𝚮𝐢𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐞𝐫 | 18+

5 || LEGAL NAME

Storm's eyes darted between hers. "Tell me one thing about your father that only you would know."

"I was six. What was he supposed to tell me?"

His thumb pressed against the pulsing vein on the base of her neck. "Even good parents can't hide what bad people they are."

Her breath hitched. "He played chess sometimes with some men. But those men never came out alive. They'd all lose." All but one. Storm had come out alive before returning a few days later to kill her entire family. "But you won... Didn't you?"

Storm didn't say anything, he didn't react, he only stared back into her pretty blues with his piercing paler eyes.

"He didn't kill you."

Before Sophia could dissect his every feature, every expression and every thought, his phone rang, pulling his attention away from the girl. He let go of her, beelining to his phone and picked it up, only to glare at Sophia. "Skazhi mne togda, kto segodnya umirayet. Eto malen'kaya poyushchaya kanareyka peredo mnoy ili ty? Kto-to vrot, vopros kto." Tell me then who is dying today. Is it the little singing canary in front of me or you? Someone is lying, the question is who.

Sophia racked her brain for her legal name. She couldn't remember it. She didn't use it, after all. The bank people and even staff workers of the apartment complex called her Ms. Morales. No one called her by her legal name anymore.

She had been Sophia Morales, then Sophia Harris, Sophia Peterson, Sophia Martinez, Sophia Evans and then Sophia Smith before switching back to Sophia Morales. It didn't matter anyway. Sophia had deleted herself almost entirely from the face of Earth. Even if she died, no one would look for her. No one cared for her. No one even knew her.

Sophia had already told Storm that she wasn't lying. He didn't want words, however. He wanted proof. A DNA test would endanger his position, however. If it came out that she existed, that she was alive, it'd put him in an uncomfortable spot. Especially with the knowledge that she knew. He couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't let it.

The girl stood up and walked away. Her finger was swollen and blue. She'd have to get it amputated if she didn't relieve it somehow. She didn't know how to do it, however. She only knew what she'd seen Storm do and fixing a broken finger was not something he did often.

Ice. She needed ice. That was the first step.

Before she could go too far, however, Storm grabbed her hair and pulled her back flush against him. "YA ub'yu tebya." I will kill you.

Sophia shuddered, tilting her head back and met his cold gaze as he continued pressing the phone to his ear. He wrapped his fingers around her throat, craned her neck and arrested her gaze with his.

"Sophia Kuznetsov."

"Yes?" The younger girl spoke.

Storm ignored her. "Togda ishchite Vera Morales." Then look for Vera Morales.

Sophia's lips parted in shock and embarrassment. He wasn't talking to her but the person on the phone.

"Togda posmotrite na den'gi. Nasledovaniye. Komu dostalos' nasledstvo? Kuda delis' chertovy den'gi?" Then look at the money. Inheritance. Who got the inheritance? Where did the damn money go?

Sophia let out a cry when she accidentally brushed her swollen finger against her thigh, hurting herself in the process. Storm didn't seem to care. He was too distracted by her eyes to care about anything else.

"Sophia Smith, hmm? Ne khorosho," Storm scoffed. "Vot uvidish'." Not good. You'll see.

Sophia watched him as he ended the call and stuffed his phone into his pocket. He pushed her hair out of her face, giving her one long stare before letting go of her.

"Sidet'." Sit.

Sophia watched as he walked away before she walked back to the chair. Storm returned not long after, smirking upon seeing what chair she'd picked. He zip-tied her to the chair and this time she didn't make a fuss. She just watched as he worked, using the rope to tie her thighs and torso to the chair as well as her legs and wrists. He didn't trust her and he wasn't hiding that.

"Are you leaving again?" Sophia asked, grumbling. She was going to sit on the chair, motionless, hungry, thirsty and cold again. He'd yet to give her any water or food. She was so tired.

Storm didn't answer her, he only glanced at her.

"Please don't turn the heater off."

Storm only glared at her and did the exact opposite of what she'd asked and turned the heater off as though he didn't have the money to keep it on. It wasn't long before he was out of the door, leaving Sophia in the room with the shitty insulation. It wasn't long before it was cold again.

And it certainly wasn't long before Koshmar came out of hiding, grinning at the young girl as he stopped and stared at her vulnerable self. He had been waiting for that all day—for her to be alone and vulnerable, no Storm to come and stop him. He'd deal with Storm later.

Sophia froze, fear consuming her being. Sophia didn't know what to do to get out of the pickle before her. She just knew what not to do: Don't move, don't look it in the eyes and certainly do not breathe. Basically just die. That was the safest option for her. After all, that dog had been trained since a puppy to maul its food before eating it.

It wasn't long before it charged at her and bit her leg, tearing through the fabric of her sweats and the flesh of her ankle as she cried out in pain. He knocked the chair over, came right up to her face and growled, grinning at the sight of her teary cheeks.

He didn't even recognise her anymore. "Koshmar, Mishka," she cried. "Chto on tebe sdelal?" Little bear. What did he do to you?

As though overcome with shock, the dog took a few steps back and stared at her. It wasn't long before he gave her another sniff and suddenly was overwhelmed with guilt as the girl continued crying in pain. He bit off the rope in panic before realising that his owner had tied her using zip ties as well.

Panicking, Koshmar started clawing at the doors and barking loudly as the girl bled out onto the carpet, the very girl who'd taken care of him when he was only days old and Storm didn't know how to. Storm just magically thought that he'd taken good care of the puppy when it was Sophia who would sneak into his apartment when he wasn't home and feed the poor puppy, snuggle with him and give him kisses before Storm took all of that away and began taking the puppy with him to work.

Sophia was the mother who'd mysteriously left, leaving him with his mean father.

Koshmar cried out, licking the wound to try to aid it but when the girl cried out and he realised that the damage was way deeper than he ever could help, he started howling for his father to come and turn the situation around.

But Storm was far away. And he wasn't returning for another long while.

𓆩❤︎𓆪
Funny fact: Koshmar means nightmare in Russian.