86 iv. Abduction

“I was waiting for your call,” he looked at her, not letting her gaze wander off away from his.

“I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered again. She suddenly felt guilty though she knew that she shouldn’t. He was just a stranger, she has no obligation to explain herself to him.

And yet hearing those words from him, she could not stop herself from apologizing. It is as if her heart can feel the agonizing pain that is reflected in his gaze.

His eyes filled with so much hurt that all she wanted to do is to make it up to him for whatever wrong she may have caused him. She just wanted to take his pain away.

“Were you planning to call me at all?” his voice was low, but she heard him clearly. Her heart thumped hard against her chest.

She felt like she was being interrogated as if she was someone caught red-handed at doing something wrong. She shook her head as if to clear her thoughts.

“No, I did not have any plans to call you,” she was unable to lie to him. She looked down at her fingers, wanting nothing more but to disappear, to be swallowed whole by the ground until he could not look at her the way he is doing now.

As if he already knows every word she is about to say. As if he can see right through her nerves, can feel every emotion that racked through her.

What does one do in such a situation? Is this even something that can be considered normal? Is this a conversation strangers should be having?

.....

Dominus smiled bitterly, hearing her words. He had suspected that much but hearing it only made it more painful for him.

He gripped the cup tightly and lowered it to the table with such force that he almost broke it. His sudden action caught back her attention, her eyes staring back at him.

How can the heavens play this trick on him? How is it that he is always the one with the memories while she conveniently forgets every detail of their lives together?

He was always the one chasing after her and the memories they have together burn through him from the inside making him need her, want her desperately so.

As if to mock him and the emotions that gripped his soul, she looked at him with the eyes of a stranger.

She looked at him as if she did not know his soul. As if the lives they shared and the memories they created together held no value.

To her, he was just a stranger who happened to have dinner with her last night. He forced a smile on his lips, his eyes filled with hurt and pent-up emotions as he looked at her.

She did not understand how the CEO of a grand international corporation can look at her in such a way. Why are pain and hurt reflected on his handsome face over something so simple as that?

“Why?” he asked her, his voice making her heart quiver from emotions she did not understand. Why was he so hurt? Why does it matter so much for him that she didn’t call him the next day?

“I have nothing to say, and I didn’t want to bother you,” she bit her lip. Why is he behaving like this instead of the cold-hearted CEO the world painted him to be?

All the articles in the newspapers and magazines told her he was calculative, poised, and cold. So why is he behaving like a mad man all of a sudden?

He is someone dubbed as a person with nerves of steel in the business world, as if nothing can make him lose his sense of control.

“How about thank you as a courtesy, or even assure me you are fine? Or could you not have just said hello? Is that too much to ask?” his fingers gripped her shoulders, shaking her slightly as his eyes filled with hurt and unresolved... madness.

She slapped his hand away, her eyes filled with fear. She felt like a doe caught by the headlights. She did not know what to do.

She felt the need to run, to hide, to do anything and everything as long as it makes her vanish before his eyes. She just wanted freedom from the suffocating feeling that gripped her soul... fear.

“I am sorry,” as if someone awaken from having committed a crime, Dominus felt very apologetic.

Panic gripped him seeing the lady before him quite shaken. As if she is about to crumble before him, all because of his doing.

She stood up and ran away from him, her knees shaking as she does so. She felt like she will fall down the pavement when a strong hand gripped her arm.

She knew it was him even before he saw her. Dominus. His expression was that of a panicked child being abandoned by his mother.

“Please, don’t go, Mary,” she felt her heart constrict. Why is this man affecting her so? Why is he doing this to her?

She pushed him away, decided on becoming deaf to his plea. This man is unreasonable and from all her observations... insane.

He has the most unusual reaction to not being called upon. An ego that can not handle any form of rejection, she concluded. She was thoroughly afraid of this man.

And yet there was a part of her that tried to stop her from leaving. A part she does not understand at all. A part that drives her insane just as much as he does makes her so.

“Please, I am sorry. I did not know what came upon me. I just suddenly lost control,” he didn’t let her go, instead, his grip tightened its hold on her arm.

“Unhand me, you crazy bastard!” she threw incentives at him, her heart filled with fear as he refused to free her from his grip.

“Please, please don’t go,” he begged her, pulling her close to him as he held her in his arms.

“Just stay beside me, please. I beg you. I will give you everything, anything you want. I can give you the whole world if you ask me to. Just please listen to me and give me a chance. I did not mean any harm. I did not mean to scare you, my queen. You must try to listen,” he felt like he is drowning from the emotions that swallowed him whole.

Mary saw a uniformed officer approaching them just as she shouted for help. The cop hesitated for a moment as he looked at the man holding the woman’s arm tightly.

When the other police officer patrolling the area came near, that was when both approached cautiously, asking what was happening.

She told them she didn’t know the person, that she was being harassed and followed. The cops seeing from the way he carried himself that he must not be an ordinary man felt constrained about apprehending him.

In the end, Mary ran before Dominus was let go after being advised to stay away from her. He gritted his teeth as he threw the officers a menacing look. They felt shivers run down their spine and did not anymore stop him when he followed her.

Mary locked the door of her apartment immediately after going inside. She locked all her windows too before collapsing on the sofa.

This all has to be a nightmare. How can the one she has been stalking for years suddenly take an interest in her and behave in the most incomprehensible way possible?

Her mind was all jumbled up as she answered the phone with an unknown number calling her. She felt her heart drop hearing his voice.

“Please, queenie. Just listen to me. I promise you it won’t happen again. I know this sounds crazy, but it is not. If you will just listen to me. I will never raise my voice to you again. That was it, right? That was the issue, me raising my voice? That was wrong of me. Please I won’t do it again. Just listen to me this once,” his voice sounded menacing in her ears.

She decided to record their conversation, her fingers trembling as she listened to the panicked words of the stranger from the other line.

“Listen, everything will be fine. Just give me a chance,” she felt her heart constrict hearing his sad voice. How can she feel concerned over what he felt? He is a threat to her existence!

“Why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do to you? I don’t even know you,” she asked him, her voice breaking as she inquired.

“No, no! That is not true, you left me several times before. That was very bad of you, my queen. You drove me insane every time you did so. You do not have any idea how broken I am every time you would leave. And here you are, you just forget me yet again?” he answered as if he really believed every word of his is true.

“But I will not let you go now, I will not let you run away from me again. It is all because I love you, queenie. I love you. I love you. In all those worlds, I love you,” he whispered over and over, making her shut down her phone.

She threw the phone against the wall making it crash, she would regret it later, but at that moment she could not think of anything else. She just wants to wake from this nightmare.

She sobbed in her throw pillow as her shoulders shook. She was very much angry and afraid of the person who was moments ago her dream prince.

She curled in a ball and despite trying not to, she fell asleep. Taken forcefully into a world of recurring dreams, and sometimes nightmares.

But even in those worlds, she could not escape him. No, not fully. In those worlds which she called so as dreams, he was her master. And in those worlds, she could not run even a step away from him.

As darkness enveloped her surroundings, her door opened. The brusque man she feared so much crouched down in front of her and caressed her cheek with all the tenderness in the world.

He placed a handkerchief on her nose, and held her tighter in place as she woke and tried to struggle.

He kissed her forehead once she closed her eyes again, “Everything will be okay soon, my queen. This time, I will not let you get away, no matter how hard you struggle. Nothing can take you away from me now. I will make sure to hold you tightly in my arms. It will be fine this time around.”

She was right, he is crazy. The numerous reincarnations that the curse made him live and the numerous times he lost her in those worlds made him lose his mind, gradually but surely just as well.

“Let us go home now, baby. Our palace has been waiting for us for quite a long time,” he carried her in his arms, and exited the building.

Just when they have boarded the car, an explosion was heard, shards of glass broken and expelled across the street as the car sped away.

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