arrival
Blinking away the block dots in my vision my body stirred, my hands jolted back behind me as tried my hardest to place them before me to rub my eyes. Turning my head side to side seeing flickers of light before letting my gaze land on the male with a charming smile sitting at a desk in front of me. I could feel my eyelids snap open as he leaned forward letting his face be shown to me by a few candles on his desk. My breath caught in my throat seeing the bandages around his eyes but he didn’t seemed to mind as he let out a light hearted chuckle. “It always catches people off guard.” My spit rushed back down at my throat as my tongue seemed to grow dry especially as my eyes landed on the shadow that loomed over him; it reached the roof with two large horns on the side of his head. “Please dear, don’t be too scared. I’m not going to hurt you.” He slowly stood up revealing his intimidating height before striding behind me, I flinched hearing a rip behind me but my heart seemed to dip feeling the restraints fall to the floor. “I want to make you a proposal.” I tilted my head back to look up at me as he loomed over my figure showing off his pearly whites. “Interested?” he teased. I let my gaze flicker to the floor before returning it to his face. “Curious.”
The well-dressed male leaned on his desk as he crossed a leg over the other, his shoulders rolled back as he tilted his head to the side. “It’s simple really-“my eyebrow rose as I cupped my hands in my lap. “Join my family! It’ll do you wonders!” he raised his hands up as he grinned before slamming his hands behind him; I flinched. “You stay by my side as my wife and you’ll be granted riches beyond you could imagine.” My fingered clenched. “With the poor people’s money? I don’t want that kind of cash. I want it by it being well earned not robbing it from others who could use it to help make their lives easier!” the man seemed impressed by the fact my voice dripped with venom as confidence radiated off each word, I two was impressed by myself. “You have a good heart miss (L/N), it makes me feel guilty for using you to get away with my little games~” what…?
Standing up with fists at my sides. “U-use me?! You were the one framing me?” he chuckled before running a hand in his slicked back ash coloured hair. “Well it was more of my darling than me.” Heeled footsteps clicked from the corner of the room as a woman identical to me waltzed over and draped an arm around his shoulder. “It was fun being you (Y/N), though it’s a shame what I had to do to get you so perfectly.” She ran her fingers through her hair before snatching it off; it was a mask?! My heart dropped to my stomach letting it sizzle in the acid, I took a step back. “You have much smoother skin than he did.” He? I shivered as she ran the back of her hand down my cheek. The black haired male ushered the woman to silence herself as he whispered something in her ear. “Jane darling tell the other girls that we have a guest with us.” She nodded before leaving without sparing me a glance.
Shaking his head he placed a hand on my cheek as he stared into my watery eyes. “While you are here call me Zalgo, ok?” I swatted his hand away before clutching my heart as I stumble into my seat. “I didn’t agree to stay here!” I shook my head as I forced back my tears. “WHERE ARE MY PARTNERS?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?!” Zalgo smiled at my outburst as he slowly descended to his knees as he placed a hand on my own. “Why are you looking for them?” my hands trembled under his warm ones. “b-because I need them…” he just tutted at my answer as he tilted his head as he moved his face closer. “Do you really? All they do is treat you like a rag doll that Tobias boy just seems to do you more harm than anything.” How does he know this? “Wouldn’t you prefer it if you could drop the mask and be yourself? Not walking on eggshell because you’ll fear your end if you don’t.” “Think of it, isn’t it scary being with those ruffians? You spoke so boldly with me just moments ago. Wouldn’t you prefer to continue to say things without second thought?” my head lowered not wanting to look at him. His finger caressed my skin before letting out a sigh. “How about I let you stay here for a while and you give me your answer.” I nodded letting him guide me up and to the door.
Letting my heels click on the marble floors I looked around to see candles everywhere, silk curtains letting in rays of light coming from the moon, a large painting hanging above a broken throne down below. Peering over the bridge like hall I saw more masked people randomly walking around before continuing on my walk. I reached a staircase, I descended down the lower level before feeling dizzy as it was a spiral. As soon as I reached the floor below a man dressed in a black waist coat, black trousers that had a bit of dust on it and a classic white shirt underneath. “Would you like me to lead you to your friend miss (Y/N)?” recognizing the voice I gasp as I pointed to his mask, it had two small horns it with a simple white cross on the face on a red mainly mask, I looked at the hazel eyes through the eye holes. “Lead the way!” rubbing my sweaty palms on my dress I followed my disguised partner as he roamed stealthily through the maze of halls before reaching a metal door. “Down here.”
Rushing down the creaky steps I let my shoes click against the floor as I saw a male sitting in a chair, I quickly rushed in front of him leaving the man I arrived with trailing behind. Tim smiled with blood dripping down his nose and a bruise formed at the corner of his right eye. "Heya toots-“he cut himself off before sighing seeing his friend lift the mask up to reveal who he was. “Brian.” He nodded towards both of us clearly relief to see some friendly faces. “How did you get caught?" He suddenly pulled his 'tied' hands in front of him showing the rope loosely wrapped loosely his wrists. "I was slow finding Toby, they broke my last cigarette." He frowned. The other male crossed his arms and raised a brow. "Explain?" Tim laughed almost nervously. "Well-"
The flames crackled on the wood and papers inside the warehouse, letting out a sigh I waited for the pyromaniac to come giggling out. With mask resting on the side of my head I pulled out a cigarette I eyed it as I let it catch on the flames behind me, putting it in my mouth with one swift movement I looked at the figure approaching. My eyes squinted to see if it was the lady but was met by a woman in black; she pulled out a knife as soon as our eyes met, the black holes of our masks met more like, taking out a drag I didn't bother pulling down my mask I placed it right back into my mouth.
She ran forward, I pulled out my gun just in Time to block the blade from cutting me. Grunting, I pushed her back before recoiling as she slashed the knife close to my face once again but this Time it caught my cigarette. I saw it burn out as it dropped to the floor in two unevenly cut pieces. "That was my last cig!" Growling I pulled down my mask before running forward, our bodies collapsing to the floor as I pinned her down by putting most of my weight into my palm as I dug the back of her head into the ground. "Any last words?" I placed a finger on the trigger as I placed it on her chest. "I never fail." I was about to scoff but felt a hard knock to my skull. In my blurry vision I watched as she picked up a rock, my breathing quickened as her figure blurred in and out of familiar figure. Everything went dark as a single blow to the side of my head was performed.
"You idiot! You really stopped to have a smoke!?" Tim winced at his friends scolding tone before knitting his brows with a snarl, before he could speak I spoke up instead. "You used the warehouse fire...? Don't you have a lighter?" Brian gave me an 'are you serious?' face but Tim seemed to chuckle as that was the thing I was focused on. "I normally just uses Toby’s, toots." I rubbed my arm before speaking again. “The woman you fought is called jane.” The two men raised a brow; interested how I knew. “She was the one who’s been framing as me to do Zalgos dirty work.” Tim whistled meanwhile Brian put a hand on his hip. “That explains some of the differences you had with the (Y/N) I was hunting but how exactly do you know this?” swallowing my fears I didn’t looked at them as I spoke once again. “I woke up in his office and he introduced me to Jane.” Tim stood up as he placed a hand on my shoulder. “What did he say to you?” I dig my head into my shoulders as I kept my gaze on the floor. “Well?” his grip got tighter; it was surprising how it only hurt a little. “He wanted me to join him.” “And you said?” I pushed myself away from him as I finally looked into his eyes. “I didn’t say anything! I couldn’t think of anything to say…” what a lie. I just didn’t want to say it. I feared to say it.
“Brian, do you know where Toby is?” he shrugged. “Kind of.” Raising a brow I opened my mouth but Tim asked exactly what was on my mind. “How exactly do you know this?” the dead man just rolled his eyes before pulling down the mask on his head. “I woke up before all of you it seems, I’ve been spending since we got here to now looking around for all of you.” How sneaky is this man?! Tim scoffed before placing his mask on. “Let’s go find the boy then.” The three of us darted down the hall.
My body was slammed into the wall as I hand cupped my mouth, I glared at Tim as he peered over the corner of the wall before his head snapped to the hallway across us. “Which one Brian?” the male slapped his hand on ‘his’ mask before pointing to us. “I’ll lead them away and you two will have to split up down each hall.” There was no time for second opinions as Brian rushed out of the corner to the group heading our way. I couldn’t hear what he was saying but all heads looked back, we dashed down the hallway to pin ourselves to the wall. The group, including Brian, walked down the hall we just walked from not noticing us at all. We let out a sigh in a relief before I looked up at him. “What way are you going?” he didn’t respond vocally but answered by dashing down the hall leaving me to go through the one that the group came from. Should I be hiding as Zalgo said I was a guest? It’s better to be sneaky than sorry.
I found another metal door and prayed what was inside wasn’t going to kill me as I slowly entered. Why was the door open? Shaking it off I gasped seeing Toby dangling from the roof with his hands forced above his head as a muzzle kept him from being able to do a full smile my way. Jogging over to him he thrusted forward trying to close the gap between us but I stepped back not wanting his knees slamming into my face. He waved awkwardly down at me despite being tied by his wrists. “Are you ok?!” he gave me a deadpan expression as he raised a slit brow. Huffing I looked around to find a stool or anything that could help me but was surprised to see a bag tied by rope on the floor; I followed the rope to see it was the one tying up Toby.
Picking it up, I frowned. What should I do? Snapping my fingers as a lightbulb went off in my head as I reached down to my stocking to only found a folded up note. It read: ‘you’re welcome we healed your wounds but we can’t have you with a knife, now can we?’ of course it wasn’t going to be that easy! Though…how did they heal me? I looked down at my legs only to see the rips but no marks at all. How is this possible? How is any of this possible?! Snapping out of my thoughts I began to looked around for anything sharp.
Taking hold of the shard of glass under a shattered window I rushed to the bag before I started to cut the rope. As soon as it snapped I watched as toby dropped to the floor with a thud. Wincing I hesitated to rush to his side. He unbuckled the muzzle on his face, which just fell of straight away as his head was lowered, before ripping the rope off his wrists. I placed a hand on his cheek caressing the edge of flesh avoiding touching his exposed gum. “Toby?” next thing I knew it I was pinned to the floor as he kept a tight grip on my wrists. “You l-love me ri-right?” did I love him? The thought of it caused my heart to pick up speed but also made my stomach knot in discomfort. “y-yes…” he raised his head to let his dull orbs flicker with hatred as he hissed out ‘lair’ before his hands wrapped around my throat- I blinked letting out a breath as he looked down at me, his fingers dragged along my skin before they found their way to my cheeks. “I l-love you (Y/N).” lips joined my slightly parted ones letting them meld together. I couldn’t register anything I was doing it all felt as if I was under a spell as I buried my hands in his hair as my lips danced with his; no sparks flew but the feeling of longing bubbled to the surface as his gentle touches left me starving for more.
Oh god…am I in love with him? My eyes wobbled as I stared up at hi. I didn’t notice the tears that dripped out of my sockets as he smiled at me. This can’t be! What am I doing?! He cradled my head before leaving another kiss on my trembling lips. “l-let’s get out of-of here.”