1. My villain

ERICA

 

 

Everything turned blurry as Leo and Riley’s voice faded in and out. I didn’t understand what was happening except that my insides were turning to ice, my body was trembling and I needed Antonio.

 

“Where are we going?” I heard Riley question that.

 

“To the hospital.” Leo answered her.

 

They both walked me out of the building after we stepped out of the elevator. I tried to focus on my surroundings as the outside air made it a little easier to breathe without wanting to wretch with all the mixed scents like it had been on the roof.

 

“I need to make a call, can you take care of her for a moment?”

 

“Of course.” Leo left me with Riley and we sat on the bench near the parking space. “Erica?” Riley tried to get my attention and I turned my head in her direction. There were two of her and I smiled. She smiled too, I think. She asked, “How are you feeling?”

 

I opened my mouth, but my throat felt too dry and it took a few tries to say the words, “I n-need water...” It hurt to swallow.

 

She looked around us and said, “Can you wait?”

 

The rolling in my stomach and the fact that my throat was hurting too much made it impossible for me to wait. I shook my head as I said, “I really need...”

 

Before I could finish, a wave of nausea hit me out of nowhere and I bent down in half, my hand going to my stomach as I emptied my stomach.

 

“Fuck.” I heard Riley curse as she pulled my hair back. She rubbed her palm down my back and pulled me back to sit on the bench, she said, “I am going back in to get you water. Don’t move from here.”

 

I nodded and with one last glance, she left. I sat there with my head pounding and shivering. “Antonio...” I whispered his name, wondering if he could materialise out of thin air just because I called for him. I wish something like that would’ve happened. But he didn’t come. Of course, these things don’t happen in real life.

 

Instead a dark shadow fell over me and when I tilted my head the world started to spin once again. I screwed my eyes shut and fought back another wave of nausea. “Miss, are you alright?”

 

I tried to look up at him again and this time I managed to have a glimpse of his face. Even though he was wearing the black uniform that other guards in Antonio’s employment wore, he didn’t look familiar.

 

“Who are you?” I managed to ask.

 

I thought I saw him smiling but I wasn’t sure as just then Riley came with a water bottle. She uncapped it for me and held it to my mouth. I drank some but instantly my stomach rolled in protest and I got sick again. The few sips I had managed to take came back out, with a worried gasp Riley wiped my mouth and said, “Take a small sip only, hmm.”

 

I took one small sip to get rid of the bitter taste in my mouth. The man standing in front of us, watching all of this, said, “I think I should take her home.”

 

Riley grabbed my shoulder as her attention went to the man. She asked the same question I had asked, “Who are you?”

 

“I am her assigned bodyguard and driver for today.” He took a step closer and said, “We should be leaving, Boss wouldn’t like us to be left.”

 

I pulled back as he tried to grab my arm. The chills were spreading through my body and my mind was too foggy but it pointed out the fact that no men of Antonio’s called him Boss, they always referred to him as Capo.

 

I swallowed through my right throat as I looked up at Riley and mumbled, “An—tonio. P-please call him.”

 

“I don't have his contàct,” She replied, but then she stepped in front of me and said to the man, “Why don't you let us talk to Mr Rossi?”

 

“I don’t think that’d be a wise choice. He is busy in a meeting and he was quite angry when he came to know that Miss was so drunk that she can’t even talk, much less walk on her own.”

 

I wanted to refute his words and tell him that I knew if I called Antonio now, he would come for me. I wanted to believe that he cared enough about me, more than anything else but then my own mind went against me and questioned... Did he?

 

“What’s going on?” Leo came back and I caught the flash of his cell phone screen.

 

“W— my phone?” I asked brokenly.

 

“We couldn't find it. Do you know where you put it?”

 

I had it in my hand but I didn't remember when and how I lost it. But I couldn’t answer all that as my tongue felt like it had gotten twice its size in the last few seconds. “Miss, we should leave.”

 

 I blinked a few times as I focused on Leo, who came to stand beside me. “What’s your name?”

 

"I don’t think you need to know that, but my name is Elijah.”

 

I shook my head. He was lying, this wasn’t Elijah. But my friends were looking at the man. I grabbed Riley’s hand, and when I tried to speak, only a pained whimper left my mouth. What was happening to me?

 

With a forceful jerk the man pulled me up. And he said, “As I said I don't want Mr Rossi to get more angry than he already is. We should be leaving, if he realised you’re stopping me from doing my duty he won't like it and probably stop Miss from attending any future parties.”

 

Leo grabbed my hand. “She’s not leaving with you. I haven’t seen you with her other bodyguards before.”

 

I stood there blinking hard and trying to focus but couldn’t comprehend what just happened in the few seconds that I took to blink as the man grabbing me punched Leo. Riley let out a scream as she crouched down to help him up. I tried to scream too but only a hoarse sound left my throat as the man started to tug me with him. When Riley realised that I was being dragged away, she came running toward us but I shook my head, not wanting her to get hurt too. But she didn’t listen and she tried to stop the man to help me. He pushed her away, making her stumble into a parked car.

 

The man dragged me out of the parking space of the cafe, and down the narrow lane to its right where it turned darker and darker with less crowd and then with only a few people around he stopped at the end of the lane where there was a black car and opened the back door before he pushed me in.

 

 I had no fight left in me, it was the man who was holding me up otherwise I’d have fallen down. But even then I tried to stop him from closing the car door as all the alarm bells echoed in my head telling me this wasn’t right. Antonio’s guards wouldn’t touch me and force me like that. The man twisted my hand and a sharp pain shot through my wrist. I snatched my hand away as he slammed the door shut and a second later I heard the locks engaging.

 

When I turned my heavy head to look in the front my gaze met the familiar ones. Elijah. It took me several tries and I wished I was wrong all this time as I croaked out, “Yo..u were in-side.”

 

He didn’t say anything as he started the car. My head lolled back, too heavy to stay upright as I questioned again, “Are you going to take me back to the castle?” I didn’t think I even managed to voice the whole question and even before he answered I was afraid of his response.

 

 Elijah laughed. “You are going where you were supposed to be all this time. In a real cage with real chains to serve your true purpose.”

 

“Antonio...”

 

 “I have already told him that you’re drunk and out of your mind and I can't find you.”

 

“H.. He will ki..ll you.”

 

“The only person who he thinks betrayed him will be you.” He added, “You ran away and got kidnapped.”

 

 

 

I didn’t know how much time passed as I went in and out of consciousness. I was glad for my drûgged state because I didn’t want to imagine what would happen when Elijah took me to where he was taking me. I didn’t want to imagine what horrors were waiting for me and who was doing all this. And as I sat there unable to move with the pinpricks that I felt all over my body and inside, silent tears rolled down my cheeks at the thought of being taken away from Antonio like this. I didn’t want to be taken away from him. In this moment as fear raced down my spine and clutched my stomach, I wanted nothing but him. I wanted him to come here and save me. I didn’t want to be in any other cage with any other monster. I wanted him to be my only monster and only villain. I wanted—

 

The car stopped and I turned my head to look around myself. Elijah was talking on the phone but even as his voice registered, my mind had stopped understanding so his words didn’t mean anything to me. But then a loud rumble vibrated the car I was sitting in as another came to a stop just beside us, its headlights penetrating the blacked up windows.

 

Elijah stepped out and I curled into myself thinking that he had finally delivered me to whoever wanted me to serve my purpose. Instead when the car door opened, it was my villain who slid in. Antonio.

 

 

A. Gupta