Kidnapped By Fate

Chapter Four

Aria

The house was silent once again. With the heavy walls and locked doors. I had suspended my plans of finding ways to escape from this prison. But instead part of me had succumbed to my life here. And my survival instinct made me not give up on life and instead find something to lift my spirits.

Boredom creeped into me as I lay back down on the ceiling thinking of how my life turned out this way. How worried my best friend would be and my father who was the only parent I had. Just then, My door opened and I froze

“Whoa, you look scared, I didn’t mean to scare you” Damon said stepping back with his hands up.

Something in his tone made me almost laugh as they were so casual.

“You’re allowed to smile you know, or did my brother ban that too?” He said

The corner of my mouth twitched before I caught myself.

“See?” He grinned “Progress”

I folded my hands “You’re different from him”

He chuckled and replied “Well Sebastian likes to brood and I like to… not brood”

He sat down comfortably in my bed and I found myself dropping my walls in front of him. Damon filled the silence without effort making harmless jokes about the guards, the cook, who I assume was the woman that wanted me to eat so Sebastian would be pleased and more importantly he made jokes about Sebastian being “The Most Serious Man Alive” and then I couldn’t hold it anymore, I was laughing freely with him forgetting I was laughing with the enemy. He was easy to talk to

Just then, the air shifted.

“Having fun?” The words cut through me as I didn’t have to look before I knew who those words came out from. Sebastian.

He was standing a few feet away and his expression darkened as he locked eyes on him and Damon.

Damon didn’t flinch, he smirked and replied “Just talking, you should try that sometime brother”

Sebastian glared more at Damon as he replied “She’s not your concern”

“She’s a person” Damon shot back “And i came to keep her company, we can’t have her bore to death”

Sebastian closed the gap between them, putting his hands on Damon’s shoulder.

“I would advise you to stay away from her” Each word dripping with coldness and danger etched at it.

“Oh brother” Damon still wearing his half smile casually removed Sebastian’s hand “Why are you so worked up”

Sebastian didn’t reply and glared harder at Damon.

“Are you jealous Brother?” Damon taunted in his usual humor-minded self.

“I’m warning you, stay away” Sebastian’s jaw tightened

Damon finally lifted his hands in mock surrender, his tone softer “Whatever you say, Mr grumpy face”

Sebastian growled and shifted his eyes to me, the heat in his gaze wasn’t affection, it was more of possession. He actually believed he owned me. And as he brushed past me, I realized something.

It wasn’t Damon being here that made Sebastian brittle. It was the sound of me laughing

And Sebastian couldn’t stand that someone else had been the reason for it.

*********************************************************

Sebastian

Her laugh echoed in my head, it shouldn’t bother me but it did. It was soft and hesitant at first like she wasn’t allowed to then Damon had pressed her again and then she had really let go and she laughed. And that sound destroyed me.

It wasn’t her laughing, but what it represented. All she did was glare at me with sharp words, being defiant and fight me with every ounce of her strength. But with Damon, she really loosened up. She laughed. And it drove me insane. I wanted to be the only one to make her laugh. Her laugh only belonged with me.

I poured whisky into a glass, telling myself she was nothing more than a prisoner, a witness I’m holding onto because she saw what she wasn’t supposed to. But the way Damon made her laugh still haunted my thoughts.

The door creaked open and I didn’t have to glance uou, knowing it was Damon, he never did knock. He strolled in like he owned the place.

“You’re scowling again” He said “You’ll get wrinkles before old age”

I didn’t move or reply to his words.

“Relax I wasn’t planning on stealing your…. Guess” he smirked.

“She’s not my guest, she’s a prisoner” i retorted back.

“Prisoner? The way you acted earlier shows a lot less like business and more of possession” he replied with an edge to his voice.

I turned to him and said “Stay away from her Damon”

His eyebrows lifted and the smirk on his face was replaced with a full blown smile “I could mistake you for being jealous brother.”

“She saw something she shouldn’t have, that makes her mine! My responsibility” I finally snapped.

Damon studied me for a long time before he finally spoke, all traces of a smile gone on his face “Responsibility doesn’t make you restless, you’re distracted Seb and distraction in our world could get us killed”.

He was right.

The council meeting earlier had proved that. Salvatore bring out to replace me and he sent a warning, bloodied fingers being left in front of one of our clubs. Marco still had not found out the rat and and yet I was distracted

“You’ve built an empire brother, nothing should ever make it crumble”

I didn’t answer, my silence was loud enough.

“Do you really think of her as just a prisoner?” Damon fixated his gaze on me

“She is”

“Then why do you look at me like you would slit my throat if I ever made her laugh again?”

I glared at him. He stood up, preparing to leave, the turned back and said

“Careful Seb, if you don’t understand what you feel for her, someone else would and they would use it against you”

For once there was no humour in his tone, just truth. And then he strode out of the room. My mind screamed to put her out of my thoughts, to bury whatever it is I felt for her but when I closed my eyes, all I could think of was her face. She was slowly becoming my weakness.

Later that night, i passed her door. I should have kept walking but I couldn’t. I could hear her shifting. I lingered in front of the door, debating on knocking but what would I say? I wanted to hold her, telling her not to be afraid of the dark. But what kind of captor would that make me?.

Instead, i walked away, my heart beating too fast for a man claiming not to care.