She paced back and forth by the fireplace, nervously playing with her fingers.
The clock slowly ticked, and it ticked, and it ticked.
"He's taking long..." she mumbled, her breathing considerably growing faster.
Could she even trust him?
He was never honest with her before.
What if this was just a way to lure her back in?
She cannot get sucked back into this life. Into the life he wanted for her. Into the life she escaped.
She wanted a fresh start. And she was getting that with Nathan and her journalist job. She had a new beginning.
But her father...he was always holding her back. Always chaining her to everything she wanted to leave behind.
And she could not have that anymore.
"Do you think this was a good idea?" She paused, her feet rooted to the ground as she looked up and into the Don's eyes.
They were blank. Dark and empty as he devoured her with his gaze. He stood in the dim corner of the room with arms locked behind his back, coldly observing her. His lips silent and his expression solid.
A predator. A silent predator.
"Was it?" She asked again, right as footsteps trailed through the entrance.
Her father.
"Lucy," he called out, stepping towards her with his arms wide, a huge smile on his face.
Not taking notice of the deathly presence hanging in the air. 'Though still, he felt it was chilly. Cooler than the other areas of his mansion. More silent, quiet. More deadly. Haunting.
She stood a little too close to the fire as her gaze met her fathers'. Her legs heating up. She straightened out her arms by her sides and slightly widened her eyes.
It was the first time she had seen him in a year.
He looked older. More wrinkly. Weaker. Grayer.
"You came," he said as he embraced her. She didn't hug back. She only forced a small smile as she let out an almost struggling noise, looking out the side of her eye at Natsu, as if asking for help.
The Don stepped into the light as his eyes grew duller. His heels clicked on the ground before stepping onto the antique rug. Heavy. Deathly.
As if each step was a warning.
He sat back on the armchair, resting as he spread his legs for comfort.
Waiting.
"Come," Jude gestured. "Sit. We have much to discuss,"
"W-Wait," Lucy said, looking behind her father, directly into Natsu's eyes.
"Father, I'd like you to meet someone," she said, brushing her shoulder with his as she walked towards the Don.
"This is Nathan," she turned, gesturing.
He turned around and laid his eyes on him. Seated back. A sly smirk on his face. Those jade, deadly eyes drilling into him. That hair. Salmon, just as he remembers it.
It's him.
It's him.
"No introduction necessary," the Don spoke. His voice heavy, shedding through the air, piercing through her father's ears.
Jude's blood froze.
He could feel the shivers traveling down his spine. They were cold and slow. So cold, in fact, that his hands began mildly shaking.
Lucy gently sat on the arm of the chair, placing her hand on the Don's shoulder.
"Do you two know each other?" She asked.
So innocent. So naive. So, utterly naive, he thought.
"I-Impossible," Jude widened his eyes, his breathing growing heavier by the second.
He took a moment to register as his heartbeats sped up, thumping aggressively against his chest.
"Father?" Lucy narrowed her eyebrows, confused.
"You..." he blurted out in horror, his nose twitching in all forms of anger and fear.
He rose his weak hand as it shook in the air, pointing at the Don as he took a few cowardly steps back.
"Y-You..." he said louder. "How did you..."
The Don snaked his muscular arm around her small waist till his large hand reached her stomach, caressing her back and forth.
Provoking him.
"Your daughter here makes a fine girlfriend,"
His breath left his body. He was frozen still with widened eyes. He couldn't process it. He couldn't process any of it.
"LUCY GET OUT OF HERE!" He screamed, the best he could, struggling to catch up with his breath.
He was done for. She was done for. They were done for.
The Don shows no mercy.
He will not survive this.
"Now, why would she do that?" He said, holding her still.
Jude gulped, almost tripping on the flat rug.
"Dad? What are you—" in the mid of her sentence, she tried standing up, but the Don held her back with his heavy arm. She couldn't move. Trapped in his embrace.
She turned to him, narrowing her eyebrows, looking into his jade eyes, almost asking what was going on before she felt a cold metal lay against her thigh.
"How long has it been, Jude? Six years? Ten?" Natsu asked.
Lucy's whole body stiffened as she gazed upon the gun. Her breath stolen as her heart beat slower. As everything around her went dimmer.
Her mind vacuumed of thoughts. As blank as a canvas. Her innocent eyes barely keeping up with what was happening.
Her lips quivered. Her hands trembled. Shivers crawled up and down her body.
She could hear a buzzing noise blast in her ear, blurring out all the noises.
Like she was underwater.
Her eyes fixated on the gun just to make sure she was seeing right.
"W-What..." she whispered, her eyes wide open and her body shaking.
He pressed harder against her thigh, shutting her up. Still caressing her waist to her stomach, slowly.
Enjoying her before he got to kill her.
"Hm?" He asked Jude, waiting for a response.
"J-Just p-please, spare her, spare her," he begged, raising his hands in surrender. His breathing hitching and shaking as he brought his head down, almost bowing before him.
"Spare her, you say?" He asked. "Like how you spared my father?"
He fell on his knees, his head still down, his hands up in surrender and shaking.
"Sh-She's the future of this family," his breathing shook. "She's the future of everything..." he gulped. His eyes tearing up.
If he loses her, he loses his legacy.
She felt dizzy. Everything around her felt hazy. She felt her stomach turn upside down. Her heart squeeze in pain. She felt like she wanted to vomit.
Please let this be a nightmare.
Please let this be a nightmare.
Because it felt like one. This didn't feel real.
She wanted to wake up. She wanted to wake up. Someone wake her up. Someone please wake her up.
Her body felt colder than the metal on her thigh. She was shaking. Almost too hard. She could hear her breath. It was sharp. She could hear her heartbeats. Her throat felt so heavy, she couldn't move.
She was frozen. So frozen that she was shivering.
The Don slowly stood up, pulling back the gun from her thigh.
"How pathetic," he looked down on him.
"S-Spare her..." he repeated, landing his hands against the ground, kneeling and bowing before him.
Without Lucy, he would lose everything. Everything he built. Everything he cared about.
"Kiss my feet," he rose his chin, still looking down on him.
His voice threatening.
Yet calm. Too calm.
Although she was no longer in his grasp, she could not move. She could not stand. She could not think.
She sat still on the armchair, shaking.
Jude hesitated.
But he would be a fool not to obey.
He gulped down everything that wanted to rush out of his mouth as he leaned down to his feet.
Just as he was about to land his lips, the Don lifted his foot back and kicked him in the center of his face with immaculate force.
He flew back, landing his back on the wall right next to the fire.
"You think I'd let filth touch me?" He said in disgust.
He groaned in pain as he touched the back of his head, feeling it wet with blood.
"STOP IT!" Lucy yelled, sounding more like a cry as adrenaline took over her and rushed to her father.
Then she felt someone pull her by her hair, landing her back against his chest.
"Did I say you could move?" He said quietly, into her ear.
"L-Let go of me..." she clenched her tiny fists.
He gripped onto the golden strands of her hair tightly, holding it in his fist as he pulled her head down to look into her eyes upside down. Her tawny orbs, filled with tears as they slowly rolled down her cheeks. Her lips quivering. Her teeth chattering together from fear.
It hurt.
So much.
"Or what?" He smirked, grasping her hair tighter, pulling it more as she moaned in pain.
She moved her shoulders, jiggling them as she tried to get out of his grasp, letting out actual struggled noises this time. Her heart pounding out of her chest. Her nails digging in moon-shaped marks in her palms.
So he yanked her to the ground by the pull of her hair. Her knees hit the wooden floor. Right in front of her father.
He pressed his gun against the back of her head with his other hand, then looked at her father.
"This is your punishment," he ruled.
"P-Please..." her father closed his eyes as tears escaped them, streaming down his cheeks.
He will lose his business if he loses her. He will lose everything.
"An eye for an eye...A tooth for a tooth..." The Don spoke. "...A daughter for a father."
His finger itched against the trigger.
Her tears fell. One after the other with her head down, staring at the ground. She hiccuped every other moment. Nothing else. Too shocked to let out any noises. Her body paralyzed, accepting her fate.
"If you kill her...I lose everything..." her father sobbed. "I LOSE EVERYTHING!" He slammed his hand against the ground in anger, already feeling it go hot in pain.
"Oh?" The Don rose his chin. "You're scared for your business, and not your own daughter, you sick filth?"
"It's all I have..." he hiccuped in sobbing, placing his hands on his face, sobbing into his palms.
He lifted his hand, raising his gun, aiming it at him.
"Then maybe your best punishment is death," he titled his head a little to the right.
A psychopath. He's a psychopath. That's all she could think about. What has she done. What has she done. She knew it was too good to be true...yet she never...she never imagined this.
"W-Wait..." his eyes blew open as he rose his hands in surrender, shaking in fear. "M-Maybe we could work this out..."
"I thought the best punishment for killing my father would be killing your daughter...but I thought wrong. You do not care for her. You only care for yourself,"
"WAIT! PLEASE!"
Lucy lifted her head, looking into her father's eyes. Her heart thumped. And it thumped. And it thumped. Her stomach turned.
This was it.
This was the last time she was going to see him.
Her breathing was so heavy, she could barely handle it.
"So you shall lose yourself,"
PANG PANG
Two shots, straight into his chest.
With no hesitation.
Right before her eyes.
Her heart dropped to her stomach.
She screamed. She screamed so loud, he had to take a step back from the sudden noise.
It was so painful. Her scream, that is. As if her heart was crying out loud. She felt her chest clench so tight around her she could barely breathe. She felt a powerful pit in her stomach, burning inside of her.
It hurt. It hurt so much.
Before she knew it, she had her father in her arms as she screamed for him to stay with her. Her eyes red. Her hands shaking. Her legs so weak she couldn't move them.
"Lucy..." her father said with the little breath he had in him, his eyes wide open as he looked into her eyes. Blood streaming down his lips.
"I'll give you a moment alone," said the Don. His arms locked behind his back. He just had been observing.
It was fascinating to him...how little her father cared for her and how much she cared for him.
She narrowed her eyebrows with her eyes filled with tears, gulping as she turned her head to him. Angry. Angry because she was so weak to do anything about it. She could do nothing about it.
He stepped forward before crouching down to her, looking into her angry eyes.
He held her chin, stroking it with his thumb.
"I'm not as bad as you think,"
She flicked her chin out of his hand in aggressiveness.
"You're a monster," she spat.
He stood up.
"Well, I can't deny that now can I," he sighed as he walked away.
Lucy looked back at her father as she hiccuped, her strength draining as she sobbed.
"Lucy," her dad called out, weakly lifting his arm to cup her cheek.
The door shut.
"I need you..." he coughed out blood, loud and throaty. "...to go to my office. O-Open the first drawer, and take the..." he coughed out more throaty blood, some of it spraying on Lucy's cheeks.
She couldn't control her breathing.
She pressed her hand against his chest, comforting him, "Shh please dad," she sobbed, biting her bottom lip, restraining herself from crying out loud in pain. "The key...it's in my..." his throat clotted, choking on his own gore. "pock-et..." he said with his last breath, before his eyes stuck open on the ceiling.
"DAAADDD," she cried out. She dug her face into his chest. "PLEASE STAY WITH ME... DAD," she sobbed even louder. Her heart aching as her stomach clenched in pain. Tears flowing down her eyes as she let out throaty cries, not holding herself back.
He heard it. He heard her cries through the door.
"Natsu," someone called out from down the hall. He looked up.
"Is it done?" She asked as she stood before him, her hand laying against her gun that was strapped to her belt.
"It is,"
"Is...that her crying?"
He didn't respond.
She understood what had happened.
"Would you like us to finish her off?" She asked.
He looked into her eyes, warning her to shut it with his gaze.
It wasn't long after that he walked in again, and Erza followed behind him.
Her face was still stuffed in her breathless father's chest, his body cooling in her arms.
He walked towards her, then crouched down again. Just as he was about to place his hand on her back, she flinched and sat up quickly, looking into his eyes with her red ones.
"What do you want from me..."
He smiled,
"Are you ready to go to your new home?"
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2496 words
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