𝚋𝚕𝚞𝚎 𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚜 ━━ 𝚓𝚘𝚑𝚗 𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ━ ❝𝐖𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓. ❞

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ━ ❝𝐖𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓. ❞

𝐓𝐇𝐄 silence caressed her delicate skin like a cool summery breeze, smoothing her soul, taking away her jagged edges. It lingered in the air, thick and heavy, like a blanket made for the winter. Wherever she moved, that silence that was comforting yet painful followed her, always watching and never fading. That silence was her own, personal shadow.

After a frenetic night inside the Calder Estate, Eleanor sank into her armchair. It was the eerie time of three in the morning and everything around her was hauntingly quiet. She drank from her cup of icy water in the silence through every pore, oddly soothed by it's meditative quality.

Each time a worrying thought surfaced she mentally jotted it down on a notepad and took another sip from her cup to cure her mental state. When her anxieties had finally leached into the void, she shifted her aching limbs into a more comfortable position on the armchair. Then she would sit there, staring out through the large rectangular window, wrapped in a duvet, cocooned by the thick protective buffer of the absolute silence.

When the sky holds nothing but the promising of rainfall and more storms, and when the only parental figure becomes a nightmare to be around, life gets lonely. When all Eleanor wanted is a hand to hold or an arm about her shoulders and none comes, or to hear the reassurance that life will get better, the universe becomes cold and empty, a slow poison for the soul.

There was no one to accompany her tonight. Hugh Calder had instigated yet another argument to break out between himself and Eleanor earlier in the day before he had left for Siskia Penitentiary. It was nothing surprising ━ being left alone. Hugh spent a large portion of his time at the isolated Penitentiary and whenever he did return to his lavish homestead he would either lock himself inside the office, belittle and mistreat many of his men, cussing and damning them over the smallest of things or would either cause an argument with Eleanor or take his anger out on her over his heavy workload.

Eleanor Calder knew the moment she started to cry, she was alone. She cried slowly, with tears dripping down her cheeks and the soft sobs of her own voice humming and echoing throughout the room. She knew she existed and breathed, yet felt so utterly alone and non-important.

The rest of the world could be seen through the window, drifting farther and farther away as tears glazed her glossy eyes, blurring her vision as some teardrops made their way down her plump and reddened cheeks. They fell onto her parted lips and clumped onto her eyelashes. She could taste them, rolling down her quenched yet parched throat. Eleanor Calder was completely alone.

As she continued to stare out the window, her eyes still glossy and her soft sobs still echoing lightly throughout the dim lighted bedroom, her mind raced to all sort of memories ━ memories she shouldn't be allowing to enter her mental state. With each thought holding its own story and with each one entering her mind, one after the other, her lower lip would quiver and her hand that was gripping the glass cup would shake undeniably as she brought it up to take a sip.

Tonight it felt like nature conspired against to keep her in the dark, not allowing nor daring her to whisper the reassurance she desperately needed and craved deeply. Then the loud noise of multiple hurried footsteps and the squeak of a door being opened brought her heart racing as fast as a gunshot.

It was too late for Eleanor to whip her head around as the lower arm of a male strapped around her neck and drew out a knife, holding it dangerously close to the fragile skin of her neck. The young girl froze in her seated position, her sobbing halted to a stop and her tears frozen from departing her eyes as she hitched a breath.

Her brain shut down instantly. She was clammy and there was the glisten of cold sweat. Her eyes were as wide as if someone was going to kill her in this very second. Yet what her eyes saw, no-one else could see and what she felt was a feeling she couldn't bring to life with words. Trapped in her own psychosis, a living nightmare for one, tailor made by her own brain to play on her deepest fears.

Eleanor had always envisioned the house being broken into when she would be alone, it was always a thought that was pushed to the back of her head but constantly remained there and tonight that scary thought had come to life.

Her watery eyes enlarged and the hairs on the tape of her neck bristled upwards. A army of goose pimples laminated her frigid, naked skin. Slow and deliberate, the door handle being twisted was audible as more footsteps lingered inside the room.

She tried to scream, but the inside of her mouth lacked any moisture and a quiet croak was all that issued from her gape as the short knife with the sharp pointed dagger edged closer and closer to neck, the coldness of the weapon finally connecting with her skin.

Starved for air, her heart raced at a tremendous speed, and her lungs shallowly rose and fell in time. There was three hooded men in the reflection from the window. Though one of them in particular seemed to be making an effort to hide his identity, his head shook side to side, as though there was so much tension in him it had to be released.

Eleanor kept her eyes widely enlarged as she didn't dare to move nor tear her gaze from the window. The hot breath that stunk of alcohol and cigars touched the crook of her neck, the warmth that radiated off of his face brushing past her cheek as the masked man edged his visage closer to hers until his skin was in contact with her's. "Miss, we finally meet," His voice was low but clear enough for his words to linger out crisply. "You're comin' with us ━ we've got some business to deal with that concerns the likes of your wealthy father.."

At that eerie moment those sinister words came rolling off of his tongue and entering her head, Eleanor knew she was going to be taken ━ her world had finally reached it's breaking point.