I wake up once again to a vast darkness that occupied the room around me. I blink a few times, pushing the sleep off my eyes and adjust them to my surrounding, an unfamiliar one to my eyes.
The air around smelled of a fresh breath of mint that my lungs was hungrily filling up with, almost as if it could never have enough. But what shocked me was the current that was zapping me the entire time. It wasn't one that caused me discomfort but one that sent delicious chills throughout my body and left me wanting for more. Just a lot more.
Finally, when I was conscious enough of my surrounding, my head a lot clearer, I feel the heaviness on my belly, a tingling sensation as a warm breath continues to blow against it. I suck in a breath, my heart once again starting to come alive. And in this silence, it was as loud as the roaring of a lion.
I slowly push myself up, my elbows on either side of the soft mattress that I was lying on. Holding my breath, I will myself to sit up enough to see the silky golden hair that laid on my naked belly, facing away from me.
My previous night's dress had been replaced by this soft white cotton shirt, but was pushed further up to my chest, my lower half bare apart from the small black lace which seemed to be the only thing covering me.
Even though, I should have been angry, furious that a stranger laid with me, on top of me, I was not. My heart just kept fluttering non-stop at the sight in front of me. A man whose face I had yet to see or whose name still foreign to my lips. A glimpse of those soft golden mane and my heart was on overdrive.
His touch was all it took to ignite a spark on my body like shock. A delicious shock.
My breathing gets laboured as I watch his sleeping form, the side of his face flush to my skin as he laid across the massive bed. One of his large palms right where his face was, covering my entire belly, holding me, almost possessively.
I tried unsuccessfully to sniff him out, of what he was, of what he could be. I just couldn't smell past the delicious minty scent that was radiating off of him. But one thing was for sure, he was no Lycan, nor a werewolf in fact. Even though there were traces of that scent lingering on him, it was fading with time, so he wasn't entirely one of them. So, who was he then?
What was he?
With great difficulty, I succeed in getting myself out of his hold. I stand by the foot of the large bed, looking down at him as he now lays alone, sprawled across the bed, the upper half of his body, bare and delicious, only for my sight. My heart curses me for being away from a man I barely knew, already missing those electric touches, warm embrace and even the possessive hold.
The scene in front of me broke my heart a little at a time. Within that huge surface of white sheets, he looked all alone and lonely, and it only made me want to jump right back and hold him close to me, to let him hold me as he wished. To forever-
No. What was I thinking?
For all I know, this man could be an enemy, a cold-hearted killer. I had to get away from him. From here. How did I even end up here?
My memories of last night were coming back in a blur and I struggled to put the pieces together, but no matter how unclear the pictures were, none of those pieces held a memory of him, of how we met, of what I was doing in someone else' house, in someone else' clothes.
Oh, my goodness, where even was my clothes? If I could even call it that. I frantically look around me in search for my black piece of treasure but find nothing. Not wanting to get caught now, I hold my breath as I tip-toed out the room after having one last look at the godly body that laid across the bed. Oh, how much I wanted to put my hands through those golden manes. How much I wanted to feel its softness against my fingertips. I-
No. Zoe, stop.
Just stop.
I need to get out of here before I lose control and give in to my wild thoughts. I tiptoe my way out but quickly cover my mouth before a squeal so out loud escapes my mouth, the scene in front of me was just breath taking. The open apartment room below me looked proud as bright sunlight flooded in through the tall glass walls that surrounded the room below.
I take hesitant steps down the stairs while taking in the beautiful view in front of me. Soft white sofa sat on the centre of the room facing the equally white wall that held a large black screen which looked to be untouched. The entire surface look to be too clean, too neat for a person to be living in it.
No decoration. No sense of ownership. Just new and uninhabited.
When my head finally gets clearer and I realise even more of where I could be, I immediately look for an exit but end up finding my pair of black heels next to the sofa. I clutch it to my chest and look for more, but find nothing else, just a black coat on the sofa which I happily take and put it over me.
Although the shirt covered my body just fine, I didn't plan on walking out like that. Shaking off any other thoughts from brewing in my head, I continue my search for an exit and make out a- lift? At the corner of the open room. Oh goodness, where even was I? I quickly run to the elevator door and push the button repeatedly until it finally opens up.
I should have felt a sense of relief as the two metal barricades welcomes me in, but all I felt was this- this...sadness?
My heart thumps as I take that step into the elevator, my feet moving as if left on automate. My hands shaking at this point. But I somehow manage to press the button that would soon lead me to my freedom.
Away from this stranger.
I should have felt happy, my heart a little lighter, but nothing feels right. My heart becomes so silent that for a second it makes me wonder if it had stopped functioning altogether.
And just when the doors starts to come together, creating this barrier between us, my heart decides to riot. The pain I felt at this moment was almost unbearable, my heart fought against my body, wanting to rip apart, away from its host and I end up clutching my chest tightly in an attempt to stop my heart from doing as it promised. My breathing coming out short and laboured.
Time dragged itself as it caged me within these walls and the pain in my heart only kept getting worse. When the elevator finally dings open on the lobby, I force myself to stand upright and wipe my sweat beaded forehead with the sleeves of the coat that was few sizes too big for me. Wrapping the coat tightly around me, I take slow steady steps out of the building that looked about empty. And soon as I exit the building, I haul a cab and without looking back, I leave.
Finally, I was away and safe.
Wasn't I?
I should feel safe, shouldn't I? I have just escaped from a stranger's hold. One that I didn't even know the race to identify them as one.
But- but why was it that the further away I got, the worst the aching in my heart got. The pain doubling as the seconds passed. It wasn't the physical pain. No, it was beyond that.
Although my face had a perfect mask on, I couldn't hide the terror of my hand as it trembled ever so slightly. I close my eyes, taking slow deep breaths in as my heart drums loudly in my ears. Cursing me. I bite the inside of my cheeks hard and soon the metallic taste of blood invades my senses. At least it somehow subsides some of the pain in my heart.
You are alright. Your heart is just traumatized right now. You just escaped a stranger's hold. Give it a little time and you'll be okay.
I keep telling myself over and over again. Ha! But who was I kidding? My heart was forever wounded, haunted by the dreams that turned into nightmares and now took my sleep away.
"Miss, I don't think I can go any further."
Hint of fear in the air and a slight tremble in his voice brings me back to the now. I open my eyes to the familiar view in front of me and a bunch of defensive Lycans, tall and muscular, blocking the path ahead, the reason for the rising panic in the car. "Just here is fine. Hold on."
I inhale a sharp breath before I let myself out to the guards marching my way along with an expressionless Alex. "Pay the guy and send him off will you. I'm tired."
I hold Alex' arm and lean against him, my body finally feeling its own weight. I know he wanted to say a lot. He had a lot to ask. But like always he releases a deep sigh and relaxes his tense posture.
He picks me up in his arms, and I let him. I just want to close my eyes and I do just that. I feel him move forward with several footsteps following right behind and the closing of the metal gate. But right now, I didn't have the energy to deal with any of this. I'm tired. I was too tired. My body felt numb.
I couldn't feel anything, anymore.
I wake up as the warm bright light shines upon my face. I blink my eyes several times as I awaken myself from my restless slumber to the empty silence and a blank ceiling over me. I hear another heartbeat in the room and soon a helping hand as I sit myself upright. And I know just who it was.
I close my eyes once again and lean back on the headboard as the heaviness in my body becomes too much. For some reason, I felt as if all my energy had been drained right out of me, fixing a part of me, filling an empty void. It felt as if I was surviving on that last drop of blood that struggled to reach my heart.
I felt like an empty vessel. I couldn't feel my Lycan, nor the darkness that often fought for dominance time and again. It was like they both never existed.
I release a breath quite loudly as I once again open my eyes. I turn my head to finally look at Alex, who held the worries of the universe in his face, his form rigid as he stands beside the bed, almost ready to hold me if or when I fall.
But why would I?
"Alex, what's wrong with you?" I narrow my eyes at him as he continues to look at me with that expression on his face that I am all too familiar with to dismiss.
"Nothing." He mumbles quietly and turns around to face outside, knowing all too well that he could not hide from me. There definitely was something that I did not know or could not remember. But that was the problem, regardless, I was clueless.
I scramble through my jumbled memories, juggle past the night, but I find nothing wrong apart from the fact that I couldn't really remember the happenings of the previous night. For some reason, I couldn't remember what had happened. I vaguely remember getting excited to go to the club, dancing through the night.
But what next?
Had I been drugged by someone? Or did my brain not have enough capacity to hold the incidents of the night that it decided to wipe out everything? Whatever had happened, was it too much for this body to handle?
But I felt normal. Well, how I usually am.
I skim through every possible loop, every nook and crooks. But I get nothing. Everywhere I looked, there was only pitch-black darkness, like always, and I found nothing wrong with it.
I would have eventually thought that there was nothing wrong, if it wasn't for this prickling feeling in my heart. Like a needle had been constantly poking it, punishing my brain for its doing. Wanting it to recollect whatever it seemed to have lost.
But only the image of the stranger's lonely body as he lays alone on the white mattress comes to mind. The last and the only picture of his that my eyes took.
A trail of river runs down the valley of my cheeks as my heart bleeds continuously. For the owner was too incapable to feel or to understand. It's voices like an ancient whisper.
Never to be heard nor understood.