Chapter Two
Cassandra woke in her bed. No, it was not her bed. Her eyes squinted in the dim light of the room as she tried to focus on her surroundings.
"Where the fuck?" she said as she propped herself up onto her left arm.
Her vision became clearer as she looked around the room then she pushed herself into a sitting position. Strangely enough, she moved as though her body did not hurt. She knew her ribs had been broken. She felt them crack when the men kicked her repeatedly. She knew she had been shot and had felt the intense pain when it happened.
She thought about everything that happened, but had no answers.
'How could I not be in pain now? How long had I been here? Where was I?' her thoughts spun through her head.
Cassandra slid her feet off of the bed and stood up. Still, she did not feel any pain from what happened to her last night.
'Was it last night? Hell, I did not know what day it was. Maybe it had been months since they attacked me.' she thought to herself as her mind raced through everything that had transpired.
She walked to a full-size mirror hanging on the back of the only door in the room and pulled her shirt up. There were no bruises. There were no bullet holes. There was nothing out of the ordinary, other than the fact that she did not have a mark on her.
'What the fuck happened to me? Did I dream the attack? It was not possible. I saw my mom and dad murdered in front of me.' The thoughts were going to drive her crazy. Cassandra needed some answers, but she was not going to find any in this small room.
Cassandra moved to the window of the room and looked out through a small crease in the curtains. She recognized her surroundings and knew immediately that she was in was in one of the high-rise apartments in Queens.
She found her shoes sitting on the floor next to the bed and slipped them on then moved back to the door. Cassandra placed her ear up close to the surface and listened for anything from the other side, but all she could hear was silence.
Cassandra turned the handle of the door slowly and it clicked as the mechanism inside turned. It was unlocked and there would be no stopping her now. The door pushed open and she walked into the next room. Cassandra seemed was surprised to see a man sitting in the room.
He spoke quietly with a calm voice. "Good morning."
Cassandra looked like she was going bolt across the room and escape through the door that she assumed led to the hallway of the apartment building, but something about the way the man spoke intrigued her.
"Who are you?" she asked the man who had still not looked up from his newspaper.
He placed the newspaper on his lap and beckoned Cassandra to move to the living room and have a seat.
"I promise dear, I will not bite." his words were soothing.
Cassandra moved into the living room and sat in the chair across from him. She stared at the man sitting across from her as he brushed his bangs out of his eyes. The bangs were the longest part of his dark hair, as the rest was well cropped and neatly trimmed. She had never seen anyone with eyes quite like his. They appeared violet as she stared into them.
"Who are you?" she asked him again.
The man smiled at her then spoke, "My name is Sebastian."
She started to speak again and he held up his hand to stop her.
"I am sure we have plenty of time to chat, but let me provide you with some of the answers that I believe would benefit you the most."
Cassandra looked at him in shock. How could he know what was important to her. She seemed intrigued by the man, so she waited for him to speak again.
