Lesser Evil

2| The Princess

My head throbbed. It felt heavy and hurt so bad like I had knocked it on a wall multiple times. But I didn't remember doing such a thing. In fact, I didn't remember anything.

It was an effort to even open my eyes. Once I did manage to open them, I blinked because I still couldn't see anything.

I tried to reach my hands up to my head to massage my temples and rid myself of this stupid pain but I failed. My movements strained against roughness. The roughness of a rope.

A rope. My feet didn't move either. I was tied up. Kidnapped. I was kidnapped.

Kidnappe—

"I see you're awake." The hoarse voice startled me so much that I jumped, the chair moving along with me. It tilted and I knew I was going to fall. A scream tore past my throat at the backward motion of the chair. Two seconds later, I was tilted back, frozen in the air but not quite fallen.

The voice sighed. I still couldn't see the source but it was undoubtedly a man. Maybe the one who was imprinted in my memories from before I blacked out. How long had I been unconscious, anyway? "And you're already wreaking a havoc, princess."

How dare he call me princess when I didn't even know how he looked like?

"Stop calling me that." My voice sounded foreign to my own ears, like someone had switched my thin voice for the voice of an eighty-year-old grandpa.

He laughed and my chair straightened up again. "You care about the nickname in this situation? Can't say I'm not surprised."

This situation as in a situation where I was kidnapped and asking my captor to stop calling me princess instead of asking him to release me, which he wouldn't.

"Who are you?" I hissed, wriggling my hands to free them, to no avail, though.

"Who I am does not matter, but please don't even try to undo the rope. I've had enough practice to tie a good knot." I hated how smug he sounded. How self-assured he sounded like he knew a small little thing like me would be no match for him and his 'skills'.

Enough practice. How many people— girls— had he kidnapped? How many girls would I see if I were able to see at all? The darkness here was unforgiving.

"I hate you!" I spit out with all the hate I could muster for this man that I knew was standing in front of me even when I couldn't make out a single outline of his form.

"Heard that enough times, princess, it's almost overused now." He said with amused coating his words. It only infuriated me further to know how simple this was for him— to turn my whole life upside down. My life that included friends and my father.

"My father will kill you when he finds where I am." I knew he would. He would never forgive anyone who was involved in kidnapping, let alone his own daughter's kidnapping.

"If he can get to me, then sure." God, this man was freaking annoying. His lazy words made him sound like he was bored.

It made me sigh loudly, my tough exterior cracking at the thought of my father, my life. Who knew when or if I would get out of here? Who knew how many tortures I would have to face.

He had already laid his hands on me. Once to capture me and twice to possibly carry me after putting me out. The thought made me shiver, made my skin crawl.

"P-Please." My voice cracked horribly as a tear slipped down my face. I wanted to get out of here, right now.

Awareness bled into my vision when suddenly a light shone bright, immediately making me wince and shut my eyes. It wasn't much, just a flickering light bulb over my head. Slowly, I opened my eyes again and blinked to adjust to the light before taking in my surroundings.

Unlike I had expected, the place was small and fairly clean. And we were alone. No more girls, no other kidnapped people tied to wooden chairs like I was. The man who stood in front of me... It looked like the light hadn't even touched him. Down from his black shoes to black jeans to black hoodie with the hood pulled low over his face, comcealing everything except the tip of his nose and mouth, he was dressed in darkness.

It was scary, daunting. He was scary and daunting, and dangerous. Very, very dangerous. Suddenly, I wanted to talk all my words back, just in case he was into punishing people for angering him.

"What do you want from me?" I managed to whisper, staring into the black hood where I imagined his eyes to be. I was glad I couldn't see his eyes, if I did, I was afraid I would want to run, flee that very second.

"I want nothing from you, princess. I want you."...Want me? What the hell did that mean? Was he some sort of psycho who had fallen in love with me and had taken me for himself. He did keep calling me princess.

"Please don't harm me." Please don't force your hands on me, I meant to say but kept the words to myself.

He lowered himself until he was on his knees and I didn't have to look up at him anymore. But now, he was much closer. "I won't." He promised. Something compelled me to believe him, maybe the rawness of his tone, and relief washed over me. "But I can't say the same about them."

My eyebrows scrunched. "Them?"

"Bad people, worse than me." His reached up, brushing my face. I instantly turned my head, willing his hand away. But he tucked a stray strand of my hair behind my ear before he got up. His touch was almost gentle, a complete contrast to what he had done to me.

It made me scoff in disgust.

"I'll be back soon." I wanted to yell at him to never show himself to me again but I suppose I didn't have much control in this situation.

He walked away in lazy strides, pausing and glancing over his shoulder at me once before he opened the door and disappeared through it.

I hated him with every last cell in my body but loneliness... I think I hated loneliness more than him.

It welcomed tears to flood through my eyes. I felt so helpless in this situation. I tried to tug at the rope, wriggle my wrists, kick my feet but nothing. The knots won't budge.

I had not a single idea about how long I'd been out for, but if it was long enough, my father would already be looking for me. I stared hard at the door, manifesting for it to burst open and policemen to come running through, but nothing.

I was left cold with my loneliness.