Twenty-four hours later...
"This is not what it looks like!"
"This is not what it looks like, Viorel!"
The two said in unison, and Ares scrambled away from the actress in panic and haste.
Viorel Queen rushed towards his sister with a face that could even scare away the ugliest demons. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY SISTER?!" He stood in between and blocked the boy from seeing the actress, his eyes never leaving the 'offender'.
On the bed with her hands bound, Eirene told her brother hurriedly. "Viorel, he was just trying to help me-"
"By stripping you?! Have you lost your mind?!" He asked angrily without facing her. She could see his shoulders trembling from the irregular breathing.
"Yes, by stripping me." The actress answered as a matter of factually and her brother turned to her with a frown of confusion, shock and anger.
"EIRENE!"
"Hey, hey!" Jaxon got in between the siblings with his hands on the man's chest, pushing him back from the bed. "I know this boy, and I trust her words. Let's listen first, mate."
Viorel was pushed to sit on the nearby chair prepared by Ares. Then the manager sat on the bed, and the boy sat next to him, but he instantly got up and approached the actress.
He leaned down on her as his hands reached for the tie. Their faces were only apart by a short distance, and she could feel his ragged breathing from the pressure her brother was putting him through.
Eirene heard one of the two men suck in his breath, probably Viorel, and she averted her eyes from the boy. She knew what the man must have thought; kissing.
She looked back up at the boy again, only for him to be focusing solemnly on untying what was keeping her in place. "Don't," She said softly. There was no need for her to be loud to the person who was just centimetres away from her face. He brought his eyes back to her. "I don't want to risk it." She breathily told him.
The good thing was that he listened to her and decided not to undo it. Instead, he placed pillows behind her back so that she had no difficulty breathing and was comfortable.
After that, Ares returned to sit next to Jaxon, but Viorel's glare made him move and sit on the furthest chair from Eirene.
Jaxon looked back and forth between the boy and the actress with both his lips, sealed shut inside his mouth. "So... what happened?"
Eirene and Ares exchanged a quick glance, but that glance did not go unnoticed by Viorel. "Eirene, if he's threatening you, spill it out."
"That's not it." She denied it but still looked at the boy at the table set.
"Then what is it?" He asked back.
The actress looked down at her body in silence. His gaze was piercing. "...I don't know where to start. What do you want to know?"
"Everything," Viorel answered and sent another glare to the boy, who shrunk in the chair. "I don't even know his name."
The heir jumped up from the chair like a spring and stutteringly said, "I'm Ares Queen. Ni-nice to meet you, sir. Hello..."
"And I'm Viorel Queen. Eirene's older brother, it may sound disrespectful, but I am not very pleased to meet you." The man replied coldly.
The actress wanted to stop her brother from scaring away the boy, but thankfully, her manager stepped in. "Ares, could you step aside for a moment?
"Of-of course!" Like a rabbit, Ares hopped up from the chair and quickly walked to the door with Jaxon right behind him.
"I'm so sorry about this." The manager told him.
"It's alright." The boy replied cheerfully. "If there is something you need, just call me."
"Alright."
With that, Ares was out of the room, and a heavy silence engulfed the three.
"Would you stop staring at the door and face me?" Viorel asked her with a hint of irritation and walked over to her. He then began untying the knot over her head crossly.
"Stop." She told him, but he fell on deaf ears. "I asked for this."
"So that you won't escape, or what?" He asked back annoyingly.
"It's exactly that."
Viorel stopped his hands and looked up to the ceiling. "Dear god, Eirene. You weren't like this when you left. Have you really lost your mind?"
"Perhaps, yes." She answered seriously with a hint of a sarcastic smile. Certain flashes of memories from the hijack appeared in front of Eirene and she closed her eyes.
She felt her brother withdraw his hands from hers and she opened her eyes again. Unlike the expression of a demon from seconds ago, his face was racked. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say it that way."
"It's fine." She replied and let her brother gently hug her.
Her brother's hug was warm and brought comfort to her injured heart. But before he pulled away, she sensed a change in his mood, not to a good side to a bad side.
Viorel frowned deeply as his nose twitched. "You smell like blood. Surely the stab wound must have stopped bleeding by now..."
It took a moment of stillness for Eirene to remember she was stabbed in the neck with a fork. Although it had stopped long before the explosives were removed from her neck, she knew it must have been deep and probably made some damage to an artery. Despite all of that, she didn't feel any pain not just in her neck or anywhere in her body or more than that, she didn't have any feeling in her body.
She felt her brother's warmth and could see the silhouette of two fluffy baguettes-looking legs under the duvet, but if she wanted to move them, it was a different story.
Eirene tried to move her neck from side to side to check her brother's words, but as if someone was holding them in place, not even a strand of her waved in the air. "Why can't I move my neck?"
Jaxon casually brought out a selfie mode camera in front of her and showed her the state. Indeed, there were thick layers of white bandages coiled around her neck, giving off the impression that she survived a slit throat.
While she was speechless and examining her own body, Viorel shook his head. "It's not from that."
The actress looked up at her brother with a hint of guilt. "It's from my chest. I... I scratched it."
The demon face was back. "Just why would you do that?
Did you forget that you have those nails?"
Jaxon was in the back and nodded to himself, "Oh, so that's why... Understandable."
"I wasn't in my right mind." Eirene defended. "I don't have control over my body and that's why I asked Ares to tie me up so that this won't happen again. Also, I accidentally spilt water on myself and the sheets."
Viorel closed his mouth and eyes, and after taking a deep breath, he took a step back and sat on the chair. Instead of leaning into the seat, he leaned forward and placed his elbows on the thighs.
With scintillating eyes, he spoke his mind without trying to hide his anxiety and hostility towards Ares. "As much as I trust and believe you and your words, I can't erase my suspicion towards him and believe him as you do. And this happened outside of my knowledge... You know what happened last time with that sh*t bag."
Eirene couldn't open her mouth for a reply. What her brother pointed out was the possibility she blinded herself from.
"I never want that to repeat. If I could change that past and stop that from happening, I would sell my soul and my body for it and don't regret it a bit. I will not rest in peace until the man responsible for all this, is suffering a million, a billion times more than you did and burns in an inferno for all eternity. It might sound childish but that's how much I loathe him." The man finished quietly despite the obvious anger in his words. "So forgive your brother for thinking this way, but until I see who he really is, I can't easily open up to him."
-----
"How is Ms Queen? I thought you were staying with her." Eric asked as he typed skillfully on his laptop without looking.
Ares sat on the patient's chair, "I was but Jaxon... wanted to discuss some things with her so I left." The small clinic was in the neighbourhood of the hotel he just came from.
His friend stopped typing and raised a brow but he resumed it in a moment and stopped himself from making a comment. "Are you tired?"
"No." Ares shook his head. Using his tippy toes, he began swaying side to side on the swivel stool like a child. Mirroring his movements, the metal part in the chair creaked, gradually annoying Eric.
But before the med student could erupt with anger, there was a click of a door opening behind him and asking in a bored tone, "What's up with him?" That question was thrown at him but at Eric, who just closed the laptop. "He's lonely."
Orion stayed at the doorway. "Then help out. There aren't enough people in here." And without a warning, he pressed down the adjuster, making Ares lose his balance. "Come on."
Ares looked at his other friend for support but received a shrug. "Let's go."
He was the last one to get out of the room and was about to close the door when Eric's voice echoed from the nearby staircase. "Ares, I forgot my file. Could you bring it up with you? It's by the light stand."
Ares got back into the room, took some time searching as he was terrible at it and finally exited again after fifteen minutes. After locking the door, he took a step back just to bump into somebody.
"Ow!"
He spun around quickly but immediately backed away when his face was millimetres away from the other person. "I'm so sorry. Are you alright, miss...?"
The healthy dark-skinned woman smiled as she smiled and stepped towards him. "Irwin. Ruby Irwin. Do you remember me, Ares?"