Chapter 7 That Fire
Aiyana's P.O.V
Had I known that I would face my worst fear being under the “protection” of one of the most feared men in the country, I would never believe it.
It didn't happen when I roamed the streets as a child, nor when I needed favors from men, which I was grateful for but I would have loved that there was never an attempt for the rest of my life but here I was, fighting for my life.
Well, my dignity.
~=•=•~
I didn’t know how long I’d been in this room, not exactly.
Long enough for meals to come like clockwork.
Long enough for fear to sharpen into something else, something with teeth.
Long enough for me to start hearing the rhythm of the guards’ footsteps, like a metronome against the silence.
I hadn’t spoken in hours. It would have been days if Jerome Black didn't come here everyday but, silence was easy, and safety was in stillness.
Unmoving things couldn’t be punished but today…
Today was different.
I knew it from the moment I heard shouting down the hall.
I could hear and feel the urgency as several boots were leaving their posts all at once. Like a command had ripped through the mansion and every soldier obeyed without hesitation.
All except one.
One remained.
The guard closest to my door, who was bigger than the others, with shoulders thick like stone pillars.
His jaw tightened as he watched the hallway empty, and when the last echo disappeared, he turned slowly toward me and smiled.
Not kindly.
Not curiously.
Just cruelly.
A knowing smile, like he had been waiting for this moment, and immediately my heart sank to my stomach, and my pulse hammered through my ears.
I knew I was one to jump into conclusions but I knew that this wasn't that. His eyes said everything.
Discreetly, he stepped into the room, and shut the door behind him, not just shutting it but bolting it shut.
I shifted backward instinctively, but the chains pulled taut, rattling like bones being shaken. I hated that sound.
I hated how much it revealed.
Hated how small and restrained I must have looked.
As the guard walked closer, my brain racked with different escape measures but somehow, I couldn't think.
Fear had already taken hold of my senses and had my mind a jumbled mess.
Two steps.
Three.
His boots echoed like a countdown.
“You look bored.” He muttered, with a sly smile and a voice dry like gravel.“Thought maybe you wanted company.” He said again and all I wanted to do, was wipe that smile off his face, but I was helpless.
My throat tightened with every step he took that closed the distance between us.
I had felt fear before, several times actually but the fear I felt in this moment was deafening and my head pounded as it left a sour taste in my mouth.
I had heard people talk about their fear in similar situations but I just came to understand that there was a difference between hearing something and feeling it for yourself, but soon, fear turned into anger.
“Company?” I scoffed as he smiled, pretending to have an innocent look on his face for whatever reason.
He didn’t come here to talk.
He came because he knew I was alone.
Because he thought I was powerless, and before I could react, he reached for my face.
Big hand. Scarred knuckles. Fingers like iron.
With his strength, I immediately knew that I could not approach with face to face resistance so, I acted weak.
I acted helpless.
I let my shoulder slump, let my eyes widen, let my breath tremble the way prey trembles when the predator steps into the open.
He liked it.
I saw in his face that spark of triumph. That belief that I was too scared to do anything.
Good.
Let him think that.
His hand touched my jaw. Rough and claiming, ike I was a thing.
My heart slammed hard enough to bruise my ribs.
I swallowed.
I let my body shake like he scared me senseless.
Then, once he had his back to me to remove his useless pants, thinking there was nothing I could do, I moved.
Fast.
Violent.
Desperate.
I twisted, yanking the chain attached to my cuff, wrapping it around his wrist, then his neck in one motion. His eyes widened too late. His hand grabbed at the metal but I pulled harder, putting every nightmare, every bruise, every sleepless hour into the strength of my arms.
He choked.
The sound was ugly, wet, panicked, gurgling.
He staggered, but I didn’t let go.
Used his elbow to hit me several times, so hard that I believed my ribs were broken but I'd rather have them broken than let this man have his way with me.
I leaned back, used the bedpost as leverage, and strangled him with everything I was.
He clawed at my hands. At the chain. At nothing.
His face reddened. Veins bulged. His eyes rolled.
I didn’t stop.
Not until his body began to sag.
Not until he was seconds from collapsing lifeless to the floor.
Not until I realized that I was killing him and wanted to kill him.
The thought scared me.
Terrified me.
And yet, I loosened the chain only when his legs finally buckled. He gasped violently, half sucking, half choking down air. His body slumped, wheezing, trembling.
Alive, but barely.
I let him fall.
My breath was jagged, messy, feral. I felt something hot and strange pulsing inside me, not fear.
Power.
My hands were shaking when the door clicked open.
I didn’t even get a second to think as Jerome stepped inside, and stopped.
His eyes went straight to the guard collapsed at my feet, neck marked red and purple by the chain. A silent moment that passed like a held breath.
Then, he looked at me.
Not shocked.
Not angry, just amused.
The corner of his mouth lifted, just slightly.
“There’s that fire.” He said with a smirk as he filled his hands in his pocket, his smirk long gone like he didn't just smile.
In this moment, I saw myself the Jerome Black that everyone talked about.
The monster behind the pretty face that everyone said he was.
The temperature in the room dropped so drastically I could feel my blood chill.
Jerome’s face shifted. It was hardened, darkened, as anger carved itself into every line of him, sharp like splintered glass.
His presence became suffocating.
The guard tried to lift himself up, just barely as a weak sound left his throat.
He shouldn’t have moved.
Jerome’s hand went to his gun so fast it didn’t look human.
I froze immediately, realising what he was about to do but there was nothing I could do to stop it.
I actually didn't really want to, it was just the discomfort of never wanting anyone to
die, even this pig.
Jerome raised the gun.
Pointed it at the guard’s head.
His voice was ice.
“You touched what’s mine”. He said coldly and immediately, a shot followed.