Samuel and I had been walking down a somewhat busy street towards the city centre when I saw a familiar mop of brown hair. When I realised who it was I couldn't help but drop the shopping bag in my hand.
Is it better to pretend not to know them? Or should I acknowledge them with a wave? Do I go up to and talk to them?
Just a few steps in front of us were none other then Alec and Ben, who stood frozen in casual dress, with ice creams in hand and gaping mouths as they seemed to have seen me too.
I mean, what kind of relationship do we have now? Do you carry on speaking to the guys who imprisoned you? We did have some good times though and I do kind of miss listening to them talking from beyond the door.
"...Hey guys." I waved stiffly, approaching them much like you would a timid animal.
"Cough, cough. Hey Autumn." Alec spluttered out moving the ice cream away from his mouth as Ben waved back just as stiffly.
"Who would've thought we would meet each other so soon? Haha." I laughed awkwardly.
"Haha." They responded as us three cringed where we stood.
This kind of awkwardness, it's unbearable. And it's only been two days, I should've ignored them.
"Who's he?" Ben asked narrowing his eyes at Samuel who was standing behind me, almost hidden.
"Ahem, he's Samuel." I coughed as I stood aside to reveal the rest of him.
"Alec." Alec muttered as he shook Samuel's hand.
"Ben."
"Samuel." Then we stood in silence for a minute, letting the awkward marinate.
"How comes you're not working?" I finally asked with a lot of effort.
"Luther gave us a week off." Alec replied as Ben stared at Samuel some more.
"Are they your friends?" Samuel asked with a friendly smile.
"Eeh... Well... Ehh." My response was mingling with Alec's 'I guess so' and Ben's 'Ehh I don't know about that~'.
"Would you like to join us? We were just going to get something to eat." Samuel offered, obviously completely oblivious to the atmosphere.
With his eyes Ben tried signalling to Alec to signal to me that we should leave this awkward reunion where it stood at the moment. While I tried to signal to Alec to signal to Ben that they should make an excuse to leave. Then Alec tried and failed to decipher what these looks meant, giving up on speaking with my eyes I tried mouthing it to him.
'Did you get that?' I mouthed silently.
"Yes." He said giving me a thumbs up, but before I could congratulate him back Samuel spoke up.
"That's great, the place is quite close by." Ben and I face palmed as a flustered Alec tried to stutter out a refusal.
"I need to go to the bathroom for a sec." Ben stood up suddenly breaking the silence that had settled around us while Samuel went to order the food.
"S-sure."
Why is this infinitely more awkward then when I was locked up? Is this what a normal kidnapper-kidnappee relationship is like? If it is I never want to get kidnapped again! Where is this trail of thought leading to? Did I think being kidnapped was fun before this?
My frustration peaked so I excused myself to the bathroom. After making sure the coast was clear, I locked the door and took out a little straw doll.
Gently I stroked its face muttering a few sweet words before throwing it harshly on the ground.
"Oh my god I'm so sorry I didn't mean to do that to you." I muttered to myself as I picked it up from the floor and dusted the dirt off. "Are you alri- GHT?" I threw it back down stomping on it a few times. "W-what's wrong with me? I'm sorry." I reached down with a shaky hand. "Oh no look at you you're all dirty." I said as I turned the tap on sticking the doll's face under the running water.
The door suddenly slammed open and I was met with an all too familiar scene as Luther stood there with a barely hidden smile. My muscle memory seemed to have kicked in and I dropped the doll to the ground, kicking it roughly so it slid under the bathroom stalls.
What the hell is going on? No way right? How in the hell did he know I was doing voodoo again? Wait, how did he know I was in this restaurant? I thought you guys said you were on vacation, you dirty cheats. I should've ignored them, Luther won't let me go twice.
"Kristoffer?" He chuckled as he retrieved the doll and read the slightly wet slip of paper.
"Yes, see it wasn't what you thought at all. You see I no longer feel the need to curse you because I realised the biggest obstacle in my life isn't you but Kristoffer." I mumbled as I back away into the hallway.
"Hmm, that feels lonely." He gave a hurt look as if it genuinely pained him that I wasn't stomping on his doll.
"Y-you I can't believe you were hiding such a disgusting side. It's not right, all this time I thought you were killing people for your sadistic needs but, but you're actually a m-masochist?" I stuttered whilst pointing my finger at him with barely held back disgust.
"Do you want to find out?" He whispered seductively, just loud enough for me to hear.
"Ye-no." I exclaimed, shaking my head profusely and turning to run only to encounter a sea of suited men.
"Are you sure you don't want to?" Luther's hands wrapped around my chin turning my face towards him as he whispered in my ear.
"Y-y-yes." I stomped on his foot causing his grip to loosen and just as I was about to try to push through the crowd I heard an ominous laughter, freezing me and the guards in our places. Once I finally unfroze myself I pushed through the guards who were still to regain consciousness causing a scuffle to break out.
"Everyone move." Luther commanded and I could hear the familiar rustle of his gun leaving its holster.
If he kills me now, I'm as good as dead. It takes around 20 minutes to regain consciousness, enough time to get dragged back to confinement.
"Autumn, what's wrong?"Samuel called out as I rushed past our table and out the restaurant.
"Mother I'm sorry for going against your teachings but your daughter has to survive somehow." I flying kicked Ben in the stomach sending him hurtling backwards and out of the way of the front door. "Why'd you have to ruin our touching reunion?" I screamed towards the dying Ben and shocked Alec as I sped up and ran down the street, turning randomly at corners to throw them off my scent. "Don't be around the corner, don't be around the corner, dontbearoundthecorner. Ah!" I screamed as I was suddenly blocked by that blonde haired bastard.
"Oh my, I didn't mean to scare you." Luther sounded like the gentleman he wasn't, as he tried to hide the evil timbre in his voice.
"And... I... didn't mean to run away." I panted for breathe glancing at his holstered gun before taking a deep breath and running into the alley where I assume he popped out of.
"Where are you going?" He asked in an irritatingly innocent sounding voice as he followed me down the alley.
"The bathroom." I answered in what was meant to be an equally irritating tone but the laboured breathing just didn't have the same effect.
Why didn't I take up acrobatics back home? Then maybe I could've climbed up the sides of this alley wall and escaped from this dude. Am I an idiot?
I suddenly stopped running causing Luther to bump into me. And then while he was still confused by my sudden actions I threw him over my shoulder.
Yes, finally I got one on him. My 3 years of judo weren't a waste after all. But mother, is my brain damaged from all these deaths? Why didn't I remember this before?! So frustrating.
"Well, it was fun whilst it lasted." Luther smirked as he lay flat on the ground, looking awfully arrogant for someone who had just been thrown to the ground, and grabbed me by the ankle before I could run. "But it seems like we'll have to end it here." The world turned upside down for a second and I found myself laying down on the ground besides Luther.
"Why end it here? Let's continue." I groaned in pain. "Look at you smiling and laughing, didn't you enjoy the chase? Let's go for round 2, but you've got to have a handicap this tiiii- again with the gun. Just once, could we not with the weapons? My arms are still recovering from your last breakdown." I slowly pushed his gun away from my temple as I tried to guilt him into letting me escape.
"It's not fun at all." He mumbled as he pulled himself up and grabbed a hold of me tightly before I attempted to run away again.
"If it's not fun at least it's good exercise. I feel like my lungs have expanded in size since I got here and my leg muscles are twice as big. You probably don't usually do this much exercise either, doesn't it feel good to run with purpose?" Even if that purpose is to capture and imprison a young girl.
"Nope." He answered with a shrug of his shoulders before leading me back the way we came. "Get in." He grinned as he pushed me into the back seat of his car.
"You bastards." I muttered as I saw the two traitors sitting across from me.
"H-how could you kick me? I feel so wronged." Ben moaned in pain as he cradled his stomach.
"Which one of you called Luther?" Alec pointed at Ben immediately.
I jumped forward out of my seat, ready to attack him but was held back by an amused Luther.
"I should've killed you, why did I let you off with just a kick? Huh? Explain to me why I did that." I growled angrily, remembering that my date with Samuel had been cut short.
"B-but lives depended on it."
"Huh?" I yelled as I tried to jump forward for another attack.
Mother, I used to be a much more peaceful person but the taste of violence seems to have changed me. Its almost addictive to beat someone, I understand why Luther is how he is. Ah, now I know why you raised me a pacifist.
"Boss' body counts was climbing steadily after you left." He muttered ignoring my glare.
"Then why were you so peacefully eating ice cream and going on a date when you were so worried about his body count?" I asked while scoffing.
"D-date? Do I look like I would date this old guy? I have a wife and kids at home, you know."
"Luther, is he telling the truth?" I whispered towards him which sent Ben screeching. I furrowed my eyebrows at Luther's nod. "B-but I thought Luther was the love of your life."
"I kinda did too." Alec agreed, seemingly surprised by this revelation.
"Wha- ho- haah? What the hell do you mean? You literally met them before. What the hell, you even had dinner at my house with them. Your wife meets with mine every weekend, your kid has play dates with mine all the time, you come over every week." Ben yelled, grabbing the back of his neck in pain.
"Oh yeah." Alec responded trying to hold back laughter.
"These are your best men? I mean I doubted it before whilst listening to them talk but now... Are you really the leader of the underworld?" I glanced suspiciously at the three of them.
"Eh? What are you talking about? Leader of the what?" Luther asked innocently while avoiding my gaze.
"You, you, do you think I'm stupid? Just one look and you can tell you're a bad guy, a really bad guy. All those suited up guys, the guns, the kidnapping." Although, I still probably would've never made the connection if it wasn't for the fact it was mentioned in the novel...
Novel? Oh my god, the novel! I totally forgot about it whilst spending lovey-dovey time with Samuel. Holy shit, is my brain actually becoming shit? I forgot something so important? I was supposed to plan how to save Samuel, why am I wasting time shopping?
Soleil and Luther already met, and the drunk arc happened but I have no clue what's supposed to happen next.
Should I just move far away with Samuel? But I've been kidnapped, again... Maybe I can call him? Oh yeah, I don't know his number. Maybe I can call Kristoffer's talent agency and tell him to piss off? They probably won't put me through to him. What about stopping Luther? Did I really just think that? Where are my brain cells hiding that I would think of something so inconceivable?
"Boss, you're not fooling her." Alec quickly shot down Luther's plans.
"Don't you think you're too disrespectful to the boss?" Benjamin glared at Alec who remained silent.
"Luther? Even if you try and kill me, I'll still remember this conversation." I rolled my eyes as I held down his gun.
"Tch, damn it." He sucked his teeth in annoyance while removing his hand from his gun.
"I can't believe you actually tried to pull that." I burst out laughing recalling Luther's earlier look of innocence. "Are you-you're blushing." I was howling with laughter, which was cut short by the sound of a gun shot.
You ******,******- I can't believe he really did that. This guy is so petty, what the hell.
A/N: obvs wasn't the last of Luther yk, it's only been like a chapter but I was already missing him :'(, he's becoming cuter every chapter.