Endlessly // h.s.

III

Evie's eyes fluttered open as she awoke. Yawning, she turned to the digital clock she kept on her bedside table. 11:30 AM. Thank god it was Saturday. She rubbed her eyes, cursing her tendency to sleep in. She should really get to sleep earlier and stop spending the late hours of the night reading and drawing.

Just as she had that thought, she heard a knock sound on the front door. Evie sighed, not really wanting to go answer it. After all, she was wearing her ratty pajamas which basically consisted of some cloth shorts and an old long-sleeve t-shirt. Her blonde hair was thrown up haphazardly in a messy ponytail.

Luckily, though, her mother called out "I got it!"

Evie sighed and flopped back in bed. Then she heard a scream. Her mother's scream, to be exact.

She shot up, dread settling deep in her chest. Without thinking, she ripped open her door and ran to the entryway.

"Mom?!"

Evie stopped at the doorway, eyes widening at what she saw.

Her mother had a knife held to her throat, and she was held captive in a man's grasp. Not just any man. No, Evie was pretty sure that this was one of the men that had been following her yesterday. But where was the other one?

Evie got the answer to that question when an arm gripped her waist, pulling her back into a hard chest. She screamed, only to have a hand cover her mouth, silencing any sounds she made.

Just then, a different man walked through the threshold into her house. No, man was too mild a description for him. The way he held himself made him seem regal... otherworldly, even. Looking to be in his early to mid twenties, he was at least 6 feet tall, with chocolate curls hanging down to brush his broad shoulders. He was dressed in all black, from his shirt to his coat to his boots, making him appear incredibly intimidating. The worst part, though, was that his hauntingly familiar green eyes were staring deeply into Evie's tear-filled, distressed gray ones.

He seemed almost enraptured by her, in awe of her presence. He looked at her in a way that Evie had never experienced before. And she wanted it to stop.

Evie struggled hard against the man who held her, to no avail. But her wriggling seemed to snap the mysterious man out of his daze, and he had the nerve to look upset at her current state.

"Daniel! What are you doing? Let her go." His voice was unbelievably deep (and had an accent—British, maybe?) and held so much authority that Evie was not surprised that 'Daniel' dropped her immediately.

Evie fell to the floor. She had taken all of her weight off of her legs in an effort to make holding her more difficult, so she had had nothing supporting her. Still staring up at the dark man, she scooted away a little bit and got to her feet.

"Genevieve, RUN!" Evie's head snapped to her mother, who had managed to escape the grasp of her captor and whose existence she had almost forgotten. Her mother seemed more afraid of this man than Evie was, but Evie had always trusted her mother's judgement.

Looking back to the man, she found his eyes already on hers. There was something in them that was almost... urging her to not run, to stay here with him. But who was she going to listen to-- 'something in the eyes' of some random intruder in her house or her own mother?

With that thought, Evie turned and ran.

"Evie!" the man's powerful voice yelled after her. That didn't stop her. She ran through the kitchen, managing to reach the back door and about to throw it open before he caught her, arms encircling her waist and tugging her back.

And Evie gasped.

She gasped because of how right it felt, to be held by him. Evie may have never experienced the concept of home, but she was sure that this was it. She felt like this was where she was meant to be, for the rest of her life. Held in his arms forever.

The man seemed to have experienced the same feelings that Evie did, but maybe a little more intensely because he actually moaned out loud. It was a deep, gravelly sound right in her ear that seemed to express that this is all he's ever wanted, that she's all he's ever wanted.

It was a beautiful moment of serenity, a moment where everything just seemed right in the world. This, of course, was ruined when Evie realized that everything was definitely not right in the world.

This was the man who her mother had seemed so afraid of, the man who had intruded in her home. He was a complete stranger. She began squirming in his grasp, trying to make him let go of her. His arms only tightened around her.

"Let go of me you fucking creep!" she bit out, her tone full of spite.

This seemed to surprise him enough to loosen his hold, but Evie was still not able to wriggle out of his firm grip. He grabbed her even closer.

"Seems my dimidium has got herself a bit of an attitude, eh?" he whispered lowly against her ear. "Definitely got that from your father."

Evie stilled in his arms. This dude was clearly a first class psycho. Dimidium? What the hell was that? And was he claiming to have known her father? How could that be possible when he looked so young?

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Her voice came out quiet, but fierce.

The man sighed. "I guess it's time we have a little chat, Evie."