"Funny how you think you can escape me." The shadowed man is back again this time with a gun in his hand.
"Who are you?" I too have a weapon of my own now, a scythe.
"If you think you can find and kill me, you're wrong little girl." He chuckles humorlessly.
I launch forward to him and try to take off his hood. He fights back and shoots the gun in my chest. I look down and see blood seeping through my clothes. "Find out what makes him powerful." He starts to take off his hood and before I can see his face I wake up from my sleeping state.
In a frantic manner I look around me realizing that I'm still in my house, in my bed.
"Fuck, what was that?" I rub my eyes tiredly.
A couple knocks sound on my door.
"Come in." I say loud enough for the person on the other side to hear.
Dalia comes in with a smile and hands me a letter. I raise my eyebrow at her, she shakes her head and leaves the room.
I tear open the letter and look at the folded paper like a plague.
Who uses letters nowadays?
——————————————————————
To: Cara Mia.
Your presence has been requested in
Rey's Mansion, come as soon as you
get this.
–El Mar
——————————————————————
What. The. Fuck!
I open the messenger app.
Me: Do you know where El Mar lives?
Ángel García: I'm afraid I can't tell you that.
Me: Why? You already told me that you're friends with him. If you really wanted to protect his identity, you wouldn't tell me about your relationship with him in the first place.
Ángel García: You're right. I shouldn't have told you, now I have to bear the consequences.
Me: What do you mean?
Me: Ángel?
Me: Ángel!
"Cara, I'm going out." Dalia says. When I hear the front door closes I sigh.
Making my way downstairs to the kitchen takes longer than usual since I'm not focused on where I'm going I just need to walk around and think.
The sound of the front door closing catches my attention. I tiptoe toward the living room careful not to make a single noise.
I grab the nearest thing to a weapon I see that is a knife.
I point it outward and walk in the living room scanning around for any movement.
I walk out and up toward my bedroom. I open the door and it makes a creak sound I facepalm myself and before I can plunge the knife to my left where there is a movement from the corner of my eye, the knife falls loudly to the floor and a handkerchief closes my nose.
I try my hardest not to breathe in but fail when the only air I can get in my lung is through my nose. I claw on the person's hand and kick around.
Slowly my vision blurs and dark spots cover my surroundings. The next thing I know, I lose consciousness.
I open my eyes and see two figures clad in all black, one in the driver's seat and one in the passenger's.
I try not to move too much to prevent them from knowing I'm back in the human world. I fiddle my hand around and realize they're tied with a rope. I groan internally and screw my eyes shut when I see the one on the passenger's seat look up at the rear view mirror.
"She's a pretty one." He says, I can feel his eyes scanning me from head to toe.
I shiver in disgust, internally.
"Shame she's his." The other one said nonchalantly as if I'm an object belonging to anyone.
"I bet he won't know if I-" The passenger princess says and cut off by the driver.
"Don't" He states, not leaving any room for discussion.
Soon we come to a stop and they both get out of the car, one of them opening the back door to pull my body out and carry me like a sack of potato.
I play dead and let myself become as limp as a faint person's body can be, sharpening my ears for any sound that can tell me where I am-
"Who are you two and what are you doing with an unconscious lady in your arms in the Reyes mansion?" A man shouted from across the room.
-or not.
Of course I'm kidnapped and of course it's El Mar's doing.
"El Mar himself requested her to be brought to his office right this instance. If you would like to ask him yourself for clarification you're welcome to." I can feel the tense atmosphere and the hair on my neck stands like it's turned on.
I hear the man sigh and lets us pass through, we reach the second floor I believe and one of the men knocks on the door, then someone says "Come in."
We enter the door and they put me on the sofa, I feel a man hovering over me and I try not to open my eyes to peak.
"She is the one, you can go now." A man says, his voice commands respect, it's rough on the edge yet it's not forced. He sounds calm but not the good kind, it's the kind of calm before a storm. The dangerous kind.
"You can open your eyes now," he says still hovering over my body, I can see his shadow with my eyes closed, I think he's a large man. "-unless you want me to open them for you." I hear a knife being sharpened and open my eyes right away.
"What are you doing?" I look at him in fear as he points the knife so close to my face. He has a gorgeous face. He looks like a dragon. Big and strong, a cute animal but a dangerous one, and he definitely breathes fire.
"Cutting myself an apple." He scoffs and takes the apple from the coffee table beside the sofa and starts stabbing it.
"You're El Mar?" I ask, looking around the large room which is an office.
"Do you know him?" He offers me a slice of apple and I shake my head twice before giving him a confused look.
"No, but I'm guessing you're him. Are you not?" I scrunch my eyebrows and think to myself what is this man getting at?
"If I am, so what?" He rolls his eyes and takes a seat right next to me. I don't feel good sitting in this close distance with him. He makes me nervous. I think he makes everyone nervous.
I force my butt to move away from him a little further, "I would like to ask him why he wants to see me or why I'm kidnapped."
He wipes the knife carefully and puts it back in its sheath. "He says it's because you made a secret deal with him. Do you perhaps have any more questions?" He mocks.
"Stop." I fume.
"Stop what?" He smirks like a madman.
"That." I huff out like a child and cross my arm.
"Hmm, sure." He stands up in all his mighty glory and walks to his desk sitting on the edge. "You know, you really, and I mean genuinely, are not supposed to be here. But, since this deal you made with me has been nagging me in the back of my head, I have no choice but to bring you here before the time comes." He lets out an audible tsk and grabs a paper from his desk towards me. "Refresh your memory, it seems you forget things easily." He nudges his chin towards the paper.
I stand on my wobbly feet and walk toward him slowly, he lunches at me and I jump back in shock and fear but he laughs, he was just playing around. Does he think I'm a child?
I grab the paper from him and grumpily storm back to the sofa where I feel the most comfortable at this moment. I look through it and see my signature with my name with the word saying "When the time comes for Party A to have a child, Party A will be given a child or more depending on the situation by Party B who volunteers as the surrogate. Party B will be given a large sum of money for/during the pregnancy and after the pregnancy by Party A. If/when a party breaks the agreement of this contract, the other party is allowed to give punishment/s according to their wish."
"The signature is really mine?" I look at him bewildered.
"Isn't it?" He comes to stand in front of me and hands me a phone. I take it from him and press play on the recording.
"If a breach of contract shall happen after signing it. The party at fault will be given a huge punishment, do you understand?" An unfamiliar voice said.
"Yes." I hear his voice.
"Understand." I hear- my voice.
"I- how- when-" I stutter like an idiot as he takes the phone back and slips it into his pocket.
"You should ask the seven questions to someone who has many times in their hands." He opens a drawer and takes out a phone. "This phone only has my number in it. Don't even think of adding another person's number because it won't work. Not even the emergency number." He throws it at me and I catch it before it has the chance to hit my head.
"Where's MY phone?" I seeth.
"Somewhere or nowhere at all." He shrugs and sits on his chair.
"What do you want from me El Mar?" I spit in anger and refuse to look away from his eyes.
"The last person who dares to look me in the eye is now six feet under." He challenges.
"I do not care what happened to the last person who looks you in the eye. What I care about is you kidnapped me without telling me why!" I yell.
He stands from his chair and marches towards me, his hand around my throat squeezing hard enough for my face to turn into a tomato. "Watch your tone, Cara. Or I'll make you scream louder than you think you can." He looks me in the eye and pushes me back down on the sofa. "As you read on the contract, you cara mia is the surrogate. My surrogate. So if you do anything like try to run away or try to kill me or any of that bullshit. I'll have your head delivered to your house. Do we understand each other?" He sends me a glare that I can't hold and I finally look away from him to the floor.
I nod obediently -which I hate- and say, "Yes." I spit out.
"Alright, back to why you're here earlier than you should have been. It's because I'm afraid you've forgotten about our deal, which you totally have and to remind you I told my men to bring you here to me so we can talk more about it and get to know each other as my mother likes to say." He looks bothered by what his mother has to say apparently. "And in case it was not clear earlier, yes I am El Mar, but you don't call me that every time you call me. It is a nickname for the people who deserve my wrath after all, you may call me Lucero."
"Right." I still look at the floor not bothering to look up. He grabs my face harshly and says,
"If my mother says anything to you, come to me, I mean it." He looks me in the eye and uses his thumb to ghost over my lower lip then he calls for his men to show me to my room.
What has the world come to?