Payment

He's the cause

Note: Rewritten but not triple checked for spelling and grammatical errors. If you see one feel free to comment

"And who might this be?" He cracked a cruel smile, his hand drifting up to fiddle with the layers of gold chains dangling on his chest. It was bore open, his shirt only half buttoned so that his silky skin could show through. It was so pale, so white, it reminded me of milk.

"Giovanni!" I could feel the thunderous volume of his voice though his chest, radiation through my back. It was a mini earthquake and my knees buckled to it.

"So lovely." He groaned sensually, his hand reaching slowly toward my face. It was quickly intercepted by Dominik's fist. It swung so hard, backhanded, that I could feel the sickly purple bruise forming through my ears, but he didn't so much as react. "Where on earth did you find her?"

"If you-" The anger in his voice rumbled to a blistering high. It was so loud the room fell silent around us, so loud I felt it bounce around in my chest.

He held his clenched fist up in the air between us and Giovanni, a howl of anger leaving him as he tried his hardest not to pummel him with his bare knuckles. I pushed back into him harder and forced us a few steps from the snickering man who threatened our peaceful evening. I hadn't a clue on how I was going to diffuse the situation but I knew I had to. There was not a single chance they could do it themselves.

"Such a splendid compliment, Giovanni." I spoke through clenched teeth, my hands digging back into Dominik's waist to signal a truce. "Thank you."

"Of course." His eyes cut though me like a wet knife. "Though, I didn't catch your name, darling."

I stammered, my throat tight around each word. "My name is Rozalina. I'm currently in Dominik's care."

A fire lit in his gaze. Heated and violent, I could see all the crude thing filtering through his mind. I had thought, as any normal person, that he would keep it to himself. Despite all the warnings, I wasn't prepared for his calculated attack.

"You poor thing. What on earth could have happened? It must be something tragic for Dominik of all people to take you in." He played at sympathy but it didn't touch his eye nor his tone. He simply lay his hand on his chest as if he were deeply effected. Dramatic is what he was being. He wasn't event trying to hide the fact he was toying with me.

I didn't know how to respond to his blatant disregard for social etiquette. There wasn't a tiny bit of me that had the strength to answer him honestly. How was it going to sound? The fact was that I was abandoned by my parents, penniless, mooching off of Dominik's hospitality like a little leech.

In all sides of my story, I was a parasite. I saw that reflected in his cruel gaze. And as I peered around at the crowd, every single pair of eyes plastered to my face, I saw the exact same thing deemed at me. I saw my worthlessness on their faces as if it were an expression. They grew in size, swelling into giants bigger than the statue they stood around. Looming the length of the room, they looked down at me with those pointative looks. I felt small and cornered. They were like walls closing in at every side, boxing me in until I couldn't breathe. It literally caught my breath. Gripping my lungs with an iron fist until they shriveled up, stinging, bleeding, burning from lack of oxygen.

I couldn't close my eyes to it, couldn't even blink. I stood there breathless until my head started spinning. If I hadn't already been leaning up against Dominik, I would have fallen over.

"Stop it." Dominik's arm gripped me tightly around the waist, keeping me steady, while he cover my eyes and spat at Giovanni. "I know exactly what you are doing."

Though he shielded me from the room, from all the wicked spectators laughing into each others ears, I still couldn't breath. It was like they had somehow tightened my corset. It dug into me like a metal casing. Tighter and tighter until everything went black.

It was like being pulled through a deep dark space. Submerged in weight and sticky like tar, I screamed for help but the words that I shouted weren't mine. I couldn't hear my own voice. Instead, along with a constant ringing, I heard Dominick and another astringed voice. It was deep, too deep to be anything but my imagination. It radiated though the darkness, shaking me to my core. They were arguing, their volume booming to my subconscious. I was sunk too low into the pit to hear anything but snippets.

"Are you trying to start a war?"

"You are not my king!" 

"Ill kill you!"

I tired to focus in of the voices, tired to catch more but all I heard was a ruckus. It was nasty, fleshy, like squashing fruit. It filled me with panic, my lungs desperate to take a breath, to open up and take me away from the darkness. The feeling clung to me as I was ripped out of the pit to a bright blinding light. I gasped into consciousness, a deep burning breath filling my lungs. It felt like my first breath in a lifetime and I choked on it.

Hacking on the soreness in my chest I sat upward from where I was knelt, face tilted forward to meet the floor. My surroundings were a blur, grogginess slowing my reactions. I nearly didn't catch the falling of my dress. It sagged lifelessly in my limp arms, a ridged tear prying it open down the back. Even my corset was undone, sagging against my body.

Looking behind me, I caught a familiar pair of green eyes. They were so wide and filled with shock, I could hardly imagine them fitting on his face.

"What happened?" I croaked, hugging my dangling clothes tight to my chest.

"You collapsed and stopped breathing." He sighed. "I was going to do chest compressions but your shot up when I opened-"

As if just noticing my nakedness, he quickly removed his jacket and draped it over me. It was warm and smelled like him. It engulfed me in a serene sense of relief, the same relief that hung on his face.

I looked around and found the room empty. Though we remained in the show room, all of the people who had filled the place were gone. It was just the two of us.

"Can you stand?" I took his hand, hoisting myself up with the help of his tree trunk for an arm. It was sturdy, not giving a single inch beneath my weight. It was reassuring seeing as my legs wobbled like a leaf in the wind.

My mind raced with images of what had happened. It don't seem real. I wasn't all too sure it was real. People don't grow like beanstalks and there was no explanation as to how I stopped breathing. Even if my corset were drawn too tight, I hadn't had much of a problem until Giovanni appeared. All of it pointed to him. Somehow, he had done this to me.

We turned to leave and as we walked, my gaze caught something peculiar on the ground. It looked like blood, splatted droplets sprayed across the marble.