CHAPTER 2

As I sat there listening to everything he was saying, anger boiled deep in my stomach. What’s worse was the fact that they actually believed what they were saying to me. Trying to protect me? Bullshit! They giving me back to them, I’m still the peace offering!

“You are both selfish, and so twisted you cannot even see what the fuck is going on. You didn’t leave your old life for me, no you left for yourselves and used me as a bargaining chip. So what now? I’m supposed to wear a wedding dress waiting for my fiancé?”

“You’re kidding. You’re all kidding, I’m not going anywhere, and I’m sure as hell not getting married to a murderous psycho, he’s gonna have to shoot me!”

Without waiting for any chit-chat or whatever bullshit they thought could convince me, I bolted out of the room and ran head fast to my room without looking back.

Quickly, I picked a duffle bag and began to throw whatever felt necessary to me into the bag. Lucas was standing by the door by the time I looked up and he looked really scared.

“Come here, Luc.”

“I’m just leaving for a couple of days, I want to go spend some time with my friends before the exams start okay? I’ll be back really soon.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll tell you if you promise not to tell anybody. You have to promise Luc, can I trust you?”

“I promise.”

“Okay, I’m going to Kylie’s. I’ll text you with a secret account on Instagram, if you promise not to tell anyone.”

“Ann, you’re scaring me. Why don’t you want anyone to know where you are? Are you sure you’re coming back?, are you in trouble?”

“No Luc, I’m just going to be with Chase, that’s all. And I don’t want mom to know. Okay? Do you promise?”

“Alright, alright I get it now. I promise I won’t tell.”

“Good, thanks. Now help me pack before mom gets here.”

“What about the party? Tell everyone to go home, tell them I got so drunk, I passed out, so they need to leave before our parents find out.”

He nodded and left. I zipped my bag and sneaked out through my window. I’d done that a lot of times so it wasn’t scary at all.

Once I was at a reasonable distance from the house, I called Kylie.

“Girl, why are you calling me from the same house we’re in?”

“I don’t have much time to explain, Get Lu and meet me in front of Old Peter’s garage.” I hung up.

A few minutes passed while I paced back and forth, what was taking them so long? I wondered.

I was gonna call again but after much consideration, I decided to move closer to the house. It was 1 am and it was starting to get creepy out here.

As I walked down the pavement, I began to have this feeling of being followed, but when I looked back there was no one behind me.

I decided to call Kylie again when suddenly, a hand with a cloth covered my face and a hand pressing me against a hard body preventing my escape. I tried to scream, but the sound was muffled by the hand and the cloth and slowly, I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness.

The first thing I felt was a migraine, it was faint but just enough to be a problem. I opened my eyes, slowly, my vision was blurry so I had to blink a couple of times to adjust them.

The room around me was dark, I couldn’t tell if it was day or night, I couldn’t see a thing. I tried to move but my body felt heavy and weak, I would have to stay there for a while, to build up some strength. Clearly, I wasn’t on my bed, and this is not my home, so where the hell am I? I thought out loud.

Suddenly a door opened, Whoever came in, just stood there, not making any movement, I made a futile attempt to turn my head towards the door and the sudden movement made my head ache even more.

After what felt like five minutes, I finally heard footsteps. Light footsteps that made me guess it was a female. Without moving my head, I was able to calculate her direction to the left side of the room, and to my surprise, she opened the window. Bright light flooded the room and instantly filled my eyes. I wasn’t prepared for the impact so I cried out loud when it caused another pain in my head.

“ Madam, are you alright?” Was the first thing that came out of her mouth. Her voice was tiny and calm yet alarmed by my cry. It was annoying not being able to move my head as I couldn’t see who was speaking.

“My head! I can’t move it. It hurts like a bitch!” This time I was properly frustrated, but I calmed down when her face finally hovered above “Oh dear! You’re burning up. I’ll go call the physician right away. Try to stay put until I return ma’am, lest you worsen the pain.” And she scurried out of the room leaving me all alone again.

My eyes jolted open, trying to take in my surroundings, it felt at rest to realize that I was still in the same room. I tried tilting my head, and alas, my headache was a thing of the past. I must have dozed off before she came back with the man and he treated me in my sleep.

I sit up straight to take a good look at the room and my mouth hung open. It felt like one of those rooms you’d read about in medieval fairytales. Everything from the wall paint to the little details on the furniture certainly gave the vibe of medieval times. It was quite large, at least three times bigger than my room at home. It had a wardrobe that fit the style of the room, a round table with two chairs, and a mini shelf with books hung above it. The girl from earlier was sitting on a chair, reading a book. Aside from the bed and the furniture, the room was empty, it looked more like a guest room.

“Hello…” I called out to the girl, if I was getting any answers, it certainly would be from her.

She heard me and hurried over to me, her clothes were also medieval attire, something a maid would wear.

“Hello, Miss…”

“Anna, my name is Anna but please, call me Ann.”

“Yes, Miss Ann, how are you feeling? Is your head feeling better?” She had this British accent too.

“Just Ann is fine, and yes I feel better, thank you. But I will feel a lot better if I know where I am and why I was kidnapped.”

“You are in Master Luscious’s home, I believe he is your husband-to-be. And you were kidnapped because of your refusal to marry.”

“What the fuck does that mean? Since when is marriage a do-or-die affair? I don’t want to marry anybody. Can’t he find someone else?”

“I understand you ma’am…”

“Ann, Call me Ann.”

“Yes, sorry, that’ll take some getting used to. Anyway, I do understand your pain and frustration but he didn’t exactly ask for it either. Your parents made the deal and as the leader, he has to honor every deal.”

“I don’t care. I just want to go home, or somewhere else, I don’t want to be here. I’m supposed to be going to college, not marrying some gang leader.” At this point, I couldn’t hold myself anymore. Tears fell freely from my eyes, the frustration was starting to get to me. Why me? I didn’t ask for any of this.

“If you leave, or even try to run away, you’ll get caught and your family will pay the consequences. Do you really want that? I know it’s not my place to tell you anything, but I’ve been here for a long time and it’s not exactly by choice, so I know how you feel. We’re almost the same age, I’m just a few years older.”

“So you’re saying I should just suck it up and marry the guy?”

“No. I’m saying you should forget about running away. Look, you’re not the only one in this situation. There are Six of you. All arranged to marry him. So, there’s gonna be a little competition, it’s just their sick way of getting entertained. But if you perform badly enough, he might choose someone else and you will be sent home. That way, you get to live and your family too. Get it?”

As much as it didn’t make any sense, hell the whole situation felt like a whole nutcase, but if I cannot run away, my best chances were to lose the damn competition.

“Fine, I’ll play.”