Blinking, I put my tongue between my teeth, stretching my hand until it’s pressing against the wall. It’s sharp but not as sharp as I thought and I rub furiously. I rub until it feels like my wrist bone is going to pop and tears stream down my cheeks but I ignore them.
I rub and rub for what feels like hours, sparks of gratitude bursting in my chest because Romeo hasn’t arrived yet. If he comes by and finds that I have tried to escape, he will kill me right on the spot. I know that he will.
Come on, Melody, you can do this. You can do this...
I let out a gasp in relief when the rope breaks and I laugh and sob at the same time, using my free hand to untie my other one and then I use my both hands to untie my legs. My limbs are numb and getting out of the bed feels like trying to walk for the first time and I accidentally drop down on the floor from how weak I feel.
Luckily, the adrenaline takes over and I stand, feeling my way along the walls and I let out a triumphant sound when I feel a wooden door below my hands. But it’s locked.
The only advantage that I have is that it’s not sturdy but thin and I lay down on the floor on my back, lifting my legs and I use them to kick at the door over and over. It only takes seven kicks and it loosens.
Frantically I get up, bursting through the door, praying for some light but there is none. There’s only darkness and I blindly walk through some kind of a tunnel, breathing and sniveling so much that an unbearable tenderness rises in my throat.
I don’t slow down, not until I find what seems to be a crack and the light coming from the crack is not pitch black. The crack is big enough for a body and I slip through, tears bursting from the corner of my eyes when I feel coarse sand underneath my feet.
And is that...the moon?
So milky and full and familiar and I nearly fall to my knees, but I can’t stay here. I need to get away, I need to get help.
With my heart furiously pumping blood, I start running. I run away from the cave until I’m at the beach and as expected it is completely empty. Rain is hanging in the air and there are no stars on the sky, since this is the city.
There are no lampposts or guiding lights either and the sound of the ocean swishing in my ears, spurs me on. I run until I can’t feel my legs and I reach a highway, nearly getting hit over by a car that honks at me.
“Help!” I cry, waving my hands at another incoming car with a group of girls but they ignore me, yelling something about a party and a sob ripples out of my chest. And then a terrifying thought hits me.
What if a car stops? What if a man is inside? What if that man is Romeo?
My stomach triple volts. I can’t trust anyone. Only law enforcement. Until then, I’m on my own and I race down the highway and the wind chills my lungs, my bare feet thumping against the hard ground.
In the near distance, I catch a hint of city lights and I know that I am going to make it. I survived. I could have been killed but I made it and a slow smile shudders at my lips but dies when a hand snatches me by the arm.
“Whoa, whoa,” a male voice says and bright teeth flash in the dark, “you look lost, little bunny. Let me take care of you.”
Shaking, I look into his eyes and they are a blue color. I don’t know the color of Romeo’s eyes, he always wore that mask...what if this is him...?
“No!” I scream, yanking my arm back to his surprise and I sprint until I’m in the middle of the city, in the middle of crowds that are going to bars and restaurants and jazz concerts and they all look at me, their brows raised, questions in their gaze.
Running until my chest burns and my knees wobble and sweat drips down my body, I walk/crawl up the staircase to the police department. Reaching my hand out in a silent, pleading cry, I blink, my mind going dizzy and I almost get knocked to the ground by two police officers walking out of the building.
One of them lets out a curse, grabbing me so that I don’t fall and before I black out, I catch a hint of his appearance. Dark hair that’s not too long or too short. Eyes that are blue and green with golden flecks, edged, mature features and thin scars going from either side of his mouth as if someone once tried to make him smile by using a knife.
It’s the kind of face one would want to hide under a mask. And yet when he grasps me, I feel warm electricity set my body ablaze. I’m safe. So, so safe...
“H...help me,” I say between cracked lips, looking into his intensely concerned eyes and then I pass out.
2
Callan
Leaning back in my scruffy chair, I tug at the tight tie around my throatand throw the newspaper on my desk in annoyance. “Can you believe this fecking bullshit?” I snap at my colleague Racket and he turns around.
He chews on the end of his pencil. “What now? Are we out of tutti-frutti glazed doughnuts?”
My face pulls in a scowl and I nudge my chin in disgust at the newspaper. “The journalists have given him a name. They always need to romanticize that scum.”
“What do they call him?”
“The Womanizer,” I reply and Racket bursts out in laughter, shaking his head and I scrunch up the newspaper and throw it into the trash. Rubbing my eyes, I heavily lean back in my chair and stare up at the spinning lamp in the ceiling.