Chereads / Burning Roses / Chapter 20 - Shadows in the Dark

Chapter 20 - Shadows in the Dark

Ace's POV

It's kind of comfortable sleeping on thie sofa, although I would prefer my bed.

Thump

What the- this is the second time.

Sigh. I get up, walk to the door and step outside to check.

There's a broken vase on the floor.

How—? Wait. Did she do this to scare me or something?

Ha! What an idiot, I don't get scared that easily—

Thump

Flinching slightly—just a little—I turn around and look. There's nothing.

What are these noises then? Is the building moving on its own, or…or someone is doing this on purpose. Hmm.

Raya's POV

Woah. I'm scared. Should I go check? No. I shouldn't. If I go outside the ghost might catch me—not literally but that's always what happens in the movies. Follow the sound and the ghost follows you. Nope, better to stay out of it.

Clack.

Gasp.

Oh my god. Something is trying to open the door. Oh no. What do I do?

How do you fight ghosts?

I wanna cry. I should just cry. That's the only thing I can do—

Click.

I carefully crawl under my desk and hide.

This a good spot. I'll stay here.

Step.

My eyes widen after hearing the steps. What if it's not a ghost and it's just a thief? But why would a thief come all the way to the highest floor?

It's definitely a ghost.

I place my hand on my mouth to prevent any sounds coming out.

Step. Step.

Oww, am I gonna die?

The steps get closer and closer.

I shut my eyes tightly.

Please go, find someone else. Oh god.

After a few seconds, the steps begin to fade.

Phew. Did it go?

I slowly crawl out from under the desk to take a peek. I see someone's leg—

"AAAAAHHHH!!!"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" I scream as it screams, I place my hands on my face covering it.

My heart drops, I stop screaming as I slowly take my hands off of my face.

It's…HIM!

"Woah! why are you crawling like that? For a second I thought you got possessed or something." Mr. Hart says, breathing heavily.

I angrily sigh and get up, my heart starting to beat normally. "You— why were you trying to scare me? Is that all you do? Fool around?"

"What?! me? scare you?"

"Yes. You. Scare me. You were throwing stuff on the floor, and now you're here to—"

"I also heard that sound…you think you're smart? you did that to scare me and now you're blaming me because you got caught?" He says glancing at the door.

"Yeah, sure, I did that—"

"Sshh." He hushes me, his expression suddenly serious.

He carefully moves closer to the door, trying to hear something.

I also walk closer to the door to hear.

Someone is whispering.

We look at each other, confusion spreads on our face as we try to hear it clearly.

Whispers

How many people are there? it feels like more than two are whispering.

The sound of the raindrops is making it harder to hear.

Suddenly he opens the door slightly to get a look. I take a step closer, standing in front of him, he moves slightly closer from behind me to hear.

Suddenly a thunderstorm made me gasp.

He quickly grabs me, turning me around and puts his hand on my mouth. "Shh. Don't make any sounds." He whispers.

"Hmm." I try to speak.

"What?" He whispers.

"Hmmmm." I slightly wiggle. He's holding my wrists behind my back with his other hand.

"Whaaat?" He whispers again.

Is he stupid?

He is.

I look at his hand with my eyes to give him a signal.

He was about to say something but suddenly we hear steps. Very loud steps, as if someone is stomping.

Mr. Hart gets very close to me. My nose is practically touching his chest.

After the sound of the steps faded I slightly squirm.

Does he want to kill me? I'm getting out of breath.

He looks at me as he realises. "Oh." He takes his hand off my mouth.

I gasp for air. "Are you trying to kill me here?" I whisper as I catch my breath.

"Did someone else stay here besides us?" He asks.

"How would I know?"

"You were awake the whole time- oh? did you call someone?" He raises his eyebrows.

"What do you mean call someone?"

He slightly moves his face closer to mine. "You know…like someone."

"…" I blink at him, confused.

He looks disappointed as I don't understand. "A one night stand."

"WHAT?!" I yell, quickly lowering my voice. "What?" I whisper. "Are you nuts—do you think everyone is like you?" I say with the same tone.

"Alright, alright!" He raises his hands defensively. "If you didn't call anyone and I didn't call anyone, then…"

"It must be someone who works here. Maybe they also got locked inside like us?" I suggest.

"Hmm, could be."

"Go check."

"What! Hell no!" He steps back.

"I knew it! You are a coward."

"Hey—I just…what if it's a thief or a thug?" He says almost as if trying to make an excuse.

"Yeah right. You don't want to go check? then i'll go."

He grabs my arm before I can leave. "What are you, Superwomen? I'll go. At least I can fight."

I cross my arms and sigh.

He carefully steps out.

After he goes out, I lean against the wall and wait for him.

Thwak

Oh.

Did someone fall?

Grunting noises.

I swallow hard.

I walk out from the office and the view make my eyes go wide.

Two men are holding Ace down, one of the man pointing a gun at him. He's bleeding, there's blood on the corner of his lip.

"RUN! GO!" Ace shouts.

My breathing is stuck so are my feet. I can't move.

"RAYA GO!" Ace shouts again making my heart beat faster.

Finally, my feet respond. I should go call someone— the cops.

As soon as I turn around, three men are standing there holding weapons.

"RAYA-"

Thud

The man on the left punches Ace as he tries to say something.

"Woah, man, you were a tough fucking catch. We had to take you, but guess what motherfucker? Your girl's coming with us too." The goon says grabbing Ace's hair.

What's happening?

What do I do?

"We didn't know that you had a girlfriend…" The man who looks the leader of the group comes close to me.

I'm surrounded.

"Look, missy, you weren't a part of this plan, but you saw too much. Plus…you might be useful for us." The man says scratching his chin with a gun.

I can't utter a word right now. I feel like i'm going to collapse.

"You want me?" Ace speaks. "Fine. Leave her. She won't say anything to anyone about this." He glares at the leader.

"…Do you think I was born yesterday?" The man laughs. "Oh by the way, your security is very weak— and after all, we planned this for a while now, so there was no way we were going to make a mistake."

I glance inside my office room. If I run fast enough I can go in, lock the door and call the cops.

I quickly try to run but two of them catch me by my arms. "LET ME GO!"

"Woman! Don't move!" He grabs my arms tightly.

"What the fuck do you want?!" Ace yells frustratingly at the leader.

"We'll tell ya shortly once we reach our destination." He hits Ace on the head with the back of his gun making him unconscious.

My heart drops. "W-Why are you d-doing this?" I stutter my hands slightly shaking.

"No question allowed." He says walking towards me. "Let's go, yeah?"

As I was about to say something one of the guy grabs my face and puts a tape on my mouth.

I don't feel good. My breathing is getting heavy. Unshed tears start to form in my eyes. I glance at Ace who's unconscious, two men start dragging him to the elevator as well as me, I walk without any protest.

They look scary. If I do something they can potentially harm me or Ace.

After reaching the elevator he clicks the ground floor button and looks at me with a mocking smile. "Scared?"

I look away, my fear obvious.

"Haha, don't worry, we won't do anything wrong with you, we just need to deal with this man, that's it." He look behind me and signals the man to do something.

That man takes out a blindfold and wraps it around my eyes. After, he ties my hands with a rope and suddenly he presses a cloth on my face, I catch a strong smell before everything fades to black.