My legs hurt from running. Fog clouds over my mind. Painful cold wind hurts my ears as I blink away the blurriness from my eyes. The winter stings my skin as I run.
Just a little more. I huff, taking huge gulps of breath. The anxiety is growing deeper second by second. My throat now bursting with pain.
I soon come in front of the bakery shop. The biting cold is piercing through my ears to my brain as I look around.
There is no one on the streets. The glass windows of the shop are shattered. The shards lying on the concrete outside. The heavy wooden door which once separated the coffee smelling warmth of inside from the harsh cold outside is left wide open
My breath hitches before I wipe my face ve long sleeves and gather myself to enter the shop.
Inside, all the furniture was smashed; the tables and chairs were splintered. The lights, lamps, serving dishes, bowls lay all before me, broken and shattered on the pine wood floor.
"M-Mom?" I gathered enough heart to call out to her but my own voice echoed back to me with no visible sign of her.
No, I whispered to myself, No, this cannot be happening.
I take one step forward, forcing myself to inhale a breath. The whole place was disarrayed, unrecognizable for the person herself who had helped put the place together.
I stop right in my tracks as my shoe lands somewhere. My eyes snap wide, looking down.
Blood. My spine chills. Bile rises in my throat. My hand shoots out to cover my mouth. A low whimering sound leaves my mouth as I tremble, stumbling backward. That dark red liquid on the floor- that was, unmistakably, blood.
My head is reeling with dots of dizziness. I almost vomit but catch myself and turn myself around to face away from the sight of it. My shaking hand somehow found its way to my pockets. 971, I think as I fumble to take out my phone, I need to call 911.
But as I glance up, I find myself cut short. Two dark silhouettes emerge out of the darkness in the doorway out of the bakery. My lips begin to quiver. "Who."
"Leave me!!" I scream as loud as I could although my throat felt like ripping apart. I thrash on them holding onto me as they dragged me inside a hospital. The doctors and nurses nearby noticed but none of them does anything to stop them. They look at me with pity, but as if they were terrified to do anything about it, they turned a blind eye to my cries of help.
I do not know who these gentlemen are and what they want with me and why they're taking me to the hospital room.
But when I catch a glimpse of the bed through the small window of the hospital door, my fight to free myself subsides. The men who dragged me push open the door and I almost fall on my knees when they push me inside.
But I get myself upright and rush to the bedside.
The oxygen mask covers her face, fogging and defogging as she struggles to breathe with her eyes closed.
"Mo-Mom? My voice breaks as I manage to speak. I hurriedly take her hand in mine. "Mom. Mom, wake up. What happened? Why're you here? Answer me, Mom." I shake her, tears falling from my eyes on the hospital gown she is wearing.
Again, the door opens, and I glance toward it quickly. More tears blur my vision. "Leo," I say aloud, "Leonard, what happened to Mom? I ask
He says nothing. He stands before me, silent. And I. I only now notice that his face is bruised. Cuts on his arms, and blood on his shirt.
"How did this happen?" My voice strains as I speak, looking up into his eyes. "Reply to me, Leo!" I grabbed his collars and shake him bĂźt even as I shout he stands completely still.
Some men dressed in suits, just like the ones who had carried me here earlier, entered through the door behind Leo, filling in the space of the hospital room, instantly turning the air inside suffocating.
My grip loosens on him. "Leo, who are they?" I ask staring at him, hoping he would speak at least something, that he would tell me what the hell was going on.
A tapping of wood on the floor comes to my ears, and I turn towards it. The wooden cane came into my view as a man entered. He limps a little on his injured leg, but otherwise seems fine enough with his large built and greying hair. "Oh well. He looks at me through his spectacled eyes, which makes an unsettling feeling swirl in my guts. "Ms bella lewis, right? A word if you please, Ms lewis.".
It starts shaking under my feet when the cunning eyed man in front of me proposes an offer. An offer of marriage with his nephew. But the way his face carried a carefree look and evil twitch of a smile told me that it was not an offer, it was a do or die option. I have no choice. If I agree, they allow me and my family to live; if I do not.
I do not want to think about it. Dryness in my throat.Â
But why me? What did I ever do wrong to them? I ask but he brushes me off.
"You were bethrothed to him ever since you were a kid. I saw it myself. Your bethrothal," he says.
A breath of disbelief leaves my mouth. There was no way my family would ever associate themselves to people like then, much less bethrath me to them. We are just common middle class people, trying everyday to makes ends meet. And these people. they look like a group of gansters.
"What if I refuse to accept your so called offer?" I openly disregard him, my eyes daring. I just have to end this as soon as possible. Whoever these people are, I need to push them away from me and my family.
His old face relaxes more into a smile, a stomach churning disgust infusing smile which made me more anxious. You wouldn't be this brave if you knew who he is," he says.
"Whoever he is, I neither care to know, nor-
"Elvish smith," he cuts me off as he says, a cunning glint in his eyes. "He is the one you're bethrothed to"
My heart drops to my stomach. I could feel myself hands and feet growing cold and numb, colder than the winter around me. My head throbbed.
I had heard of him only through tell tale stories. The eyes like that of hungry wolves, the body like that of a demon, and the thirst like that of a starved beast.
What the hell is this man talking about? My head now spins in hundreds of questions. What the hell is this man saying?
I am. I am to marry the most ruthless head of the mafias?
My arms unfold as I take a step back. "No." I whisper out.
"And if you still refuse." he says, a smirk taking over his face. His hand waves behind him and my eyes quickly snap to the door of the hospital room. My eyes widen in shock and I gasp as I see the men take out guns from their jackets and point them behind my brother's head who was sitting near my Mom. Another men pointed the gun at my Mom.
"You bloody b**tard My mouth speaks out in anger before I even get a chance to process it all as I Junge for him but-
"Ahh!" I screamed as I was yanked from behind by my hair.
"This b*ch sure talks a lot. A man's voice hisses right near me. I look behind. He had a scar on his face. "She doesn't know her place."
I shriek again as he pulls my hair with his hand, the grip tightening. I scratch at his hand, trying to break free.
He instead takes hold of my arm and pushes me to the floor. Although the ache of falling had already hurt, I quickly attempt to move away from them as I turn around, my eyes scouring to look for something to fight back, or someone down the hallway who could save me, but it is all vacant and dark, filled with nothing but shadows.
The old man who was talking to me before clicks his tongue. "Now now, Javi. We don't want bruises on her during the wedding." The wooden stick tapped as he approached me.
He bent so that he was facing me. "Now, you have two choices." He glanced briefly at the man probably Javi.
The gun in Javi's hand clicked as he pointed it at me.
"Either you watch yourself and your family die," the old man says. My eyes shift to the hospital room door in terror behind which my Mom and brother are present, probably still held at gunpoint. "Or.". he continues "Help me kill your soon-to-be husband."