Entrapped

Chapter 12.

Tiara's life resembled the fate of the sand of a desert, enduring the harsh sunlight of reality during the day that she had consciously brought upon herself. Her nights were as cold as the far island in the north, where no was there to provide her a company or to assure her that everything would be okay, just like the sand of desert yearns for the little comfort from sky in the form of rain, she was also yearning for a person who could shower her with little bit of affection in this distress state. She needed a warm hug and a kiss on her forehead so that she could pull herself together but there was no one. She was deprived of being loved anymore.

It had been a week since her last encounter with Xavier and he hadn't visited her ever since then, though Tiara hated his presence but she desperately wanted to talk to someone about how she was feeling and she knew here only Xavier could lend her an ear to listen.

She had been provided with everything, from small to big. Everything a person needs to survive, from basic to luxurious. She had been given a personal maid who only looked after Tiara and served her like a most precious thing but despite that Tiara felt like she was nothing more than a mere prisoner here.

That maid didn't talk to Tiara at all, she would always reply to her with a yes or no with a complete blank face and by the look on her face Tiara knew that maid didn't like her at all and was just following Xavier's order.

She was also aware that after what she did, everyone here would hate her only. All these people who used to respect her would now look at her with an expression that would clearly show how much they all hated her for betraying their master.

Tiara came out of the bathroom after taking a long relaxing bath with lukewarm water that the maid had prepared for her. She had walked out with only a towel that was wrapped around her body, her hair that she had not washed was clutched in a high bun to prevent them from getting damped. She sat on the bed not bothering to put on some clothes because she knew the maid would examine her back to make sure that her wounds from whipping were completely healed.

The door opened after a few minutes and her maid walked in, holding a tray just like Tiara had expected.

"Here is your dinner, madam." She announced as she placed the food tray down on the glass table and turned to look at her.

"Have you bathed already?" She asked as she noticed that Tiara was wrapped in a towel, "I was coming to help you."

"I can bathe myself." Tiara answered, she was tired of this treatment she was getting because somewhere in her heart even she knew she didn't deserve any of this.

"Would you like me to take out your nightgown from the closet, madam?'' She didn't really wait for Tiara's answer and went inside to accomplish the said task.

Tiara wanted to call her out but she didn't know her name, she had tried asking her a few times but that girl never offered her one. she remembered her reply clearly when she persisted to know that maid's name.

"Mr. Black didn't order me to offer you one and since I am not obligated, I would not like to share my name with you." Tiara had felt utterly humiliated as if she was not even worthy to know her name but she didn't say anything and stopped asking her the same.

"Would you like to wear this beige one or this white one, madam?" Her maid came out holding two different nightgowns and asked for Tiara's approval.

"The beige one," Tiara mumbled and the maid handed her the one she asked for.

"Would you turn around, please." Tiara asked and she nodded, turning around to give her the privacy to change clothes and Tiara quickly slid into the night gown.

She looked at the maid whose back was facing her and then at the door and a sudden idea popped into her mind.

"Can you take this towel away and also I would like a head massage since my head is aching." Tiara asked, analyzing her situation and plotting a perfect plan to get out of here.

"Sure, madam." She nodded like a faithful servant, picking up the towel from the bed she went inside the walk-in closet.

Tiara quickly checked the main door and found it unlocked just as she had expected and then moved to the closet door and locked it, trapping the maid inside.

"Madam?" that maid called, unsure how else to react. She knew Tiara wouldn't be able to run so it did not matter but yet she shouldn't have done that and somewhere in her mind Tiara had always known that escaping from here was next to impossible but a greed of freedom came over her and tempted her to took such a step and she stepped out of the room pushing all the rational thoughts away from her mind.

It was a long empty hallway she found herself in, making her even more frantic. She looked around, contemplating which direction she should move to, it wasn't her first time in this enormous mansion, she had been coming here since she was a child yet she didn't know her way around.

She had only been in the living room, dining hall, kitchen, garden and had been to Xavier's room a few times and that was all. No one was allowed to freely roam here. She took a deep breath and turned to her right, she hoped that it was the right way and would lead her to her freedom.

Just as she took a few steps, she heard a few voices that were coming from far away but due to the eerie silence she was able to hear what they were talking about.

"She ran out of her room!" It wasn't rocket science to know that they were talking about her and it made Tiara tremble in fear of getting caught and without wasting a second, she started to run.she 

She stopped when she found herself in the similar surrounding of the mansion as she gazed at the gigantic staircase, a sense of relief washed over body but it vanished as soon as she saw Alejandro Black down there, his back was facing her as he continued to talked to someone over his phone and she was reminded how cruelly he had whipped her last time.

She knew if she would get caught by him then he would probably punish her even worse than before and that thought made her tremble in fear and she instantly started walking towards Xavier's room because if she were to be caught then she would rather be caught by Xavier because he wouldn't hurt her that badly.

She slowly started to move to the other side of the staircase, unconsciously moving closer to Xavier's room and just when was about to walk past his room, she heard a panicked voice.

"I am going to inform Mr. Black, you guys keep looking." The voice was distant but his words were clear. They were coming here.

She panicked, fear of getting caught gripped her entire body and she without thinking for a second started moving further down the hallway, to get as far away as possible.

Again, the hallway was completely empty, there was no trace of any guard. It was as silent as a desert at night time; only her ragged breathings and the sounds of her footsteps could be heard.

She stopped when she found a dead end, on the last corner of the hallway, putting her hand on her chest she tried to calm herself down and looked around and saw the last room and she decided to hide inside.

She slowly pushed the door, hoping that it wasn't locked and to her luck it opened with a creaking sound.

Tiara stepped inside, stumbling inside due to the darkness that seemed to swallowed that whole room but despite the eerie darkness the room felt warm, it didn't feel like that no one had used it which she found quite peculiar because the room was located in the east wing and no one was allowed to come here; the east wing of Black mansion was a forbidden area.

She struggled to find the switches and pushed them open, the room instantly lightened up and the sudden brightness seemed to have blinded her for a minute, she instantly closed her eyes and opened them slowly to accommodate the sudden brightness.

She looked around and unlike she had imagined the room was filled with wooden furniture and looked clean. She took a few steps in and noticed that every single wall of the room was covered with photo frames.

She moved ahead to get a closer look and instantly a frown fell upon her face when she realized that it was her photos, some were from her childhood and some from high school.

The sight before her instantly creeped her out as many of those photos were taken without her consent and her palm became sweaty as she concluded that she had been stalked and had no idea up until now.

Tiara moved further in to examine the picture but scowled as she realized that not every one of them was a photograph but some were paintings, a beautiful one as if the artist had caressed every single stroke of the brush with such a perfection that made every feature of her to stand out perfectly.

She turned around glancing at every corner of the room and saw a canvas which was covered with a drape near the window and curiosity rose in her and she wanted to know what was hidden under that drape and thus, she walked up to the big canvas letting the curiosity get the best of her and slowly unveiled it, dropping the white drape on the floor.

Her eyes widened at the given sight, it was yet another painting of her and what surprised her was the fact that she was in a wedding dress which she had never worn before even her wedding with Mason was a simple one and she had worn a simple white dress.

This painting was different because unlike every other painting it was created on the basis of imagination and the depth of imagination scared her. It was like the artist had carved her picture in his mind because he had never missed any detail. The painting was beautiful and it had those tiny freckles on each of her collar bones that were hardly visible just like her own which was such a minute detail to notice.

She stood there, shocked as the realization of being someone's obsession slowly dawned upon her. She could feel her freedom entrapped inside that painting with each stroke of the brush.

She felt like this room was getting suffocating, every wall seemed to come her way, squeezing the space little by little and she felt trapped.

She pushed the canvas with so much force that it fell down on the floor and then she looked around, getting angry that Xavier had the audacity to really stalk her like that.

She removed each and every photo frame from the wall and threw them randomly, they broke one by one but it wasn't enough. It couldn't calm down the anger and pent-up frustration in her and she looked around and her eyes fell on the table where candles were placed and spotted a match box next to them.

She picked it up and lit the matchsticks and threw them above the paintings Xavier had made and it quickly caught fire.

She sat down on the nearby table, peacefully watching the paintings getting burned in those ferocious flames.

She felt at ease, she felt like she was setting her soul free that got struck in those paintings. She smiled in contentment as she destroyed all these pictures that indicated years of obsession he had spent on her.

She watched as those deadly flames slowly gripped the blanket and the drape around the window, the fire she had lightened up to set herself free from his obsession slowly started to trap her within its flames and by the time she realized the furious turn event had taken, it was too late.

The heat in the room that was caused by merciless fire started bothering her, black smoke started to make it difficult for her to breath and she started coughing. she found herself getting suffocated with all that smoke that slowly corrupted the air around her, leading the surrounding to the lack of oxygen.

She smiled as she thought to embrace the death that seemed to approach her in the form of that blazing flame because she knew that it was only death that could set her free from Xavier's obsession.

She smiled painfully as a few tears fell from her eyes and kissed her ample cheeks. She closed her eyes and put her hand on the chest, right above her heart which was thumping loudly.

"I am coming, Mason." She mumbled softly, remembering the man she loved, "wait for me for a while, okay?"

Her throat became heavy, a sudden lump of sadness made it difficult for her to speak and she choked on her words, "we will be reunited in a world where no one would be able to separate us, a world where no monster exists." She smiled as she decided to give herself away to the death, to put an end to this pathetic life of hers, for once and all.