"You…. Y-You were the one who assaulted me!" Khalilah screeched as she continued to back away from him and he made no attempt to pursue her.
He just stood there looking at her, with an unpleasant gilt in his eyes, he sighed briefly as he stepped towards the table and stopped again.
Khalilah did the math and she concluded with one answer, it seemed like she had been kidnapped, she bit down on her lips, he broke into their home and was not able to find anything of value, so he kidnapped her and used her as a ransom to get her grandmother!
"You kidnapped me, didn't you?" She drawled in confusion, she took a few more steps back until her back reached the steel doors.
"I wouldn't have had to use force if you had just come with me quietly." He says quietly, reminding her about how he had knocked her out.
He pulled out a chair at the head of the table and pulled another on the right side looking as gentle as he could be.
"Please come here and sit down." He repeated the same kind and polite manner; motioning for her to come, Khalilah remained unmoving pursing her lips stubbornly.
Is this kind of politeness even acceptable? When he seemed so unpleased with whatever he was doing at the moment.
"I don't want to sit anywhere around you and with that, I demand to be taken back home this minute." She yelled her back reaching the door, he sighed and sat down instead.
His face hardened and became void of any emotion, right now Khalilah could hardly tell if he was angry or just bored but it was probably a blend of both.
What she knew and was sure of was that this man was dangerous, her body shut down just at the sight of him, and she didn't think it would be advisable to be anywhere around him.
"Khalilah, sit down." He ordered fiercely finally dropping his polite act, she was startled at just how accurately he knew and used her name. "Your whining irritates me, so much that I'm getting mad and you wouldn't like it when I do."
He reached for the wine goblet, and he turned some wine into it before bringing it closer to his lips, for a brief moment Khalilah felt a wave of fear travel along her body because he looked too serious to be joking and she didn't want to get hurt as well, she had experienced just how violent he could be, she wouldn't like to experience it again.
So, she reluctantly stepped towards the table with an unsure look on her face.
"Now will you tell me who you are and why you brought me here?" She asked softly as soon as she was seated, two chairs away from him.
"What do you wish to know?" He asked as he reached for the wine bottle and poured it inside the goblet in front of her.
"Who are you and what do you want from me? Where the hell am I? Why did you bring me here and how the hell do you know my name?"
"My name is Olive, Emperor and King of Nosferatia and we are in the dining hall of my crimson court." He answered proudly, as he urged her to pick up the goblet, Khalilah stared into the blood-red liquid, and turned her gaze back to him, openly rejecting the drink.
Who knows if it was poisoned or drugged?
'Where on earth is Nosferatia?'
she wondered to herself one more time. 'Maybe if I had taken my studies more seriously, I wouldn't have missed that geography part; but no matter how hard I think about it the name sounds made up.'
"As for the purposes for your presence here, I brought you, Khalilah, to be my bride and my queen."
Now this sounded even more ridiculous. "What?" she drawled in confusion, and he set the goblet down with the hope of explaining things even more clearly.
"I said I brought you here to be my wife, we will be tying the knot very soon." His explanation was as straightforward as a clear sky, even a baby would understand this, but not Khalilah, because...
why?
"King Olive of whatever you are from…" she interrupted with a small snap; she raised her hands to shut him up from the rest of the conversation. "Look here I don't care if you're a god of some Nescafé or something but as for me… I'm not interested in your proposal at all and I demand you take me back home!"
"You are well aware that you are in no position to demand anything from me." He said as calm as the Dead Sea.
Khalilah's eyebrows narrowed in confusion, she didn't know if this was reality anymore, so she dug her nails into her palms, and hoped the pain would wake her from this supposed nightmare, it wasn't a dream, so she slapped her hands against the table.
"Look here I don't want to be rude so…" he interrupts her sharply.
"Nor do I want to be violent." There was a deadly glint in his eyes, and she froze in fear.
She paused for a while unsure of what to say or do as she analyzed what violent means; violent in the sense that he'll use force, he would probably hit her.
Her golden eyes slid down to his hands and she swallowed, they were quite big and strong.
She wouldn't want him to grab her with them, but even though she wasn't a fan of violence, it didn't mean she would agree to be his bride and queen just like that.
This man is crazy.
"I'm not getting married to you." Khalilah found her voice again and she thought to warn him sternly, he sighed again.
From his body language, she could easily see that he was just forcing himself to be calm, she noticed that he was barely restraining himself.
"I will be understanding and give you some time to think about it, and by that time I hope I'm given an answer that is correct." With that, he simply got up and began to walk away from the table, apart from the wine, he didn't touch the food.
"No!" Khalilah shouted loud and clear so he could hear me, and she staggered out of the chair. "No means no, don't give me time to think about it I already told you we are not getting married, I don't even know you, and even though you are handsome I don't like you; I want to go home now, grannie will be looking all over for me."
He stopped in his tracks without turning back to her, she heard him sigh again.
"Just do as I say and there will be no problem." His voice was cold and eerie and could hear it resonate within the walls of her ears.
It was as if the temperature of the room had dropped, goosebumps peeled from the exposed part of her arms and she shuddered at just how terrible he made her feel just with the sound of his voice.
"It's a warning, Khalilah. I would hate for us to start on a bad note." He said again and then he turned towards her, stalking back to her like a lion to its prey. "If I were you, I'd shut your pretty little mouth and think about it."
As if bewitched the urge to argue or even speak vanished, unknowingly she fell back into the chair as quietly as possible and she watched him leave.
What was going on? What the hell just happened here?
'Why did he leave instead of telling me everything?' she asked herself, she noticed she was still trembling, she hadn't been this afraid of anyone before, not even the devil.
'I'm pretty sure Grandma and my family are looking all over for me.' She thought again as she rubbed her palms repeatedly, trying to provide herself some heat. 'He sounded like he knew Grandma the other day, why did he come to the house? Is it to cause a commotion in the family?'
'If he just wanted to kidnap me for money, why would he marry me as well? And he looks rich already.' she staggered to her feet and she fell again, it wasn't just her hands, her entire body was trembling. 'I'm scared, I feel like I've been trafficked, I can't wait here for my family to come find me.'
Another small voice whispered into her ears.
'What if I wait and they are never able to find you?' she covered her ears with both of her hands but that didn't stop the voice from whispering more negative things to her. 'He seems smart he wouldn't leave any openings or traces of his crimes, what if he had written a letter telling your family you ran away? Do you think they would come find you?'
"Then what should I do?" she asked loudly. "Should I just stay here and marry him, a man that I know nothing about, I am just nineteen years old."
There were just too many thoughts in her head, they were so many she felt as though her head was about to break open, it was as though she could also sense the damnation in the situation
'Will I ever be able to leave this place?'