Chapter 7: Handmaid

[Erin]

What?

Everything stops. I’m not even sure if I hear it right.

Does he mean that he’s not going to kill me?

The cold gun was still pressed on the side of my head, and he was holding the trigger. If anything, he could be jesting me and would blow my head into bits. While Akim stood there motionless as if what this man said astounds him as well.

I could feel the sweat trickling down at the column of my neck as the jugular hollow of my throat drummed with tension. My lungs constricted, my knees blaring with pain. Hence my body froze at the moment.

Nobody spoke. A pair of mossy green eyes pierced into my brown ones. He removes the gun away from my head and steps back, tucking the weapon to his belt. Just then, I began to breathe again.

It’s as if the last ounce of strength I had in my body had vanished. The pain in my injured knee finally gave way, and I collapsed to the ground.

My body became so numb that I didn’t even feel the impact. I just heard Akim calling out to me with his long strides in hopes that he could catch me, but it was too late as my head hit the floor.

“Take her out of my sight, and clean this mess.”

That was the only thing I could hear, followed by the sound of the door slamming shut.

Does this mean I am alive? That he wasn’t going to kill me?

“Looks like you’re going to see another day, sweet cake.”

Akim whispered as he picked me up. My head became lightheaded as I swayed in his arms.

“What was his name?” I mumbled, not sure if Akim understood my question since my voice was barely even audible with my own ears, while my gaze was fixed on the door where the terrifying man went.

“That man? His name is Nikolai.” He replied, walking towards the exit.

Nikolai. His name alone made my lower belly churned up in fear. The image of his face, his handsome yet terrifying face that would haunt me in my sleep.

I wanted to close my eyes, but I was scared that I would never wake up again if I fell asleep. Instead, I leaned my head to Akim’s broad chest, feeling his body heat seeped through the fabric of his shirt.

The last time I lost consciousness, I awoke in a truck with a slew of other women who had been bound and placed in a display cage with me.

I was scared that it would happen again. Or worse.

“He didn’t kill me.” I took a shaky breath, my thoughts still racing through my head as I tried to process everything that had transpired in just a span of a day.

I almost lost died twice.

Akim halted on his steps for a moment, I felt him lowered his head to look at my tear-stained face, but I refused to meet his gaze. I focused my attention on the portraits hanging on the cream-colored wall.

“Something that you should be thankful for.” He continued walking, and after a couple of turns. Akim came into a complete stop in front of a white door.

It may seem strange, but I had not seen a single housemaid in this palace, despite the fact that it encompassed a large domain, except for the butler that greeted us when we arrived in this place. What is even more dreadful is the fact that I have been transported from one hellhole to another. I haven’t even completely recovered from my father’s death. The way those syndicates shot him in the head still haunts the edges of my memory.

After my mother passed away, he may or may not have been a good father to me. He went so far as to sell me in order to save himself. Nonetheless, the fact that he was still my flesh and blood, with his DNA still coursing through my veins, that I remained to be his daughter. I just can’t simply get over it. The fact that the ones who did it to him are still free, roaming around, terrorizing someone’s life again. Just like what they did to me.

Akim held me using only his one arm while he twisted the knob open and used his feet to swing the door widely. My eyes automatically sweep over the room.

I haven’t got any luxury to be in a hotel room, but I have seen many through advertisements popping out on my social media accounts, and this place where Akim had brought me is by far the most luxurious room I have seen yet in my entire life.

Akim put me down on the black single-armed sofa set placed next to the large glass floor-to-ceiling windowsill. A spacious veranda connected to it, providing everyone with access to the expansive view outside the window. The white wall was accented with black and gold to create a striking visual effect. The crystalline chandelier hung from the ceiling like a hundred teardrops, illuminating the entire room with its rainbow halo. I buried my toes into the plush red carpet that had been laid across the floor, the softness of the synthetic fur, tickling my soles in a subtle way.

I was too busy sweeping my gaze over the sumptuous room that even just for a split moment, I had almost forgotten about the pain on my knee. If I haven’t seen Akim carrying a medicine kit coming from what I believe was the bathroom. He kneeled down in front of me and took my injured knee, placing my foot on top of his lap and start examining the wound.

Tingles began to spread from where he was holding my bare skin. His warm and calloused hands grazing over my knee. I don’t even know why I am feeling this way. I should be mad at him. But I could see it in Akim’s eyes that he wasn’t a bad person. That he was only following Nikkolai’s orders. That man is the devil himself.

Those mossy green eyes. Something about those colors couldn't get out of my head for some reason. They were like swallowing me into its depths, consuming my whole being. I have no idea what caused him to change his mind, or why he decided not to kill me. I was convinced that he was going to pull the trigger and blow my head off, but he didn't do it. He just looked at me in the eyes and decided to lock me up in this dreadful excuse of a guest room for the rest of the night, or maybe my life.

Probably this will be my new prison.

“Ouch!” I yelp, jerking my legs as the searing pain erupted on my knee. Bursting me out from my reverie and glare at the culprit who had knitted his brows deeply.

“Stay still. I’m just cleaning your wound.” He continued putting some betadine around the swollen part of the wound and unrolled a good amount of gauze, cut off some plaster, then set it aside for a moment.

“Be gentle.” I gritted out, my face wincing from the stinging effect of the ointment he put on my wound before the plaster.

He didn’t say anything. He just took the plaster he prepared a while ago and put it on my injured knee. He then stood up, clearing all the mess he made, and went back towards the bathroom. Just at the same time, the room door suddenly opened.

My attention solely goes to the girl roughly the same age as me, wearing a blue skirted dress topped with a white apron and a red ribbon on her head, complementing her black hair. She had this soft amber chinky eyes, small pouty lips, and ashen skin.

An Asian. I don’t know if she belongs to a Chinese ethnicity or if she is Japanese or a Korean. What I am only sure of is that she’s an Asian.

She was carrying a bunch of folded clothes in her arms, and her gaze swept over the vicinity and immediately smiled the moment she saw me. She put down the clothes on top of the queen size bed and moved closer to me, extending her hand as she introduced herself.

“Hi, I am Micha. I’ll be your handmaid from now on.”

My eyes went wide at what she said. Not really getting what she just said.

Handmaid?

I do get a handmaid?