Chained.

Chapter 20

As you walk out the big glass doors you look behind you turn around and see Valerio observing you intently, his eyes boring into your back while you look around for vox without trying to be obvious. You turn your head left and right for a second before taking a few steps ahead, your legs moving fast but silently, the soft patter of your baby pink ballerina flats barely hearable. The dress or shoes wasn't  something you'd wear normally, in fact, Valerio gave it to you for humiliation. He knows that wearing soft colors can make people come off as weak..An easy target, which is the most dangerous thing to come off as when walking through dark streets and alleyways alone during the night.

As you continue walking away from the restaurant and noises, your breath and steps are the only audible thing apart from the thudding of your heart, seeming as if it was beating in your throat, your hand instinctively going to caress it, trying to soothe the pounding. You turn into an alleyway, your steps getting faster and louder, your eyes scanning the place for anyone or anything. But nothing. Just darkness. You walk some more before you stop and lean against a wall, trying to catch your breath, closing your eyes for a second to relieve the tiredness in them, when you hear a faint crackling of a lighter being turned on, your eyes shooting back open.

"Who is it?.." you ask, suspicion and fear laced with your voice, anxiously waiting for an answer, the pounding in your heart filling up the silence. "Did you follow me y/n?.." a voice suddenly says from behind you, your head shooting in the direction of it. "No.. I- who is this?." You ask anxiously, but you knew. You knew who it was. But the fear of what he could do to you in the situation is too terrifying to think about. "Did he send you here y/n?..." Vox asks, appearing in front of you with a lit cigarette in hand, getting closer to you by the second, making you take a few steps back. "What are you going to do to me.." you ask in a softly shaken voice, ignoring his question completely, making him lightly chuckle.

"That depends.. what do you think I'm going to do" he asks, taking a few steps closer, baking you against a wall, your heart thumping into your chest and your breaths ragged as you stare at him in fear. "Please.." you blurt out in a whisper, barely audible. "Why gold?." He suddenly stops getting closer and asks, looking at your dress through the light of his cigarette, almost casting no light at all. "Huh?.." you ask, confused, your mind racing with all sorts of thoughts. "The dress. It's gold." He states, moving the cigarette closer to the part of the dress that reached your thigh, his finger slightly grasping it to get a touch of it.

"What a strange choice of color.." he says, running the tip of his claw over the dress, examining it closely. Silk. He thought. The dress was made out of silk. And it was gold. The most innocent color along with pink, the two colors he hated most. They're such pure and innocent colors, the opposite of him. They remind him of the man he could be...could have been, yet he isn't. His gold and white colorful soul was inked black over the years of his life as a human.. he can never change, no.. the number one rule about ink, is that you can't erase it.

Your heart still thumping loudly in your chest as he blows out a cloud of smoke, his eyes inspecting every part of the dress you had on. "I.. I need to get back." You state, almost in a whisper, your fear preventing you from talking too loud. Vox releases a sigh before backing away slightly, lifting up his cigarette to take one last drag out of it, his movement making you flinch, the image of Valerio putting out his cigar on your arm, making your hand instinctively go cover the wound. Vox stares at your action for a couple seconds, then blows out his last cloud of smoke before dropping his cigarette and stepping on it. "Relax." He says, backing away from you, leaving you space to breathe, letting you release a breath you didn't know you were holding.

"I should.. go." You blurt out, your heart pounding in your chest as you start to walk away from the alley, your legs going faster and faster as you speed walk back towards the restaurant, vox watching as you run away, slightly amused by the sight as he pulls out his phone and calls his driver, not wanting to spend another second with Valentino's brother, basically a less fun and more stuck up version of Val.
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