CHAPTER CX
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SHE GROANED AS she tried to open her eyes and raise her numb arm up once again. Sophia raised her other arm and touched the bandage wrapped around her forehead.
Before her eyes opened, memories of the few things that happened before she had fallen unconscious again flashed right before her eyes.
Flashback
Her eyelids parted slowly, and she blinked her eyes to clear the hazy view in front of her. Once her view became clear, her eyes came in contact with the familiar ceiling of Chase’s room. She tried to raise up her body but she couldn’t.
Sophia turned sideways towards the window and a dry whimper left her lips as she stared at the darkness of the night. She rested on one side of her body and tried to raise the other, but her arm wouldn’t move.
Her breathing turned frantic, and she panicked as she remembered what had happened to her arm earlier back at McDonald’s. She closed her eyes, clamped down on her lip, and took deep breaths to help calm herself down.
When she was sure she was calm, she slowly raised up the arm and placed it on her stomach. Her whole arm felt numb. Slowly again, she sat up and then dropped her legs on the ground, slightly shivering as her feet met in contact with the cold tiles.
Sophia stretched out her good arm and picked up the jug of water so she could pour some in the glass cup on the side table, but her heart dropped when she saw that the jug was empty.
Her throat was dry, and she badly wanted water. She was thirsty. She couldn’t wait for anyone to bring water for her, plus, she didn’t even have the strength for that.
Sophia managed to stand up, holding the jug in her good hand as her eyes took in what she was wearing. She was dressed in a simple blue hospital scrubs that stopped above her ankle while her hair was let loose from the ponytail she had it on before.
Exhaling through her nose, Sophia walked slowly to the door and placed the jug between her chest and injured arm. When she succeeded in opening the door, she walked out of the room, closed it and held the jug back in her good hand.
She slowly walked towards the staircase, her ears perching, and her heart drumming as she heard Chase’s loud voice, clearly barking orders in Italian.
She stopped in the middle of the hallway when she heard Lucas, Luciano, and Valerie say something to him in the same language before the sound of retreating footsteps reached her ears.
Maybe they had gone.
She couldn’t see whatever was going on downstairs, and she was sure no one would be able to see her. She walked further towards the staircase and stopped when she heard Chase’s voice, irritation clear in it as he spoke to someone who said something to him in Italian. And by the time she peeped down, he was gone, following the guard towards somewhere she dreaded. Somewhere she had once been.
Her curiosity got the best of her. She wanted to know what was going on there. She wanted to know who Chase was going to see there. Maybe it was the man who shot her…?
She padded down the stairs slowly, using the railing as a support. When she reached the foot of the stairs, she went towards the place Chase had gone to. When she got there, his soldiers weren’t there any longer. The place was dead silent and the stench and sight of blood on the wall almost made her hurl up as terrifying images appeared before her.
Knowing very well what she was getting herself into, Sophia walked towards the rooms all in the hallway. Just as she was about to pass one of the rooms, she heard the sound of shoes on the concrete floor and she stopped in front of the door.
Luckily for her, the door was ajar. She peeped in, and she took in the sight of the lightly dimmed room. Her breath stuck in her throat at the sight of Chase. It wasn’t the fact that he was still wearing the black button-down shirt he had on earlier of anything of the sort that struck her. It was the way his hands shook as he held a kettle containing Only- God- knows- what above the unconscious man’s-one she immediately recognized as the one who shot her-head.
She could barely register the steam coming from the kettle before the contents of the kettle was pouring over the man’s head. The man’s opened immediately the hot water met in contact with his skin and he howled out in pain, the sound muffling the gasp that had left Sophia’s lips.
Her eyes were wide open in shock as she raised her injured arm without realizing it and palmed her mouth.
Her knees buckled when Chase dropped the empty kettle on the floor and smirked at the man. She held onto the wall for support, and another gasp left her lips when Chase gripped the man’s hair, tilting his head backwards as he leaned in to say something she couldn’t hear to him.
Sophia watched in horror as Chase released the man’s hair and walked towards a table and picked up a dagger. He took the man off guard as he dug in the tip of the weapon on his right forefinger. The man screamed out.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.
Chase wasn’t doing anything much with the weapon. He was only slowly digging the tip of the dagger into the man’s skin. He knew exactly what he was doing. The weapon wasn’t sharp but it was hurting badly because of the continuous way it was slowly being dug in his skin.
“That’s the finger you used to pull the trigger, right?” Chase gave the man a wicked smile. “That’s the finger I’m going to teach a lesson. The finger will communicate with your body and tell you just how it feels,”
Sophia shuddered as she heard Chase’s words. Her heart would have swelled with love for that man, but she found herself feeling terrified of him. She was meant to love him more but she couldn’t. He was willing to do anything for her.
The man’s screams became louder and Sophia’s heart jumped in her throat when she realized that Chase had cuffed the man’s wrist to the chair and was using the blunt weapon to butcher the finger off.
Blood was splattered all over the room and she could see the same on Chase’s side profile. It was just that it wasn’t his blood.
Her breathing began to accelerate and she was suddenly gasping for air, remembering all the horrible things Chase had done to her. She remembered the sight of her friends’ dead bodies and the sight of Chase slitting Roman’s throat.
The jug fell from her hand and it broke into the pieces, gaining Chase’s attention to her.
The wicked smile on his lips slipped off and his face was suddenly contorted with worry. As he tried to make his way to her, Sophia dashed away from there and ran back upstairs towards her room. That was the issue with her. No matter what Chase did, she’d never be able to leave him.
She ignored her opened door and went straight to the bathroom to empty the contents of her stomach. When she was done, she didn’t bother to rinse her mouth.
She just sat down on the ground and shut her eyes tight as tears streamed down her cheeks.
The voices began to coo at her again.
“Come to us,”
“Be with us,”
“Join us,”
The horrible sight of her three friends in that state made its way in her mind once again.
“Stop,” She cried. “Stop. Stop,” Without realizing it, she began to bang her forehead on the tiled wall. She was hitting her head hard on the wall, trying to silence the voice but they weren’t stopping. The voices became louder, encouraging her to continue what she was doing and not look back.
Blood was already oozing from her forehead and staining the tiled wall but she didn’t care. She was far too gone already and wasn’t going back.
Suddenly, she was jerked up on her feet and she opened her eyes. Her eyes came in contact with a familiar pair of dark ones.
“Fuck,” Chase muttered, running his gaze all over her bloodied face. There was blood streaming down her face along with her tears and he cradled her cheek. “What’s wrong with you?”
“You-you killed them,” She began to struggle so he’d let her go but Chase was having none of it. “You killed my family. You- you took everyone away. I- I-,”
Chase quickly fished his phone out of his pocket and dialled a number, saying something which she didn’t understand in Italian.
When he was done with the call, he dropped his phone on the counter and pulled her frame against his chest. “It’s okay. Shhhh. Everything will be alright,”
That was the last thing she remembered before falling into unconscious again.
End of flashback.