Chapter 5

Chiara

The man whispers something under his breath, glaring at me. Then his head snaps up and calls to someone in the distance. “Get her out of here and take her to one of the bedrooms upstairs.”

The words seem to echo in my head as soon as the masked man says them. I try to look up but that moment of surprise seems to make me forget that I still have a strip of leather binding me to the metal bed, because I end up gasping for breath.

The man named Gio shuffles in his spot. “Are you sure, Master?”

“I’m sure,” the masked man says in a low voice. “Meanwhile, tell the others to keep an eye on Lazaro. I’m sure he would reveal eventually where he put the money.”

“So it’s not with the girl?”

“No, it’s not. She’s innocent.”

That’s music to my ears. He spared me. He actually spared me.

“Are you going to let me go?” I ask, my breath still caught in my throat. “Will I be free to leave?”

The masked man faces me again, and I’m once again struck by his eyes.

They’re piercing from behind that mask. They’re almost glowing, laser-like in their brightness. I want to look away but I find that I can’t do it. It’s like something is drawing me in about him. A force that I can’t explain, mixed with a deep kind of wariness and fear because of his presence alone.

“No,” he says finally, and even though he sounds like he’s tired of me, the deep rumble of his voice alone is enough to make me shiver with fear. “I will keep you in here and make use of you.”

With that, he walks out of the room, out of my view. The man named Gio looms over me, looking down at my face and frowning.

Then, wordlessly, he begins to undo the straps that are binding me down onto the bed.

“Thank you,” I mutter to him as I sit up. “Thank you for sparing me.”

Gio doesn’t say anything. He just signals me to follow him, and I do so obediently, even with my knees still shaking in fear.

He leads me out into a massive hallway, and I immediately know that I’m in some sort of a mansion. The floor is pure white marble, and there are columns supporting the ceiling, making the hallway alone look like some sort of a Greek palace. The walls are gilded in gold, and the banisters on the stairs seem to be made of pure gold.

I would have been amazed if it weren’t for the fact that I don’t know where I am and why exactly I’m here.

I never knew that my Dad has graduated from scamming businessmen to mafia lords.

I know he’s a shady man. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I want to move to a place where no one knows me. I want to get rid of my connection to him. He’s a big addict who has no idea what he wants, and because of that, he tried to live day by day tricking people.

And he managed to involve me in his scheme to outsmart a mafia lord.

Now I’m stuck with one of them, one who decided to spare my life to make better use of me.

Who knows where that will lead me?

Right now, a part of me wishes that the masked man just pulled the trigger and ended me for good.

I want to escape. I want to run right now. But I know that if I do that, I will end up dead on the floor within seconds.

“Faster, please.”

Gio’s voice brings me back from my reverie. I didn’t realize I was walking too slowly because of my thoughts. I walk faster to keep up with him, almost tripping up the grand staircase. The slightest wrong movement makes him look back with a snap.

“Don’t try anything funny,” he tells me sternly.

I shake my head. “No, I just missed a step. Please don’t hurt me. . . .”

He frowns at me and scowls, then he continues to go up until we reach a small room in the corner of the hallway. He opens the door for me and pushes me in, then he closes the door and walks away.

Now I’m left in the darkness.

There are no windows, but my eyes adjust to the pitch black just enough to make out a small bed in the corner with a dresser. That’s it. The floor is cold under my feet, so I get on the rickety bed and curl up, hugging my knees.

Everything feels like it happened too fast. One moment, I was being harassed at work. Then the next, I’m here in a mansion in a place I don’t know, awaiting my fate.

And it’s all because of my dad.

Thinking about him makes my heart hurt. I curl up tighter, biting my lip to stop the tears from coming, but they flow anyway.

It went on and on until I eventually fall asleep.

Floating. I feel like I’m floating. No colors, no sounds. No dreams. It’s quite peaceful to be out like this, and for a moment I wonder if this is what death feels like. I think about how close I actually came to it, and how I managed to get out. . . .

Then, out of nowhere, something looms in my mind’s eye.

A masked face. Stark white hair. Sharp teeth on display. Golden eyes that didn’t belong to a human. . . .

Blood. The full moon. Deep growls. Something howling in the distance--

I wake up with a gasp.

The sudden darkness in the room that meets me makes me scream. For a moment I thought that the howls in my dreams are what woke me up, but I’m wrong.

It’s the real howling sound that I can hear from outside.

And it sounds very very close.

Panic overwhelms my body. I jump out of the bed and push the door open, surprised that it’s not locked from the outside. I crawl out of the bedroom, trying to catch my breath as fear permeates my body. I don’t know where I’m going in this dark hallway, but I crawl faster and faster.

Until someone blocks my way.

I look up and see a face half hidden in shadow.

With his gold eyes staring at me. 

A low growl is echoing from him. A growl that sounds like it belongs to a beast, a monster,  much like the ones that woke me up.

“You shouldn’t be out here, Chiara.”