ELIZA

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN: TRANSYLVANIA

My eyes widened.

"We're not staying here?"

Cosmo spread the map on the table, showing me exactly where we were.

"No, you definitely have bad memories with Romania. I want you to choose something yourself."

I bit my lip. Of course he was right. The beginning in Romania was terrible for me. At the time, I did not know why he decided to drug me and kidnap me. But why did he suggest to choose another country now? He wanted me to suddenly become the organizer of the trip, not a prisoner and a victim. Is that how he will defend himself in court? That he didn't kidnap me, but I went with him willingly on a vacation I always dreamed of?

"Eliza?"

I looked at Cosmo and then at the map. We were about two hundred kilometers from the border with Hungary.

"Not me..." I cleared my throat evasively. "You can choose anything."

I knew that it wouldn't be Hungary just in case. Hungary was in both - the European Union and the Schengen Area, so he certainly won't risk being captured at the border.

"Serbia then," he decided just as the waitress appeared carrying our dishes.

We ate in silence. Of course, I'd never been to Serbia before, so it would probably be fun to see and visit the country. But... I'd never wanted to see it in such circumstances.

Do I really have to treat what is happening now as a trip? I'd rather go back to my country, I thought miserably.

"You became sad," Cosmo noticed when we were leaving the restaurant. One thing was for sure, I couldn't deny him his perceptiveness.

"It's only temporary," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

We came home before the evening and started packing right away. Due to the fact that Cosmo knew better where our belongings were, he practically did everything and I just pretended that I was helping him. After some time though, I gave up and made us sandwiches.

I was surprised where the sudden rush came from, but Cosmo said he wanted to show me Belgrade and didn't want to wait. I guess he really believed my word that I wouldn't run away.

In the morning we continued our journey. I had no blindfold on, so I watched with strange fondness through the rear window as the house I had lived in for the past few weeks moved away as we drove the car through the woods.

Maybe it's a good thing that we left this place, I thought, touching my stomach. Since I got up, it hurt a lot, but it was nothing extraordinary. Almost every woman suffered from menstrual pain. Due to the stress of kidnapping, I didn't have periods at all in Romania and now the pain has accumulated. I was wondering if Cosmo thought about the pads when he provided us and about painkillers.

"Why don't we stop at the station?" I offered timidly. I wanted to go to the toilet to see if I needed tampons already.

"What for? We have a lot of fuel. While you were asleep, I refueled," he replied, finally pulling out of the dirt road onto the national road. "Should I buy you something?" he added with concern.

It started to irritate me. I wasn't his kept woman. I could buy medicine myself if he only gave me my wallet...

"No, it's just... I'd rather have the money with me."

"It's not possible," he was adamant. He probably thought that the money would make it easier for me to escape. "Besides, what will you do with our currency? In Serbia, you pay with dinars."

I didn't say a word again. I guess I fell asleep for a few hours angry for his aggressive attitude. I was awakened by the Cosmo turning off the engine. I looked around distractedly:

"What's happening? Are we in Serbia?" I asked in a sleepy voice.

Cosmo smiled.

"Not yet. It's still Romania, but before we leave it, I wanted to show you something."

I didn't care too much. I didn't know where I was and my stomach hurt even more than before falling asleep. Furious with Cosmo and the whole world, I gritted my teeth and got out of the car into the parking lot. There were many cars around. So we had to be in some popular place, but still unknown to me.

It was only when we got onto the wooden drawbridge that my breath took my breath away. There was an amazing sight around me. I saw an industrial city on my left and green Transylvania on my right. A magnificent castle stretched out in front of me and the riverbed beneath me.

"Do you like it?" Cosmo asked, watching me carefully as I stopped in the middle of the bridge.

I nodded my head. It was beautiful.

"And apparently you don't like anything related to fantasy," my companion laughed, pointing to the lock in front of us.

I frowned, even to me the castle resembled a fairy-tale stronghold, but Cosmo immediately explained:

"Legends say that Vlad the Impaler was held captive here."

It's the vampire one, I thought, looking at the brick tiles of the houses to my left.