I gave him my permission. He said I would, and I did. But I don't regret it. I'll do it again if I have to save Skye. I know she will do the same for me. But now, I find myself asking the silent question; what now?
I'm sitting in a long and rich black limousine, all alone. Heading for the demon's palace, surely. What will become of me now? What kind of life will I live from now on? Will I be chained and locked up in a dark room for all eternity? Will I be a sex slave for the king alone, or for his equally despicable brother too? Or maybe the king would feel generous and decide to share me with his entire court.
What if he plans to torture me physically and mentally after what I did? I want to tell myself I can take whatever he throws at me, but I don't think I can. I'm scared. Of course I won't admit it to him, but at least I can think it now that I'm alone.
I'm scared of Leonis Rein. Of the power he holds as sovereign king. Of his height, his muscles. I looked at his palm earlier; imagine he slaps me with that hand. I'll probably sink into the ground.
I'm afraid of his simple breath, it felt like fire when he spoke close to my face. His smell also scares me. I'm not with him now, but it still lingers around me. I'm afraid that I might like the scent.
I'm mostly afraid of his eyes, those eyes that can be the brightest of golds or the darkest of orange. Eyes that seem to hold a million secrets, and a billion desires.
I'm afraid of a lot of things. But I have to hide my fear. But for some reason, I feel like even if I try to hide my fear, he'll sense it. So the only way for me to live is to not mask my fears, but to get over them completely.
I have to be strong, for myself, for Skye.
Oh, Skye, she had cried and fought to hold me back. She blamed herself for my misfortune. She begged him to take her instead, she begged him that she was willing to go. I miss her already. I didn't think of it before, but now I wonder if she will be alright alone? What will become of us now? Will I ever see Skye again? Or is this the end for us too?
A thousand questions are parading in my head right now. Questions for which I have no answers to. Even now, my body still shakes for fear of the future. I take in a deep breath, trying to calm myself as I lean backward and rest my head.
Life, fate, destiny. Three funny words. But oh, how powerful these words are.
At least the ride before my life of torture is pleasant. I can almost thank Leonis Rein for moving me with such a luxurious car. It's too comfortable.
I open and close my palms, trying to force the quivering out as I drop both my hands beside me. I feel the softness of a fabric on my knuckles. I turn my head to see that it's the covers for the car windows. I suddenly realize that I don't even know what this world looks like. We were never allowed anywhere out of the arena and the lodge where we were kept. I don't even know what the world I'm in looks like.
But thanks to the various people who come to watch the show in the arena, I do know that the fashion style of the people of this world is mixed between the normal modern dressing style that I'm accustomed to, then there's the medieval dressing style, and lastly are those weird dressing styles that we only see on models on a runway, or better still, those kind we usually see in alien movies like the dress style of the aliens in the movie jupiter ascending. Yeah, those weird dresses.
As it is on earth—or was. The women in this world are the ones who are more creative about the designs. I remember the first time we worked in the arena, I noticed a woman with a hat that looked like a parachute! Literally a mini-parachute was on her head! I mean, how crazy can fashion be?
As much as I know about the fashion sense of this world, I know nothing about the world itself. Is it a place as dry as a desert, or is it like islands in the middle of big oceans? What if it's a floating world? My questions are endless, and some of the answers lie behind this thin material that covers the car windows.
Curiosity, they say, kills the cat, but I don't think it applies to my kind of curiosity. So without further hesitation, I draw closer to the window, place my hands on the curtains and pull them open.
If it's possible to forget one's problems, then I just did… "WOW!" My eyes dilate, my lips part and open wide, my brows rise high as I lean in closer to the window, resting my entire face on the glass.
"It's so beautiful." I know, I'm not supposed to feel this way about a world that destroyed my world, but anyone will see this and admire it with all their heart.
Tall gray glass buildings, the reflection of the sun makes the glass look like a shade of blue-gray. Cars of different sizes and forms! And when I say forms, I mean different shapes and structures. I don't think Ford or Ferrari could have come up with a mechanism to work with these designs in the next centuries.
But that's not the center of attention at all, because I lift my eyes and I realize that flying cars— well let's just say vehicles. Flying vehicles are running on what seems like floating roads.
I see a transparent bridge at one side, and I see colorful people walking on it.
It's like I'm in some kind of fantasy animated movie about the future. And when I say the future, I mean like the year 3000 kind of future.
You know how you watch alien movies and you just know that everything is a fake? Well it isn't. I'm riding in the middle of it right this very moment, and I haven't even noticed that my shivering has stopped.
Everything seems so colorfully aligned and in perfect synchronization in this place.
I sincerely have not seen a more beautiful sight of an evolved city. "It's really beautiful," I say again.
I turn my head to the side and my breath cuts instantly. A shivering cold runs down my spine, and my body begins to quiver all over again, my heart starts racing again. I instantly move away from the window, letting the curtain fall over it again as I try to calm my panicking heart.
A dragon. I have almost forgotten the horrors that happened in my world. There are dragons flying out there too. It won't attack me, or would it? I'm too scared to think. Too scared to move close to the curtain again. I think I've been traumatized by a creature I never believed existed.
There are a lot of things I didn't believe existed. But I've seen a dragon, I've witnessed it destroy my home, and today, I even witnessed Leonis Rein do something to Skye without even touching her physically.
He has some kind of powers, very wicked powers.
"I guess the dragons are my least problems now."
For what if Leonis Rein has the power to control my body to do things I don't wish to do?
"Oh lords save me!"