( BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA.)
Mom Rose stared unblinking at the doctor, refusing to believe her son was dead. As if jolted by a tremendous surge of energy, she screamed and pushed away the nurse who tried to cover him up with his bedsheet!
The doctors jerked into action but she was already with Arian, shoving him with all her might. They tried to tear her off his body but she pushed them away instead and they tumbled, wondering where her adrenaline came from!
“Arian, wake up! I’m not joking with you. Wake up!” She screamed and slapped him for the first time ever.
“Get your annoying, ugly self out of this bed and outside this hospital! I’m talking to you!” She choked out and hit him again.
“Have you forgotten?!” She grabbed his hospital uniform. “Have you forgotten about her? Have you forgotten your promises? Are you just going to give up?! You’re a coward, Arian! You’re such a big coward!” She yelled and shook him again.
Mom Rose’s strength failed and she crashed on him, soaking his clothes with her tears. She refused to believe he was dead. The doctors tried to pull her off again, but she was prepared to enter the mortuary with her son!
His finger twitched but no one noticed, drowning in their tears. Suddenly, Mom Rose heard a faint heartbeat under her and her eyes slowly opened.
Another heartbeat followed, and she stopped crying. Then the next. She raised her head to look at his profile. Soon, the beeping on the E. C. G slowly reversed to the organised wavy line.
Everyone flinched from fright.
The doctors were more professional and let go of Mom Rose to focus on the patient again.
Mom Rose couldn’t believe it and she choked on more tears. Her smile almost blinded her seeing Arian slowly flutter his lashes, letting out a lonely tear…
***
( Astheria, Australia. )
Naomi worked with her laptop. Being the Royal Secretary to a tough Empress wasn’t as easy as chocolate pie. Her stomach growled hungrily and she groaned.
WHY did she have to mention it?!
She ignored it and retied her ponytail with determination. Some murderers were too heartless to enjoy freedom!
Her wrists ached and hurt from too much typing but she endured. That’s what the Koreans say right?… Fighting!
After a while, a knock sounded at the door. She murmured a ‘come in’ without looking up. Going through years of official documents needed all the concentration she could get.
But that ‘concentration’ flew out the window when Jake walked into the office.
“Hey.” His voice was curt. But her cheeks flushed for no reason.
“H.. Hi.” She muttered. He was looking at her. He going through some kind of report.
“I need a favour. Do you have a book on snakes?”
“Huh?” Her smile dropped.
“I need further clarification. So I’m wondering if you’ve got a book?” He ‘finally’ looked at her.
Naomi thought for a moment before walking over to the library in her office. The room was drafted in such a way that the library was further inside while her office occupied the forefront.
When the office was presented, her eyes glowed seeing the hundreds of books on the shelves and she breathed a ‘perfect!’ without thinking twice!
She pulled a mobile ladder to the right catalogue and climbed up on it.
“Do you mind if I ask what it’s for?” She murmured going through the rows of books. Jake gently leaned on the ladder, waiting patiently.
“I want to know the origin of a particular species of endangered snakes.”
“Gotcha!” She chirped as she sighted the heavy book and rushed back down.
Unfortunately, Naomi missed a step and stumbled! She gasped and shut her eyes, expecting to crash land anytime soon but Jake caught her!
Her dull grey eyes blinked rapidly, staring at his hazel ones that she didn’t notice when he put her down.
“Thanks.” She whispered. Heat rose up her cheeks again as she clutched the book tighter to herself.
“Mhn… The book?” He cocked an indifferent brow. She hastily shoved it to him and took a step back.
“Thanks.” He waved it. And was gone the next second.
Stupid, stupid girl! She cussed at herself and unconsciously slammed her head on the ladder.
“Ouch!!”
***
Elva quietly walked behind Natalia and four other royal guards. They were at an underground bunker in the palace, going through secret corridors and connecting hallways. The halls were empty and the lights were dim.
In summary, everywhere looked spooky and smelled like death!
But Natalia wasn’t affected. She followed behind the two fronter guards confidently without a care in the world. Dressed in a straight cut red skirt and a cream shirt, her nude heels were simply out of this world!
At the rate at which she over stressed herself, Elva thought she was gonna break down and become unhealthy. But instead, the Phoenix Empress grew hotter!
Finally, they walked into a spacious, semi dark room which had an exquisite chair in the middle. Some guards were already inside, waiting for their arrival. A glass wall separated the room in half but the other side was completely dark, with no shadow or silhouette.
Elva gasped seeing a badly bruised man kneeling before the fancy chair. Blood was seeping from every corner of his body. His clothes were torn and his hands were tied behind. Natalia stalked over to the chair and sat down, elegantly crossing her legs.
“Mr Givanchy, how nice of you to join us!” She looked at the bloodied man with no emotion in her features.
“What do you want from me?” He spat. She chuckled dryly and took a file which Jake passed to her.
“Oh, I think you know. But being my guest, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.” She innocently flipped through the pages but paused and glared at him coldly.
“Who do you supply the crates of snake venom you smuggle into my Empire?”
The ‘Mr Givanchy’ looked defiant and seethed instead.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just a simple farmer living at the borders of As…” He couldn’t complete his sentence as the two torturers resumed beating him up.
They wore spiked gloves which tore his skin and and drew out blood. He shrieked in pain but the professionals continued with a merciless look.
It was a bloody sight!
Elva horrifically looked at Natalia but caught her casually going through the file with no trace of sympathy. They brutally beat him up but stopped when he was about to pass out…. or die.
“The Naai serpent is a very rare species of snakes found only in the Amazon jungle. Just a single bite renders the victim paralysed and dead in just one minute. Yet, you smuggle them in, shelter the lucky-to-survive ones, grow them in your farm house, extract their venoms and sell to rich, shady clients.
“I ask again for the last time, Mr Givanchy. WHO are your buyers?!” A murderous intent flashed across her cold eyes.
The man smirked, daring her to do her worst! “And I say again for the last time, Empress. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Very well then.” She relaxed back on her chair with a guilt free countenance. “Then my conscience is free from whatever happens next.”
Elva unknowingly shuddered at the inhumanity in her words.
Suddenly, the light on the other side of the glass wall came on. She gasped loudly and jerked away!
A little boy was tied, hanging below the ceiling. Beneath him was a big glass cage filled with deadly, disgusting snakes. His mouth was gagged and his eyes were red and puffy from so much crying.
A woman, presumably his mother, was tied to a chair next to the cage. Her mouth was also gagged and she was crying. But her tears were endless like waterfalls, seeing her son in the dangerous situation where he could fall to his gruesome death at any second!
Someone in the shadows held a gun to her head. But it was the least of her horrors.
Inch by inch, the rope holding the boy kept releasing and the snakes hissed more loudly, waiting for the prey to fall into their territory.
Elva didn’t realise how much she was crying. Her legs wobbled in her heels and she almost fell.
After thinking her best friend was getting back her humanity??
“I hope you don’t mind me borrowing your pets and family. Who’s it gonna be first? Your charming eight year old?…. Or your lovely wife? Personally, I wouldn’t choose the kid but go for your wife first. So the memory of watching a parent die stays etched in his mind for eternity! Oh, in a few seconds anyway because he’ll be gone next. So pick, Mr Givanchy. I haven’t got all day.”
Everywhere became graveyard silent. The only noise came from Elva’s frightened heartbeats. The man who had been sharp tongued earlier began whimpering as his tears merged with his bleeding face.
“P… pl.. please let them go. They’re innocent. They don’t know anything!” He begged and grovelled to her pretty feet.
Natalia frowned in disgust and Jake, who’d been idly standing by moved swiftly. Before anyone could process it, the pitiful beggar flew five metres from her and crashed into a wall!
“Don’t bleed on my rug!” She snapped icily, glaring at him when he spat out blood. A spring of tears slid down Elva’s cheek.
What happened to the fragile girl who couldn’t stand the sight of blood?
The man cried uncontrollably. His tears were out of frustration, than of his personal pain. “I.. I can’t. I j.. just can’t! They’ll come after my fam…”
“Let him fall.” She ordered with a vicious look. A guard flipped a switch and immediately, the little boy screamed falling into the cage…