Chapter Twelve
Isabella
Fog swallows my view, filling my surroundings fast. So fast, so thick.
It’s so thick I could cut through it with a knife. The grayness started to rise like smoke, rising like it’s coming from the last of the burning embers and all that is left is ashes.
Then I see it. The stairs. I’m on the stairs again in the house in Russia.
It’s like I’m watching a film of myself now and I know what to do.
Walk.
Walk so that what is to happen next will happen.
I can’t leave this plane of nightmares until I do. So, I walk.
I walk then run when I hear the scream.
Mama…
I stop short when I get to the living room and see my mother lying on the ground. My father is kneeling over her stabbing her in her stomach over and over again.
A scream tears from my lips and I scream again when her head rolls to the side and I see the way her eyes look.
She’s looking at me, but she’s not looking at me like she can see me, and she’s not moving.
Blood is everywhere. On the floor, on my father, everywhere.
“Mama!” I cry and that’s when I see the shadowy figure of someone behind my father.
A shadow … then a face. A face I’d almost forgotten.
It’s a man. As I look closer to see who he is, the fog swallows my surroundings and everything fades to black…
Then out of nowhere a hand grabs my throat and starts squeezing hard, squeezing the life from me. Killing me. Dmitri’s face looms before me. He growls like a wild animal revealing the monster he is. A demon straight from hell.
When he squeezes tighter I see the sledge hammer in his hand. This time he’s not going to use it on Eric. He’s going to use it on me.
He raises it…
I jump out of my sleep and leap off the bed with my hand at my throat. My legs cave and I fall to the ground moving back on my hands. It takes me a moment before I realize Dmitri’s not here.
Here…
I look ahead of me and my gaze lands on the sea crashing against the rocks off in the distance.
My heart is hammering so hard in my chest it could explode, and for a second, I think it might, but a sarcastic laugh falls from my lips.
This is sarcasm and irony at its finest indeed.
No. Dmitri’s not here, but I’ve been kidnapped, and I don’t even know where here is.
It’s another day. Day two. Yesterday was awful. When Tristan came back to badger me again for my father’s location I just kept my mouth shut. Much to his fury.
I thought it was best to say nothing. Just sit still and look at him. Why waste my breath when my answer will fall on deaf ears? The ears of a man who will most likely kill me before the week is out.
God… I prayed I could escape my father, and this is where I ended up. It’s a cruel joke the universe must be having at my expense. Another kick while I’m already down, rolling in the dirt trying to get the fuck up.