Chapter 124
It was eerily silent, not the peaceful kind, but the tense silence before the storm, which made every breath feel heavier.
The faded voices of a group talking amongst themselves resonated through the walls of an abandoned building.
Four men stood in each corner of the square hall, all holding weapons in their hands but not alert. Two of them were chatting with their girlfriends, while two were watching reels.
A girl sat in the middle of the hall, her hands and legs tightly bound to the wooden chair, a strip of duct tape sealing her mouth shut.
“Mmm!” A slight sound from the girl, who was awakening, or more like gaining consciousness after the dose of chloroform was fading away, alerted the men.
Elara struggled against the ropes as her mind registered the kind of position she was in. The events from before rushed to her mind, and tears brimmed in her eyes that were blindfolded with a black cloth.
Dread spread in her heart at the thought of being kidnapped by Arnold. Her body started trembling in utter fear and disgust, the lack of vision scaring her even more.
“Go tell the boss she is awake.” One of the men said to the one standing closer to the exit, and the latter nodded before leaving.
The man walked to the girl, who was struggling hard against the ropes, so violently that the continuous thrashing would’ve made her fall backwards and hit her head.
However, before Elara could push her backwards, she felt someone’s presence near her and froze.
The man grabbed the edge of the cloth and jerked it up, making her head swing to the side from the impact.
“What is it?” The burly man asked, his deep voice making Elara blink vigorously to clear her vision.
She looked around and found herself in the middle of a hall in some building.
Tears streamed down her face, her loose hair moving on her face.
“Where am I?” She wanted to ask the men, but all she could do was moan in displeasure because of the duct tape on her mouth.
“Stay silent. I hate noisy bitches the most. Don’t tempt me to force you to inhale a sedative again,” The burly man said, and it was more than enough for Elara’s body to go rigid.
She swallowed hard, staying silent.
Since her hands were tied to the armrest, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t reach her pocket to feel if she had her phone or at least the dagger that she always carried around.
She observed the three men present in the room, her heartbeat not easing.
The men, though dangerous, didn’t look professional, definitely not the kind of people who were working for a particular organization.
The last time she was kidnapped, all the men around her wore a particular uniform and worked in a specific way. Every movement was well calculated and deliberate.
They didn’t even remove their gaze from her for even a second.
The security and their professionalism were top-notch, be it fear of their boss or death that made them so efficient.
The kidnappers didn’t seem to belong to Arnold’s usual group, suggesting she might not have been taken on his orders, which unsettled her.
The thought put her heart at ease briefly, but not enough to relax her.
With this realization, another doubt arose.
If Arnold had kidnapped her, he wouldn’t have killed her immediately, not until he tortured her to the very end with his obsession and narcissistic behavior, but since it wasn’t him, what did this person want from her?
What if whoever this person was wanted her dead?
The thought made her think about all the people who wanted to harm her after she returned.
There was Beatrice, Carla, probably Andrew’s other family member, and… Sean?
She was about to make some sound to catch the burly man’s attention when she heard the sound of boots clacking on the floor. Her heart skipped a beat in anticipation, dread deepening in her chest as she wondered who it could be.
She couldn’t make out who it was.
The person who entered wasn’t someone she had met before.
“So you are finally awake,” the man said.
Elara looked up at him, jogging her memory to remember this face, but no matter how hard she tried, it didn’t ring any bells.
She wanted to ask who he was and why he was doing this, but the duct tape on her mouth rendered her unable to do so.
“How does it feel to be so helpless, unable to do anything?” The man grabbed her face, pinching her cheeks painfully, and tears brimmed in her eyes.
She struggled in her chair to break free, but the man raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face.
The impact made her seat swivel in its place, and it was about to fall to the side when one of the men stabilized it.
“So weak and pathetic. And to say, a powerless bitch like you became a thorn for us,” the man said before he leaned forward.
He extended his hand towards her throat, wrapping his fingers around her throat one by one before he squeezed it.
Elara’s face turned pale at the impact as she tried her best to breathe.
However, no matter how hard she tried, the tape over her mouth made it impossible.
The man watched her face go from pale to red and then to purple, and when he saw she was about to pass out from lack of oxygen, he let go of her throat, making her body jerk violently as she wanted to cough, but the restraint made it even more painful.
Tears streamed down her face as pain shot across her body when the man kicked her chair down, making her fall to the side.
She barely got enough time to lift her head slightly to prevent it from hitting the ground immediately and lessen the impact.
Her hand got scratched, and she could smell her blood, the same metallic liquid that she tasted in her mouth.
The man raised his foot to kick her abdomen, but before he could, the sound of another set of shoes clacking on the ground echoed, and Elara finally saw the face of the person who was behind all this.
The smirk of satisfaction on the unknown person’s face made hatred and suspense surge in her chest, deepening the story’s tension for the audience.
“Well, well, well, now this is one position I really loved seeing you in, definitely not as the main singer of some drama,” the person said before they walked to her.
The person grabbed the whip from the table that they had explicitly asked the team to arrange.
And then, without a warning, they brought the whip down, hitting the side of her body, making her writhe in pain.
Author’s Note- Who do you think kidnapped her?