A Taste of Darkness

Chapter 17: Protective

Scarlett

I could tell from the look of the person's hand and their voice that my attacker was a man. I did everything I could to free myself from his grasp. I kicked his legs, punched his torso, clawed at his skin, but it was useless. No matter what I did, he was determined to not let me escape and do whatever he was planning to do with me

"Don't be like that kitten, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. I think you'll much prefer the easy way," he chuckles in a low voice to not alert Julio or Luca, threatening me. Two things about me are that I never scare easily anymore, and I will never, under any circumstances, go down with a fight.

I manage to spit into his hand, making him distracted, and kick him where it hurts the most in an attempt to make him loosen his grip. He lets out a groan, but quickly recovers, preventing me from running away. "You shouldn't have done that," he warns angrily before wrapping his hand around my neck and tightening his grip with full force, choking me and blocking my airway. I try to stand on my tip-toes to find air to breathe, but I can't. He squeezes my neck until I'm left gasping for air, until I'm sure I'm going to pass out at any second. Is this how I die?

Just as I feel my eyes start to flutter closed, I suddenly no longer feel his hand around my neck. Instead I hear bangs and crunches and grunts from behind me sounding repeatedly. I take a second to relish in my newfound oxygen before I turn around to see what was the cause of these sounds and how the man's hands were released from me out of the blue.

And that's when I see it.

Julio has the man who was choking me on the ground, as he punches him repeatedly with a menacing rage I have never seen him have before in my life. There's a fire of untameable fury in his eyes, but this one seems to burn brighter than any other he has ever experienced. His jaw is clenched, his teeth are gritted, his brows are furrowed, and this is nothing I have ever since before. It's like he has completely lost himself, and the only thing he can see is him- the man who almost killed me.

The man's face is completely bloodied, bruised and beaten, he's probably nearly dead. Although I was grateful that I was no longer being choked to death, I had to snap him out of this somehow. "Julio that's enough! We have other things to do and can't waste any more time!" I warn him loud enough so that he could hear me clearly. And just like that, his hand stops mid-punch before he can make contact with the man's face again and his eyes snap up to my face. I can see his eyes instantly soften, indicating a painful realization, and his face hides what seems like shock and regret- but not regret for punching the man, instead it is regret that I witnessed it.

He lets out a muffled breath, displaying his inner frustration and anger, before his eyes snap back to the man left coughing on the ground. He stands up and picks the man up by his neck, holding him in the exact same place where his hand was on me as he was choking me, leaving him dangling in the air and gasping for breath. "This is what your idiotic, disgusting self gets for laying your hands on her," Julio threatens angrily through gritted teeth as he takes his gun out of his pocket and digs it into the mans forehead before pulling the trigger, sending a bullet straight through his skull. He lets go of his grasp on his neck, leaving the man crashing onto the floor, dead.

I didn't know what to say, neither of us did. I was left completely speechless. All we could do was stare at each other, but his stare didn't last long as his eyes quickly shot back to the wall in front of him, crossing his arms and clearing his throat. But a couple seconds later, I could sense that the switch in his mind had flipped back on again from the new expression on his face, and his eyes turned back to me again.

"What did I tell you to do, Scarlett...?" he threatens, his teeth still gritted. I knew exactly what he was referring to, it was that one rule that he made about me staying beside him at all times, but I didn't want to make him any more aware of the fact that I had proven him right about his judgement that I'd end up not listening to what he said.