Read with BonusRead with Bonus

Chapter 2

The Escape Plan....

Hope, faith and love.

These words are nothing but mere words.

Love isn't that simple and it's not beautiful at all. It's ugly, bad and dreadful.

In my opinion, love is the other name of suffering. So is.... faith and hope.

All this comes after a lot of struggles, pain and sacrifices.... Has anyone ever bothered to tell you that?

When you read books, you find these words very often, explained in different ways, in much better ways. They don't really tell you about the ugly truth and it's penance, they only talk about the happy ever afters, finding a good man inside the devil, turning someone good from evil and more of this shit.

You read the same story over and over again and the only difference is that, each time the reality gets more real, another truth comes out, things get more.... complicated, twisted and bloody.

More fights, more drama and more useless promises.

Well, my life is not that complicated and neither is it going to be, because I'm not a fighter. I might be stubborn but I don't have a rebellious spirit or any skills like the badass heroines you read about in so many stories.

There will be no drama, no suspense, no promise of any happy endings, I know this much because I'll not let them make a spectacle out of me.

I never did anything wrong in my life, I have always been tamed and under control. I have always walked the line. I'm still a virgin and I've never even kissed any guy. And more so, I'm proud to tell you this, not ashamed.

Even though there was no one to stop me from doing anything I wanted, I set rules and curfews for myself and followed them religiously. I completed my school with good grades and I was about to enroll in NYU (despite my internal turmoils) but before I could send the application, this happened. I don't know what went wrong and my fate picked me up, took me away from Jonathan and Judy then dropped me in the arms of this mafia.

I don't know what I did to deserve this, why I am standing inside Balthazar's office with my hands bound behind my back and blindfolded.

When I had seen the huge structure from outside before he had me dragged inside, it reminded me of a jail I had seen in a horror movie where the world's deadliest criminals were kept behind the prison cells.

I wonder if that movie inspired the idea of building up this jail to scare off others or this is the jail where the shooting of that movie was done.

Either way, the thought is terrifying!

“Miss. Danforth, why are you so quiet? You have not spoken a single syllable since we have arrived. What's the matter?” Balthazar asks in his heavy voice from somewhere behind me.

I stay perfectly still and try not to let his words affect me. My heart is already pounding inside my chest and it's getting harder to breath with every passing second. My whole body is trembling and my head is still a little hazy from the drugs he'd shot up inside my veins.

I can feel it, my fate is not very far away now. It's moving closer and closer, but slowly, giving me time to go mad with over thinking before I've even started paying the debt.

“Say something, honey. I'm dying to hear your voice.”

I stifle a scream when I feel the tips of his fingers graze my bare arms. I had felt him coming closer to me and unfortunately, he's my fate and no one can change it.

“I'm trying to be very patient with you, honey but your time is running out now and I don't have much patience left. So like the good girl you are, speak to me or I will have to quench my thirst with your screams, which of course will only add more fun to my pleasure.”

He grabs my upper arms and squeezes my flesh tightly, digging his nails into my skin.

The pain cracks my silence and I scream.

“Let Go!” I try to wriggle out of his hold but he only digs his nails deeper inside.

He's going to leave marks!

He makes an annoying tsk-tsk sound. “If you can't handle such a small amount of pain then how are you going to tolerate the rest of your punishments that I've got in store for you. They will cause the kind of pain which is beyond your imagination.”

He releases my hand then walks around me, pulling down the blindfold to let me see the coldness and hatred burning up in his black eyes.

“I hope you have not forgotten what I had told you. Your pain will be the payment, as well as my pleasure.”

Grabbing my cheeks, he squeezes my jaw painfully and tears spring out in my eyes as fear starts coiling around my neck, making it harder for me to breathe properly or think straight.

I'll never let him get to me….

He can try his best but I'll not let him get inside my head.

“I don't want to see any hope or light in your eyes, I want regret and apology. But I know that I'll never find these two things in your eyes in particular, unless you have accepted that this truly is your debt to pay.” He lets go of me. “I know you're still thinking that I'm doing injustice with you. I know you want to have a say in it. But alas, nothing like that is going to happen.”

“I don't care.” I grit out through my teeth.

He pauses, seemingly caught off guard by my gritted response, which is an obvious show of defiance. Crap!

His purple face darkens with rage.

“You fucking bitch! I'm trying to take this easy on you and you're trying to make this that much harder for me. What the fuck do you think you'll get out of this stubbornness? I'm giving you one last chance, give in or face the consequences.”

He puts the blindfold back on my eyes and grabs my hair then pulls me down on my knees.

“Let me go, you bastard!”

I clench my teeth against the pain and try to stop my movements when he tightens his hold, pulling my head back by my hair until I'm screaming and whining in agony.

“You don't tell me what I should do! You nasty bitch!” I squeeze my eyes shut but tears continue leaking out, soaking through the rough material of the blindfold and rolling down my cheeks.

I don't know why I'm crying right now, is it because he's hurting me or is it because he's hurting me and I'm able to do nothing to stop him?

My own feelings and wounded emotions add more pain to my psych and just to get rid of the painful sensation of my hair being pulled, I break down and give up.

Fighting him is futile….

“I'm sorry.” I sob quietly and his tight hold loosens slightly.

“That's much better. Now I want you to do something for—” A frantic knock at his door interrupts him.

He curses while still standing in front of me and when the knocking comes again, this time much louder and more frantic, he lets go of my hair, telling me to stay where I am before going to check who is on the door.

I sag down and lean back on my heels. My head is aching with another kind of burning pain now, the heaviness I have been feeling because of the drugs has become tenfold. I suppress a pained groan and move my head side to side to get rid of the white spots dancing around the edges of my vision even though my eyes are shut tight under the rough material.

“What is it?” Balthazar barks at the person standing on the other side as soon as the door is open. I startle and my breathing stops.

“Someone was at the front gate, Boss and he was demanding for the gates to be opened for him. The monitor didn't recognise him so we denied him entrance inside the property.” A hesitant pause. “He shot our guards then broke in and the last time we checked, he was making his way straight up to here. I'm sure he'll be here in less than 10 minutes.”

“WHAT!?” Balthazar exclaims, his voice filled with disbelief. “Who is he and how did he get through the security system?”

“The techs think that he has hacked our system. The control is now in his hold.”

“Fuck! Is he armed heavily?”

“We were only able to see him shoot our guards with a gun before the cameras went blank.”

An ominous silence follows his statement. “Fuck! It's him.”

For the first time since I've met Balthazar, I catch a hint of fear in his heavy voice, which is quavering now.

“What should we do now, Boss?”

“Let him come. Inform everyone to move the girls to the basement.” With that quick order, I hear the door slam shut which makes me jump and before I can make sense of what he has just said, he's beside me and pulling me up on my feet. I stumble and get up to stand on my weak legs with his support.

Is he going to take me down to the basement too?

I already start panicking.

“I'm going to get you inside the joint room. Don't make any noise and don't even dare to step out before I come for you.” I let out an inaudible sigh as he drags me somewhere by my arm. He's not taking me to the basement then.

“You don't want him to see you.” He adds quietly, so quietly that I would have missed it if I wouldn't have been paying attention to him.

I try to keep up with his fast pace as best as I can with my hands bound and my eyes covered, my mind spinning around his cryptic comment. I refrain myself from pointing out the fact that he's sweating like hell. His hold is all slippery on my upper arm as he's dragging me off to the room.

“Stay here and keep your mouth shut otherwise I'll double your punishments.” He warns me before I hear the opening of a door and I'm shoved inside. “I'll be back in a minute.”

“Pull off my blindfold.” I demand before he can shut the door and lock it.

“Fuck, fine!” The rough piece of cloth is flinged up from my eyes almost instantly.

I blink my eyes a few times and squint to adjust to the bright lights. Balthazar is already out of the room. Good.

I don't waste any time and immediately take in my surroundings. The room is completely sealed except for a huge glass window that leads out on a small balcony. Walking over to the glass doors and turning my back to it, I try to twist the handle…. only to find it locked.

“Dammit!”

I'm stuck in here, with my hands bound.

How will I get out of here?

After about 10 minutes, I hear the opening of Balthazar's office door but other than that there's no noise, only the ominous silence.

“Monsieur, It's been a while since the last time we met. To what do I owe the pleasure to have you here….” Balthazar's heavy but shaking voice, filled with fear and respect, carries in through the door and I go still.

Who is he talking to? I didn't hear anyone coming in.

“Pleasure, huh? I didn't know that you would be so pleased to see me barge inside your castle like this and kill your so-called guards. Either I would have laid some more corpses.” Another voice respondes, this one much deeper and accented, but dangerous nonetheless. The hint of dark amusement and malevolence in the undertones of his voice, speaks volumes about his motives.

He's not here to make small talk.

“Where are the girls?” He demands, cutting through Balthazar's lame attempt at small talk and getting straight to the point.

“In the basement.” Balthazar answers immediately, as if he's in a hurry to take him down there too. I don't know why he's so terrified of this stranger, so much that his voice is shaking evidently. I can feel the uneasiness coating his words every time he speaks.

Balthazar has baffled me, really. I thought he had moved whoever these girls are, to the basement to hide them. I didn't even think that he could have the plans to show them off to the person who has killed his guards.

There was nothing but fear in Balthazar's voice when he was greeting the stranger. Why isn't he enraged for the murder of his own men? Didn't he care about them?

When Balthazar had told me about his involvement in every Illegal business back on the plane, I had figured out this much that he must have his hands in trafficking too.

Girls trafficking, the most hideous of all the crimes.

And the people who do these types of transactions must have a heart of stone or didn't even have a heart, like Balthazar.

But I'm still a bit abashed by the way he had told me that I shouldn't let this dark stranger see me. If such a heartless and merciless mafia is scared of this stranger then he must be an even more of an evil bastard than Balthazar.

My throat closes up and my eyes start burning when I think of the girls, who are going to be one of the victims of this transaction. This guy must be here to buy one of those girls only, that means he's a client.

And to top that off, a really very important one.

But if he's so important then why did he have to break into Balthazar's territory?

Sounds of thumping footsteps brings me out of my muses and I listen intently till they disappear. As soon as I'm sure that they are out of the office, I run to the door and try the knob, just to check if Balthazar has really locked it or not and praying all the while for it to be unlocked. I'd not heard anything when he'd shut the door.

The door opens with a soft click sound. Yes!

Idiot! He forgot to lock the door in his hast.

I push open the door with my shoulders and step out.

This could be the best chance for my escape. There's no one around here to keep an eye on me. I can get out of here, if I stay alert.

I might not have a plan but I have enough experience in running and hiding to get out of here without getting caught.

All I have to do is use all of my five senses....

…. And the freedom will be mine.

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter