I was standing in front of the door, breathing heavily, my chest rising and falling.I thought, 'He's not the person they described. He would never do this to me. He likes me. No, he loves me. They said he cheated on me with another girl. I came here not because I believed them, but because I want to show everyone that they're incorrect about my boyfriend. They specified this hotel's name and this room number, which I'm standing in front of, and that they observed him enter with a girl and enquired briefly about the room number before sending me a message. Even if they are my pals, the things they say about my guy are out of control. I must quit tonight as their friend after opening the door in front of me and proving them wrong.' I made up my mind and exhaled quickly. I grabbed the doorknob and yanked it open with all my might."...""I-It's not what you think, I-I can explain..." My boyfriend stuttered to me while nakedly lying on a bed with a girl.Tears began to fall down my chee
I opened the door to my flat, but it was still dark inside. My roommate seemed to be still partying with the girls out there or was he sleeping Inside? I turned on the lights and entered the apartment.I live with a man named Bernardo. I call him Bernie, and we both attend the same university but attend different faculties. I'm in the Philosophy, Science, and Literature Faculty, and he's in the Law Faculty. The university dorm didn't suit me, so I looked for apartments outside of campus and finally found one after a long search, but the rent was a little pricey for the money I earned from my part-time work. I thought splitting the rent could help, so I posted a notice in my faculty's bulletin board about the apartment I'm offering and asked them to split the rent with me, along with my phone number so they could contact me. I didn't get a call for an entire week.I got a random message saying that someone else is looking for a room and is ready to move in. I replied 'okay' without eve
I asked Bernie once more, "My coat had a stone in it. Did you happen to catch a glimpse of it?""Stone?" said Bernie.A man entered and showed him a photograph. Bernie nodded after seeing that picture, which I believe is of the stone. Yes, I leaned in and saw the picture. It's a drawing of the stone. In the photograph, it appeared to be a vivid cherry red stone shining."Where is it?" they inquired of Bernie."It's a forgery of Ruby. Are you here for the phoney one?"They gripped the back of his neck and said, "We're not talking about a forgery here. It is one million reais in value. What happened to it?""One million what?" I was taken aback."You slipped a million-dollar stone into my coat?" I asked Ace.Ace ignored me and proceeded to question Bernie "What happened to the stone? What is its current location?"Ace hit him again after he said something."What's the point of beating him? If he had known, he would have said it already. I had no idea until you mentioned it to me. What i
Louisa's p.o.v;I was looking at the guys in the front seat of the car as we were driving to the club. I made a count of the men in the car. The first is the driver. Two, Edgar, who claimed to be an associate. Following them were two men we'll name them bodyguard 1 and bodyguard 2. Behind them are me and Bernie, with two guys on either side of us. Diego on Bernie's side, Ace alongside me, and a guy in the back behind us who will be bodyguard 3. They numbered seven, including the driver. It signifies that the escape rate is less than 10%. I don't think Bernie and I can compete with the seven of them. And I'm not sure if the driver was recruited or a member of the mafia as well."Are you intending to bring us down?" Ace asked quietly.I whispered under the tape covering my mouth as I glanced at him. He signalled that he couldn't hear me and returned to looking out the window. How could you hear me? You taped my mouth! I turned to face Bernie... What the hell is happening? Is he dozing
Louisa's p.o.v;"Why are we here again?" I asked Edgar with whom Ace and others left me while Bernie was looked after by Diego. Diego ordered Edgar, "Tape her mouth." and he left the car to take a puff. When I looked at Bernie, he dozed off already.When Edgar tried to tape my mouth, I said, "Please don't. I couldn't breathe properly under it. I promise I won't yell for help. Don't tape my mouth, please."He nodded and kept back the tape inside and said, "You looked fierce before but you're pleading to me now. Is there any intention behind this act?"I smiled and said, "I don't think I can get away from here just by playing as a fool. You guys are retards already.""Your face and your words don't match at all.""Why is that?"He took a look outside and said to me, "Because you look beautiful even after getting hit by those guys on your face.""You are different from them. What's the reason for joining this gang?""What?""Yeah, I have read that people who work under these gangs will
Louisa's pov;I got changed into the outfit they gave me. It was a denim jeans with white tshirt. I laid on the bed thinking about what happened in the morning. I wonder what was Bernie doing now. Did they provide food for him as well? The door opened so i got up and sat straight. It was Ace who walked in. He looked at my outfit and said, "It fits. Your friend knows you well." And made a smirk."How's Bernie? Where's he?" "Far away from your room. Why are you asking about him? Do you want to see him?"Even if i said i want to meet him, it's not like you're going to take me there. I remained silent. He said, "I thought i would take you there if you nodded but looks like you don't want to see your…""Take me there. I want to see him.""You lost your chance. You didn't answer when i asked you a question."When he tried to walk away, i sat on the bed and said, "How long will you keep us here?" "Till we get that stone." "What if you don't get it?""You two will rot in here." And lef
Louisa's p.o.v;I felt pain in my stomach since I didn't eat for two days. Ace hasn't come to this room since he left that day. Was that stone important to him that much? Looking at the place I was in, I don't think he's chasing after the stone just for the money. It must be something else too. I'm not in a condition to think about any of the probabilities since I was starving here. When did he plan to give me food? Does he want me to die of starvation? I couldn't even walk around the room since I didn't have the energy to use it, so I crawled like a worm on the bed. The door opened. I felt a hand on my head while saying, "Why are you curling up like that?" I figured out it was Ace as soon as he talked. How will I say that I'm hungry even if it makes him mad? "Get up and eat." Did he bring food for me? I stood up quickly and looked around for the food but there wasn't any. When I looked at him, he looked mad and slapped me hard on my cheek. That hurts. It burns. He made me look
Louisa's p.o.v;"Do you know where we are right now?" Ace asked me while we're walking in the middle of the popular alleyway in Sao Paulo. Vila madalena and boco de Batman.I answered him, "Vila madalena.""Yes. Do you like graffiti Ms Louisa?" I stared at him when he mentioned me as Louisa because not many people call me that way. I bet he heard it from Bernie.I shook my head and continued walking with him. He nodded and led the way. While I was walking behind him, I saw Bodyguard 2 and Edgar walking behind us. I didn't know he's bringing them too. I didn't see Bodyguard 2 since he tried to r*pe me so it felt awkward around him. "How much do you know about Sao Paulo?" Ace asked me all of a sudden.I answered, "It is the 8th richest city in the world and a home to 40 million people. Statistics state that for every hour there'll be 10 people who come to live here. The economic capital is the reason attracting people from around the world. And it's also popular for having the largest
Louisa's p.o.v;The chief came and saw the messy police station and got mad at us for being careless with our work and asked us to call the cops who are in the fields investigating the case and the ones on patrol. Raphael and Elisa went to make calls to the cops who weren't in the police station while Eduardo and I got lectures from him. After a lecture, The chief said to Eduardo, "Call someone to clean up this mess."After Eduardo left, he turned towards me and said, "I heard about the casino issue. Don't make another mistake or it'll be the reason for your suspension.""I'm sorry for my actions, Sir. it won't happen again."After some time, everyone came back except for one person, Gabriel since he was out of town to meet his parents. The chief also took away everyone's cell phone and asked us to clean the messy police station along with the janitors who came to clean it and left the police station.While we're cleaning it, Raphael said, "I checked the surveillance camera, there
Louisa's p.o.v;I came to investigate a missing person named Levi Ackerman. He is from this town, but doesn’t live there as he does in the city and was last spotted here near where his house should be. The police had found him two days ago when a neighbour reported seeing him on a road at night. We were alerted about his disappearance due to the fact that the victim' father has been having an affair with one of the women. It was discovered that she had been murdered shortly after by a man. When i did an investigation about the woman, i came to know that she's the woman i saw yesterday being dead and got stabbed a number of times. I didn't have enough time to investigate further because I just had another case. But the more information I gathered, the more convinced I became that something strange is going on here. It seems like people are disappearing all around us. I got a call from Raphael that there's a murder in 4th square. When I got there, the crime scene investigators didn'
Louisa's p.o.v;After a week, Ace dropped me in front of my house and said, "All the best."I smiled at him and said, "Yeah." Then I started walking to my door. While I was getting things ready for tomorrow, I heard knocks on the door. 'Didn't he leave already?' I thought as I opened the door. I saw Raphael standing in front of me. When did he come? Did he see Ace dropping me and leaving? But before I could ask what he was doing there, he walked in while asking, "I thought you'd come tomorrow." He still thinks that I went to see my parents. Let it go with the flow then."How did you know I returned anyway?""I was driving past your street and saw you getting out of the car so I drove here?"So, he only saw me. I let out a sigh of relief."Oh right!" He exclaimed. "The thing is, I was here to ask how things went with your parents." Well, if he wants to know how things went so bad then I'll tell him…"They're good! We had breakfast, lunch and dinner together.""Eating is all you did f
Louisa's p.o.v;While I was eating the breakfast brought by Ace, I looked up from my food and caught his eyes. His stare was intense, he almost seemed to be studying every single feature on my face."What's wrong?" I asked.He shook his head, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Nothing. Just wondering what you're doing today." He said nonchalantly.I stared into his deep brown eyes for several moments, taking in his features before replying."Me? Nothing really, I couldn't come up with anything since I'm being kidnapped here." I deadpanned, giving him an unamused look.Ace laughed lightly but didn't answer right away. Instead, he just continued staring at me. After a few moments, though, he finally spoke again. "Well I can't go anywhere because it's Sunday so maybe we could go do something together.""Together?" My eyebrows shot up and I raised an eyebrow of my own, "Like..." I trailed off, searching for a word. The corners of Ace's mouth turned up slightly, "Yeah." He replied simply
Louisa's p.o.v;I woke up at someone else's house. How did I end up here? I looked around and noticed I was in a small bedroom and the door was closed. I got out of bed as carefully and quietly as possible. The floor was cold against my bare feet and it made me shiver slightly. I remembered what happened last night. The images from last night flashed in my head where Ace stabbed Paulo in front of my eyes causing his blood to splatter on my face which made me disgusted. It was exactly like how I had dreamed but the difference was someone died and not me like in my nightmares. I ran to the bathroom and barfed into the sink. I gargled and washed my mouth and walked out of the bathroom once I'm done.I saw Ace placing a tray of food and looked like he was about to leave. I asked, "Why did you bring me here? Who's house is this?" "This is my house. You can be safe here." "I won't be safe if I'm near you." When I tried to walk out of the room, Ace stopped me by gripping my hand which w
AFTER THREE MONTHS,Louisa's p.o.v;I was woken up to the morning light on my face. I rolled over onto my back to watch it creep across the room. The sunlight crept in from my window, and I stared up at the ceiling. My phone was still buzzing next to me, but the noise did nothing more than wake me even more so. I sighed and turned to look at my alarm clock. 6:48 AM.Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes. I had been having a nightmare; one where someone was attacking me for no reason, only to turn out to be myself or a guy wearing a mask. And now I’m wide awake, and I can’t remember what exactly had happened, nor why I’d had that dream in the first place. All I could recall was being chased down the street, and screaming, “You’re mine!” at anyone who got in my way, which was pretty much everybody, I supposed. What's with the nightmares these days? Is it because of watching horror movies before going to sleep? But I thought it was just a myth.I mean, there are sto
Louisa's p.o.v;After Ace got out, I took him and headed home. While we're in the car, I held his hand and leaned on his shoulder and said, "Finally, everything's over. We're together now. Do you know how happy I am to be with you again? I got scared and lost my stand after hearing your arrest. Now, it feels like I got myself back on track since you're here with me.""How did you bring me out?" "Does that matter now? Now that you came outside, don't think about those things. Let's forget what happened and think about what we should do next…" said while tracing his hand in a seductive way. He snapped my hand and asked, "Tell me what did you do to bring me out?" "Why do you want to know?"I want to know." He asked the driver to stop the car and got out of it. I stepped out after him and looked at him who was walking over the bridge. I asked the driver to leave and walked to Ace. I stood in front of him and said, "I asked Paulo to help me to get you out of that place.""What did yo
Louisa's p.o.v;After hearing that Ace was arrested, I rushed to the police station and looked around. I walked among the police officers and found Raphael talking to the chief. I ran to him and asked, "Where's he?""Who are you looking for?" He asked me back while the chief gave a confused expression on his face. "Where's he?" I asked him again but with tears this time. He grabbed me by my arm and took me away from the chief and brought me to the document room and asked, "What are you trying to do? Do you want the whole police station to know about your love affair with that mafia? Do you know what will happen if they find out? If the chief knows about the real reason you were relieved from the case, do you think he'll let you go just like that? The name you earned solving all these cases will vanish in a few minutes. You'll become nothing to them but a liar.""I don't care about anything right now. I want to see him." I said while crying in front of him.He pulled me into a hug
Louisa's p.o.v;Raphael asked without an expression on his face, "What am i witnessing here?" "Raphael, I…" When i tried to walk to him, He said, "Stop right there.""Raphael…" "Don't talk to me. Do you know how shocked I am to see you with him? Is this the friend you talked about? Is this the guy who you slept with?"I nodded and stood still. When he tried to slap me, Ace held his hand to stop him from hitting me. I said to Ace, "Please, Leave." After Ace left, Raphael slapped me right across the face and asked, "Do you even know who he is? He's the Phantom gang leader. He's a Mafia. Who's wanted by the police. Us. You're supposed to arrest him, not sleep with him dammit!... Now i understand why you got relieved from the case, he's related to that case, right? Thinking about the things that happened in the past… how long have you known him?" "Even before I joined as a cop." "So it was all a lie. You were with him all these years and lied to me that you don't about him. Did yo