I opened my eyes in a room I was very well familiar with.
Mine.
The room was dark and the curtains were swaying with the wind.
Wait, the wind?
I sat up on my bed and looked towards the window to see it open. Panic immediately enveloped my chest in its grasp and I shoved the comforter away before bringing my knees up to my chest and digging my nails in them.
My body was shaking and rocking back and forth, I was finding it very difficult to breathe.
What if someone comes inside?
Is this even my room or am I hallucinating?
What if I wasn't rescued?
What if Elijah was not there?
All these question made the nerves inside my brain, compress in pain and fear begin to crawl its way up my throat.
I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out.
I was alone.
Once again.
It was all a dream.
I rubbed my fists in my eye to stop the building tears from falling and looked around but my vision was blurred with small black dots dancing around it.
I grabbed the sides of my head to stop the voice that was mocking me, telling me that no one was coming to rescue me.
Releasing a shaky breath, I got off the bed and walked towards the window which was half opened. I slid it to the left, letting it fully open, and the wind hit my face like a ton of bricks. I flinched and coughed. A slight pain was forming in the center of my chest.
I shakily threw my legs over the window frame and sat down on it, my legs dangling from the edge.
I should end this, once and for all.
No more fear.
No more pain.
I leaned a little forward and saw the familiar neighborhood but shook my head as those black dots now became larger. I was panting. My hand was, unknowingly, placed on my chest to relieve the pain but I was too focused on the thoughts inside my head.
Before I could come to a conclusion, the world around me begun to spin and I lost my balance. I tried holding on the frame but my hand was met with air.
I shrieked but it was cut short as I felt a hand gran tightly onto my wrist. I opened my eyes, that had shut down in panic, to see Elijah half hanging off the window.
What?
My heart was beating wildly inside my chest and I could hear the blood rushing to my ears, my senses were hyper aware at the moment.
"Baby Liza, hold on to me. I'll push you up, yeah?" Elijah's honey-like voice spoke to me.
I kept staring at him in a trance as he began to tug my body upwards and when I was at an arm's length, he grabbed me by my both arms and pulled me back inside the now brightly lit room.
"Fuck." he cursed under his breath and pulled me to his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around my waist.
His unique cologne wafted through my nostrils and my tense muscles, relaxed completely in his hold.
It wasn't a dream.
He was really here.
"God Eliza, what the fuck were you thinking?!" he exclaimed in anger and worry as soon as we pulled back.
I looked at his face which looked paler than usual and his eyes were bloodshot had huge bags under them as if he hadn't slept in days.
He looked pretty shaken up.
"Say something, little one." he pleaded in a voice that sounded exhausted beyond limits.
I just frowned and stared at him.
I didn't know what to say so I said the first thing that came to my mind, "Thank you."
He looked at me like silly and shook his head, "What for?"
"For saving me." I croaked out.
"Which time?" he asked.
I cracked a small smile and that is when his composure broke. I saw the first tear fall down his cheek and onto the ground before many more followed. He fell on his knees in front of me and covered his face with his large hands.
Panic bubbled inside my chest, once again, and I knelt in front of him, "What's wrong?" I asked.
He kept crying for a few more seconds before sniffling and looking up, "I almost lost you, doll. We almost lost you." he whispered in a broken voice.
And that's when the reality of my situation hit me like a truck. I was kidnapped, kept away from my family for fourteen days, almost got harassed and was rescued.
My own stance faltered and Elijah's arm came to wrap around me faster than I could blink. We both broke down, sitting on the floor, in each other's embrace.
I also thought that I had lost him. All of them.
I sobbed in his shirt like there was no tomorrow. I was broken but at that moment, I felt another emotion blossoming inside of me. It was relief.
The relief of finally being back and with my family.
After that episode, many more followed and almost everyday either mom, dad or Elijah would be with me in my room trying to get me to breathe through the recurring attacks.
After about a week and a half, I finally stepped out of my room and went downstairs to the kitchen. They all were shocked to find me in the kitchen with them that day but nonetheless, they were happy that I had finally come out of my room after days of persuasion.
That evening, after a lot of insisting, I found out that when I didn't come home that night and my phone was powered off, dad and Elijah went to the police station to file a missing report and provided them with all the required information.
They drew a sketch of mine and Elijah even told them my mobile device tracking ID. Later on, they found that my cellphone was abandoned in the middle of the road somewhere.
Dad didn't have any enemies so it was harder to find any suspect but they still interrogated my friends.
The case was a dead end. But dad and Elijah weren't ready to give up just yet. Almost a week after they were in the police station to get a follow up on my case, they overheard a man filing a report of his missing daughter.
She was also in her teens and got kidnapped during midnight. The investigation led them to believe that it wasn't just a mere coincident, rather a very well planned strategy of human trafficking.
Only the girls between twelve to twenty were being kidnapped and the pattern was same, their cellphones were abandoned in the middle of nowhere. There were three more cases besides mine. The FBI had taken the matters into their own hands now.
A couple of days later, the FBI found a lead by sending two of their specialized agents, undercover. There was a guy who sold them the drugs they used while kidnapping girls. He gave them the address they usually meet at every Thursday nights after being threatened. And just like that, the man gave them the substance but he wasn't alone this time. The two officers were right behind him, hiding in a nearby alleyway.
When the two buff men left after paying, they knocked out the dealer and handcuffed him before following the jeep to a mansion on the outskirts of the city.
A team was already being prepared and set for the back up. Adam and Elijah accompanied them to the house and they rescued Eliza.
A lot of the working men were arrested and some fled the scene. Carlos was also arrested and was sentenced to serve a lifetime in jail. The girls were rescued but a few of them had been in a pretty bad shape and couldn't make it.
That place was horrible.
It took me months of therapy to go back to my normal state and I didn't go to Russia. Instead, Natasha came here.
She helped me a lot and stuck through everything.
The nightmares and attacks decreased a great deal but the paranoia... the paranoia stayed.
Sighing I looked up at him to meet his teary gaze and agonized expression, "The first thing that I said to my parents that evening when they told me how they got to me was to keep it a secret from you. And now you know, and you also know why." I whispered.