Chapter 2

My eyes fluttered open only to shut back from the sharp pain the bright light caused. 

Gosh, Papa, why did you uncover the curtains this early? 

Groaning, I turned the other way when a worse pain shot through my whole body, making a squeak escape my lips. My head hammered like it would burst anytime. 

I shot up to a sitting position, clutching my head till the ache subsided by a fraction. 

That was when I felt it. The bandage wrapped around my head. 

My brows furrowed as I finally noticed my surrounding. Squinting, I took a glance around. A white themed room with minimal furniture and a huge glass window at one side. 

Where was I? I couldn't recognize this place. 

And what happened to me? Why couldn't I remember? 

Papa.

My eyes widened as one by one the memories from last night began to replay in my head. 

The move out. 

The accident. 

The gun shot... 

"Papa. Papa!" I called, casting the blanket off of me and jumped out of the bed. 

The second my feet touched the ground, another jolt of agony ran through my body. My head spun, making me stop and hold onto the wall till the phase passed. It felt as if something was broken inside. But I didn't care. All that ran through my head was my father. I had to find him. I had to make sure he was okay. 

Limping to the door, I gripped the knob and twisted it. 

Nothing happened. 

It was locked. 

What the!

I pounded on the wood. "Papa? Papa, are you there?" More pounding. "Papa, open the door. Please, open the door! I want to see you." 

Sound of footsteps came from the other side, and I moved a few feet from the door, hoping someone would open it. 

But alas! 

The footsteps didn't even stop. It faded with the same pace it arrived with. 

"What? Wait..." Running back to the door, I banged on it another round. "Wait, please! Let me out. I said lemme out, please!" 

Frustration began to seep through my bones, making me feel like crying and breaking the door at the same time. 

"Hello? Anyone can hear me? Please, let me out. I have to find my papa. Please!" 

No one came. 

Not even responded. 

Heaving, I slid against the door, sobs racking through me. I couldn't fathom why would anyone imprison me like that. Or even what might have happened last night. What happened to my father? He was never the best of a man, but he was neither a bad man. I had never seen him hurt a soul, rather he helped the ones in need. Always.

Then why would anyone want to hurt him? 

Nothing made sense to me, and it was burying me alive. 

I didn't know how long I cried, or how long I stayed by the door, curling into a ball, but soon the night befell, and darkness consumed the room. The only light slithering inside was the slivers of the moon shining bright outside. I didn't even feel like getting up and turning on the lights. 

At this point, I was a mess. I was hungry, thirsty, broken even and at the edge of hopelessness. 

Until another set of footsteps reached my ears. 

It was heavy and calculated, unlike the one from the morning. 

But I stayed there, not wanting to get my hopes high and left disheartened once again. 

However, as it neared, a jingle of keys sounded, before the lock began to click. 

Breathing heavy, I climbed into my feet, taking a few steps back. This wasn't my papa. I knew his footsteps too well. They were soft and kind. Promptly, my eyes traced over the furniture, spotting a vase at the bedside table. 

But before I could get it, the door widened, unfurling a figure so towering, so broad the doorway seemed too small for him. I couldn't make out his face, but I could tell he was staring right at me from the shadows. 

"Wh-Who are you?" I questioned. 

He didn't reply, only cocked his head to the side as if taking me in. 

I took another step back, feeling self conscious. "I asked who you are!" 

A long exhale left him, and he finally moved, slowly, dangerously stalking towards me like a predator would towards its wounded prey. 

My eyes widened, and I turned around, dashing to the bedside table. Grabbing the vase, I whirled it in the air, but before I had the chance to cast it at him, a hand grabbed my wrist. Long fingers like iron vines pressed over my veins so hard it felt like the blood circulation was almost blocked. 

"Ahh!" I screamed, both from pain and fear. 

He twisted the vase out of my hand without so much of an effort and shoved me back against the wall. 

The moonlight casting on the half of his face uncloaked honed facial features, and squared jawline with the shadow of a stubble. 

But what took my breath away were those piercing silver eyes, bathing in the softness of the moon yet radiating the hardness of the earth. They seemed to look straight into one's soul. 

The illuminated corner of his lips arched upwards, revealing a sharp canine poking his bottom lip, and for a second, I thought I heard the same growling from last night. 

I gasped, coming to my senses. From the corner of my eyes, I could see the door ajar. I could make it if I could distract him. 

His smirk broadened as if he already deciphered my plan. 

I gulped, my hand clutching around the lamp on the bedside table beside me. Before he could make a move, I hauled the lamp up and threw it right at him. Not waiting to see if it hit the mark or not, I jumped over the bed running through the door out on a dark hallway. Rays of a dimmed blue light came from the end of it. 

I sprinted towards it. 

Perhaps freedom was near. 

I could finally find my father. 

Well...

I was wrong. 

The second I neared the light, my foot lost the touch of the floor, and I found myself floating in the air, before my body came in contact with hard edges. Newfound pain generated throughout me as I tumbled down and down. 

Landing on the tiled floor downstairs, I groaned, every inch of my skin aching. Darkness swallowed me whole as flashes of the car crash reiterated in my head once again. 

This time it was all lucid.

This time a little detail that slipped me before, returned. 

I could see my dad. He was standing there, a few feet ahead of the car. There was something glinting in his hand, something he was pointing at the other side. 

I inclined my gaze to the direction. 

There it was again. 

The red eyes. 

They were looking right at me...

...before the obsidian flash of its hugeness swooped out of the darkness and ran towards me. 

"Gisella!" 

I sprang back to consciousness, breathing hard. 

It was after me. All this time of thinking the monster was after my father had been entirely wrong. My father was protecting me, not himself. 

But why? 

What did it want from me? 

Wait...

I was forgetting something. 

The man! 

My breath hitched in my throat as I felt a presence above me. A hand pressed on my back, covering most of its width. Warm breath hit the nape of my neck, slowly approaching my ear, making goosebumps prick my skin in a frightening way. 

"Little girl," he spoke. 

It was the huskiest voice I had ever heard on a man, one that could chill one's soul severer than the Arctic, make a grown man fall to his knees. 

"Who I am, isn't something you should be concerned about. What I'll do to you is what you should fear."