by Anna Collins
"But...you...umm" she was feeling a loss of words. I could understand, this was new for me as well.
"It turned out that I overreacted, you weren’t speaking to someone on during your working period. It was during the lunch break, Gary informed me" I looked down, feeling a bit bothered to make an eye connection with her.
"You...you mean to say that you are sorry?" she asked, still blinking her eyes with disbelief.
"No! When did I say that? Don't assume things, I broke your phone and now bought you a new one, this is the endof this story now forget everything" I snapped quickly, turning a bit self-conscious and then walked away, unable to take in the oddness of the situation. This was me, not at all.
Freya
I wasn’t being able to take my eyes off from the shiny piece of phone, resting on my hand. Robert Hudson, the monster was actually trying to make up for his mistake. And he came to the party only to hand me over the phone and the happiest thing was he wasn’t going to fire me. Gary, the guy who was happy that I was going to get fired, actually did this for me; he informed Robert that I was talking to my friend during the lunchtime. God so many unusual things were happening. I felt my head spin a bit.
"I was about to go and watch a romantic movie with Victoria, but this was even better. Ahh, the Knight and shining armor, who saved the damsel in distress" Rick's over dramatic way of teasing brought me back from the hazy cloud of thoughts.
"Freya, we loved the show, though the ending was a bit predictable and may I say pre-planned" Danny added. Then he and Rick laughed and hi-fived each other.
"Guys, all of this just went above my head, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Are you drunk?" I tried to sniff them.
"We are totally sober but are you blind?couldn’t you see how much he cares for you. He was trying to make it up to you, it was an unspoken sorry you dumbo" Danny hit on my head.
"Ouch! but you are right, something in him has changed. His eyes, his protectiveness towards me and him calling me beautiful" I calculated.
"Now you get it" Danny spoke.
"O-M-G! I could totally hit a jackpot with it. If he likes me, then I can turn it into love and that will give me the chance to see what he is hiding and I will be able to get through my revenge plan. Danny, Rick, I will be able to live my dream. This is God's way of paying it back to me. Yes, Yes, Yes" I was jumping with joy.
Danny frowned "but his feelings seem real."
"Oh shut up, that doesn’tmatter an evil person like him should be punished. I am with you sis" Rick covered me as we hugged each other in excitement, ignoring the don't-act-like-a-child look of Danny.
"Let's go home, we need to work out a plan for this, God this is going to be fun" Rick clapped his hands.
"Freya, Rick think again, this might be dangerous. You are already aware of his anger. You will not be able to withstand the storm" Danny held my hand, trying to warn me.
I smirked "don't worry Danny, I'm the storm and this time Robert Hudson will not be able to withstand me" I winked.
~
In a different, dark corner of the world, Rebecca was looking intently at the sky, her only focus was at the seven stars which were standing in a line. She was chanting the name of devil, repeatedly. Her lips weren’t ready to rest and the other human necessities like hunger, sleep, etc. weren’t applicable to her.
She wasn’t at peace; she felt powerless, which was unusual because she had been practicing black magic for over a decade. It gave her a long life and youth, but she had to sacrifice her family life for it. In fact, now she had no family, but Rebecca didn’t care about all these, her only motto was to please the devil and to gain the power which would enable her to rule over anything and anyone in this universe. Her rituals had been failing constantly, she even tried to do it in different places, like in the heart of the forest but yet something was falling short. Something was missing and she was unable to join the broken pieces of the puzzle. The desperate need of having those powers was killing her, each and every minute of her long life she felt nothing but restlessness.
She looked again at the fire hexagon, those red flames said nothing. She had sacrificed so many lives to achieve the powers, but nothing was pleasing the devil. She started throwing her hands and legs in the air, like a mad woman.
"Devil! don't punish me like this, show me the way to please you!" she screamed at the sky.
Then all of a sudden the beams of fire produced a spark and some words appeared on the mud floor surrounding the fire hexagon, the words were written in blood. Rebecca looked at it with wide eyes, then read them aloud "you are not sacrificing the most precious thing of yours, the devil needs someone who is very close to you. Someone whom you gave birth to". Chills ran down to her spine after reading those words and trail of blood started to leak out from her eyes.
"How can this happen? How?" she screamed again but this time, nothing came up, except for the never ending silence.
Chapter 18
Freya
I went near my wall cabinet and unlocked the safe with my key chain to take out a black file.
‘Robert Hudson' was written on top of it with a white marker. The file contained all the information I had found about him till now. Everything was stored as a detailed report, including the hazy images of the blood coated belts and hunters. This file would be the key to my success, it would make me famous and Kent would come begging at my feet to take me back on the job. But it was still incomplete, it had all the information but no solid proofs. Those hazy images would not serve as a proper proof; one could easily claim that they weren’t Robert's because he wasn’t holding them. The charm would be if I could get a video of Robert beating himself. This seemed impossible until last night, but now I had found a way to make the impossible to i-m-possible.
I could easily uncover the secret by being Robert Hudson's girlfriend, everyone shared their intimate details with their loved ones. And the girl who was capable of making Robert Hudson fall for her could do anything. I tried to boost up my own confidence level, I was entering in a dark alley, I needed all the confidence in the world for that.
My friends thought that my earlier plan had flopped, but they had no idea that it was a huge success. I got to see something which no one had ever seen. My 1st step was done properly now I needed to take full advantage of the opportunity that God had bestowed upon me. I was so curious to know his secret, I could hardly wait to uncover it in front of the world.
~
"But I don't know how to impress a guy, and don't ask me to wear those revealing dresses, I can't wear them. I can't afford to lose my dignity" I announced.
"Dear, that step is over, you don't need to impress him by showing your curves, you need to make him confess his feelings" Rick stated.
Thank God! no skimpy clothes, I sighed in relief.
"And how will she do that, Mr. Expert?" Danny raised his eyebrow while arranging the cushion to make himself comfortable.
"Umm..you can talk sweetly to him, compliment his looks" Rick suggested.
"Bullshit!" I exclaimed, annoyingly.
"Apparently, he is different. He didn’t fall for me because I praised him or complimented him. I only insult him and call him a monster, I mean, why would he fall for me?" I asked holding my head.
"Haha, he likes you because you are not afraid, to tell the truth, I think you should remain like this only" Danny ran his hand over my head.
"Then what about our mission?" Rick asked.
"We need to come up with a solid plan for that" Danny suggested.
"What? Are you in? I looked at him in disbelief.
"Yes, I am how can I leave my friends alone when they need me?" he smiled.
~
"Totally boring and useless day, nothing happened" I threw my laptop bag on the couch and sat down on the floor, holding my head.
"Hey what's wrong?" Rick popped his head from the open kitchen of Kate's apartment. Kate was out of town with Kent so I invited Rick to stay with
me for the time Kate was gone. He was a good company.
"Here, take this coffee and tell me everything" he sat beside me.
"It's all Danny's fault. He asked me to ignore Robert at the office and you know what, Robert didn’t even look at me once while I was expecting him to stare and smile at me" I tapped on the floor angrily.
"Don't worry, he told me that he has sorted out an amazing plan for tonight" Rick assured me.
~
"This is your amazing plan? You want me to stand at this lonely road with this flat tire and wait for him for eternity? What if he doesn’tcross this way or what if he ignores me and drives away, what if strange guys make passes on me?" I complained while making a crying face.
"How much can you talk, God! Don't you trust us? We have got everything under control, we will be right behind you keeping an eye on you and I have checked Roberts schedule he goes by this road everyday. It's a shortcut to his home" Danny explained.
"Oh, so much research hun, good job" I patted on his shoulder.
"Thanks but I am doing this for my personal benefit as well, if you become his girlfriend I can butter him up for a promotion" he winked.
"Hey guys, what's there for me?" Rick asked.
"The unadulterated and selfless satisfaction of helping Freya," said Danny and we laughed. Rick looked a bit annoyed.
"Okay guys clear up, I guess he is coming," I asked the guys to leave. They showed me a thumbs up sign and took their position.
Chapter 19
Robert
It felt like thousands of black holes have formed into my mind. I agree that my mind and heart had never been the calmest place ever but there was never a conflict between them. My heart had adopted the darkness and it never even tried to persuade me to go to the light and that somehow made me stable.
Freya Lawrence, this little girl had managed to raise a storm of conflict between my heart and brain. My heart wanted me to go close to her, it wanted me to be nice to her, but my brain was advising me to push her away.
I couldn’t ignore her no matter how much I tried. Today I had to go to the Webstore office building to discuss something with the management team. And no matter how much I tried I couldn’t stop my eyes from flying back to her. Small gestures of her like when she flipped her hair or rubbed her nose, seemed very cute to me and I found my lips curling into a smile whenever I saw her.
Damn! I punched on the steering wheel of my Porshe and accelerated in a higher speed, thinking that the high speed and cold winds would give me a much-needed peace. Whom I was kidding, I never found peace in anything.
At the far end of the road, I saw a girl standing with her car. And for a second I thought that it was Freya. The girl was wearing a yellow top and jeans. Her hair was long like Freya's. Was I imagining this? I took a halt to make sure if I had turned completely mad or not. I checked out in the rear view mirror and found out that it was Freya! I cleared my eyes, but the vision stood still.
But what the hell was she doing in the middle of the road at that late hour of the night? I shook my head, my first instinct was to drive away, but then I thought that she might be in some kind of trouble. I even started the engine but then again, the dominant part of me caused me to stop the car. I so hated myself for being so vulnerable, but I couldn’t help it.
I walked to her, but she didn’t notice me, she was trying to call someone with her phone and looked much disturbed.
"Are you waiting for someone to come and molest you?" I snapped.
I used my rudeness to cover up my concern for her. Wait...why was I feeling concerned about her?
"Yes, I am. What does it have to do with you?" she pounced back with a more insulting tone that mine.
I smirked shaking my head, she was something. It was clear that she was trapped in the middle of a road and I could be the only source of help to her and she wasn’t afraid to insult me.
I looked at her car and found out at the 1st instance, that it was a case of a flat tire.
"Now don't tell me you don't even know how to change a tire" I teased.
She crooked forehead and squinted her eyes, jeez! She was mad and was looking extremely hot.
"I know, but I don't have a spare tire and the signal is so weak in this area" she flopped her face.
"What about your boyfriend? Why is he not here to your rescue? Wait...maybe he also doesn’tknow how to change a tire or did he run away?" I mocked.
"I don't have a boyfriend" she muttered.
"Have you come here to taunt and mock at me? If you want to help then go ahead and if you don't want then take the road, drive to your home and then laugh at me" she stomped in an annoyed tone.
What? So it means that day she wasn’t talking to her boyfriend. I sighed in relief and my alter ego immediately questioned me why I did that and as usual, I had no answer.
She was hugging herself, Ahh it was too cold out there.
"Fine! As you might know, my place is near so you can come and wait in there and I will ask my driver to fix your car and drive it to my place, then you can go home. It should nottake long" I suggested.
She still had that irritated expression on her face but along with that, I could also notice a hint of nervousness.
"Okay, I'm leaving then" I announced and turned back. She wasn’t responding, speak up Freya! Don't let me leave you alone in here, its not safe. Let go off your hatred for me.
"Wait, I'm coming" she yelled at my back.
I smiled, that's like a good girl.
~
"Where are uncle and Liam?" Freya asked looking around curiously.
I was lighting up the fireplace in the living room."Liam has gone to spend the weekend with his mother. Caroline was missing him. And uncle has gone to Chicago to sign a business deal. Any more questions, miss question bank?" I laughed.
She twisted her lips "so its just you and me?" there was a slight shiver in her tone.
"Are you scared?" I asked, scanning her from top to bottom with my eyes. I was on my knees and she was standing few feet away from me. I was feeling strange and I had no idea why.
"Why...will I be scared of you? No one can scare me" she looked away.
"Then what's with the sulking face? Don't worry you are not going to be trapped with me forever" I said.
"I'm not sulking" she protested.
"Then, may be your face is lying" I pointed out making myself comfortable on the white leather couch.
My comment got her thinking levels high.
"Relax, don't trouble your brain.Sit here, let's talk" I suggested.
"Talk? You want to talk to me?" she raised an eyebrow.
I laughed "yes, because we never really talk. We just keep doing things on the extreme level, either we rip each other's heads off or we umm...lets say get on each other in an extreme way" I winked indicating our sexy encounters.
I saw blood rushing to her cheeks after hearing that and she bit down her lower lip gently sucking on it.
I clutched the arm rest of the couch, feeling a tingling sensation within me that almost made me want to jump up and take her in my arms. Control yourself, Robert, I muttered to myself.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, and when I opened my eyes she was sitting right beside me.
She was constantly tucking her hair behind her ear and was moving her feet. The restlessness in her body language told me that she was stressed and maybe even a bit cold.
"Wait a sec," I said and went up to the guest room to fetch a blanket for her. I couldn’tbelieve myself either, that I was being so caring for a girl who felt nothing but hatred for me.
"Take this," I said.
She didn’t move, so I took charge and wrapped the blanket around her arms.
"You don't have to do all this. I'm feeling awkward" she said now biting her nails.
"Oh really, what am I doing?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Helping me, this doesn’tsuit you. Have you forgotten that you are a monster?" she teased.
Grea
t, at least she was loosening up.
I smiled, "and being nervous doesn’tsuit you, you should always be in your blabbering mode".
"Hmm...but somehow I lose my words around you. You are so uptight and may I say mean" she said and then bit her tongue.
Her words made me chuckle "umm...what can I say? Thanks?" I spoke.
She cleared her throat "are you all right? You should be burning with anger by my comment" she spoke.
