BELLA
Talk of jumping from frying pan to fire. I ran away from my lovers, not knowing I was running into something hideous. I met the monster who brought me to the room and ended up fainting again. The next time I woke up, I found myself in a cage, surrounded by a furnace of fire. Yup. A freaking furnace.
The heat woke me up. While unconscious, I felt like I was being baked in an oven. Sweat dripped down my body like droplets of rain as I knelt on the iron cage.
With a yelp, I stood up, cursing under my breath. “Where the hell is this freaking place?!” I yelled out as I jumped from one side of the cage to another, seeking a safe place to keep my feet. The damned monster dares to remove my slippers, to let me feel the hotness of the fire on the soles of my feet.
“If you want a confrontation, why don’t you face me?!” I shouted. “Hey!” I looked around, to know if I could see anyone. I couldn’t see beyond them because of how raging the fire was. “If you wish to slay me, you can seek another alternative!” I yelled out.
“Kill you? And who said anything about killing you?” Someone spoke behind me.
Startled, I turned but didn’t see anyone. The fire made it difficult for me to see who owned the ghostly voice.
“Where are you?” I demanded, glaring at the direction I figured he was standing in. “It’s creepy speaking to a disembodied voice, you know, right?”
“Do you think I care?” He asked as he stepped forward. His footsteps were the first thing I heard before he came into focus. His steps were slow and measured as he drew closer.
“Fuck,” I whispered, staring in shock at the guy who was walking towards me. My mouth went dry as I gave him a full appraisal. Fucking hell.
I didn’t know what I was expecting, but I doubt it came close to what I was seeing. At least, not close enough for him.
The man was devilishly handsome. His black eyes were like a bottomless hole. Filled with secrets. Beautiful. Dashing and dark.
I found myself getting drawn to it, to the promise of pain I saw there. Not a good kind of pain, though. The one that would leave you for death.
“Snap out of it!” I hissed, slapping my right cheek.
He seemed to know the battle going on in my head because he smiled. “Like what you see?” He demanded, his voice as sweet as honey, soft and supple, dripping with promises of dark torture.
I gulped at the thoughts as I stared at him, still admiring his beauty. His long black hair, which he tied up in a ponytail, gave him a bad-boy vibe. All he needed were some tattoos and piercings. But he didn’t need that. Not with that voice of his.
“This is funny,” he muttered as he walked towards my cage, smirking. “What I wouldn’t give, to see the expression on the kings’ faces when they hear how you drooled over me,” he laughed, leaning close.
I had to step back, to put enough distance between us, as I glared at him. “Drool over you? You wish,” I hissed. “Why am I here? Why did you bring me to this godforsaken place?” As I asked that question, I stepped away from where I was and walked to the right, seeking a cooler place to rest my feet.
“Why?” He grinned. “Don’t you realize why?”
“Have I met you before?”
“Not at all. But I know who you are. Hell, all the guards knew you.”
“And is that a good thing?” I demanded, to know if I needed to watch out for any strange person who might try to kidnap –
Okay. First things first. I need to get out of here before thinking of getting kidnapped by another person.
“What do you think?” He laughed, the sound as bristling as ice. His face contorted into an ugly expression as he continued to laugh.
And that was when I realized something. The person I thought was a man wasn’t one. There was no way those fangs could lie.
Goosebumps erupted in my arms as I walked over to the left side of the cage, avoiding the place he was. Cold thread enveloped me despite the hotness from the fire going on in full force.
The man didn’t seem to feel it. And if he did, he did a damned good job at hiding it.
He was, after all, a monster.
“I don’t know who you are, or why you took me. Just let me go,” I begged, trying not to let my fear show. “Please let me go.”
He grinned. “Do you think I will do that? Let you go when I am close to achieving my goals. Now that’s the funniest thing I have ever heard since I escaped from prison.”
Fuck.
Just my lousy luck. I ran away from my lovers, only to get caught by a non-human psychotic ex-convict.
What crime did I commit in my last life that made me experience all this?
“Why? Is there anything you want from me?” I demanded, as I moved over to the right once more. The iron was getting hotter by the minute, and I knew it would be a matter of time until I wouldn’t be able to stand well. I just pray I get rescued before that.
What a wishful thought. Who was I kidding? No help was coming. Not when my location was unknown and my capture was a beast.
“I want nothing from you, pretty human.” He smirked.
“Then why am I here? Don’t tell me this is just something you did out of a whim?” I moaned at that.
Worse than getting kidnapped to demand ransom, was getting abducted because your captor felt like doing that.
“You will soon know about it,” he replied, still smirking. “When you have served your purpose, I will let you leave. There won’t be a reason for keeping you,” he assured me, but his tone made me believe he was lying.
“You don’t -”
There was a loud bang, so deafening, that I had to cover my ears with my palms while looking in the direction it came from. The strange sound puzzled me, and more so when the man with me smirked.
“They are here,” he whispered, sounding overjoyed about it.