The belt left my skin with a slash mark and I hissed with pain.
"What are you doing here, Eagle?" Tiger asked the man in the white mask while looping the belt around his hand.
"Leave her," Eagle said while pointing his fingers towards me. I didn't know who that man was; why he was saving me and what were his intentions.
But he held my cuffed hand, pulled me towards his chest. I felt a sudden jolt and shudder spreaded through my body as his hands touched my bare skin. He held me tighter between his arms as if protecting me from a monster.
Indeed, it was a monster in front of me and strangely, I felt comfort under another monster's arms.
"She has bonded a slavery contract with me, SHE IS MINE," Tiger said possessively, I couldn't fathom the things going around with both of them. Were they enemies?
"Show me." the white-masked man said.
"What?" Tiger asked in an offensive tone, he walked towards us and grabbed my arm to snatch me away, but Eagle held me tighter and didn't let me budge.
"This girl declared herself illiterate, so instead of signing paper, I marked her back. Isn't that enough?"
I felt Eagle's fingers tightening on my skin. He seemed to be angry, but why?
The ghosts of Ghost City were cruel, it was not an unknown fact. The organisation, which can blow up a whole town, killing thousands of people; I doubt they hold any strand of humanity.
Hence, Eagle's behaviour shocked me, he felt more like a human than a monster.
"I am taking her with me, if you have anything on defence, come to the court," Eagle said and proceeded to step outside the room.
"Wait... You, Eagle, I said f'king Wait!" Tiger roared through the corridor but I noticed that he didn't attack nor send his guard to retrieve me.
"Come to the court by five, we shall let the Phantom make the decision," Eagle said calmly while I walked beside him as he led me the way.
I wanted to ask him a ton of questions but with the guards in the dark alley, I felt wise to keep quiet.
While I didn't know where we were going, he continued leading me without saying a word.
And finally, we took a sharp turn towards a flight of stairs and got down to somewhere brighter.
We walked further into the brighter corridor before he opened a door of a room which looked like a storage, pushed me inside and closed the door behind him.
The space felt congested with both of us. I tried my best to create space and glued myself to the wall behind.
"Thank you for saving me, Mr," I said meekly to avoid him knowing my true self, although he can't, but a risk can't be taken.
People know you by your personality, so it's better to switch to a sweet girl instead of a rowdy detective as I was.
But in a fraction of seconds, he trapped me between his arms and leaned his face near my ears.
"Do you even know that you messed up your life and your future?" Eagle's said in a very low voice that it sounded barely higher than a whisper. His warm breath tickled my skin and I attempted to back away to avoid it, but my head met with the cemented wall instead of an empty space. The adrenaline rush came, my heartbeat sped and I could barely concentrate on his words.
"Yes?" I questioned him with a breathy voice, barely able to understand what he said.
To my amazement, he repeated the same and I heard the breathy confession in his voice too.
And moreover, he sounded less confident in comparison to his verbal threat to Tiger.
"Can I count on you to save me?" I asked stupidly.
"No," he didn't try to filter his word, a no given by a direct 'no'.
We stood in a very small room with him trapping me between his arms, standing dangerously close to me and leaving warm air to my ear. This elicited a weird reaction in my stomach and I became more sensory than ever.
"Why are we standing here?" it confused my brain to conclude his intention of being in this position.
"The CCTV would record a lovely couple in their hot session, not me who is helping a stranger."
At this point, I understood better than before.
He was creating a fake image of having 'fun' with me in the storage while in reality, he was just asking some random question.
"Why is that required?"
"To provide evidence to the court that we are lovers."
"So you are planning to save me by declaring me your lover?" I said furrowing my brows. Was that how Ghost City ran?
"Yes, if I can,"
A feeling came over me that something was not right, definitely not. I nearly came out of my meek character when I asked him, "Why the hell are you even saving me?"
"It's an official order and confidential, I can't tell you." He said before straightening his back and asking me, "That will be enough, yeah?"
I looked down and shrugged my shoulder, it was embarrassing how I missed his body warmth. My ears were brighter and hotter than a burning sun. I fanned myself with my red dress to let the cold air subside me.
My cuffed hand created a sound with my movement and brought Eagle's attention. He immediately took out a small knife from his pocket, jabbed the tip at the keyhole and after a few moments, my hand got free of those bonds.
And the next minute we came out of the storage room, we walked a several distance with many turns before he took me to another room, it turned out to be a salon with things like dresses, masks, makeup tools and a mirror lighted by white bulbs.
"Wear whatever you wish to, but be fast, the courtroom is a little far away," he said and got out of the room; and I remained in dilemma with everything happening so fast.
So many questions swam across my head but no answer came.
Why saving me is an official matter?
Why was someone taking a risk of saving me?
And most importantly how am I still alive in the Ghost City ground?
Most of the dresses in the room were tan brown colour and all of them were double my size. I chose one and wore it on my dirty skin, ahem... I hadn't bathed and eaten for more than 24 hours.
I tried to fold the dress to my size and it 'nearly' went perfect. After wearing my outfit I came out of the room and saw Eagle standing right in front of the door.
"Wear a mask" he commanded. I immediately complied as I knew why he would suggest that.
The mask hid your identity. But wasn't it useless after all I have been seen by many others?
And this time when I came out of the room, Eagle didn't send me back again. Instead, he offered me his hand and I took it without hesitation.
"Better pray for yourself to not be declared Tiger's slave in the Ghost court."
With that being said, I crossed my fingers to pray and proceeded towards the courtroom.