Captive To The Underworld King

Dahlia stared at the open folder sitting on her desk, her eyes fixed on a particular spot. Three missing people. Three different dates. Three different parts of London. Yet somehow, the same symbol appeared in the background of every case. A symbol everyone in London recognizes. Dahlia reached for the folder, closed it and slipped it into her bag. She didn't know the exact person behind it, but she now had a pattern, and she'd find out. She always did. As soon as she stepped out, her phone dinged. Dahlia sighed tiredly, thinking it was some normal text from someone she knew. But it wasn't. TIME IS UP. That was all the text read. Dahlia stared at it for almost a minute. Few words, just like the other anonymous texts she had always gotten. Who could this be? This wasn't her first time receiving anonymous texts from numbers she couldn't trace back to anyone or reply to. But this one felt... different; it felt chilly. Like the sand in some secret hourglass just ran out. She shoved the phone back into her pocket as she walked by the roadside. She sighed at the empty street. Would she even be able to get a cab tonight? It was almost 10:00pm. She was unusually late today. She was so engrossed in work she didn't notice how late it had gotten. She kept walking, clutching her bag tightly to her side. She felt the hair on her neck stand up; the air suddenly felt thicker. She glanced over her shoulder into the shadows, but found nothing, no one. But she couldn't shake off the strange feeling that someone was following her... or watching her. She quickened her pace, and so did the odd feeling increase. Then she saw it. A black SUV was slowly tailing her. Dahlia frowned; was it following her? She shook her head hard; she was probably imagining things. Even as she shook it off, she couldn't shake off the odd feeling of being watched. Was it the SUV? Or was it something or someone else? She had to find out. She turned to look at the SUV again, then suddenly crossed over to the other side of the road. She calmly watched as the SUV drove over, keeping a reasonable amount of distance. Dahlia stopped abruptly, pretending to search through her bag while she secretly watched the SUV stop. She gulped; it seemed it was really following her. She spotted a roadside food truck ahead; she smiled to herself as she walked towards it, stopping right in front of it, pretending to get something while waiting to see if the SUV would also stop there, but instead, it drove past her. Dahlia let out a sigh of relief. It seemed she was imagining things. Her tiredness must have caused that. She thought, smiling as she walked away from the truck, continuing her main walk home. But it didn't last for long as she noticed the SUV had stopped a few steps away. Wait, what? Sweat broke down Dahlia's forehead; she knew this wasn't her hallucinating or overthinking. She was being followed. And whatever or whomever it was... didn't seem nice. She bolted, running back towards the company; the SUV also turned, trailing behind her. Dahlia kept glancing back as she ran, panting heavily, as she felt her chest tighten. The front window of the SUV rolled down; a man dressed entirely in black leaned out, his face concealed beneath a mask, gun in hand. Dahlia's blood ran cold. The gun was aimed directly at her. She froze. The man pulled the trigger. Bang! Dahlia dropped down instinctively; the bullet tore through the air above her head. She scrambled back to her feet after the shot and began running. Then came another shot. Then another. The SUV moved alongside her, matching her pace as the man continued firing the gun while Dahlia tried her best to dodge every bullet. Soon, her lungs felt heavy as her chest tightened with every breath, but she didn't stop; she dared not. She ran blindly through the dark street, her heels striking the pavement as her heartbeat thundered in her ears. Another gunshot cracked through the silent night, aimed at her again, but she ducked; it wasn't a clean one tho as the bullet tore through her blouse, grazing her arm. Dahlia's lungs tightened from lack of air; she wanted to stop, wanted to breathe, wanted to check her bleeding arm, but couldn't; her body wasn't ready to listen to her troubled and scared mind. She kept running, even as her chest twisted, even as the cold air of the night blocked her lungs, even as her arm hurt; she kept moving until her legs were about to give way. Dahlia suddenly stopped running, bending forward, her palms resting against her knees; she couldn't anymore. Taking another step felt like suicide. Another shot rippled through the night violently. Dahlia squeezed her eyes shut, expecting a bullet in her skull, expecting her own pool of blood. This was it. She was going to die. But instead of a bullet, she felt a strong arm lock around her chest and yank her backwards into the darkness. Pinning her against the wall, hands clasped over her mouth. Dahlia's eyes snapped open. Who was it? A saviour? Or danger? The person dragged her towards a parked black car, opened the back door and shoved her inside. Dahlia's instincts rose as she immediately fought back. This person was definitely not a saviour. She could hear hurried footsteps approaching them, meaning the gunmen were definitely coming after her, but this stranger scared her more; she wouldn't just let him take her. She threw her hands and legs, but none touched the stranger; she couldn't even see the stranger's face, almost like it was just a shadow. "Who are you? Let me go!!!" She yelled, trying to scratch the figure's arm, but just like before, she couldn't touch them. "This is illegal, I'll report you to..." The person flung two fingers at her neck at a targeted spot, cutting Dahlia's next words off. A sharp pain shot through her neck as her vision blurred almost instantly. She tried to fight it, trying to grab the person's arm as her body grew weaker by the second. "Wait..." she whispered, barely audible as her head spun. Who was this person? Why had they saved her from the gunman only to kidnap her? Her mind raced desperately for answers, but the darkness was already consuming her. The last thing Dahlia saw was the outline of the stranger standing beside the open car door. She slumped into the back seat slowly, her head falling to the side. Then everything went black.