"Y-you know my name?" Talisa asked while looking at the silver-haired man.
"Of course. I'm your fiancé," said the man.
"W-what?!" Talisa exclaimed, unable to believe what she heard
"Ouch! The twist is too hard, honey. Please release me," he said.
Talisa frowned at the man's words.
"Do not call me honey!" Talisa said. She intended to twist Michael even tighter with the tendrils.
"Let him go, Talisa," said Darius.
"What?"
"He's not a threat," Darius replied. He said it coldly, but Talisa could sense the scorn in his voice. Michael could sense it too because he immediately snorted at Darius's words, but he didn't say anything.
Talisa finally decided to follow Darius' words. She loosened the vines on Michael's legs and arms until the handsome man fell to the ground.
"Thanks, honey," he said with a crooked smile.
"I said stop calling me honey!" Talisa exclaimed in annoyance. As handsome as this man is, Talisa will not allow herself to be treated insolently.
"Why did you enter my house without permission, Michael?" Darius asked, ignoring the conversation between Talisa and Michael earlier.
"Alright… I should have appeared before my fiancé in a more imposing manner, but I was in a hurry. I have to admit that I'm jealous," Michael replied.
Talisa frowned then looked at Darius as if asking for an explanation. Darius just took a short breath and then looked back at Michael.
"I heard that you were with my fiancé, so I decided to see for myself. But as it turned out, I was caught," he replied.
"You could have come through the main door, Michael," Darius said.
"I wanted to know if the rumors were true, so I decided to sneak in," Michael replied again.
"Rumors?" Talisa asked. Everything is getting unclear to Talisa, too much information leaves more questions in her head.
"Darius and Zoya… Everyone knows the rumors. Maybe because his love was a failure before, Darius…"
"Enough, Michael!" Darius snapped. His yelling was accompanied by a burst of flames that almost hit Michael in the face if the man didn't dodge. The tendrils on the back wall got burned by it. However, Michael only chuckled softly. He walked towards Darius very slowly. Tension was created between them even though no sound came out at all.
"I don't like you being close to my fiancé. She's not Zoya, realize that" Michael said.
"Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself, Michael. I just wanted to prevent the chaos that would be caused by George's plan," Darius replied.
"Talisa will come with me, as she should be," Michael said.
"She will stay here. We have a mission to complete," Darius replied.
"Hey! Hey! You two!" Talisa exclaimed.
The two men who were previously facing each other now turned to Talisa at the same time.
"I am not an object! You have no right to decide who I will go with!" Talisa exclaimed in a firm voice. She was surprised herself by the firmness of her voice.
"Talisa..." Darius said quietly.
"I'm nobody's fiancé and nobody's possession! I…"
Before she could finish her words, Talisa suddenly felt a force from the ground pulling her tightly. Talisa couldn't keep herself standing. She then fell to her knees on the ground.
"Talisa!" exclaimed the two men at the same time.
They both ran to Talisa, but Talisa didn't know what happened after that, because she had been thrown into a different dimension. Talisa is now in a house that is not appropriate to live in. Not because of the building, but because the inside was very messy, like an animal cage. The stench made Talisa cover her nose. She wasn't really in this house, Talisa could tell because there was a mist which is just swirling around her body, but she could smell the stench.
Talisa tried to look around her, she knew that this strong vision would disappear quickly, so Talisa would use this opportunity to look for as many clues as possible. Talisa began to walk, looking at room after room, all of which were equally messy and smelled bad. She looked for names, numbers, or whatever, but there was nothing but piles of trash and papers.
Talisa quickened her pace because she knew that this vision would soon fade. In her heart, Talisa was wondering, where is Sherina, the little girl they were looking for. The unpleasant smell still penetrated Talisa's sense of smell even though she had covered her nose. But then, Talisa smelled a different smell, like the fishy smell of blood. She immediately searched for the source with a pounding heart. Her footsteps carried her into a room that was quite large, like a family room because there was a dusty sofa in the middle. Three figures lay lifeless with blood all over their bodies.
Talisa screamed stifled. She was too shocked to scream properly. The figures were an old man, a young woman, and a little girl with blonde hair. Talisa widened her eyes and immediately ran to the little girl.
"Oh no! No!" Talisa exclaimed while examining the little girl's body.
Her round eyes were wide open and blood was pouring out of the big hole in her chest. Talisa covered her mouth at the terrible sight. However, now Talisa could see clearly that besides the little girl were scattered and bloodstained school textbooks. It seemed like she was trying to do her schoolwork a moment earlier. Talisa quickly turned her gaze to the schoolbook, she took a good look, it was the best clue she could find.
Right after that, Talisa felt pulled back into another dimension. She knew she would return to her world. Everything became hazy and slowly the stench and fishy smell disappeared. Talisa can now only feel darkness and silence. She could neither move nor speak.
She didn't know how long later, she began to smell something stinging. But the smell made Talisa wake up and even jerked into a sitting position. Talisa's feelings and brain are in a hurry to say something, but that makes her speechless. She only sounded like incoherent mumblings that are conveyed in a panic gesture.
"Talisa ... calm down first," said Darius who was in front of her. He was holding a bottle filled with something that smelled bad. The next thing Talisa saw was beside Darius, there was Michael who was also looking at her.