In her entire life, Victoria had never known that getting saved from the hands of evil and seeing that said evil getting pulpified on the floor could feel so serene.
Sure, there were people like her boss Rollan, Alex at the motel, and other godsent ones who'd intervened or helped in any way possible.
But this—this scene right in front of her eyes at this moment stunned her with some ethereal feeling.
Her senses returned shortly after she fell to the floor as Adi's grip suddenly vanished from her throat. As soon as her eyes adjusted to the light, she blinked and gasped aloud, looking at Victor looming over Adi's half-conscious body spread out on the floor. He ceaselessly punched Adi, who groaned and moaned from the pain.
"Oh, thank God, you're awake," Sumaia huffed a breath of relief as she helped Victoria sit up. "I was so afraid."
"No—" Victoria coughed as speaking hurt her throat a little. Her voice sounded like she had a bad cold. Still, she pushed herself to say, "We've bigger things to worry about at the moment," she nodded toward Victor pulpifying Adi. "There."
Sumaia scrunched her brows. "At this rate, there's going to be a murder." She was rising to her feet, but Victoria held her back.
"Don't. It's like a rampage, and you shouldn't risk getting in the middle of it. Let's deal with it from afar," Victoria said, covering her throbbing throat with the palm of one hand.
Sumaia threw up her hands in indignation. "How?"
"Well," Victoria looked around and found Sumaia's groceries scattered close to all the chaos. The poor girl could never shop in peace. There were some tin cans, noodles, rice, and eggs.
Eggs! Huh.
Angling her body, Victoria reached out and got the carton of eggs closer to her.
"What are you going to do with it?" Sumaia looked confused.
Without giving a reply, Victoria aimed the egg at Victor with one eye closed and then threw it. She heard Sumaia gasp beside her, and Victor went absolutely still. Only Adi twisted weakly and grunted low in pain.
The egg had hit him squarely on the side of his face. The shell broke instantly at the contact, and the yellow, slimy liquid trickled down his face and neck. Astonished, Victor craned his neck to glance down at it, then transferred his gaping stare to Victoria.
"Stop, Victor," she said in her now raspy voice.
The muscle underneath his one eye ticked. "You threw an egg at me—"
"You need to stop murdering him," she said, holding the wall as support to raise to her feet. Sumaia following her.
"He was throttling you!" He reminded her of the reason for his beating with a tone like he could not believe it. And then he turned back to Adi and grabbed his collar.
Victoria was ready to throw another egg, but there was a lack of any further movement on Victor's part except for how he was still glaring, looming over Adi's half-unconscious form.
Sumaia put a hand comfortingly on Victoria's.
Victor brought out his phone and was suddenly dialing on it.
"What—" Victoria coughed. "What are you doing?"
"Calling the cops, what else?" Victor muttered back.
Victoria felt Sumaia's hand stiffening and sighed. While it was tempting to get rid of one of the villains from her life because this moment right here was an excellent opportunity for just that, Victoria knew it was better to suppress it for someone else's safety.
"No," she said as firmly as possible in her raspy voice.
Victor looked up from the phone to her face. His brows furrowed in confusion when what she was saying registered to him. "What?"
--
Victoria was unsure if she had ever seen someone pacing back and forth in a room with such speed endlessly in her life. The principal of the high school she attended used to pace in his office sometimes, yes, but he used to be more like a sloth. And Victor, well—keeping her eyes on him continuously was making her eyes almost roll out of order.
From time to time, he would stop in front of her and voice his disapproval of her not letting him call the cops on Adi and, in the end, let him go.
He had been like this since they had returned from their trip to the hospital emergency, which Victoria thought was completely unnecessary. However, Victor, being his usual bullheaded self, heard none of her protests. The doctor let them leave after about an hour with painkillers and suggestions to press an ice bag on the light bruise forming. When Victor tried to pay at the billing counter, Victoria weakly shoved him out of the axis, and before he knew it, she had paid for herself. Victor was highly cross about it and demanded to the guy at the other side of the counter to give the money back so he could do it properly. Of course, the guy stared at them, confused. Damn, yes, Victoria had to shove Victor again and additionally glare at him to get out of that embarrassing situation.
Back at Victor's apartment, she pressed the ice bag higher on her throat and sighed when the pain in that spot slowly numbed. "I already explained to you, Victor. Sumaia would have been in trouble if cops arrived—"
Victor stopped right in front of the couch she was sitting on. Arms crossed and brows furrowed, he spoke, facing her, "How long is she going to keep hiding this way? She will face medical problems, and she won't have work or seek help from the law when needed, like this evening—do I need to point out more negative consequences of her choosing this path?"
She closed my eyes in frustration. Her grip on the ice bag strengthened as she tried to keep calm while dealing with this man. "I told you, Victor, why she can't go back." Damn, she couldn't even raise her voice.
"Do you think this is a great long-term solution?" the indignancy in his tone irked Victoria.
"Adi has money and power. He can't be dealt with straightforwardly like normal people," she said. "He's a prince, and Sumaia—"
"Prince be damned!" Victor seethed, his eyes red. "I will shove that money and power of his you're talking about up his—"
Victoria glared hard, which got Victor to clamp shut his mouth. "Let's calm down. We already got complaints from other neighbors about all that chaos out in the corridor."
"Right," he mocked. "It's all my fault, not that b*stard's." Pausing for a second to run a hand into his hair, messing them up in the process, he muttered to himself. "I don't understand why this needs to be so complicated!"
Complications are the way of the world.
"One needs to hide from the monsters to keep them out of reach," Victoria said slowly, looking up at him with calm eyes filled with memories and misery. "One needs to run from the monsters to survive."
And looking down at her, his eyes softened considerably. "Is it what you've been doing that day in that wedding gown?" he asked. "Running from a monster?"
She learned that becoming a victim of softened eyes inclined to comprehend had consequences. The locks of her secret and shameful struggles cracked. She nodded a tiny bit, almost unnoticeable. But it did not go unnoticed by him.
He lowered himself to his knees on the floor so that his face was at an equal height to hers now.
She gulped and tried like hell for it to be soundless. Because, from this close, she could almost feel the warmth emanating off of him, and she could clearly see that light mole on his jaw. His lashes were pretty long but manly, and he had light stubble. And surprisingly, the dark shade of his pupil lightened to a shade of brown—as though there was a mystic element in his eyes, and she felt quite bewitched by it.
He put his hands on the couch on both sides of her. It felt like he was surrounding her.
"Did he cause them?" he asked, slowly, as though she was a deer and could bolt any moment if he wasn't careful enough. And he was perhaps correct. "The bruises on you?"
She was quiet for some time, just staring at him and not knowing how to reply to that. But the truth seemed the easiest response to his sincerity at that moment, which she had acquired from him for the first time.
She gave him a slight nod again and watched how his entire posture changed at that very moment. He stiffened, yet it seemed like a giant had unraveled within him.
"You need to understand, Victor," she said. "I needed to save her because no one ever saved me."
After a moment's pause, visibly calming himself down, he stated, "You're doing it the wrong way."
That's it. He would never understand, would he?
Shoving away his hands from the couch, she raised to her feet. "Then tell me what the safest right way is." And she didn't wait for him to reply before leaving to get her towel and go for a prolonged shower.
When she came out, Victor was deadly quiet yet at the dining table, waiting for her with dinner served. She didn't say no to the pasta he had cooked that night. They both ate in silence, with an unspoken truce developed between them.
Yet the flame of contradiction in perspectives still burnt strong. None of them could decipher the elements that made each of the two their present selves.
--
Thank God that the autumn chill had started, for which Victoria could wrap her throat with a light muffler the next day at work that perfectly hid the bruise. The tan of the muffler aptly matched her tan knee-length skirt and white half-sleeved tops with some printed light pink flowers scattered all over it.
Today, she had to shoot several models for an old client. The session was undergoing at Chimera's studio.
When she worked with her camera, things like worries, memories, or hurt ceased to exist in her life, it was no different now.
All three models had pitch-black skin, glossing with ethereal beauty and pride. Their hair was styled eccentrically. In designer wears of various colors and with expert poses directed by Victoria, each of them created some one-of-a-kind flaming portraits.
Thoroughly engrossed in work, she didn't notice until much later that someone had cautiously entered the studio and watched her in silence.
It was during lunch break—some twenty minutes later, she finally saw him and did a double take.
~
Word Count: 1744
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A/N:
So, it is a half-truce between Victor and Victoria. While they have yet to go a long way to build a stable something, which hopefully they would be able to (I hope), they still got to a semi-strong ground.
Do you like how despite their disagreements, Victor is cooking for her?
Let me know all about your views on this chapter.
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Lots of love,
Lara.