Taken for vengeance

Sensations and struggles

Norah

The whole night went well except for the weird encounter with the stranger.

It wasn't even an encounter in the first place.

It was just a mere stare, just a freaking look, but it felt like everything about me depended on it. Depended on that one stare.

The haze of what seemed like attraction turning into hate in the blink of an eye still surprised me. I wondered what he was thinking in his thick skull that he had conveyed his hate just with a damn stare. He might not have shown it openly that he hated me, but I felt it in my bones.

Why would a stranger hate me just from a mere look at me?

Or am I overthinking?

Again?

Overthinking is one of those traits that I hate about myself. I overthinked almost about every little freaking thing that I had tried taking up meditation but didn't consistently do it for more than three days, it was too boring.

I must be overthinking this time too.

Not that I am surprised.

I ignored the stranger's presence the whole time in the club, not looking his way, not even secretly glancing his way even if I was tempted to do so. I felt his presence standing at the pillar, felt his mysterious eyes watching me through the prickling on the back of my neck, yet I chose to ignore him. I didn't know if he was watching me with admiration or loathing, but one thing I knew was to not have my curiosity get the best of me.

And I succeeded.

Barely.

It was almost midnight when we bid our goodbyes, exiting the club, as we tried to find a cab to return home. I got in the cab and something flashed into my mind.

In the turmoil of the stranger's stares, I didn't even check my phone.

I fished out my phone from my bag and unlocked it by pressing the password.

Shit.

I had sixteen missed calls and three unread texts.

I had five missed calls from Mom. Two of them from Dad and a whole nine of them from Nick, the monster.

I was definitely going to be screwed today.

I clicked on the notification of texts and the screen directly showed Nick's chatbox.

" Monster N: Where are you? "

[8.37 pm]

" Monster N: Where the f**k are you, Norah? Answer your goddamn phone. "

[9.08 pm]

" Monster N: I swear to god, I will f**k the s**t out of you when I hunt you down if you don't answer my calls. "

[10.45 pm]

And the time was 11.17 pm now.

Fear coated my body as my fingers trembled, my palms sweating as I read the last message over and over again.

Fear that he will come to my bed again, that he will touch me, scar me again. It was the only thing I felt, the thought of the weird stranger was long forgotten.

Just the thought of the monster breaking into my room made my skin crawl, my heart dropped to my stomach and my heart pounded in my ears as I got nearer and nearer to the beast of a mansion.

I shouldn't have gone with them.

What have I done?

**********

A sign of relief left my lips as I walked to my bedroom. I had got an earful from Mom and Dad to take security with me when I had entered the chaotic mansion and Nick was nowhere in sight. I was scolded for what seemed like a lifetime and I was drained because of the mental pressure. Mom had told me that Nick had gone back to his apartment after he had run errands to hunt me down.

The only thing I was glad about today is that Nick hadn't tried to invade me.

I opened the door to my bedroom as I got in and locked it behind me. Exhaustion coated me as I shed my dress and entered the bathroom to have a warm long shower and do my night routine.

I put on a warm oversized hoodie and sweatshirt, and don't bother to dry my hair. I placed a knife securely under my pillow for emergency use and jumped onto the white bedding, face first, and made myself comfortable. It didn't take much longer for sleep to drag me away from the real world.

**********

I woke up with a strange feeling which was unfamiliar, even to me. My heavy eyelids fluttered open, cool air caressing my face as darkness greeted me. I looked up at the wall clock to get a sense of time.

1.48 am.

My body still felt weary, covered in a duvet, my hair less damp than before. I blinked away my sleep to look around my room and I found nothing unusual.

Wait. I did find something unusual.

The balcony's sliding windows that I had closed before were open. The cool wind enters my room and the pale grey curtains flap from the little force of the wind.

I pushed myself up from the bed, stepped down the carpeted floor and stood upright. I looked at the open window blinking, suppressing the rising panic in my heart.

Suddenly, a tall frame behind me came to light, and before I could move or buck, his rough hands came into view, the palms closing flat on my mouth to muffle my screams and whimpers. He pushed me to the balcony glass window, pinning me there, while I struggled against him, trying to free myself.

I bit on his palm, my teeth digging into his flesh enough to draw blood. He neither hissed from the pain nor removed his hand from my mouth to avoid another bite. My nails dug into his arms while I tried to free myself, my back pressed onto his hard front. I kicked my legs, bucked to be let out, scraped his flesh, bit his skin, but not a single thing worked. My voice came muffled against his palm, his hand dropped from my middle where he had held me earlier, disappearing from my view.

Then, in a matter of winks, a needle prickled the side of my neck harshly as I screamed and struggled. In a matter of moments, my body went limp, a sharp pain still evident in the side of my neck, my breathing returning typical, unusually normal, sleep crashing down on me like a mountain as my eyelids started to close. I tried my best to keep conscious, tried to force my eyelids to open by blinking rapidly, and stay awake. But I failed miserably, as consciousness slowly slipped away, my body getting calm in an uncommon way and my eyes closed entirely. The last thing I heard was the deep whisper of a male in my ears and everything went black.

" Sleep tight, princess. "