CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
For a mere moment there was silence between the two, neither attempting to converse with the other as they continued to lock eyes.
A crocked smile cracked up at the corner of Darius' lip as he stood up, dismounting his from his throne. Every step he took was like a beast approaching its prey, but that would be the last thing Leah wanted to be right now, a prey.
"my child…" He was standing face to face with Leah now. It had just been three years since he last saw her, but she had grown up into a fine young woman, beauty just like her mother. She was tall enough now that she was no longer craning her neck up to stare at him, but able to look him eye to eye. Maybe it was because of the minor distance between them. Nevertheless, he was delighted to see her, the final missing piece to his master plan, a plan that had already been set in motion since the day she had been conceived…
Leah has never seen Darius like this before…could it be that he was actually happy to see her? And possibly wanted her to come back home because his consciousness had cursed him with guilt for what he had done to her and her mother?
HA! What a ridiculous thought! As soon as Leah thought it, she began to rebuke such foul ideas. Darius was a man who never did things that weren't to his benefit, so off course if he went through all the trouble of kidnapping Charlie to get her to yield, off course he might have had some dirty scheme up his sleeves. That's right, Charlie…
"where is she?" Leah calmly demand, an unkind and disgusted look on her face as she looked into those silver like eyes of his with hers, she had taken out the black contact lens sometime between when they left the school and arrived here. Maybe she should have just left them the way they were.
"hmm…I see you changed…your hair…" instead of answering her pressing question on the whereabouts of her friend, he was asking her about her hair?! This was enough to trigger her and she snapped.
"WHERE THE HELL IS SHE…" there was a slight rumbling in the room as her voice echoed around. But Darius was not angered by her raising her voice at him, something none of his children dared do, something no one had the gully to do so.
"I see you've also… grown…" Darius decided to take things at a slower pace with her, it's not like she would do anything foolish, knowing he had her friend at the center of his palm and can be crushed at will.
His words alone were like a leash on Leah, she knew she shouldn't have raised her voice at him, but she was desperate. It was strange that he didn't do anything after she had raised her voice at him. What sort of mind game was he playing with her?
"…but…as for your friend, she's…alive…"
Leah felt her heart hitch…alive? Does that mean she's in worst condition? Dear god what did he do to her?
"…why…why did you take her? She has nothing to do with any of this…" Leah's eyes were cast down, why did he have to drag her into this.
"why? It was the only way to get you to stay…and…comply" he said as he casually dusted his sleeves off. Raising his gloved hand up, he snapped it and a wide screen television was lowered in the middle of the room, the screen turned on and Leah looked up slowly. Darius turned to look at the screen as well.
"I must admit, she was hard to break…but the knowledge that her best friend was not who she claimed to be did the trick…oh how she must despise you…the disappointed look in her eyes when she found out…" his words were daunting.
Charlie was chained up by the hands and feet like a common animal, she was covered in dirt and bruises, not just that, but her eyes were covered by a black cloth, impairing her vision. The clothes she had on were torn and tattered; she really looked to be despair. Leah could clearly she how Charlie trembled in that cold dark room.
Leah's eyes turned blood red from anger as she continued to stare at the screen with wide eyes, barely able to contain her anger.
"THAT'S NOT TRUE…CHARLIE WOULD NEVER HATE ME!" yelled Leah, refusing to simply accept his words as they were.
"but that's not all…" the sinister smile on his face stretched a bit further as his true psychopathic tendencies began to surface.
One snap of his fingers and the screen split into multiple frames. Leah felt her face pale and her hands tremble…when did he have time to do all of this…
"you sick bastard…" cried leah as she threw her arm aside.
Each frame on the screen displayed a member of her class. Nina…Zac…keiko…lucas…all of them… even her teachers.
"mmm…it came to my attention that you care deeply for these…insignificants. I have to admit…I was a bit displeased by this, but then again…it was a bargain chip, as long as you behave, no shortcomings shall befall any of these…people…I mean, unless they aren't as important to you as I thought?"
Leah was quite for a bit as his words enclosed her into a tight spot. On one hand, if she walked away now he would hurt them and if she agreed to whatever scheme he had going on, she would be selling off her soul to the devil, literally.
"the choice is yours…" explained Darius, but was it though? Was it really a choice when he hadn't given her any option to begin with. Her eyes searched the screen one more time for Charlie, regret and angered coursed through her veins as she clenched her fists, holding them so tight that they turned pale in comparison to the other parts of her body.
"but how can I agree to a thing I know nothing about?" Leah couldn't let her emotions cloud her judgment, before she became friends with any of them, she was an S ranked villain with a cool and leveled head.
There was no guarantee that Darius would keep his words and she didn't want to blindly fall into the obvious trap he had set up.
"everything you hope to know will all come into light tomorrow…I might be a callous and cruel man, but…I do have morals…I have given you my word and I never go back on them…unless, the other party goes back on theirs" Darius put himself on a high pedestal were he looked down on everything that crawled. He never took no for an answer, modesty and morals are things Leah had never associated him with.
The smile that hung loosely off his lips had fallen, replaced with a grim and brooding one. His silver like eyes reflecting the red glow of the crackling fire that sat at the corners of the room, adding to the already tense vibes.
Fine, if that's how he wanted to play his game, she would play. For far too long she had been running from him. Nobody needed to tell her that she was strong, since the very beginning she knew she was the strongest. And she had no doubt in her mind that she could take him on. But that would be foolish…her other siblings would interfere with the situation and put her down. Individually, she had a chance up against them, but together, that would be a different matter. Oliver, Heath and Pandora, maybe…but Luther…
The very thought of it sent shivers down her spine, despite being the second oldest son, he was almost as terrifying as their father. How could one person have such a terrifying power that was almost, if not, infinite…even she had her limits..
"I'll do it…" after going over the possible scenarios in her head, she came to the conclusion that there was no way round this and the only way forward is through it… "…just let everybody go…Charlie too…"