Javier

10.

-HER-

“My princess,” Papa smiled at me as he picked me up while Brady jumped from the sofa with his makeshift sword and a red cape tied around his neck and announced dramatically, “I am here to save the princess! Put her down!” 

I giggled as papa ran with me in his arms while Brady chased us dramatically. Mama laughed at us while Vera rolled her eyes. She always looked annoyed when we played in the house.

Papa let Brady catch him and defeat him with his virtual sword before he announced his victory with a dubbed deep voice, “I saved the princess!” 

“Oh, shut up you imp, I am trying to concentrate here,” Vera muttered with annoyance while she tried to fit some pieces in the puzzle she was solving. At this Brady, overturned her puzzle, messing it up completely. Vera screamed at this while all of us broke off into a fit of laughter.

We later helped Vera solve the puzzle together and had a good time together that day. I missed those times so much ever since I left home for higher studies. I missed Papa and Brady the most. They never wanted me to leave. Instead, they were ready to give me every facility at home but I wanted to explore the world… by myself.

They weren’t happy with my decision of leaving for studies but they let me go anyway. I was excited at first to leave home and live by myself but I started to miss my family so terribly as soon as I stepped on that new land. 

It was a very different place. It was a place where everyone was a stranger to me, with their own reasons to take advantage of me. A place which was colder than the weather at my house. It was a very unwelcoming place where creatures other than humans lived with their own chilling, dark secrets. I had come to know so much about that place in a short period of time. 

The more I knew and saw every day, the more I wanted to go back home but I had to keep reminding me that I was there to learn new things and I couldn't do that without stepping out of my comforts zone - my house. 

After spending almost a year there, I thought that I was starting to figure things out my own and starting to grow more independent. It was until I was taken away into the darkest place by the scariest creatures I had ever seen. As I was locked away in the dark and left to die, I thought everything was lost. I was going away from papa so soon. I wasn't ready for the departure yet. I didn’t want to leave yet.

My eyes snapped open all of a sudden. The blinding lights instantly drove the darkness away. I had to blink several times for my vision to focus. Meanwhile, I heard papa calling for me. It was until my vision cleared and I was finally able to see papa. I sobbed out loud with happiness when I realized that he was truly there and I was in that awful place anymore.  

“My baby is awake,” He cried before he leaned down to kiss my forehead. 

I wanted to reach out and hug him but my shoulders seemed heavy all of a sudden while I couldn’t feel the back of my neck. It was after he pulled back, I noticed that Brady was there too. It made me more emotional. 

“We are going to take you home, Ellie,” Brandon told as he gently ran his hand through my hair. Meanwhile, the doctor who was standing by their side started to check me. Another doctor rushed into the room to look at the thing on my neck.

I couldn't remember what had happened to me but at the same time, I didn't want to remember anything about that place anymore. It was a hell on earth where nightmares were born and evil feasted on the innocents. 

“Can you talk?” Brady asked me very gently. I moved my mouth and tried to say something but nothing rolled out of my lips. I gulped and looked at him anxiously.

“She’ll be able to speak in the next couple of days,” Answered one of the Doctors. I caught her name to be Dossom along with the fact that she was drop-dead beautiful. She excused herself for a couple of moments and went out of the room while the other doctor and a nurse transferred me to a wheelchair carefully. 

After I was seated properly and they had checked everything, I was rolled out of the room. My head was still dizzy but I didn’t miss the change in the air as soon as I was wheeled out of the room. I was very much aware of this presence all of a sudden that had my heart racing.

I didn't know what was happening but I somehow managed to look at my side to find a tall figure standing outside the door. In the next moment, I found myself looking into a pair of very electric blue eyes, whose owner watched me with a mixture of surprise and longing. 

I didn't fail to notice how beautiful the owner of those eyes was. I found it hard to tear my eyes off him for a moment as I drank in is appearance. I was definitely seeing him for the first time. 

His blue eyes were mesmerizing but in a melancholic way. They were framed with thick dark eyelashes and a pair of thick eyebrows. He had an angular face on whose top sat thick jet black hair which was slightly messed as if he had been running his hands through it several times. 

His high cheekbones and a straight nose with a slightly high bridge was something that was purely made to be admired and his perfect bow-shaped lips made me wonder what it would be like to kiss them. 

I had never seen someone like him before but before I could notice more of his features. I was being taken away from him. The last thing that I was able to notice about him was the way he was leaning by the door- it was as if he had been waiting there for a long time... for someone. 

Who was he?

This question bubbled in my head. After I was seated in the ambulance that would take me right to the airport, I somehow managed to ask Brady, "Who was that man?" 

"I don't know," He answered.