by Dakota Lake
“She's dancing with me.” Kenzie said.
“You've been dancing with Ruby for well over an hour.” Emmett said.
He tried to grab my hand from Kenzie but Kenzie moved it away from him.
“Really, we're going to play that game?” Emmett asked trying to pull me away, but Kenzie spun me out of his reach. “You two are so childish sometimes.” Emmett said getting huffy with us. I looked at Kenzie. “Just one dance and I'll be back.”
“But I don't like sharing.” Kenzie pouted.
“Oh disappear already.” Emmett said pushing his way in between us.
Kenzie rolled his eyes and made a rather explicit hand gesture behind Emmett's head then he faded. I giggled. “What's funny?” Emmett asked.
“Nothing.” I replied.
Emmett placed his hand on my back and held my hand, his hand was warm compared to Kenzie's. I hadn't realised how cold my hand was until now. Emmett danced with me at a slightly slower pace. “You know I'm not the nuisance you make me out to be.” he said.
“Who said you were a nuisance?”
“I know what people say about me behind my back Ruby. I hoped when you arrived we'd become good friends. Instead you and Kenzie made your own club.”
“Yeah but we let you play with us sometimes” I joked.
“Maybe someday you will trust me like you trust Kenzie.”
“Doubtful. You're so far up Cam's...”
“Okay, okay there's no need for that.”
“It's true though, it's the reason I kept my distance from you.”
“I have something you want.” he said searching the room with his eyes.
“Coke and vodka.”
“No. Something better.”
“Okay Em what is it you have that you think I want?”
“Maybe you should trust me more. I'm looking out for you as well.”
I shrugged. I had no idea what he was talking about. He looked around craning his neck, he reminded me of a meerkat on its back legs. He quickly walked me back over to the water feature, looking behind us every few steps.
He stood behind me and held onto my shoulders as he turned me towards the water feature. The water trickled down and silhouettes of people blurred on the other side.
“What are you doing?” I asked, as I tried to pry his hands away from my shoulders. “Stop being so awkward and just look.”
He let go of my shoulders and grabbed my head so I was facing the water.
“Look at what? Are you crazy? Get off me.”
“There.” he said angling my head to the right.
A dark figure appeared on the other side of the water. Emmett's hands fell away and I walked closer to the blurry image. I don't think I could have stopped my feet even if I'd wanted to. My face was inches away from the water, I was so close I felt a small watery spot land on my cheek. He was standing on the other side dressed all in black the same colour as his hair. His green eyes bore into me and my skin tingled with excitement. Jessie.
I looked back at Emmett. He nodded his head at me and disappeared into the crowd. I walked along the edge of the water and the blur mimicked my pace on the other side. I quickly glanced across the ballroom checking for Cam, but there were so many people everywhere that I couldn't see him, hopefully he couldn't see me either. My heart fumbled a beat and I found myself walking faster towards the end of the water feature, I turned at the end and collided into him, he quickly grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the side door. The side of the ballroom had many doors with balconies but tonight most of them were shut. He opened one and pulled me in front of him through the door, he checked back to see no one was following us. Outside was dark the only light came from the balcony wall which was lit up with fairy lights giving off a small glow. He ran over to me and threw his arms around me. My fingers dug into his back as I desperately clung to him, not wanting to let go. His hands were everywhere, in my hair, down the sides of my face, down my arms, they stopped at my neck as I tilted my head up to look at him.
“I never thought I'd see you again. One of them stuck a bag on my head and dragged me out, I thought they were going to kill me.” he said.
He was wearing a clean long sleeve black T-shirt that hung loosely on him, his wrists poked out at the sleeves and I grabbed one to have a look at. The skin was reddish from where the chains had rubbed for so long. I then inspected his face, he looked tired but his lips didn't look cracked anymore but there was a scar running along the side of his cheekbone. I reached up without thinking and touched it.
“This is all my fault.” I whispered as my eyes started watering.
He shook his head and held my face in his hands. “None of this is your fault.” he said lowering his face closer to mine.
I couldn't wait any longer I needed to feel his lips on mine. I reached up to him digging my fingers into his hair as he pushed his lips against mine. He kiss was hard and forceful, but there wasn't anything to dislike about it. In fact I liked a little too much. I kissed him back with the same amount of force and he moaned digging his fingers into my back. The kiss felt desperate as though we both knew it could be our last.
He finally pulled away but he didn't go far, his lips moved down to my neck as he trailed kisses along it and my hands slid under his shirt. His lips found mine again and I gripped onto his belt pulling him closer to me. He finally pulled away breathing hard.
“Come away with me.” he said breathing loudly. “Let's go now. You and me.”
“I can't it's not that simple.” I said trying to regulate my breathing.
“Yes it is. We can leave right now. He can't keep you down here.”
I looked at his face placing my hand on his cheek. I didn't think he knew about the contract. I think Cam had released him without bringing him up to speed on the situation. If he knew I was planning to marry Cam for his release, who knew what he would do. He might try to hurt Cam and who knew what Cam was capable of.
“You need to go.” I said panicking.
“What? I'm not leaving without you.”
“You have to.”
“No. What are you talking about? What has he done to make you want to stay here?” “Nothing. I just can't go with you.”
I took a step back as his eyes searched my face for answers.
“Ruby,” he reached for me but I moved away and backed myself into the balcony wall. He frowned and moved over to me so quickly I didn't have time to blink. He tilted my head back and bought his mouth down onto mine, crushing his body hard against mine so much so that the balcony wall dug into the back of me, but I hardly noticed.
I heard a crunching sound and quickly tore my lips away from his.
Senka stood a few feet away. He was wearing a black tux with a black shirt underneath finished off with a black tie. It suddenly clicked in my head why he'd gone up to HP. To rent a tux. He wanted to surprise me. I was surprised but for all the wrong reasons.
Broken glass pieces were scattered on the floor and blood dripped from Senka's clenched fist. His blue eyes filled with rage and his whole body looked tense.
“Senka,” I said trying to get his attention away from Jessie.
I pulled myself free from Jessie's arms but he was unwilling to let me go and tried to pull me back to him. As much as I wanted to be wrapped up in his arms I didn't want this situation to escalate anymore.
“Don't touch her.” Senka growled.
I didn't know what to do or who to stand next to, so I stood awkwardly in-between them. Emmett came falling through the door with Kenzie pulling him back up by his collar. “How is this helping?” Kenzie asked smacking Emmett on the back of the head.
“Cam's looking for her and he's heading this way.” Kenzie said holding onto the door handle encase anyone tried to open it. I looked back at Jessie and a tear rolled down the side of my face. “Go,” I mouthed at him.
He didn't move, but Emmett soon crashed into him and pushed him towards the balcony. “Move or do you want to go back to Hell?” Em shoute
d at him.
Jessie took one final look at me before launching himself over the balcony. Emmett jumped over after him and the door handle rattled. I could hardly focus as I stumbled over to Senka, my eyes were blurring with tears. I reached up slowly running my hands along his chest stopping at his shoulders. He was staring straight forward and wouldn't even look at me. He looked like he was in pain.
“Senka,” I said shaking his shoulders gently to get him to look at me. The door rattled some more and Cam finally pushed his way through. Kenzie moved to the side and went down to the floor pretending to tie his shoe laces.
“What is going on? What was wrong with the door?” Cam asked looking between us. Senka reached up and pulled my hands away and pushed me aside. He walked inside and I gasped out loud trying to breathe. I had momentarily forgotten how to breath. I collapsed to the floor on my knees crying.
“What's wrong?” Cam asked Kenzie. “Did he do something to her?” Cam asked referring to Senka. “No.” Kenzie shot back before Cam did anything too hasty.
My eyes filled with tears. My insides felt like they were tearing as I violently gasped for air. Cam and Kenzie walked over to me and lifted me to my feet by my elbows and Kenzie hugged me to him.
“What's wrong with her?” Cam asked.
“Cam please just give us a minute.” Kenzie said to him.
Cam left us alone and Kenzie handed me a tissue to wipe my eyes.
“I can't go back out there.” I said.
Kenzie smiled and led me to the balcony. The ballroom was on the ground level but this side of the manor was on a grassy verge, so all of the balconies stuck out over the verge. He helped my up onto the balcony, I let go and he faded and caught me at the bottom. Jessie had disappeared with Emmett and the gardens were dark enough so no one saw us walking amongst the trees. I took a side door back into the manor and went back to my room. I laid on my bed in tears crying until I felt numb. Thankfully Cam never came looking for me. I sat up thinking over my options. There were none. All I had was Senka, he was the only thing I had down here. My eyes felt puffy and tired from crying. I quickly snapped out of it and pulled myself together and changed out of my dress and slipped on a loose grey jumper and some skinny jeans. I checked my face in the bathroom mirror, it was as bad as I expected. Puffy eyes and blotchy skin. I dabbed my face with a cold flannel which helped mildly.
I went upstairs looking for Senka. I didn't bother to check the games rooms I knew he'd be in his room. When I reached his door it was ajar.
“Senka,” I called opening his door further.
There was no reply so I went inside. The room looked different. Drawers had been left open and the closet door was wide open with a bare rail except for a few hoodies and jackets. On closer inspection of the room I saw hangers strewn across the floor. I went into his bathroom and switched the light on, things were missing from the shelf. I walked back into his bedroom in a state of shock. I didn't have to be a detective to realise what had happened. Senka had packed some of his stuff and left in a hurry.
Alex appeared in the doorway. He frowned and walked inside.
“What happened to Senk's room?”
“He's gone.” was all I managed to say.
I sat on the edge of the bed while Alex walked around the room and into the bathroom and back out. I jumped up and ran over to him. “Phone him.”
Alex scrunched up his eyebrows considering it, but not sure if he should.
“Alex phone him. Now!”
“Okay, okay.”
He took out his cellphone and scrolled through for Senka's number. He lifted the cell to his ear. “Did you two have a fight or something?” he asked waiting for the call to connect. “Don't.” I said shaking my head running my fingers through my hair.
“Voicemail.” he said.
“Well try again.”
“It's still going to be voicemail. He's turned it off or he's out of reach.”
“Well go find him, bring him back. I need to speak to him. I need to explain what he saw.” “What did he see?”
“Nothing.” I said looking away from him glaring eyes.
“Look if you want to talk about it...”
“I don't.” I snapped.
“Good. I was going to say if you wanted to talk about it find somebody else to listen to you. Now scram you're trespassing.”
“I have a key.” I held up the key Senka had given me which I hadn't needed to use because he'd left the door open.
“Ill have that.” Alex said snatching it away.
“Hey,” I tried to reach for it but he moved it out of the way and into his back pocket. “Now scram.”
“Will you let me know when you get a hold of him? He will come back won't he? He's probably booked himself into a motel for a few nights right?”
“How should I know, what did you do to him?”
“I didn't.....it's complicated.”
“Everything with you is complicated.” he said shoving me out the door. “You have no reason to come up here anymore so stay downstairs.”
He pulled Senka's door shut and scowled at me, waiting for me to leave.
“I hate you.” I said practically shouting at him.
“The feelings mutual. You little hussy.”
I hurried back downstairs and hid in my room. I barricaded myself in wedging a chair up against the door handle. I sat on my balcony listening to the party downstairs. I felt emotionally drained and my body ached. The idea of never leaving my bedroom again appealed to me. Maybe if I stayed in here I wouldn't hurt anyone else and I could live forever out on my own, confined to the solitary of my own bedroom. The music carried on into the night and I finally fell asleep on my sun lounger with a heavy heart.
Chapter Eighteen
I felt hollow and empty inside. Six days of emptiness trapped in Under with Cam. I felt as though I could fade away from the numbness.
I was doomed to spend an eternity in Under with Cam. Not knowing if I would ever see Senka or Jessie again. Alex still hadn't been able to get a hold of Senka. If he had, he wasn't telling me about it. The thing that made it worse was I didn't know who I missed more. The thought of not seeing Jessie again was agony. I still couldn't remember our past together, even though it was only a few brief encounters I knew it was special. I remembered everything else about him. The way his mouth curved up into a smile to every beautiful defined muscle in his body, he looked as though he'd been sculpted to perfection. His delicious earthy pine scent to the feel of his rough skin when he touched me. It had to have been real. It was the reason I was aching inside for him. Some days I woke up wondering if I'd dreamt him up. And now Senka was gone and I felt as though I couldn't function without him, like I needed him to survive. I had grown close to Senka over time but with Jessie it had always been instinctive, I couldn't explain it. I would spend everyday for the rest of my life thinking about the things I could have done differently. The what if..... But what was done was done and in the past. Now I had to carry on my life and appear to function but it seemed pointless. I hadn't even bothered to wash my hair for a week and I was running out of clean pyjamas. (which was all I lived in at the moment) Nothing felt worth the trouble of getting out of bed for. My door opened and I pulled the covers over my head.
“Are you not up yet?” Emmett asked coming round to my side of the bed.
He flipped the covers back and I gave him the best get out of my room death stare. But it didn't work. He grabbed my foot and dragged me out of bed. I landed on the floor with a bump. He picked up the suitcase that had been left for me to pack.
“It's empty.” he said unzipping it and looking over at me.
I shrugged and went into the bathroom and sat on the toilet seat.
“Ruby you need to pack.”
“I already told Cam I'm not going.”
“Fine I'll do it for you. You know he wasn't joking about throwing you over his shoulder and carrying you out. So get dressed.”
I ignored him and played w
ith the toilet roll unravelling it to the floor until all the paper looked like a white mountain. Then I started spinning the roll the other way winding it back up, waiting for him to leave. He walked into the bathroom and opened the mirror cabinet above the sink. He pulled out various products and stuffed them in a wash bag. He held out a box of birth control in front of my face.
“Will you be needing this?”
I took the box from him and chucked it over his shoulder.
“Ruby,” he said chasing me out of the bathroom.
“Emmett,” I said mimicking him.
Emmett put the wash bag down and sat on the bed.
“Have you seen Jessie?” I asked.
I knew I shouldn't ask, but my mouth blurted it out without me even having to think about it. “No I haven't seen him and he hasn't come back to the cottage. If Cam found out that Jessie knew how to get down here he would deal with it in a blink of an eye. Jessie would do well to stay away.” “Why did you do it? Why did you bring him down here?”
“I dunno. You looked sad. I wanted to do something nice for you. I thought it would help to gain your trust and get you to like me.”
“Well you made the situation ten times worse. And because of it Senka's gone.”
“I'm sorry.”
“How am I supposed to stay down here forever? I know Senka wasn't happy with any of this or the idea of me never leaving Under, but he'd told me he wasn't going anywhere. I thought we'd be down here together. I can't do this without him. Then you go and bring Jessie down here and confuse the hell out of me. You ruined everything and you put Jessie's life at risk.”
“I'm sorry.”
“Stop saying sorry. Sorry doesn't fix anything.” I snapped at him.
“What can I do to fix it? Ruby I'm trying to win your trust here, tell me what I can do to fix this?” “There's nothing you can do. I'm a prisoner of the Underworld. I might as well be chained up in Hell, it can't be any worse than having to sit at dinner with Cam every night. Every time I see him I get the sudden urge to stab him with my fork.”
“Cam never wanted you to feel like a hostage, he wanted you to feel like you were home. All he ever wanted to do was bring you home.”
