by Anna T. Pope
They stayed there for a little while longer before hugging and saying goodbye. Her mother's flight was in a couple of hours, so she went back to her hotel to get her things and go to the airport. Aria wanted to go with her but she was assured that it was not necessary.
After parting ways, she started to walk toward Will's apartment, before remembering that the man was out of town until the next day, so she quickly changed direction, deciding to go to her apartment.
Aria couldn't remember the last time she had slept there since she had all but moved in with Will, so she took a chance of going there and getting a couple of things that she needed.
Once she was in the building, Aria thought about going to the landlord to cancel her lease, but seeing as it was eight o'clock in the evening, she changed her mind; it was better to do that in the morning.
When she entered the apartment, she threw the keys into a bowl next to the door and took off her jacket. She stifled a yawn, feeling tired since she had been on her feet since that morning, doing the double shift as a favor for a coworker who wasn't able to make it to work that day.
She went straight to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water, and just as she was about to go to bed a light in the living room caught her attention.
Aria went to investigate, angry with herself for being so stupid as to leave it on for weeks and thinking about the enormous electric bill she was going to get. Just as she was about to turn the lamp off, Aria felt a presence behind her, making her still her movements.
She stood frozen, her heart beating hard when she realized that someone was in the apartment with her, but the words that were whispered in her ear a second latter made her heart stop.
“You have been a very bad girl, pet. And bad girls deserve to be punished.”
~
6 years ago
“Welcome to ‘Late’! How may I help you?” Aria chirped happily as she stopped beside a table where a man was taking a seat. She wasn't paying attention to the guy, her mind going over all the homework that was waiting for her once her shift was over.
“One Americano, please.” Aria heard a low, raspy voice say, making a shiver run down her spine as her eyes shot up from the pad and she froze.
The most beautiful man Aria had ever seen was sitting in front of her, and she felt like she was caught in a trance.
The man was huge and judging by the way his clothes fit him, very well built. His honey blond hair was cut short to the sides and was styled messily on the top; he had a strong jaw, full lips that Aria felt a sudden urge to bite, and his eyes... wow... the man had the most mesmerizing grey eyes that Aria had ever seen.
He smirked knowingly at her, and Aria blushed, suddenly realizing that she had been staring like a moron at him for God knows how long.
She quickly nodded and almost ran back to the counter, feeling completely embarrassed by her actions, and the feeling grew even more once she heard the man chuckle behind her.
She clumsily prepared the order, almost dropping the cup in the process since her hands kept shaking violently, and in the end somehow managed to give the guy his coffee without making an even bigger fool out of herself before she retreated to the safety behind the counter.
Even though she tried hard not to, Aria’s eyes kept trailing over to the man without her permission, and more than once they were met with the grey ones, which in return made her blush even more.
She thanked God when a couple of new customers came in and she was able to do something else other than stare at the guy like a crazy stoker.
Half an hour later, while she was busy cleaning the table Aria heard someone stop behind her. Turning around she almost yelped out loud, having collided with a strong chest. Looking up she saw that it belonged to the man from before, who was smirking, yet again while his hands squeezed Aria’s hips lightly, warmed the skin beneath them.
“Did I startle you?” that raspy voice asked, his face so close to Aria’s that she could feel his hot breath on her skin, making her shiver.
“N... no.” Aria managed to stutter while blushing furiously and ducking her head in an attempt to hide it. The man chuckled, and stepped away slowly, finally allowing her to breathe again.
“You are very cute when you blush, has anyone ever told you that?” he asked as Aria just shook her head quickly, unable to speak properly since her stomach was fluttering with butterflies.
She felt fingers under her chin, making her look up to see that the man was serious now, his gaze so hard that it was setting Aria on fire.
“Well, you are; cute, I mean. Would you like to go out with me sometime?” he asked, and Aria had a sudden thought that she must have fallen asleep at the counter and was dreaming because there was no way that this God would ask someone like her out.
The man's eyebrow lifted a little in question so she quickly nodded without a second thought. That made him smile a sinful grin, which only made Aria want to leach onto him like a koala bear and never let go.
“Great. I'll pick you up after your shift then.” he said and winked, and once he was at the door he turned around and said,
“The name is David, by the way. See you later, cutie.”
~
Present
Aria woke up with a start. Her head was pounding, her body hurt like she had been run over by a truck and worst of all she couldn't remember anything from the previous day.
She realized that she had trouble opening her eyes, since every time she tried the light in the room made her feel like a thousand needles were stabbing them.
She groaned and tried to shift onto her stomach and bury her head beneath the pillows, but something stopped her. The realization that her arms and legs were tied to the bed sobered her up instantly and her eyes flew wide open in a second.
She raked her head, trying to remember what happened, until the memory of last night flashed through her mind, making Aria’s blood run cold; David.
No, no, no, no!
The word kept repeating in her mind as her stomach filled with terror.
“Well look who is awake.” a low whisper came from the other side of the room, making Aria turn toward the sound in a heartbeat.
She was having trouble seeing properly, her sight still clouded a little, but she knew who the person was without a doubt in her mind. That raspy voice, that once made Aria shiver in pleasure, was for a long time now the leading star of her nightmares.
“No!” she yelled, tugging harshly on the ropes that were tied tightly around her wrists and ankles as she desperately tried to get free.
“Tusk, tusk. Is that the way to treat your Master after so much time apart?” David asked before stepping out of the shadows and making his way over to the bed slowly, his eyes fixed on Aria’s struggling body like a predator's on its prey.
“You are not my Master, you sick son of a bitch!” Aria screamed, tugging on the restraints so violently that the bed had started to creak.
David was on her in an instant, straddling her as his palm connected with Aria’s cheek harshly, the sound of it somehow louder than it should be in the relative quiet of the room.
“You little, ungrateful bitch! Who do you think you are to talk to me like that!? I realize now, that you have managed to forget how to treat your Master with respect. We will have to rectify that, and soon.” David purred in her ear, before licking it and biting the earlobe. Aria shivered in disgust at the feeling of the man’s tongue on her skin, as bile rose up in her throat.
“As far as I can remember you stopped being my Master when you stabbed me and left me to bleed out in the forest.” she managed to say without having her voice waiver. She was scared out of her mind but Aria had decided that she would rather die than show it to the monster in front of her.
She spat on him then, knowing what a huge mistake it was even before her spit hit David’s chin, but unable to care anymore. If she was going to die, she wasn’t going to go without a fight.
“You fucking whore!” David screamed as he
wiped the spit off his face and then grabbed Aria by the neck.
“You are mine! You were mine from the moment I saw you and you will remain mine 'till the moment you die!”
Aria heard David rant, but it was like she was hearing him through water. Her vision was starting to blur from the lack of oxygen, her brain shutting down slowly, and the last thing on her mind was Will's smiling face and green eyes before she blacked out.
Missing
Will was exhausted; the last two days have been a nightmare. Between endless meetings with clients and the board, he had barely found the time to sleep, let alone do anything else. Today was his last day in Los Angeles since tomorrow morning he would be going back to New York, and he couldn't wait.
He hated this town with passion, still not able to understand how he could have lived there for most of his life, and the worst part of it all was how much he missed Aria. Since Will was so busy, they had barely talked in the last two days, and he felt anxious to get home to her.
He sighed while standing up from the couch where he had collapsed half an hour ago, and willed himself to go and get a shower since he smelt really bad.
After he was done, Will picked up the phone and called for room service to bring him something to eat, unless he risked fainting from hunger.
Will was happily munching on a turkey sandwich and watching some TV show that Aria had hooked him on when his phone suddenly rang. Will picked it up, not even bothering to check the screen, thinking that it was yet another client calling to complain.
“Hello.”
“Mr. Jacobs?” he heard the voice ask in a smooth Italian accent.
“Fabian?”
“Yes, Mr. Jacobs. I am sorry to bother you but I have some new information on the man you asked me to find and I thought you would be interested to know.”
That caught Will’s attention rather quickly and he straightened in his seat.
“It's okay. What did you find?”
“Well, as I said before, the man was hard to find. He was smart enough not to use his name once he left the town, but I was able to find one of his aliases. So, I started tracking that name, and yesterday it popped up.”
“Where?” Will asked him as a bad feeling started spreading in his stomach.
“That is the reason why I had called you at this hour. He is here, in New York.” the man said, and Will would have dropped his phone from shock if he hadn't been holding it in a death grip.
“What!?” he yelled, his body starting to shake. He couldn't believe what the man was saying; that monster was in the same city as his baby while Will was across the country. His insides churned in fear as he thought about Aria all alone out there.
“I have one of my men following him. He checked into a hotel yesterday morning, and hasn't left it since then.”
“Okay. I'll be on my way as soon as possible. Do not let him out of your sight!” Will growled and hung up the phone. It looked like he was going to go back home sooner than he had expected.
~
Will checked the time for the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes and gritted his teeth. He was currently on his plane, flying back to New York and he couldn't shake the restlessness that had gripped him from the moment he found out about David. He wanted to call Aria right away, but he changed his mind at the last minute since he didn't want to worry her, especially when he was not around to assure her that everything was going to be alright.
He tapped his leg against the carpeted floor as his hands gripped the armrests of his seat tightly. He could see Maria casting worried glances towards him every few seconds, but he chose to ignore it since she would just try to talk to him and spew around how everything was going to be alright and he didn't have the patience for that.
“How much longer?” he asked the flight attendant, just as the pilot announced that they will be landing in twenty minutes. He sighed in relief, and laid his head against the headrest, trying to slow down his racing heart.
As soon as they landed, he was out of the door and in his car, not spearing a second before pulling out of the parking lot and rushing to Aria's apartment. It was the middle of the night and the traffic wasn't so bad so Will was able to get there in half an hour.
He rushed inside, cursing his luck when he saw that the elevator was broken, and then proceeded to run up the six flights of stairs. By the time he was in front of Aria's door, Will was out of breath and he could feel sweat rolling down his spine.
He knocked a couple of times but there was no answer so he tried calling Aria’s phone, thinking that she was in his apartment, but his calls kept going to voicemail.
He was getting frustrated and not a little bit worried, so he tried the knob in one last desperate attempt and in the next second the doors flew open. Will rushed into the dark apartment, shouting for Aria, but he was met with complete silence.
He saw the light was on in the living room and went there, thinking that Aria was asleep and just hadn’t heard him, but there was no one there. He started to turn around when something on the wall caught his eye so he came closer and once he saw what it was, his heart skipped a beat.
She is mine.
J.
The ominous words were written across the white wall, in what appeared to be blood, but Will prayed that he was mistaken.
His hands started to shake, his mind screaming with several gruesome scenarios as he fell to his knees. He had failed Aria again. He had promised her that no one was ever going to hurt her again and he had failed.
Will quickly got his phone out of the pocket, and saw ten missed calls from Fabian, so he quickly called him back.
“Mr. Jacobs!”
“Where the fuck is he!?”
“He went out this afternoon and went to an apartment complex. He stayed there for a couple of hours and then came out with a large suitcase. My guy tracked him down to some house in the Brooklyn and he is still there.”
“Send me the address right now and meet me there! That son of a bitch has Aria. And Fabian don't forget the gun.”
The rescue
Aria was walking through a dark hallway, looking at the beautifully carved maroon doors stretched out on each side as far as her eyes could see.
She deliberated in opening the first one, scared of what was waiting for her on the other side since her dreams rarely held good things. Making a quick decision she threw one open and stood at the doorway, watching the scene unfold.
A memory, she thought, watching as her younger self sat on the swing alone, in the almost deserted schoolyard. Aria knew what was coming next, and she wanted to turn around and close the door but something held her in place.
The older girls came after a while, shouting insults and barbs at her as soon as they saw her, just like they did so many years ago.
“Little Ari, scared little pussy! Are you going to cry!? Look, guys, she is going to cry! Quick someone call her mommy!” the biggest of them taunted, pulling on her hair, while her younger version drew in on herself and silently wept.
The door closed with a soft click and the one across it opened.
This memory was a more recent one, Aria’s last year of high school. She saw herself standing by her locker and holding a picture of her dad and her, the last one they took before the man died.
She saw Mindy and her gang coming closer and started shouting at her younger self to hide the picture and run away, but her cries fell on deaf ears.
Unable to watch anymore she closed her eyes, not wanting to experience that again, as the sound of paper being ripped and her younger self pleading for them to stop, broke her heart all over again.
And so, it went, door after door, memory after memory, the worst and the most painful events of Aria’s whole life, replaying in front of her eyes as she was forced to watch without being able to change anything.
She didn't know how much time passed, as she watched her whole, miserable life unfurl.
During a particularly bad memory of David and that house, Ari
a was shaking and crying until a thought crossed her mind.
In almost every one of these moments, she had just stood there. She didn't fight back; she didn't speak up even when she could have. She just took it all and that made her angry. She felt furious with herself.
Was she really such a coward, so afraid of everything that she had allowed them to do whatever the hell they wanted to her!? The answer was a sobering yes; she was, but not anymore.
As soon as that thought crossed Aria’s mind the doors and the hallway disappeared. The sudden light caught her off guard, so it took her a couple of moments to collect her bearings.
She looked around and saw that she was on the meadow with the little wooden bridge so she walked toward it.
“Baby, I've been waiting for you.” she heard a voice whisper in her ear, which made her smile and turn around. Will was standing there, a beaming smile on his beautiful face as his green eyes glowed with happiness. Aria smiled in return and wrapped her hands around the man’s neck, pulling them closer together.
“I am here now, and I am never going away again.”
~
Aria’s eyes flew open making her wince. Her head was still hurting and judging by the soreness of her throat, her neck was in a not much better condition.
She looked around and saw that she was still on the bed, restrained, and her eyes immediately filled with tears.
The image of Will and the meadow was still so clear in her mind, that all Aria wanted at that moment was to curl up in a ball and cry, but she knew that that was not an option. If she wanted to see the love of her life again, she will have to be smart and brave; a concept so new to her, that Aria wasn't sure if it was possible.
No! Don't think like that! she berated herself quickly.