Chapter 2

Freya died a thousand deaths after he left. For minutes, she stood frozen in place as she looked at where he had been sitting like she could still see him there. 

 “Oh my God,” she said, crashing to the cold floor. “What is this?“ 

 Strangely, even after everything that happened, Freya still wasn't scared of the situation on ground. She was only thinking about her brother and how he would react and cope with life if she never goes back to him. 

 Freya's heart broke at the thought of that. That man—the handsome devil in human form who had tortured her with just his touch, had said her death would be more pleasurable than that of the others if she was what he saw in her eyes. Which brought her to the question: WHAT WAS IT THAT HE SAW IN HER EYES? 

 Freya soon realised that she was worrying about the wrong thing. Her survival instincts were screaming and warning her to get out of wherever she was before it became too late. But how? 

 Her gaze travelled to the door, and she remembered that he hadn't seemed to lock it. Without thinking, she jumped off the floor and scurried over to the iron bar door. 

 Freya's impatient yet nervous hands stretched to the other side and she found that it was indeed unlocked. Her heart jumped in relief and she felt some of the weight on her chest gone as she opened the door and stepped out of the room. She gently closed the door behind her and stared at her surroundings. 

 She was in a dark and long hall-way which was dimly illuminated by fire bulbs from the start to the end. The wall in front of her was made of strong-looking brown bricks, and she only discovered that she was in a mediaeval building when she saw the ancient marks on the ground. 

 Freya's heartbeat increased its pace at that moment. The hall-way was quiet to the extent that she could hear her breathing, and it held some sort of forbidden aura in the air. Freya was starting to think getting out of the room was a bad idea. But what choice does she have? 

 She looked left and right of the hall-way and decided to go right since her instinct found it friendlier. Her walk was fast yet careful and cautious, and she occasionally looked back to see if she was being followed. The hall-way went forever, and Freya was really starting to regret going out. At that moment, she realised that she had left the room not more than seven minutes after he left. So how come the long hall-way was empty? Could he have reached the end in such a short time? Or maybe he went to the left? 

 She crashed to the hard floor and rested her head to the wall behind her. Maybe he had indeed gone to the left. But why did she care so much about where he went? Wasn't she supposed to be happy that he wasn't around to stop her? And that was when realisation came crashing on her at once. He had simply closed the door and not shut it even when there was a key.

 Freya suddenly felt like a fool. She shut her eyes and cursed in frustration. He must have wanted her to get out. Did she really think that he forgot to lock the door? 

 “No, he didn't.“ 

 Freya flinched and her eyes flew open before she jumped off the ground. She started to run towards the direction she came from without bothering to look at the owner of the voice she heard, but she saw with dismay that a figure was standing not less than seven feets away from her. Freya turned to look behind her and saw there was nobody there. She gasped in shock as realisation dawned on her. The person who had spoken to her and who was supposed to be behind her was miraculously in front of her! 

  “H-how did you…” she stammered, her expression bedridden in shock. 

 “You could say I was bitten by a cheetah,” returned the feminine voice. And that was when Freya saw her face. She swallowed her saliva in nervousness as she looked at the lady in front of her. 

 She was beautiful, Freya noticed. She was about the same height as Freya or a little taller and had long black hair which stopped some inches away from her chest. She was dressed in an all-black warrior-like attire, which complemented her fair skin and made her look like a goddess. Nora was beginning to wonder if it was just her imagination or everybody around here was beautiful. 

 “The Lord's gonna love this,” said the fair goddess before she walked over to Nora and looked her straight in the eyes. 

 Nora tried to divert her gaze—tried really hard—but it wasn't working. She felt like she was under a spell as the fair goddess searched her brown eyes with her golden ones like she could see through her. Finally, the fair goddess shifted her attention from Freya's eyes and she was able to move her head again. 

 Freya panted like a person who has been running and asked angrily since she couldn't hold her patience any longer: “What the f*ck are you people? And why the hell am I here?“ 

 The fair goddess shifted her attention back to Freya and snapped her fingers in her face.

 Suddenly, Freya saw herself kneeling in a large room with high-hanging chandeliers and magnificent lights. She gasped in shock and looked around her in disbelief. It turns out that she was in a room as big as half of a football field, and there were hundreds—maybe even thousands—of people staring at her. 

 Her heart sank down to her bottom and she anxiously started to stand from where she knelt to find the fair goddess and ask what was happening. 

 “Don't!“ 

Freya felt her whole body freeze in fear and she immediately looked up to see the owner of the voice. It was him of course—the man who promised her a pleasurable death. But there was something more: he looked uncomfortable and was dressed in a way that suggested marriage. And when Freya looked at herself, she saw that she was wearing a wedding gown.