covering my clammy skin as I saw Kit kneeling on the left side of my bed, beside where I was laying. "What happened?" I asked, a small whimper escaping my pathetic lips.

 "A nightmare," he said, stifling a yawn. "I heard you screaming from my room," he said gently.

 I wiped my tears, allowing my eyes to adjust to the room I was in to allow me to understand that I was safe. "I haven't had a nightmare in ages," my broken voice said aloud and he nodded sadly. I couldn't help the pathetic weep that escaped my lips at the failure of being able to keep the dreams at bay, I thought I'd gotten a handle on them. 

 "Do you want me to stay?" He asked gently, his voice sympathetic as he rubbed his hand against my sweat-drenched shoulder.

 I nodded pleadingly. "Please," I said, laying back down and turning onto my side so I faced the wall. I felt the bed dip beside me as Kit slid into the bed, and then I felt his arm drape over my waist, drawing reassuring circles into my skin until he fell asleep. I wiped the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand.

 I just laid there, however, my mind racing about the nightmare I had just endured. It had been nearly three months since my last nightmare about Theo, they were becoming less frequent as the months flew by, back after Ace had just left me they were a nightly occurrence. I remembered being in the dorms, waking every night with screams ripping from my throat, only calming when Delilah climbed into bed with me and wrapped her slim arms around my shaking body to ease me back to sleep.