Mysterious Chime (Book #1)

C H I M E 17

¹⁷| WEIRD

"What the bloody hell happened?" A pair of fiery glance locked me in place as soon as I stepped inside the room. Axel who was seated on the couch, stood up and advanced towards me with his gaze never leaving mine.

"Axel, when did you get home?" Upon hearing Axel's voice not long prior I could sight him, my stomach fluttered with butterflies, my body rejuvenating as though a missing fragment was put back together. Dodging my question, Axel kept inching closer giving me the impression that something's gotten into him, for, he's acting less like him, oddly enough.

"Let's try it once again," Axel growled in my ear since we've reached eachother in spitting distance. Swallowing the nervous gulp down my throat my gaze shifted to the floor providing Axel the free rein to take advantage of the moment. Without loss of timeliness he grabbed my arm forcefully keeping me tightly in place. Terror-stricken by his bizarre actions I tried distancing myself which only resulted in him adding pressure to my arm. "Where were you, love? Also why do I find your attire drenched?"

Battling to control my pent up emotions my mind surprisingly swirled back to the evening of mine and Kylie's where she took us to a lake offering it as the final destination. Believing that I'd call it a day after watching the sun setting in the distance, I got up-- but had I been too busy, brushing off the dirt in my back, to realize that Kylie had other plans on her mind. The moment I turned to face her to inform that we should get going, I was dragged by the front of my top. "Ky-" unable to control the sudden force my legs had stumbled forward which led me to hit the water face first. Exhaling loud, I struggled to stand without laying flat like a pancake and my struggles only made the little kid snicker like a brat. "This means war," as soon as those words fell from my lips, me and Kylie attacked each other with the only available weapon---Water. That's how we got wet although we rolled around in the ground to quick dry ourselves.

"Tsk tsk! Is it that bad you can't even tell me?" He mocked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"A-Axel, what's-" I started bewildered with displeasure nevertheless halted when my tangled emotions broke free, settling into that of horror just by one look at his face. After his goodbye it was right at this moment had I managed to get a good look at his face only to find a purple bruise marring his cheek alongside a cut gluing dried blood with it.

"Did you anger your boss?" I thought out loud causing his blowtorch like eyes incinerate the last remaining remnants of my soul into the depth of mystique.

"Pardon me, love, but I don't think you get to question me like that ever," He sneered tripping me completely off the line. Why is he acting like I'm the villain in his story?

In midst of wincing at the effect his fingertips were having on my skin, I tried devising a plan to get away from him. However it all stopped when the guy in front of me whom I thought I knew well enough to trust with my whole pitiful life, blurted something he shouldn't have. Something which brought nothing but misery to my life. A lungful of air exited through the passage way of my mouth without a plan of bringing back any oxygen in. I decided if I'm to die, I'd rather die losing my own breath than giving my life to a person I've been trusting at the beginning of my new life.

"I should have killed you the moment I saw you," With gritted teeth, his angry voice echoed in my head provoking a gut wrenching reaction out of me. Betrayal. I clutched my chest unable to bear the deception I've been living through.

"W-what?" My ears refused to listen to Axel's harshly evocative words having grown rather fond and much likely used to his sweet, flattering ones. The dramatic turn of events ensnared my psyche to imagine that what's unfolding is naught but some kind of joke or trickery. I really wished the latter, however, the universe was crude enough to demonstrate that reality is far worse than one's poignant imagination. Everything from the start rushed in: the day he approached me, the fabricated lies, his words and actions that got me into trusting him. It all was just a lie. I've been living in a honey coated evil lair like a sheep caught up in a lion's den.

"Need I remind you everything, love?" Axel tilted his head, lips curving to a sinister smile reflecting an evil gleam in his eyes. It's funny how the person I felt safe with the most turned out to be the person I should have been fearing since the start. His soulful, ocean blue eyes that once held me in place with overly love and concern was lost to a black hole filled with nothingness---dark, empty and soulless.

Fed up feeling vulnerable whilst manhandled I pushed myself off him with force supplied by my betrayed emotions. Axel stumbled back, his eyes widening with surprise but quickly concealed it with a bored expression. "What, little lamb doesn't desire to seek shelter under the wings of its shepherd anymore?"

"What I desire is the truth," I spat angrily powering up Axel's wicked smile higher and higher as though my words were some secret ingredient for stirring the beast within him to life. "I'll grant that to you without a delay but first off, I need you to be a dear and take a seat," His eyes threw daggers at me before shifting to the couch he was previously seated at. Without arguing I straightened my back easing off the tension in either sides of my shoulders before planting down with a plop. Crossing my arms, I shot a raised brow at his direction silently granting him the permission to go on. Axel stayed rooted for a minute or two which made it look like he was having an inner battle of his own. I observed him without a sound and all he did was run his calloused palm roughly across his face all the way up until he was tugging the ends of his mane. Perhaps, he expected me to run away after learning that I've been sharing my amnesiac life with my own murderer, I for one, found it amusing myself to stand my grounds but if I'm to die I'd at-least want a satisfactory death having reminisce my memories. Or maybe he's simply weighing the options of killing me now or later.

Axel's hand movements stopped, eyes paired onto mine. Allowing a loud huff Axel strolled in my direction casually like he never came clean with the fact that he's my killer, making me sit on pins and needles. Planting himself across me Axel leaned forward, his fisted palm placed underneath his stubble formed chin. "Which one do you want to know first, how I got this..." He gestured to his face before continuing with a smirk," or how your life got so fucked up?" My eyes went wide combined with a wince at his choice of words- crude and unfamiliar.

My clenched fists lying on either sides of my thighs weren't the adequate source of energy required to face what's coming forth but brushing it away I suggested, "How about you tell me everything from the scratch?"

"The scratch huh? Alright then, buckle up, love, for I assure, you aren't going to enjoy a tad bit of the information I'm about to spurt out." I sensed mockery, vengeance and the motive of agonizing me. But why?

Annoyed by his behavior I snapped, "Go on, already."

"Here's the thing, love. My boss isn't one of those typical ones you'd imagine of with a dad-bod or worse. No no," he shook his finger at my face. Taking a deep breath Axel continued, " Instead of barking orders like I want my coffee first thing in the morning, my boss would say 'I want their body- dead first thing in the morning. Inefficient employee? A normal boss's solution would be firing that person off but my boss, my boss speaks his farewells through a bullet in that inefficient employee's skull. He's a mob boss, love, and I'm his mobster." Axel laid back, hands spreading on either sides of the couch, relaxingly, like he told something I should be proud of. Just as his sadist eyes sparked with excitement watching the panic dancing across my eyes, I didn't want to give him the satisfaction that I'm on the verge of throwing myself off a bridge after hearing that he's involved in a gang.

Suddenly I remembered the phone calls he'd been receiving from his so called boss. Putting two and two together I mocked him. "Explains the tattoos on your deceitful face. Since it's between you and your boss, I could care less. Now, can you tell me why you want me dead?"

His jaw clenched and unclenched at the mention of his face scoring me some satisfaction having triggered a nerve in him. However, my happiness was short lived when Axel threw his head back- filling the nonchalant and even ironical air- with laughter. "My, My! Nora, let's not absurdly jump to conclusions now shall we? It's not me who wants you dead, love."

I knitted my brows in confusion wondering if not him then who. "It's the same boss I've been talking about. C'mon wasn't it obvious?" He threw his hands up, eye widening while his entire body shook with a murderous energy.

Why does his mob boss want me dead?