"I want to sleep in the Bedroom tonight."Did he hear me?It didn't seem like he did.Alexander was at the drawer when I had made that statement and even though I wasn't looking at him, I could tell right off that he was covering up for the night.I didn't even bother to react, as though I had noticed him pretend to be deaf. I played the same game with him, kept my mouth and shut and went back to my business.Because, cool. It was even better this way. This silence. Since hewanted to be the one ignoring me now. Absolutely cool."So, is that why you have been folding those clothes for the past three hours?"My head shot up immediately he said that, my eyes jamming directly with his back, glaring daggers."W-What do you mean by that?" I fired him questioningly.I heard him chuckle, even though his back was turned to me. His shoulders quaked with a little laugh and I just stared at his back while at it. Because I failed to understand what was funny."Darlene," He said my name as he shook
I woke up the next morning and Alexander was nowhere to be found.A part of me was unsettled for a second, but another part of me wanted to conclude that he was in the bathroom. But after waiting about half an hour, I didn't see him or anything that looked like him.That subtle unsettlement in me quickly turned into Worry.I got downstairs in my PJs and started to walk around the house, to and fro, navigating from one end to the other as I subtly went in search of him. But the only faces that I met with were the familiar faces of butlers and maids and helpers and cooks and I walked around the entire place, searching in vain, like a damsel in distress."Maybe you should have just called though?"I stopped when that voice came behind me. That familiar voice of which I knew who it belonged to."Well, Alexander, try to let people know when you're going to—"Huh?I had only realized it so that it was not Alexander, when I looked back."Frederick?" I frowned."Flesh and Blood," He grinned b
DARLENELaura Diego and I had been best friends since right about Highschool.It all started one random morning in school when I was having a particularly hard time. I used to get bullied a lot, which was ironic because considering the fact my dad was a popular baker, it should have added some reputation to me, but unfortunately, nothing like that happened.They particularly found it funny that my father as so famous, yet did not have enough money to live in the kind of mansions that their parents had. And, funnily, Laura used to be one of them.One day, she surprisingly stook up for me. I didn't expect it so. Their friends were laughing and mocking me, going on about how ugly my clothes looked, and as usual, I was just going to ignore them and pretend like I was not bothered by all they did to me. Even if I was. And Laura noticed that, and surprisingly, stood up for me. She called out her friends and told them to leave me alone. That was a test to their relationship and having that
Laura showed up two hours earlier than we agreed.We decided that we would meet up at one of her favour spots by the park, and the time set for our little meet up was 12pm.I arrived there on time, and whatever made me think I was going to be earlier than Laura, I still questioned till now. I reached the benches to see my best friend already waving at me from her distance, her wavy black hair shining and glinting under the light, and her big eyes filled with excitement of all forms.Laura was like a little child. It was just as adorable as it could get annoying. The girl was so happy to see me, and nonetheless, as I walked out of the car, shutting it behind me as I made my way towards her, she would not stop grinning and waving. At some point, she even started to run to catch up with me."Girl, I MISSED YOU!" She was screaming at the top of her lungs as she squeezed me into a tight, breath taking hug.She couldn't have been more excited to see me. Her happiness, I hated to admit, was
DARLENE"Wow."Those were the only words that had left Laura's mouth after I had told her everything about the Mckenzie family and how it had affected my marriage with Alexander.She was so quiet that I started to wish that I did not even bring it up. It took a lot, and I mean, more than a lot to bring down the spirit of a girl like Laura, who always saw the positive in everything and was more than enthusiastic at all times."I just can't wrap my head around the fact that he would keep something like that away from me, till after I married him." I told Laura."Would you have married him if you knew before hand?" She asked me.I pondered on the question. It was not the first time that I had been asked something like this before. But usually, I asked it to myself, and one answer always prevailed after repeated rounds of wondering."I don't know," I said, sighed as I came to one realization. "I don't think so.""So, is that a No or a I'm not sure?" She asked me. It was rare to see Laura
DARLENEThere was no better way to forget your problems than a night of irresponsible drinking. So, once Laura and I had hit the bar downtown, there was no telling that I was going to be on my worst behavior.And with someone just as irresponsibily behaved as Laura, it was my lucky day of freedom.The music in the Bar was very loud and everywhere blared with a mix of Millennial and Gen Z music vibes. Purple and pink lights swarmed all around me, illuminating the entire room and shading everywhere with my favourite colour of sin. I could barely catch a thorough view of the environment, because my mind was fucked and occupied with many other things — including alcohol — but the fancy lights, loud music, and many people were all juggled and mixed up in my head.I had never felt this much euphoria before. For what seemed like an eternity, I had finally tapped back into a side of me that I thought was long forgotten — a part of me that was brewing with the most insane kind of happiness, th
DARLENEI woke up.The air was cold and it felt like I was indeed seconds away from freezing to my death. My throat felt stuffed and clogged and my head banged like crazy. Shivering, I sat up against the suspiciously soft bed and stretched my body, cracked my back, and yawned in reflex; my eyes were still drowsy and adjusting, bluriing over and over, to my wake.I sighed when I started to adjust fully. Slowly, quietly, my eyes roamed the room around me from it's new arrangement which I had never seen: the brown and white shade that illuminated to form a golden colour, the lone king sized bed I was on, the video game set, and the dark curtains that shielded any other source of light there was from the outside, giving only the swinging chandelier in the room a chance to brighten up the entire place."Hm, nice place," I muttered, half concerned for a moment.Before my eyes shot open in shock, panic latching onto my back like a cold blanket."Where am I?!" I screamed as I jumped from the
DARLENEFrederick Mckenzie was standing before me and I was so torn into confusion.The moment I saw my eyes on him, a series of flashbacks barged into my head, but all that made sense was me on the shoulder of a stranger who carried me around at will. That was it.Could he have been the stranger?I remembered very well that this stranger had very, very—"—Dark hair." I said as I noticed the colours and streaks of jet black and dark brown on Frederick's hair. "Dark hair?"I stared at him in thorough confusion, tilting my head to look at him properly as though I may have been seeing it wrongly.I remembered that he had strawberry blonde hair, the very kind that made it difficult for me to even look at him more than once. Not because he wasn't handsome. But because that tone of hair was very sharp, too sharp, to the point it made me wince everytime that I looked at him even.I remembered that I had even voiced it out to him the last time we spoke.Frederick straightened up his posture,
DARLENE“Rise and shine sleepy heads! Breakfast’s ready!” Prince Charles’ booming baritone cracked through my skull before a wash of yellow light bored through my closed eyelids so that I groaned, breaking into a chuckle when Alexander groaned beside me.“Fucking hell Charles, did your parents not teach you to knock?” My husband hissed, throwing the soft white duvet away from his hard body and stretching to his feet to snatch the coffee mug the purple-eyed man held out like a peace offering in one hand, his gaze sliding over to me and darkening a shade before he smirked.“I don't believe they did,” He whispered breathlessly, nodding his head to the door where the strawberry blonde-haired man was leaning against the doorframe in brown capri pants, a pearly grin stretched across his smooth face.“Have some decency Frederick, my wife’s in the room,” Alexander whispered, scoffing loudly and sipping his tea as I stretched a yawn and shimmyed away from the bed to rest my head on my husband’
FREDERICK“Die motherfucker,” I gritted, pressing my finger into the claw of the trigger and feeling the gun jerk in my hands, the impact pulling me forward so that I tumbled into the stone flooring.“Come on! Go go go!” I screamed through gritted teeth, waving my hands wildly at Darlene and pushing her around the car as she surged through the barrage of shots pummeling us and firing off a few more rounds as the Umbrella man roared with pain, tearing the knife from his eye with an impossibly loud sucking sound.“I need to get closer,” I hissed through my teeth as I rounded the bend of the car to meet Alwxander’s tense body where he was hunched, hiding from the rain of bullets with Darlene curled in his arms.I swallowed the bile that had risen in my throat, jabbing my fingers into my palms to battle the wooziness that stabbed the sides of my head and peering through the rim of black sedan to see that the man now had a gaping hole in one eye that still spurted blood as he glared around
STEFAN MCCOYMy knuckles were white on the trigger as I watched the man’s hard body as he walked slowly into the room, his eyes never leaving the gun I had pressed dutifully against his wife’s empty ass head.“No sudden moves Alexander or I’ll have the woman’s brains plastered across the floor,” I growled through clenched teeth as Alexander staggered into the room with his father and more of my men surrounding them.I had known something was off the minute I left the penthouse, even before the sound of gunshots echoed out behind us and I asked Markov to turn the car around.The white penthouse with its flashing lights and tall pine trees loomed as ghastly as ever, as I motioned the men every which way, feeling adrenaline rush through my veins when the sounds of gunfire exploded around the sides of the house as my men sniffed the bastards out like the rats that they were.“Please, McCoy, don't do this, My wife has nothing to do with this okay? I’ll, I’ll give you whatever it is you wan
DARLENE“Something’s wrong,” I whispered breathlessly, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight as I watched the man with the Jerry curls stride away from the large lattice silver gates, a gun held tightly in his right hand.“What the fuck do you mean something’s wrong? McCoy’s going with most of his men! This is our cue to go in, grab the twins, plant the bombs, and hightail the fuck out of here in time for Mrs. McKenzie’s dinner special,” Erwin snapped blithely from his crouch beside me, the rim of a sniper rifle held tightly in his hands, as he peered through the scope.“Lassie’s right, this seems too easy, they must have found out about the decoy car approaching already, that's the only reason for him to leave...and yet,” Williams McKenzie growled on my right flank, raising the tight hulk of his frame into a low squat and inching to slap himself against the tree, the burnt orange blackness of the forest blending perfectly with our camo gear.“We should-” Erwin start
ALEXANDERThe bright fluorescent lights tore through my eyelids to fry my eyeballs before I had even opened my eyes. I groaned, the soreness in my arms and stiff legs making me groan louder as I let my head fall back into my chest.What the hell did the bastard hit me with? Fucking hulk?“Ugh!” I groaned, screwing one eye open to lock gazes with my brother’s blanched face and watching him sag with relief when he saw that I had opened my eyes.“Alexander? Fuck! Thank saints you're okay,” He rasped breathlessly and I felt the scowl deepen between my eyebrows as I glared at the swollen purple bruises on his face that had left the skin of his face puffy and red.“Your buddy didn't take too kindly to you I reckon, stabbed you in the fucking balls just like you did to me you piece of shit!” I barked acidly, watching my brother rear back on the chair that he was strapped to like he had been slapped.I looked down to see I was lying on some makeshift gurney table, feeling my heart pound wildl
DARLENE“Where is he? Where’s my husband?” I whizzed when I caught up to the ring chief scowling in the middle of the road, his hands fixed patiently on his narrow hips.“He’s gone Dar, that McCoy took him,” Prince Charles gritted, eyeing me carefully before I noticed his hand cupping the large gash on his chest, the trickle of blood pooling on the purple suit staining the area black.“Here, let’s get you to the car,” I gritted through clenched teeth, managing to push the words past the lump that had grown in my throat and tugging the man’s hand free when he resisted before hooking it over one shoulder, grunting when he leaned his weight on me a little.I could hear the whirl of sirens in the distance as they got closer and I yelped, slamming to a stop when the purple-eyed man stopped suddenly in his tracks.What the hell was it with mafia men and having death wishes? I tried not to look at the nasty knife wound on his abdomen or the purple and red bruises on his chin and focused inst
FREDERICK“Did you have to do it that hard?” I whispered, feeling tears gather in my eyes as I watched the Umbrella Man tower over my brother’s limp body, his brown eyes almost luminescent in the dark.“Quiet Frederick, you're ruining my groove, take him.” Stefan McCoy growled and I felt my heart hammer in my ribs as the masked ninjas dropped from the trees like banana monkeys, hooking my brother’s hard body onto the stretcher as I watched on with widened eyes.“Is he dead?” I rasped breathlessly, feeling panic burn in my chest as I trotted after the men, the crunch of dried leaves under my feet sounding loud in the silence as the masked men marched my brother to the large white van that had been parked off to the side of the highway.“Not yet,“ The Umbrella man whispered, rubbing his hands together in glee as they loaded him into the van and I felt a flicker of doubt spark in my chest.“So it’s all good now right? Everything will go as planned now?” I coughed, scarcely trusting mysel
ALEXANDERIt took longer than I would have liked for my eyes to adjust to the near blackness as I entered the forest.“Where are you? You son of a bitch,” I ground through clenched teeth, waving the gun this way and that and aware of the way I was panting loudly, carefully placing one foot in front of the other.My arms were starting to get sore from holding the gun up and high, my knuckles white on the trigger as I crept along the line of trees, freezing when I thought I had heard the distinct sound of a tree branch snapping.Could this get any fucking worse? Did the motherfucker have to pick the shittiest forest in the whole of New York to make his dramatic comeback?“Go on and run away like the coward that you fucking are McCoy, I can smell that cheap perfume from a mile away,” I jeered loudly, feeling goosebumps rise on my skin when my distorted voice echoed back to me in the blackness.I tried to focus past the hum that had started in my ears but my mind was not following my eyes
DARLENEMy husband hadn't made any sense when he got off the phone with the purple-eyed man and it made even less sense now as we sped toward the edge of town with his knuckles white on the steering wheel.I braced myself against the cool leather of the dashboard, trying to calm the staccato beating of my heart in my chest as we sped through the stretch of asphalt and felt a wave of nausea press insistently against the roof of my mouth.“Are you sure about the address?” I wheezed, unable to bear the silence any longer and risking a glance at the chiseled line of Alexander’s jaw, the way his piercing green eyes were starting dead ahead, his flock of obsidian black hair falling over his face as the muscles of his shoulder and bicep flexed when he fishtailed the steering wheel.“White Villa at Maple Street, I didn't know he lived there, there's only one of the kind, you can't miss it,” He whispered, and even though I knew the steel in his voice couldn't have been meant for me, it made sh