Fate in Captivity

Prologue

Fine grains of rain droplets filled the whole highway, it was a dark and cold night, midnight breeze currently blowing ignoring the trees planted on the sideroad. Streets are quiet and crickets starting to fill the silence of this lonely night. Streetlight beaming to give light as moths became attracted to touch the flame lit in the middle of darkness. Everyone is asleep, having their fantastic dreams and illusion, but one person is still up and staring at this empty land. She stand tall, ignoring her trembling legs out of chills, spreading her arms as wide as she can like she's embracing no one but thin air. 

"Do you believe in angels?" she asked to the person beside her. 

"Do you believe in deities?" this person asked her back. She flashes a broken smile and sat down, finally. 

"It's all false hopes, humans are created to feel longing and regrets despite of everything they had." she answered and hugged her knees. 

"Then, do angels exists?" the person asked the same questions she uttered a while ago. 

"Should I believe in those? They said each person has their own guardian angel, but why's no one protecting the weak?" she asked and looked at the person intently. 

"Because there are people like you who want to protect them." the person answered and caresses her hair. 

"Then who would protect them if I will die?" she asked nonchalantly and the person stopped her hand from brushing her hair. 

"You must not say those words, you have your friends if you have problems." the person said and held her hand tightly. 

"Liar, I don't have friends. They all just pitied me. No one actually see the real me." She answered and stand up near the steel rails. They are currently at the rooftop of their condominium, they wanted to breath air as world suddenly became stuffed and they were suffocated by it. 

"You have me, though. I am here always beside you." the person said and they are stared for a while. 

"You're not real, I just created you out of my imagination. I made you out of my loneliness." She said and the person beside her slowly turning into dust and vanishing into thin air. 

She looks up in the sky, the dark gray clouds began to come together but those stars are still shining brightly. She let out a deep sigh and the rain was about to stop, she went inside the building and went downstairs wearing wet clothes. She entered her flat and turn on the shower, for her this was the most healing time she had. An hour passed and she finished taking her sweet shower, she gets her phone on the center table and open it up. It showed multiple missed calls coming from her friends and family who were frantically looking for her, yes, she ran away. 

She wants to take a rest from the reality she has and she wants to have some time for herself. She put down her phone and turn on the television, it displays dozens media coverages that are reporting her missing case, she's that relevant in the society, minute she's been away and the whole country is at search for her. She turned off the television and entered the bedroom, she just wanted some quiet time alone, why won't people understand that? why won't her family let her breath for a second? and why won't her friends support her with her decisions. 

She felt her phone starting to vibrate again, she looks on the screen and she saw a name that makes her heart beat, it's her guy friend. For him, she's only his childhood friend but for her, he's her everything. The vibration stopped and he sent her a message. 

"Where are you? You have to come home." The message states. She did not send a reply and just disregarded that message. 

She don't want to be angry with him, she's the only one she can trust and she want to look at him the same way as the usual. She got her phone again and stared for that message for a while, before she decided to finally call him back. 

"Where are you? Everyone is worried sick because of you." He said upon he answered the call. 

"I need time alone, don't tell them that I called you." she said to him and the guy let out a deep sigh. 

"Where are you? I'll come to your place." he said and she thinks for a second. 

"Come here at Artemis' Penthouse." she said and ended the call. 

She's not sure if she can trust him but she needs someone right now, she has her girl friends but she don't trust them anymore. Once the trust has been broken, it cannot be glued back into its original state. She thought everything would be better if she knew the truth, but now that she has it, she feels her head would c***k into pieces, she wanted to have an amnesia and never be recovered again, that's how she wanted to reborn again. 

She just wanted to end everything, she already knows from the beginning that when the truth were laid out open, it would hurt not only her but also her family- and she don't want that to happen. She don't have the perfect and happy life as what people kept on telling to her but she is contented, not until she heard something that would struck her heart and broke into pieces. It is not an accident, she thought. It was all planned and they were deceiving her since the beginning. She don't want to trust his words from the get go, but her heart continues to argue to her mind that she has to be considerate, that she has to give him the second chance. That is what she did, she gave it to him but with a feint skeptic as how it should be- he did his best, he proved himself, but he also destroyed everything. 

I should not have let myself involved with him- she thought and looked out through her veranda where the sky is pouring out the rain so hard, it was a zero visibility, just like her future. She get up and walked through it, storm winds welcomed her openly and now the rain are touching her skin, she looked down and she saw the cars passing by, which one of them would catch her fall- she thought. She bent down through the railings and made half of her body out of it, but it was difficult, she cannot have her whole body our of the railings and she kept on being dizzy, it was not her preferred way to die. 

Hours passed and the guy arrived at the place she said, thunder began to roar and lightnings began to show it's skills. It's like the calm before the storm, he suddenly feels nervous and don't have to courage to enter the building. He looked up at the 50-storey building where her penthouse is at the highest, then he saw a figure standing at the edge of rooftop. It's like a sign, a prophecy that something would happen; he don't know if he's only hallucinating but he know he must hurry to meet her already. 

He entered the building and ride the VIP elevator towards the penthouse where she is. Upon arriving, he rang the bell multiple times but no one is answering. Is she already asleep? he thought, but then he remembered the woman at the rooftop. He immediately run towards the staircase and arrived on the rooftop. It's empty, no one is here but somewhat feels like somebody is out there hiding somewhere. He slowly walked around the place but he saw nothing, he then saw an emergency stairs leading down to the common emergency exit, he peeked through it but no one is there; and if there is, the sensor light would react immediately. 

He went back downstairs and knock again on her door, times and times but no one is still answering. That couldn't be, he thought, then he holds the doorknob and carefully turn it around- it's open. He entered the penthouse but the whole place is so dark, the huge white moon reflecting through the large overview window at the living room is the only one that gives light inside the room. He carefully and quietly walked around the place, he search for the light button and press it. The room lit immediately as bright as his eyes were shocked by it's illuminance. He slowly blinks his eyes to have his vision clear but regrets it as soon as he saw the whole room. It was a mess, vases were broken, sheets were turned over and even the bed has been disorganized. What happened in this room? he asked to himself, as he hear the flowing water coming from the bathroom. He bravely entered the bathroom and knock first before anything else. When no one still answers, he opens the door and saw a blood flowing down on the floor until the drainage. He cannot react immediately, he don't know what to do, if he's going to shout, call or some help or leave this place to avoid being suspected?

He looks at the person who's under the water-full bathtub and it's her, the woman whom he called earlier, the woman whom he wanted to drag home and show to her family, the woman whom he loves. But what should he do in the times like this? without any other options, he left the room . Not calling police, not calling for help and not calling for her family. She died alone and in the dark. He grabbed his handkerchief and start wiping the trail he made, his footprints that may be seen during the forensic investigation and the fingerprints he left when opening door, he wiped them all clean. Now that everything is set, he left the place without looking back, without any guilt and without any remorse. He killed the woman whom trusted him most, not literally but metaphorically. 

The next day came ad news reporters starting to swarm the whole place, they said that the daughter of  one of the richest businessman died in her own penthouse, no suspects, no records of breaking and no evidence to prove it being homicide. She was left alone in that cold tub, bathing in her own blood. No one knows this ending and no one ever talked about it again. She was buried, given a decent funeral, the whole country grieved with the family she left, but no one ever talked about the prison she lived all through her life. 

When she was alive, she got all the controversial issues around her, marrying off to another rich family, it was the wedding of the century. Their family became happy and they were idolized by many, people believed in destiny and believed that love comes in a very unexpected manner. She was followed by different people, how she acted and how her company grows with her own lead, not depending on her husband's wealth- she was a well-made billionaire, as the tabloid and media describes her fate. 

Normally, when a wife died, the primary suspect was her husband, but this time- it was all for a show. Her family don't want any rumors or stories to hear, they closed it as a suicide infliction- self hurt. This woman is capable of doing everything, from making herself known and big from the crowd until to became the most silent and smallest person to herself- it was a mere pretending as she was not happy since the beginning. 

She got her friends, she got her allies and she got an extended family that everyone would wish for them to have. But now she is dead and her man was speculating that one of them killed her, he don't want to openly say his opinion, he don't want to attract attention- he just wanted to avenge the only woman who accepted the whole imperfections he got to himself. 

She was prisoned, instead of the person who killed her. She was a captive, it was the fate that decided for everything.

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