Reminisce
(indulge in enjoyable recollection of past events.)
*****
"I've got it!" Janette snapped her fingers. "Why not try the chocolate cheesecake?"
"I don't exactly like the chocolate cheesecake anymore," Sirena frowned at her.
The last time she ate a cheesecake, she went outside to the park for a small picnic with Des and Janette by the garbage can and Levi actually appeared out of it, surprisingly smelling like watermelons and oranges. Other than that, his surprise was so shocking that Sirena had accidentally choked on her cheesecake and ended up almost dying.
She lost her taste for chocolate and cheesecake for a while.
"I was thinking of having a simple dessert. That's all." Sirena finalized her braids and looked at herself in the mirror, satisfied with them. She stood up and faced her maid with a small smile. "Levi shouldn't be back until a few hours. That means that I have the house to myself again."
"What do you want to do?"
"Can't I leave?" Sirena pouted at her. "I've been stuck here for a long time. I honestly just want to go out and do something." Sirena said to her. Janette sighed at her before pulling her out to the hallway, leading Sirena over to the large dining room. "I suppose I could tell the chefs to prepare you lunch. It's a bit late for it, isn't it?"
"I haven't had breakfast either, so let's just call it brunch. Breakfast and lunch combined."
"I gave you breakfast already-"
"Nope. I threw it away."
"Excuse me?" Janette gave her a glare, a look of disappointment in her eyes. "Why would you do that?"
"Because you placed avocados on my plate. I'm allergic to them," Sirena snorted at them. "That's the reason."
"Oh dear, I have forgotten one again, haven't I?" Her maid sighed at herself, already scolding herself in her head. "Since you're starving, I suppose I could prepare another dish for you if you want. Would you want another one?"
"Yes." Sirena answered. Honestly, she felt like she could eat a horse, but she knew that later on she wouldn't be able to finish her first plate of food. She was losing her appetite more and more these days, also some sleep. Janette had taken notice to her peculiar behaviors for the past two weeks and noticed that she was also losing some weight, but she never dared to ask Sirena. Sirena would've brushed off the question and say it's nothing.
Sirena and Janette appeared in the dining room. The blonde haired adult sat down on a chair silently, noticing that it was only her and her maid alone. She looks over at Janette and spoke, "Where's the food?"
"We're running a little bit low on some ingredients, so it'll take another few minutes. Although, it was your fault for sneaking out into the nights and taking our food."
"I apologize." Sirena placed her head on the dining table and frowned again. Bored, she was bored. She really had nothing to do inside of the mansion besides watching TV, playing on her phone (which Levi had made sure to tell Janette about Sirena possibly calling the cops), playing fetch with Des, or play the piano. Sirena mostly spent her time on the piano since nothing really interested her besides hearing the keys produce music.
But she began thinking back to that girl at the mall she went to with Levi. And that child she was with. That small child.
She had that smile that bugged Sirena so much. Her smile was so familiar. She had that brown hair, crystal blue eyes, and fair skin to compliment her whole look. Sirena started to bite her fingernail and remembered what that child's name was. Fern. Honestly, that kid made her feel so frustrated. She looked so familiar, but Sirena knew that they haven't met at all. She knew that it was probably just a coincidence that Fern looked a lot like someone she knew, but she couldn't help but ponder about the kid more and more.
But who was that girl that Fern was with? Sirena thought in her head as thoughts buzzed around. Whoever Fern was with, she had the same hair color as her. And the way that that woman laughed, she sounded happy. And sounded so much like...
"-miss? Mr. Falls is here." Janette's voice snapped Sirena's out of her thoughts. The girl turned around and saw Levi, smiling at her with a cheeky grin. He walked over to her happily and sat down in the seat next to hers, giving her a bigger smile. "Hi, pet!"
"Oh. It's you." Sirena said before looking away and started to wonder about those two girls from the mall again. "You need anything?"
"Aw, did you not miss me?" Levi pouted at her. He slung an around around her waist and pressed a loving kiss to the top of her head, smelling the enticing scent from her hair and letting a smile form on his lips. Sirena immediately frowned from the gesture and pulled away from him, letting his arm drop from her waist.
"I thought you had another meeting today."
"I did! But then they cancelled it because of an anonymous reason," he shrugged at her. "So, love, I've heard that you haven't had breakfast this morning. You've been losing weight, you're looking a little bit pale these days, and you haven't slept much. Care to explain the problem?" Levi took out a black case with his glasses inside and put them on, leaning back against his chair as he surprisingly took out a crumpled piece of paper and began to read it. Sirena rose an eyebrow. What was he doing?
"What are you doing?"
"I'm being what boyfriends do." He scoffed like it was the most obvious answer. "Tell me all of your problems. I've been reading some very helpful advices to use whenever girls have problems. Don't worry, just lay out all of your worries." He leaned closer to her.
Honestly, Sirena had to admit that he was adorable. And hot. Once he put on glasses, that made him even more hot than she imagined. She felt her cheeks burning up but she turned away before he could notice.
"You're... not my boyfriend." She managed to say in a small voice. Levi began to frown, obviously displeased with the way she answered him. "I've just been feeling homesick," Sirena rasped out. "You never let me outside. I've been stuck here with no one but Janette. I can't see my family. I can't see my friends as well. I feel trapped." She slumped her shoulders and felt tired. There wasn't any point in telling him her problems.
He wouldn't let her out. He wouldn't let her do anything by herself without having to assign bodyguards. She was trapped inside the mansion. On top of that, he had drugged her and placed a chip inside of her so she wouldn't even be able to escape them without being found. He was like Zero, the bastard that made a living a hell for Sirena.
Levi was obsessed. Sirena didn't think that he was because of his cute smiles, the nice acts he puts up just for her. Inside, he was truly a freak like Zero was. Maybe even more.
She remembered when she first got here that there was a maid that hated her so much before of how Levi cared for Sirena. The maid was jealous, everyone could see that. So, while walking down the stairs, she tripped Sirena and the female had fallen down all the way, going unconscious. When Levi had found out about that, to say that he was mad was an understatement. According to Janette, he slapped her in front of everyone and was dragging her somewhere by her hair. When Sirena woke up, she was told that the maid had been fired so she wouldn't see her again. And Levi was there, looking at her with adoration in his eyes while he stayed with her as she recovered to her full health.
But deep down Sirena knew what really happened to the maid. She regretted ever going down to the basement and finding her burnt body that had been thrown into a flaming furnace.
She hasn't been down the basement since.
Sirena felt his fingers slowly being placed under her chin, being forced to look at him. Once they made eye contact, he gave her a sickeningly sweet smile before he leaned closer and said, "Must I say this again?" The warmness in his eyes faded away into anger as he spat out, "You aren't leaving this place as long as I'm alive."
The sadistic look in his eyes were gone and he moved away from the frightened girl, a childish grin placing upon his lips. "So," he grinned like nothing happened, "shall we start brunch?" Levi glanced his eyes at her, expecting an answer that wouldn't displease him.
Sirena looked away from him and lowered her head a little. "Yes."
She didn't know which guy was worse, but the fact that Levi could seem like a child at times before turning into a demon, that made his infatuation with Sirena more intense than Zero's obsession with Lyra.
~~~***~~~
Lyra traced the lines of the map with her fingertips, completely focused with the idea of finding a new hideout for her and Alaska.
They've almost been caught a few times and Zero has been getting closer and closer to where Lyra has been hiding out. She took her eyes off the map and looked over to Alaska, who was busy eating a grilled cheese that Lyra had ordered for her.
Alaska finished eating the burger and felt the stare of her old friend on her. She looked over to Lyra with dead eyes. "Have you figured out where to go next?"
"Not yet," Lyra looked back at the map. "All of my old hideout have been destroyed already. I'm running out of ideas of where to go next. There's an abandoned warehouse a few hours away from here, but that would mean crossing over to another state which Zero's men have already stayed in before. I don't even know if they're still there."
"We might as well go over there. Right now, this place that we're staying in is dangerous for us. Zero can find where our whereabouts are and wouldn't hesitate to come find us." Alaska murmured. "We should leave."
"Just give me another moment. I'm going to check again. There should be another place for us to hide out in. If there's not, then we can leave and go over to the base," Lyra muttered the last bit as she laid her eyes down on the map, grabbing a pens and continuing to mark off the places she has already been.
About forty minutes passed until Lyra was done. Looks like they were going back to one of her old bases.
"Pack up. We'll be leaving in a few minutes. Grab the necessary things and leave the others behind." Lyra said to Alaska while folding up the map. Her friend stood up from the dusty old couch and headed towards the small bedroom, grabbing the things that she only needed while Lyra took care of everything in the old living room.
Soon, they were in the car. Lyra made sure to check everything once more before stepping on the gas pedal and leaving their hideout behind. As she focused on driving, she stole some glances over to Alaska, who was too busy staring out of the window with a hoodie up her head. The dark haired girl turned away from her friend and went back to focusing on the road, careful to scan any cars that screamed suspicious.
To be honest, everything around Lyra seemed shady.
"We're running out of gas." Alaska commented from the passenger seat. Lyra looked down at the fuel for a split second before looking back at the road, trying to see if there was a nearby gas station to stop at before continuing their way. "Looks like we'll have to pull over," Lyra mumbled. Alaska rose an eyebrow, "Pull over?"
"Unless you want the car to stop in the middle of nowhere and for Zero to catch up with us, then we're pulling over for some gas. Oh, and we should buy some snack while we're at the station. We're running out of food, aren't we?"
"Yeah. I understand."
Lyra stopped by the nearest gas station and got out of the car, Alaska doing the same thing at her side. Lyra looked through her wallet and gave her friend a fifty dollar bill. "Since did you start using cash?" Alaska asked. Lyra shrugged, "Zero's hot on my trail. If I use credit cards, he can easily spot me. Also, make sure to tell the guy who's working in there that I'll be using cash to fuel the car."
There was a time she kept on using her credit cards and Zero had managed to find her. For a very peculiar reason, she was able to escape. Call it luck, but she honestly didn't think that she would escape him and the other dozen people he was with.
"I'll be back." Alaska said before running off to the store.
"Make sure to buy water bottles!" Lyra quickly called after her. "We ran out of those, too!" She stepped back and started to fuel the car. Lyra leaned back against her car, impatiently waiting until it was done.
Meanwhile in the store, Lyra had paid the guy for the gas and bought some water bottles, a few bags of chips, and two Starbucks coffee. As Alaska was paying them, she saw from the corner of her eyes that there was a person hiding in the corner with a black hoodie on, the hoodie covering his face. She looked back to the guy behind the counter and tapped her fingers against the surface of the table. Alaska paid for it all and grabbed the plastic bag filled with the food inside, nodding towards the guy.
Alaska flipped her newly bought phone out of her pocket and quickly texted to Lyra.
FROM ALASKA: They're here. Start the car.
Alaska placed her phone away and began to walk out of the store until she felt someone grab her elbow, preventing her to leave. She looked back and found out that it was the guy behind the counter. This time, he had a hollow expression on his face as he stared at her darkly. "Get her." With that, Alaska dropped and carefully kicked her bag of food to the side and ripped her arm away from him.
As the hooded person charged towards her, she flipped out her blade and began to avoid his attacks, moving swiftly, but ended up moving slow because of how much weight her body had lost throughout the years. She looked up at the ceilings and found no cameras in sight. Alaska looked back towards the two men and pointed her blade at them, a scowl worn on her face.
The cashier person flipped out a blade, also pointing it at her as he began to run towards the tired female. Alaska managed to side step him before landing a cut to his side and giving him a punch to the side of his face. She kicked him away with all of her strength and saw as he fell backwards to the candy section, slumping in pain from the heels that she wore.
The red haired female felt herself being punched in the stomach by the hooded figure, letting herself being pressed against the cool glass of where the drinks were being held to keep them cold. During that, the hooded person slapped her blade out of her hand and tried to cut her face with her own blade. Alaska moved her head to the side to avoid getting punched in the face. She lifted her knee up and knees him in the stomach harshly, pushing him away from her as she quickly open the cold glass door and grabbing a Starbucks drink, turning around and smashing the drink against his head, the brown liquid flying out of the bottle as the glass shattered. As he fell down, she dropped the useless drink and tried to grab her the bag of food and run to the car, but she was being pulled back into the store.
Alaska turned around and met a fist to her face. She stumbled back in pain before ducking her head to miss his next punch and grabbed his arm, twisting it and lowering her head a little as she flipped him over her. She still grabbed onto his arm and twisted it more, hearing a crack go throughout the store. She lifted her foot up and kicked him several times in the chest before letting him go, and then looking at his pained face before kicking him harshly in the head. Alaska panted with exhaustion while standing there, looking down towards the cashier guy and the unconscious one she managed to hit with a Starbucks coffee.
"Ugh, that was a workout," Alaska groaned and stretched her arms out.
Alaska walked around the store and opened up door and found no one inside of them. She walked back to the middle of the store and looked all around her. She muttered something under her breath before dragging both of the men to the back and dumping them in the dumpsters. It was a good thing they weren't dead, just unconscious.
That would be a pain in the ass.
When she found herself alone in the store, she made a smirk before saying, "Free stuff."
Alaska stuffed so many food and other stuff that they needed inside of her plastic bag and grabbed another bag before adding more stuff in them. And maybe or maybe not taking some money of out of the cash register. Then she took one last look around the store before running out of the store and hopping into the passenger seat, meeting a very nervous Lyra.
"Alaska," Lyra breathed out in relief. "Oh my g-wait! Your face! What happened?"
"I'll tell you on the way. Just drive!" Alaska said while putting on her seatbelt. "I had to take care of two of Zero's men back in there. But, thankfully, I got some free stuff in the end. Want some Doritos?"
"We're not making anymore stops." Lyra said. "Alaska, what happened in there?"
Alaska slumped in the passenger seat and began to recall the story of how awesomely she took down the two guys while eating a bag of Doritos and sipping on her Starbucks with a tired expression. "-but they're unconscious. I left them in the dumpsters. It suited them."
Lyra just sighed and shook her head. "You're positive that there was no one else there? You're sure that there wasn't any cameras in here?"
"Nope. I checked. The cameras must've been taken down, or haven't even been made in that store. And, I didn't see anyone else in the store. It was just the two of them," Alaska replied briefly. "How long until we get there?"
"I told you before we left that we had a few hours until we cross the line over to the next state. Just close your eyes and try to sleep. You're probably tired from all of that." Lyra said as she made a turn to the left, speeding up a little. Alaska shrugged at her. "I'm fine. It was kind of exciting to be back, but I am kind of tired as well."
"Go ahead and sleep." Lyra said. "You need it."
Alaska's shoulders sagged as she leaned her head back again into the seat. She closed her eyes and began to drift off into a deep sleep, not noticing Lyra glancing at her with a smile on her face.
~~~***~~~
Thank you everyone for reading the third chapter!
Make sure to vote and comment!
~Rae_1013