Into an Abyss

He did not turn up after that.

I waited, for a week, then another week.

But the memory of how he had treated me held me back. Lucien did not like me calling him up either; in fact, he had expressly forbidden me to do so. He had told me that if I needed to contact him, it was only through the man who was stationed at the house I lived in. That was the main reason for the presence of the bodyguard, he had said.

I realized that I had been so very obedient and completely trusting, I did not even have a contact number to call him directly at. Loathe to ask the new man who had introduced himself as Perry White, about Lucien's whereabouts, I went about my routine of attending classes and coming home as usual.

But when I was alone in the house, with Ana clattering about in the kitchen, preparing dinner before she left, I would sit on the bed, my books around me. Staring unseeingly out through the window, I began to see the situation for what it was, a fairy tale in my eyes - that was all it h