The Devil Chose Me

Chapter2

A Prison Without Bars

I couldn't feel my legs.The words bring her kept echoing in my head as two men approached me from behind, their footsteps slow and controlled, as though they already knew I wasn't going anywhere. Maybe they were right. My body had completely betrayed me. My knees trembled so violently that I wasn't sure whether I would collapse before they even reached me, and every breath I took felt too shallow to fill my lungs.

“ I didn't see anything."

The lie came out as a wimp.

The man standing in front of me didn't react.

His gray eyes remained fixed on mine, cold enough to make the rain feel warm against my skin. There was something unsettling about the way he looked at me. He wasn't looking at me like prey. He wasn't looking at me like a stranger either. It almost felt as if he were trying to remember something he had forgotten long ago, but whatever crossed his mind disappeared before I could understand it.

"Please..." My voice cracked."I won't tell anyone." Silence. One of the men behind him let out a quiet scoff.

"They all say that." As he rowed his eyes.

I swallowed hard, my pulse hammering in my ears. Every instinct screamed at me to fight, to run, to do anything that might give me another chance, but logic reminded me that I was standing in front of armed men. Even if I managed to take one step, I wouldn't make it to the end of the parking garage.

The man finally spoke.

"What's your name?"

The question caught me off guard.

I stared at him, unsure if I had heard correctly. "My... my name?"His expression didn't change."What is your name?"

"Elena."It slipped out before I could stop myself. "Elena Hart."

He repeated my name so quietly I almost thought I had imagined it. "Elena."

The sound of rolling off his tongue sent chills down my spine.He turned to one of his men.

"Search her."

My eyes widened.

"W-What?"

Before I could react, a woman in a black suit stepped forward. She moved quickly but professionally, checking my pockets and my bag. She took my phone, my keys, and even the small notebook I always carried for class."There are no weapons."

"No recording devices." "No camera."

The woman handed my phone to the man everyone seemed to obey without question.

He glanced at the dark screen before slipping it into his coat pocket.

"You can't take that," I blurted out.

His gaze lifted to mine.

For one terrifying moment, I regretted speaking.

"I need it," I added more quietly. "My grandmother... she'll worry if I don't come home."

His eyes lingered on my face, unreadable as ever.

"Does she know where you are?"

I shook my head. "No."

He looked away first.

"She will."

Confusion flickered through me.

What did that mean?

One of the men stepped closer.

"Boss, we should leave. The police could arrive."

Police?

My stomach twisted.

Had someone heard the gunshot?

The man nodded once.

"Take her." "No!"

The word escaped before I could stop it.

I stumbled backward, tears burning my eyes as panic finally took over. My heart pounded so violently it felt ready to burst through my chest.

"Please... I have a grandmother waiting for me. I have exams next week. I don't know who you are, and I don't want to know. Just let me go."

For the first time, something changed in his expression.

Not sympathy. Not anger. Just curiosity.

"You don't know who I am?"

I shook my head so quickly it almost hurt.

"No."

A faint smile tugged at the corner of one of the men's mouths.

"Boss she really doesn't."

The man looked back at me.

"I'm Lucien Moretti."

The name meant nothing to me.

I blinked.

"I'm supposed to know who that is?"

The silence that followed was deafening.

Several of the men exchanged surprised glances, as though I had just said something impossible.

Then, to my complete confusion, I heard the quietest laugh.

It wasn't mocking. It wasn't warm either.

It was brief, almost unheard.

Lucien looked at me for another long moment before turning away.

"Let's go."

One of the black SUVs pulled up in front of us. The back door opened. I stared at it as though it were the entrance to another world, because maybe it was. The life I had known only an hour ago already felt impossibly far away.

"I don't want to go."

No one answered.

"I said I don't want to go."

Still, no one spoke.

One of the guards gestured toward the open door.

"Please don't make this harder than it has to be."

Harder?

My chest tightened. Wasn't this already the hardest moment of my life?

I looked around the nearly empty parking garage, silently begging for someone, anyone to appear. A security guard. A doctor leaving work. A random stranger.

No one came.

The rain continued to pour outside as though the rest of the world had no idea what I was going through.I closed my eyes for a brief second, whispering a desperate prayer I wasn't even sure anyone was listening to. Then I climbed into the SUV.

The door shut behind me with a heavy clic

k. It sounded less like a car door and more like the lock on a prison cell.