BUMP
At the feeling of something touching my head, I woke up. My body felt heavy, probably because of the amount of sleep I had.
BUMP
The feeling of my head being touched came back as soon as something fell on me again. I shook my head, trying to get the thing off of me (because it got stuck on my hair), and right when it fell off of my hair and touched my face, I knew that it was a little stick. A grunt of discomfort escaped my mouth as I tried to fully wake up to take off all the sticks that probably fell on me during my sleep.
I tried to open my eyes, ready to greet a new day in this fucking world (and to take all the shit out of my hair), but as soon as they were open, the image I saw in front of me made me feel in danger.
A man was sitting close to a fire while eating something from a bowl. He didn't seem too out of shape, which led me to think that he was living a good life after The Fall.
The man's figure seemed calm and peaceful, a rare sight these days. Still, even if he seemed like that, having him that close as soon as I woke up made me get on my guard.
"Oh, you're awake," the big man said with a smile as he turned his upper body to see me. He put the bowl down and got up revealing that he was even taller than what I expected. He started to move in my direction, causing me to react and try to reach for Axie in an attempt to throw her in his direction.
At that moment, I realized three things I didn't realize before because I was still half-asleep. The first thing was that neither Axie or Dom were where they should've been; the second was that my whole body was tied to a tree, thing that I realised when I looked down in search of Axie; and the third thing was that I did not have any memory of falling asleep in a place like that, so the only reasonable thought was that that man kidnapped me and brought me there with him.
My body flailed and squirmed against the ropes that were holding me, but it was pointless. "I'd stop if I were you" the man said as he walked closer and closer.
He stood up in front of me, looking at me with a gentle stare. I felt a bit frightened because of the unexpectedness of the situation, and as soon as he raised his hand, I freaked out. I grunted as I tried to break free, preparing myself to fight him.
The man smiled as he saw my reaction, patting my head and messing my hair. I got taken aback by his reaction, trying to process what happened.
"No wonder you remind me so much of her… You look and act exactly like her," he told me as he went back to the spot where he was sitting before, taking the bowl with his hands. "Are you hungry?" he said with a soft voice as he brought the bowl to me.
The man took the spoon he was eating with and brought it to my mouth. "Sorry, I'm too lazy to take out the other spoon," he said while laughing and poking my lips with the utensil. His beard swayed from one side to another as he laughed, making me look at it instead of him.
He kept insisting me to eat while poking my lips with the spoon, but after minutes of trying and seeing that I didn't comply or say anything to him, he gave up.
The man put the bowl of food at my feet and sat on the ground in front of me, looking deep into my eyes in complete silence. An awkward atmosphere surrounded me as I tried to avoid his gaze, but after several minutes of having his eyes locked in to me, I moved my eyes to see him.
I gave him a mean look, trying to tell him to leave me alone, but due to the situation I was in, I quickly gave up on that and started to talk to him. "What do you want, oldie?" I asked with an irritated tone.
The man's smile grew bigger after listening to me calling him "oldie". He quickly got up and caressed my cheek, giving me a creepy and gross feeling.
"This must be a miracle…" he mumbled while touching my cheek with an even bigger smile. I didn't know any of the reasons behind his doings, but after enduring his weird shit for a few seconds, I snapped and yelled, hoping he would stop.
"What's the matter with you?!" I shouted as I bit his hand, making him take a few steps back. The smile on his face didn't vanish, even after screaming in pain because of the injury in his hand.
The man laughed at the bite, mumbling something before walking up to me again. "You know, you used to do this back in the day, don't you remember?" he said between laughs.
I looked at him with disgust. All that was in my mind at that moment was swinging Dom right in the middle of his chest, so the moment he talked to me again, I did not listen to him properly.
"Hello… Hello?!" he talked to me while snapping his fingers. My attention got drawn to him, who started to talk once he saw that I was now listening to what he said. "So, what should I call you now?" the man said while caressing the back of my head.
"What you should do now is take that hand back… I'm pretty sure that getting bitten again doesn't sound too appealing for your hand…" I threatened him while shaking my head, trying to get his hand off.
The man laughed at my threat, running his hand all the way from the back of my head to my forehead. "You're making this way harder than it should be, Layla…" the man said while messing my hair. "I'm guessing you don't go by Layla anymore, right?" he asked me while caressing my forehead with his thumb.
I tried to bite him again, but this time he withdrew his hand quickly, avoiding my attack. I looked at him with despise, telling him to fuck off and let me go.
The man went back to sitting in front of me, staring into my eyes as he asked "You still don't remember me?". I gave him another disgusted stare, which caused him to fall back on the ground, covering his hands in embarrassment while he talked to me again. "You must have erased after finding out I was seeing more women during these 17 years, huh?" he said with his face covered.
My lungs took a deep breath before answering him. "I really don't know you… Now let me go and I'll just forget this ever happened…"
The man sat back up quickly after hearing me. "Forget, you say?" the man asked with a nervous tone, "You must've forgot about me, right? That's the only logical explanation to why you don't recognise me."
My eyebrow rose as I heard him, giving him a grossed out grimace. He stood up quickly with one jump and got just a few centimeters from my face, cupping it with both of his hands spewing nonsense meanwhile.
"What's your name, let's start with that!" he shouted nervously after gaining a bit of composure. He smiled creepily after hearing me respond with "Glasgow", saying that it was a beautiful name. "Interesting choice, most people like you choose names like Alex or something like that… It's good to see that you chose an original, yet unusual name…"
The man looked at my confused face, asking me if I really didn't understand anything that he was saying. After I told him that he was acting like a madman, he fell back to the ground, flailing as if he was having a stroke. "You alright man?" I asked him after I saw him on the ground. "Can you die after setting me free at least?"
The man stopped flailing on the ground and got up quickly, holding my shoulders and shaking my body as he talked to me. "Can't you see that I am doing this for the sake of both of us?!" he shouted hysterically as he shook my shoulders back and forth.
"You sure you're not mistaking me with someone else?" I asked as he made me dizzy from moving my body so much. The man let go of me and caressed my hair, smiling after hearing my question. "Oh baby, I could never mistake you with another person… I mean, even after all these years you still act and look the same as the last time I saw you…" the man told me while smiling at me.
As soon as I heard the word "baby" come out of her mouth, I started to feel miserable. Was encountering a creepy old man like him my fate?
"Look, I don't know who you're taking me for, but I'm not who you think you are," I said as I tried to move my face away from him. The man frowned at my words, replying almost immediately. He claimed that right after hearing "our story together", I would want to jump into his arms and hug him tightly, just like "we used to do in the good ol' days."