Like Rapunzel, but Not Really ✔

Chapter 22

Exactly as how I was sitting at that moment.

Connor was outside.

My head snapped to the window as I stood up abruptly. My sudden movement caused my chair to screech loudly. Heads turned to look at me but my frantic eyes were too busy looking for the psycho on my tails.

"What's wrong?" Tristan eyed me worriedly.

Instead of answering him, I sidestepped around the table and dashed outside.

The crisp post-rain air greeted my warm lungs with a bit of surprise. Running down the road, I tried my best to crane my next in search for any sign of Connor.

I looked down at my phone again and studied the picture of Tristan and I sitting at the cafe earlier. It was obviously taken from the outside and from the angle of the shot, that could only mean it was taken right... at....

I looked up across the street.

All the hustle and bustle of footsteps, the changing street lights, the horns blaring - all of it- came to a sudden stop as if I had been transported into a vacuum. Right across me, past the main road, was a Tall, lanky, man in a trench coat and mask covering his face staring right at me behind his dark shades.

He stood tall and stood out from the fast moving crowd just by virtue of being so still against the backdrop of passing pedestrians. His stare on me did not waver one bit. Then he gave me a wave.

And immediately the cool air felt like it had dropped to a plunging chill.

I balled my hands into a fist and stepped onto the road to walk towards him. His smile widened as I clenched my teeth, all ready to confront him. I didn't know what I was going to say or do when I got to him but at that moment, every fibre of my being could only think about chasing after him.

However, amidst the passing people and vehicles in between the distance that separated us, I saw him hold his palm up to tell me to stop.

And stupidly, I obeyed.

And maybe it was my obedience to his order that made his maniacal smile turn into a grin - I was disgusted at myself for following his instructions.

He tapped to his watch and I understood exactly what he was saying.

In time.

In time I was going to be his.

Every cell in my body felt sick and dirty.

He gave one last wave before turning around and started walking into the crowd.

Panic gushed into me as I realised a split second later that I was going to lose him if I did not catch up to him soon. So I began to sprint across without thinking twice.

Immediately a horn blared so loudly into my deafening ears, it made me stumble in shock. And before I could register anything else, I felt a strong grip pull me backwards, it almost felt like I was flying. And then the next moment, I felt the whoosh of a truck speeding past me at where I stood not less than a second ago.

With hammering pounds in my chest and ringing in my ears, I looked up at the person who had saved me from getting run over by a truck.

"What the fuck, Arianna?" Tristan shouted at me angrily.

My confused mind was barely registering what had happened a few seconds earlier.

"Why did you run out like that?" He was no longer shouting but his voice was still rough and uneven.

I tried to answer him but no words would come out. I could only hear a loud, breathing sound, like someone was gasping for air desperately. I realized that person was me.

"Arianna?" He called out to me when I didn't respond. Instead, I stared at the vacant spot where Connor had stood, while my heart tried to calm itself down.

He was gone.

And no matter how hard I tried to scan the crowd rushing about on the pedestrian sidewalk across me, I could not spot him anymore.

"Arianna?" He repeated again while gently touching my shoulder to get my attention.

For fuck's sake.

I punched Tristan on the chest, much to his surprise. "This is your fault!" I cried out. Partly from frustration but also partly from the pain in my knuckle that was beginning to throb harder with each passing second. I cradled my hand and glared at him.

To be perfectly honest, I knew it was no fault of his at all. If anything I was probably pancake on the roadside if it weren't for him. But at that moment, I just needed an outlet to vent my frustration.

Tristan just stared at me back with a raised eyebrow. "What is going on?"

Instead of answering him, I shoved my phone to him and started walking down the road to head back to the hotel. The rain had let out and I reckoned Penny was probably worried about me. As my parents.

Maybe.

I think.

I didn't know anymore. Was there anything from my past that I really knew? Was anything even real?

Was Arianna even my name?

Unsurprisingly, with each step that got me closer to the hotel, the more intense the headache that was beginning to form in my head throbbed. But despite the pain in my head and the slight twinge in my hand from punching Tristan's chest earlier, I could hear distinct footsteps catching up to me from behind.

"He was here?" Tristan's long strides meant that it never took long for him to catch up to me no matter how much of a head start I got over him. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

"Doesn't matter," I muttered, still slightly frustrated. "He's just going to get away as always."

"Arianna, I can't help you if you are always going to actively keep me out," he stopped in his tracks. His sudden halt made me pause my steps, too, before turning around to face his serious face. "Let me save you."

Two things I realised from this situation.

One: Londoners would get very easily annoyed by sudden halts of movement on the pavement. But they won't cuss you and your seven generations of family out for eternal damnation - Instead, they would give this very intense look of disapproval towards your general direction and occasionally a tutting or two.

Two: I realised with horror that some parts of me had begun to accept that the only choice I had was to give up and accept my fate.

Because when I stared at Tristan's face and saw the conviction he was carrying, that dread that had been weighing down my chest momentarily (just momentarily) dissipated. And I could finally put a name to said feeling of dread when I felt it's absence: Doom.

I had been feeling a sense of doom all this while.

But at that moment, when I looked at him, instead of doom, I felt a faint flicker of hope.

"How are you so sure that you can help me when I can't even imagine myself out of this mess?" I quietly asked him. Because I was afraid of this sudden feeling of hopefulness that was starting to creep in and even more terrified that I would come out of this, not just royally screwed, but also disappointed.

But Tristan took a step closer towards me and I found myself frozen in front of him. "Because I will die trying if that's what it takes. And I'm not planning on dying any time soon."

Maybe it was the way he said it. Or maybe it was the tenacity in his eyes that convinced me. Or maybe I was just desperately in need for a hope that there was a way out of this because from where I was standing, the tunnel looked ultra-bleak and barely hanging onto it's final dying lamp.

And so I let that spark of hope live a little for a little bit and dared myself to ask - not as a challenge to prove his point wrong as I always did before but as a person extending her hand out as a cry for help.

"How?"

How will you save me?

He gently placed his hands against my cheeks and smiled softly, as if telling me to entrust my whole life to him. "Like this," he said.

And then he kissed me.