by S. S. Sahoo
Halfway down, the lift trembled which made me little scared and then it stopped.
“What?” I asked in shock.
I clicked on the buttons and then punched at it forcibly.
“What the hell?” I screamed.
The lift stopped on the midway and through the glass door, I could only see the half of the floor. I crunched down on my knee and looked through the glass door.
“Hello?” I screamed petrified.
I looked around and found myself stuck alone between the four walls of the lift except one wall was the glass door through which I could look outside.
“Get me out!” I screamed.
I felt anxiety growing inside of me and thoughts of I would always stay inside the small room filled my mind. There was no escape and instantly tears pooled my eyes for I was closed inside a room with no escape. I knew that no time soon I will be having a panic attack and a serious one. My mind began to fill with the ideas of uncertain death and I cried feeling devastated that I was going to die in such a position.
My breath came out in shorts and I began to huff out air. My vision began to blind and I knew that no sooner I was going to collapse.
I tried to hit on the glass door and even screamed more for help but saw no one.
When I thought that I was nearly just a second away from collapsing, I saw someone. Someone who looked petrified as I was and concerned. As my vision continued to blur, I saw the person through the glass door running towards where I was crunched down in the lift.
“Juliette” Zachary hit on the lift door looking concerned.
19
“Juliette!” he hit on the glass door, while I lay on the floor suffering from a panic attack.
“Juliette! Juliette look at me! Look at me” he said and hit hard on the glass door. My eyes involuntarily followed his movement while I struggled, panting and huffing out air.
I saw the woman from before running towards us. I was stuck just above the ground floor so the bottom part of the lift already was only visible on the ground floor. They could see me only because I was laying on the floor. The glass door made it easy for them to see me.
“Open this damn door” Zachary yelled at the woman and she nodded fishing out a phone from her pocket and calling someone.
“Juliette! Look at me. Look at me” I heard Zachary. I could only see his face because I was only half way up from the floor.
“Calm down! Calm down. Take deep breaths” he said but I couldn’t control my already shorter breaths.
He seemed to notice it. So he said “Look here. Look at me! Breath in” he said and I tried to do what he was saying.
“Take a deep breath, Juliette. Deep breath” he said and he too did it showing me how to do it. I followed his actions and finally, I was able to take deep breaths.
“Exhale now,” he said and I did it.
We did it together for few minutes until my breath was normal again. But I was still sobbing. I was scared.
“Just look here. Just look at my eyes” he said and I gazed into his brown orbs.
What is this?
I couldn’t hear what he was saying to me anymore. His brown orbs were captivating me. It was like he was captivating my soul. I lost control on my brain, and the only thing I could see was his eyes. His voice was inaudible to me, the world seemed to fade before me.
What is this happening to me?
I never felt anything like this before.
The more I looked into his eyes, I felt myself getting mesmerized. I felt my skin burning. The only thing that I could see was the concern in his eyes which was for me. It was the first time since I’m with him I saw this in eyes.
Or was it always there? I was the one who couldn’t see it.
Is it possible just to get hypnotized only by a pair of eyes?
Never have had I ever felt these strange emotions inflicting inside me. Involuntarily, my hands reached up to where he kept his hands on the glass door.
I felt the cold surface of the glass beneath my palm as I kept my palm against the door. I could feel my heart beat fluttering.
What wrong with me?
If it wasn’t for me still lost in his orbs, I would never have noticed his pupils dilating. Every time I breathe out his pupils would dilate.
Was he concerned?
But why?
I felt the lift trembling, but I was lost. Juliette was lost. She was lost somewhere where it was becoming impossible for her to return back. I saw him moving with me. He crunched down with me and then the lift door slid open.
“Juliette! Juliette!” he said as he crunched down before me on his and held me by my head.
“You are fine now. It’s okay. It’s okay” I heard him and then my hands raised. I held his arms tightly thinking he would go away in any second leaving me alone.
Alone?
“Get up!” he said and tried to make me stand up on my feet.
“Juliette! Snap out of it! You are okay now. It’s fine” he said when I didn’t move.
He sighed and the next moment he encircled his arms around me and scooted me up from the ground.
Why can’t I look away from his face?
My gaze was fixed on his face, while he carried me back walking among those few people who gathered up near the elevator wanting to know what has happened.
He looked straight towards the way out but I was worried thinking about what I was truly feeling.
He put me down on the hard floor, but before I could fall or lose my balance he encircled his arms around my waist and shook his head at me.
He made me get inside the car and he himself put seat belts on me all the while not even looking at me. The more he avoided my gaze the more I felt uncomfortable and uneasiness.
But why?
“Drink this,” he said handing me something but I was lost. I was still lost.
“Juliette!” he said in a low voice and then clicked his tongue. I felt something touching my lips and I opened my mouth feeling the cold liquor inside my mouth. The cold water soothed my burning throat and finally, I felt my nerves calming down and I felt fresh and relieved.
“Hold it!” He handed me the bottle and closed the door shut.
He came back and sat on the other side and asked the driver to drive.
“Are you okay now?” He asked but I blinked my eyes few times in response.
“What’s wrong with you? Why are you so quiet? Did you hit your head?” he said and crossed his leg over another looking my way.
When I didn’t reply he took the water bottle from my hand and gulped down the water.
“I leave you just for some minutes and you get into trouble. What am I goin-” he paused and looked my way.
“Will you stop staring at me now?” he said seeming annoyed but he averted his gaze away from me as if he was embarrassed.
I snapped out of wherever I was and looked out of the window wide-eyed.
“What is this?” I thought.
“What is wrong with you Juliette?” I wondered.
The car stopped when the lights turned red. Without thinking, I got out of the car and shut the door hard.
“Oh my god!” I said and leaned against the door burrowing my face into my palm.
“What are you doing? Juliette!” I heard him from inside. But my heart raced up against my rib cage whenever I heard my name coming out from his mouth.
“Juliette!” He called again.
“Stop it! Stop it!” I said and slapped my cheeks few times feeling it burning.
I heard someone giggling and I looked towards my front to see two teenage girls giggling at me looking at me through the window of their school bus.
My skin flushed even more and before I could do anything I felt warm hands holding my cold arms.
“What do you think are you doing? Get in!” Zachary told me but he wasn’t glaring or scolding me like the other times he did to me. He told me in a quiet voice and gestured me to get inside the car. So, I did.
; It even shocked me that I went inside the car by my own will. I didn’t argue or snap but I quietly got inside the car.
He stood outside of the car and looked befuddled. Then he came back to his side and got in all the while looking at me.
“Stop the car after you cross this road. I have an urgent phone call to make” he told the driver and the driver nodded.
Zachary looked back at me and opened his mouth to say something but closed it back and shook his head and the looked the other way.
The car came to a halt near the roadside and Zachary looked up my way before getting out of the car and closing it shut behind him.
I saw him dialing someone and he had a long conversation with that person before he stuffed his phone back into his pocket and ran his hand through his hair and got inside the car.
Then he said something out of nowhere.
“You want to talk to your father?” his question finally broke me out of my state.
20
“What?” I asked shocked all of a sudden.
“Do you want to talk to your father, yes or no?” he asked with a stoic expression.
“Oh my God! Of course!” I said gaping at him.
“Fine! I’ll let you talk to him. But not today” he said looking uncertain.
“What? But why?” I asked desperately wanting to talk to my parents.
“Just listen to what I tell you. Be happy that I’m letting you talk to him. When the time comes I will even let you meet him. But before that, there is something you need to know” his statement confused me.
“What do I need to know?” I asked in a low voice scared without any reason.
He glanced my way and sighed.
“There are many things to which you are oblivious. It will be better if you know that before talking to your father” he said.
“I don’t understand. I don’t understand anything. What is there to know? Is there something important that I should know? Is there?” I asked blatantly.
“If there is something, then tell me. Tell me right away why my life is so messed up all of a sudden? Why I have been thrown into all these all of a sudden and what is the reason for you killing the person whom I loved the most in my life?” he turned his head towards my direction when he heard my last question. His pupils contradicted and he gave me an icy stare.
“Drive back to home,” he told the driver and the driver obliged driving back towards the house.
My eyes pooled with tears because of his rudeness. So, I looked out of the window wanting to hide the hurtful emotions that were visible through my eyes.
I took a book out from the shelf near the dressing table.
The title of the book was ‘You kissed my soul’, a werewolf fantasy story.
I was never a fantasy genre novel reader but wanting to pass the time, I took the book and sat on the couch and spent my next few hours reading it before falling asleep on the same couch.
When I woke up, I looked out of the window when I heard some sounds from the outside.
“What’s going on?” I muttered to myself and keeping the book on the couch, I walked towards the window.
“Eee! Relax!” I saw a man raising his hands up in the air in surrender while some of the guards aimed the gun at him.
“What the fuck are you doing here? And how did you get inside?” I saw a man whose name I remembered as Max yelling at him aiming a gun at his direction.
“Put the gun down!” the man who stood in a surrender position changed his position into a mocking one by folding his hands behind his head and he smirked at Max.
“Surprise! It’s my other specialty. I can go anywhere I want. I have a special power. Magic” he said roaming his hands animatedly in the air.
“Shut up! Motherfucker!” Max yelled at him.
As soon as Max said that the man who stood before him changed his expression into a deadly one which scared me even if I was standing a floor up from them.
“Don’t curse before me” that man snarled at Max.
“Or? What will you do if I do moth-” Max was cut off by Zachary who walked towards them from the other side.
“Enough you two” Zachary said.
“Remove your gun from his direction,” Zachary said and everyone pulled down their gun except for Max.
“What is he doing here? What’s going on?” Max asked still pointing his gun at the man.
“Pull your gun down,” Zachary told him but Max chose to argue.
“But h-”
“Right now” Zachary yelled and Max instantly put his gun down.
“We will talk about all this inside,” Zachary said and I gasped when he turned his head towards my direction instantly meeting my gaze.
I stepped back and bit down on my lips. A second later, I peeped in their direction only to find them walking back inside the house.
When they were out of my sight, I wondered what was going on and who was that man at whom all of Zachary’s man pointed the gun at.
A Few hours later, there was a knock on the door which broke me out of my state of drowsiness.
“Yea- uh Come in,” I told the person and the door opened to reveal a maid of the house.
“Sir has wished to see you in his study room,” the lady said and I nodded knitting my eyebrows with confusion.
“Why does he want to see me?” I thought.
“Okay. I am coming” I said and she nodded before going away and closing the door after her.
Hurriedly, I changed my dress into full-length sleeve shirt and blue jeans. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and walked towards his study room. All these days wandering alone in the house has made me recognize every corner and turn off the house. Finding the study room wasn’t that hard for me.
I knocked on the door and went in when I got the permission.
“Meet my wife, Juliette Sullivan,” Zachary said which made me scoff at him internally for the surname.
I looked at the two men standing next to him. One was undoubtedly Max while the other man was the same man who had guns pointed at his direction, a few hours ago.
That man looked at me and smiled.
“Hello. It’s nice to meet you” he said and I just gave him a small nod with a smile.
“From today onwards he is going to be your bodyguard,” Zachary said out of nowhere which made my eyes widen in shock.
“What? Bodyguard? But wh-” I stopped in the middle of my sentence looking at that man. Then I gave him an odd smile and walked towards Zachary and held his hand firmly tugging it, signaling him to come to the side.