The Missing Linck

• EIGHTEEN •

Italics indicate flashback

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A memory flashes by in my mind as his fist draws uncomfortably close.

It was the first time I'd ever been to a party where I knew close to no one. A sense of unfamiliarity lingered around me like the taste of a hot chilli unknowingly bitten around my tongue.

A couple of smiles were thrown my way by the most random people, probably sensing my unease. Yet, I tensed even more, especially when an eerie feeling of being watched diffused through my consciousness.

A pair of enticingly green eyes, a little sunken in their sockets, met me from across the room when I turned around to scope out any familiar faces. The unnaturally defined jawline and the menacingly brooding drop in his eyebrows should've sounded the alarms in my head. They probably did, but I couldn't seem to pay any attention to them over the blinding smog that shrouded me the second our eyes met.

There seemed to be nothing predatory in the sweet looks he threw my way, the brown strands spread out over his cranium accentuating his rather triangular shaped head and the contrast between his pale skin and his hair.

Chills ran down my spine when, after a moment of relishing the sweetness, I lifted my eyes up to meet a pair of cold gray ones, mimicking the complexion of a cement sidewalk. A double take wiped my head clean of the mysterious choking smog as I saw him for who he probably was.

Dangerous, to every inch of his appendages. A predator. And I fit the description of his prey perfectly.

As he neared me, wading through the crowd as though all the people were merely tall grass and soft flowers in a field and his eyes locked onto mine, a sense of calmness descended upon me again. My feet, however, seemed to have a mind of their own as they pulled me out of the room and into the streets at a time that was every bit a wee hour.

I couldn't hear footsteps behind me so I assumed he had stayed behind. Uncaring, I walked blindly in the streets, my motor function refusing to cooperate with my mind, the latter urging the former to stop.

My efforts were all too successful, for I could hear screeching tires and I was rooted in my spot right in the middle of the street. A whooshing sound registered in my mind as my point of view changed to a spot safe in its distance from the screeching car in a matter of mere seconds and I watched, horrified and helpless as the car swerved and toppled, rolling a few times before it came to rest.

Before I knew it, I was back on the road, being set down at the end and placed as if I fell. Those eerily unnerving yet familiar gray eyes glanced into mine for a fraction of a second before they vanished but not before a splitting pain tore through my head. It wasn't too long before I blacked out.

I stare at the fist mere millimetres from my nose, held there by a palm twined tightly around his wrist. It seems to dig deep into his skin.

I look up to meet horrified black eyes. The same face in my memory, although a tad more weathered, but with eyes so black that there's nothing but darkness in his eyes.

An insane urge to laugh maniacally completely overcomes me as I try to make out if it's actually fear I see in his eyes. Fear doesn't just show up but is predominant in the widening of his eyes upon hearing my probably inhuman sounding laugh.

"Oh, is ol' Nikolai scared little Tasha will get his sweet spot and reveal his secrets?" I mimic the voice he used everytime he had to guilt trip me into doing something, which, judging by just how well I could imitate, was quite often. Now his eyes widen more than I ever thought to be  possible.

"Nikolai, your powers don't work always, just remember that,"

"You remember?" he asks, terror oozing from his demeanor.

"Every single thing. Guess your powers aren't worth any good," I mutter and move to move my palm away from his wrist, only I can't.

I look up at his face as I further try to separate my hand from his, even feeling revolted at being in contact with his skin for so long. A sly smile finds its way on to his face when I realize I can't budge my hand.

Because I didn't place it there in the first place.

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Phew, I've been itching to write this part for so long only I just did...

What did you think of the flashback? What do you think of Nikolai- shifty, chameleon or has some ulterior motives behind his actions? Or anything else?

Also, my babes Pentatonix ate nominated for their third Grammy with Dolly! So dang proud!

The usual jazz, and hope you're having a great time! 🎉

Love y'all!

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