rogue ⇒ l.h

[20]

[20]

i was an hour early from the designated time. i looked around at the familiar surroundings. the roof large and vast. i was completely sandwiched between the black empty night sky and the endless city ground.

for a moment, i felt free with the cold night wind blowing about me and i closed my eyes, wishing i could fly and fall and sleep forever.

maybe it was a minute. maybe it was an hour. but when i opened my eyes, erik was standing in front of me. i stifled a gasp and backed away from the close proximity he was at. he smirked at me.

he was wearing a black or maybe blue shirt that clung to his chest. his usual jeans were torn and tattered. his hair was styled in a different way than i remembered. his face was still the same rugged handsomeness.

i didn't speak. just stared at him with fury and hatred. he smiled like a cheshire cat, "i missed you anna."

i looked down and spat at his shoes. he didn't falter, instead he looked at me in an expression i couldn't understand. "i've been trying to find you for so long, and all this while you were here. right under my nose," he said.

"screw off." i said vengefully, venom lacing my words. i expected him to laugh or hurt me but instead, he moved forward— so fast i almost didn't see him— and was a few centimeters from my face.

i lost my balance but he caught me before i could fall. "don't you dare say that to me darling," his breath against my neck, "you know what i can do."

"you won't dare erik, you want me alive," i countered.

"you may just be wrong, darling." he said before i felt pressure in my head and my skull and i think i screamed but i forgot, and i blacked out.

---

i woke up in a stranger's bed, disoriented. i realized the events of last night and bolted upright. erik was sound asleep next to me. what the hell, did he have a death wish? maybe he did. i glared at his sleeping frame. i could kill him right now in his sleep, touch him and he wouldn't wake up to see the light. i could do that, but something held me back. i don't know what.

he woke up just then and caught me watching him. "ah, anna. been staring at me for how long?"

he kicked the covers off and revealed only boxers. he really did have a death wish.

erik gave me tea and bread to eat. he showed me around his house, as if i were a guest, his hand around my waist the whole time. it hit me that i was going to live here, with this insane obsessed lunatic. i don't think i would make it out alive. erik was acting charismatic and nice now but i knew him too well, he would turn abusive and possessive again.

at night, he left me in his bedroom not before kissing my head goodnight and threatening to hurt my loved ones if i dared to leave.

i tossed and turned in his soft bed for an hour and decided i couldn't sleep. after a while of contemplating, i took a chance and made my way to the door. surprisingly, erik hadn't locked it, probably assuming i wouldn't dare to escape because of his threat. but he was right, i wasn't going to escape, not anymore. he would find me no matter where i went so what's the point?

i crept out, nobody was there. i decided to find the kitchen below at the ground level. the house seemed empty but i knew from experience that it was surrounded by bodyguards. i entered the glass lift and saw a 'b' button on the panel. erik had told me that basement level was his gym. i hadn't been interested in gym but now i wanted to explore it because i hadn't been in there yet. i didn't think he was there because it didn't make sense to exercise at night.

i pressed the 'b' button and stepped out when i reached. i walked into a long dark corridor. i was led into a small room with white-washed walls.

there were rows and rows of knifes and guns lined on the racks on the walls. there were any weapon you could imagine filled in this very room. that wasn't what shocked me.

luke was sitting in a metal chair tied and bound, bruises and cuts all over his face and body, blood running down his face. he was unconscious.