The known stranger

9. Tribulations (Ella)

Ella's POV :

I didn't see Ethan the next day, or the day after that nor did I bother to ask from anyone but I was getting impatient and angrier with every passing second. I would also think of ways to escape just incase he doesn't show up anytime soon and I begin to lose my sanity; however, I knew how difficult that would be because Julian and Alex or even Brenda weren't there to just keep me company, it was in the suspicious eyes that they gave me whenever I tried to talk about the location of the place or anything similar, Julian and Alex often patrolled the garden during night as well.

On my fourth day there, I didn't bother to crawl out of my room, I didn't bother to eat with them or, I just stayed in my bed and tried to compensate for the lack of sleep I managed to get over the past three days.

Dusk had fallen and I was getting tired of waiting for him to show up, I wasn't even sure why I wanted to see him so desperately.

It's because he can take you back to your family.

I had been telling myself repeatedly, throughout the day. At around 10 p.m. I went to sit by the lake, Julian had offered to come along but I told him that I wanted to be by myself and ran away before he could say anything else.

It was a full moon night and I was sitting under a maple tree, staring aimlessly, at the glimmering reflection of moon in the lake. The aroma of night blooming flowers dispersed across the whole place while the crisp air of the forest caressed my hair, this place was more beautiful than any fairyland you could imagine of, yet, something uncanny had deeply settled in the back of my mind from past few days and I was restless.

I got up and strolled lazily along the shore for sometime when an idea hit me, adrenaline coursed through my veins as I removed all my clothes except for my underwear and the tank top that I was wearing under a sheer blouse and jumped into the lake. The chilled water awakened all my senses at once, I swam across the length and breath of it before the coldness really set in and I could feel my bones freeze, I was shivering profusely as I walked back in nothing but the wet tank top that glued to my body rather uncomfortably, thankfully I didn't see Alex or Julian in the garden as I ran towards the large house, I opened the front door slowly, trying to make as little noise as it was possible.

I'd thought that I'll be angry, so angry that I'll at least want to rip his head off when he comes back, but when I saw him in the hallway all that I could feel was loud thumping of my heart inside my chest and all the adrenaline rush right back into my veins.

I looked down at my ratchet wet self and blushed in embarrassment,

Why do you hate me god?

I continued walking towards the stairs while looking at him at the same time, silently praying that he doesn't notice me, but his gaze fell on me and he stopped dead in his tracks, so did I. His eyes widened for a mili second, I felt overexposed and tried to cover myself with my hands, his gaze lingered on my chest for a few seconds before he finally looked away. I was waiting for him to say something- a hi or a taunt even but he just strode past me like thunder, shutting the door behind him as he bolted out.

I ran upstairs and locked my room, thankfully the heating system was already working even though I couldn't remember turning it on at all.
I decided to take a really long shower, set at the hottest setting, scrubbing, shampooing, shaving and what not in order to try to drown all the emotions that were churning my heart all of a sudden.

I actually felt a lot more calm and collected after the shower, I decided to wear a simple t shirt underneath a beige sweater, I found in the "wardrobe" they had provided for me and tried on a pair of comfy shorts, after untangling my wet hair, I finally walked out of my room with a resolve to find and talk to Ethan, if he hadn't left already.

But I didn't know where to look for him in this large manor like house, sometimes he would appear out of nowhere if I simply called him out, but I didn't feel comfortable enough to do that anymore, so I decided to look for him myself and walked downstairs, my heart skipped a beat when I heard some noise coming from the kitchen, Brenda surely wouldn't be doing something there at this ungodly hour in the night, right?

I grabbed a narrow but heavy metal piece and tiptoed towards the kitchen to have a look, Ethan stood there in all his glory- going through various cabinets looking for something, he didn't acknowledge me even if he knew that I was standing behind him, which I guess he did so I mock coughed.

He stopped and threw a quick glance at me, then proceeded to pour something into a small pan.

"I need to contact my sister" I said out loud, I cannot just sit back and let them worry for me, but he completely ignored me and kept on doing whatever he was doing; standing there I stared at him, shamelessly for a few moments.

God I missed him.

Shut up.

I walked towards him and slipped between him and the counter "I said I need to get to my sister" I couldn't imagine what they must be going through especially after everything that was happening was in a gravely similar manner to what had already happened before, with dad.

I shivered from the horrible memory.

He looked down at me with raging eyes, even in the darkness, they looked peculiar and shined with a different emotion, transfixed, I kept on looking into them.

I wondered why he always lurked around in the darkness, how was he comfortable with it, and why he'd never bother to turn the lights on, did it sort of represented the state of his life?

Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.

My heartbeat rose as he continued to look at me like that, I felt overwhelmed but I didn't let it show "I compelled them to think that you've gotten a scholarship in your dream university and taken admission there" he said slowly, maybe he leaned down considerably or maybe I was hallucinating but my heartbeat rose even more, was there any limit to his powers ? Was there any proof that he was using none on me? The sudden thought made me queasy so I stepped aside, but he yanked my arm and pulled me between the counter and him again. "This means that they think you're away and they won't look for or worry about you" he said with a certain expression in his eyes and took hold of both of my arms firmly, hearing that lessened more than half of my worries, as long as mom and Emily were safe and happy..I didn't care much about myself.

I saw his eyes grow dark as his cool breathe fanned my entire face some random alarms were going off in my head and I felt lightheaded and hypnotised by his intoxicating presence. Was he aware of the effect he had on me? and did he ever think that I was pathetic because of that? I tried to breathe evenly, but then his hands slid down my arms, brushing against my skin as they travelled down torturously slow before leaving contact with my body, I shivered visibly. He leaned down a bit more and placed both of his hands on either side of me, at the counter such that our faces were only centimetres apart, for a fleeting second I thought he was going to kiss me, and I almost closed my eyes but he pushed me aside with a slight jerk, making me stumble.

"Drink it" he said, pointing towards the mug of hot chocolate that he had just prepared and walked away.

Of course he has no feelings for you, you stupid human girl, I leaned back at the counter and exhaled with a heavy heart.

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A/N : This chapter probably wasn't worth the wait but I was hospitalized recently :( and with a lot of other things happening in my life I got buzy y'all.
The next update is going to be this chapter written in Ethan's POV.
Love,
Rhea ♥️.