CHAPTER 3 — PROVE THAT LOVE.

🦪 DORA 🦪

“The Reaper… I wonder who this reaper is. I've killed him countless times in my head; I can't wait to kill him for real.” I say as Dale Lazarus walks towards my side of the car to let me out and untie my hands and legs.

“You are so eager to die, Dora. But I'm not so eager to lose you.” He retorts, and I respond by rolling my eyes.

“I signed the contract, Umbra would find me sooner or later, and kill me if I back down from a fight, which is their only rule. You know more than anyone else that my only shot at surviving a little is by going into the ring.”

“Going into the ring and not coming out? No!”

We walk into a building that looks like a simple bungalow on the outside, then, taking down a frame inside a library, he presses a button, and it leads us to a room.

“You'll stay here,” he growls and turns around to leave.

I held his arm to stop him. “Alone?”

“You want me to hire you a roommate?”

“That's not what I mean,” I try to explain, “I just…”

“Goodnight, Dora,” he states without letting me complete, steps out, and locks the door.

I rush towards the door, hitting it multiple times, hoping to find a way out, but I get nothing, no button to press, no handle to hold on to, just nothing. If Dale Lazarus doesn't let me out, I'll be stuck here.

Sighing, I turn around to look at the room, which is spacious and clean, decorated with my favorite colors, which are black and sky blue. The walls are painted black, with a black floor, the ceiling is sky blue, and so are the bed layers, the cottons are also sky blue, and aside from these two colors, there is nothing else.

This has always been my dream room, dark, quiet, and clean. When I told my father about it, saying I want a black and blue room, he refused, stating a lady should prefer pink, pink is safe for me, but black isn't.

A smile creeps up on my face as I walk closer to the bedside table. On it is a frame of my father, Dale Lazarus, and me when I was 16. In the picture, he was staring at me while my father was staring at him, and I simply focused on the camera.

“I miss you, Father,” I whisper, picking up the frame as my thumb caresses his face, “And I signed a death contract with UMBRA,” I add, smiling sadly.

“You tried so hard protecting me and hiding me from them, only for me to walk into it myself,” I whisper, tears spilling from my eyes as I try choking down my emotions that are rising to the surface. “I'll avenge you, I promise… how can I not?”

“I remember all your surprise hugs and kisses, how we cook our favorite meals together, how I mess up the kitchen after, and how you'd clean it up without ever complaining. You were a father and also my mother. How you'd never scold me, instead, read bedtime stories with silly voices. How you never got mad at me, how even when you are away, you leave sweet notes and surprise messages to remind me you'd always be here.”

“I used to fall sick whenever you left for work, and until you returned, I'd remain that way. I don't know how to live without you, who would hug me during rainy seasons and thick, scary, darkness? I'm still scared of the rain and the dark.”

“If only I had known you wouldn't be the one to walk out of that ring, I would have stopped you, I would have cried and screamed, fake fainting just for you to stay home, but I didn't… and I'll make that bastard pay, that bastard who took you away from me.”

And then suddenly, my greatest fear hit, a rain pour.

It isn't a sprinkle or a patter. It is a roar, a solid wall of sound and water that slams into the roof with the force of a thousand drums.

I gasp, instinctively stumbling backwards, as the picture I am holding clatters to the ground.

“Rain!” I mutter, rushing towards the door, screaming and banging hard on the door.

“Daddy!” I scream, hitting the door vigorously, and trembling as a scary thunder hit.

A shiver runs down my spine, feeling as tho the thunder would get through the roof to hit me.

“Daddy!” I scream again, more loudly, close to tears, as I begin to feel the disappearance of my father even more.

Soon, the door rolls over, and Dale Lazarus stands there, gawking at me with both his hands in his pockets.

“I'm scared of… thunderstorms.” I stammer, gawking back at him with my heart beating so fast and my eyes soaked with unshed tears, “It once struck when I was a child and almost hit me. I was bathing in the rain. I've been traumatized since then… I'm also scared of the dark.”

Dale Lazarus steps into the room, “Yet you choose to sign a death contract with UMBRA? How many lives do you think you have?”

“Just one,” I murmur as I walk closer to him, watching as he takes a step back instinctively.

I look up at him, and he stops, watching and studying me closely.

“My father used to cuddle me to sleep whenever it rained.”

“He's dead, Dora.”

“Do you have to stab me with it? I know he's dead! I hate that he's dead! I want him back and I…”

In a brief moment, Dale Lazarus eats up the space between us and lifts me into his arms, making me gasp in shock. He carries me towards the bed and lays me down, tucking me in before he gets into the bed himself, keeping a reasonable distance.

Another thunderstorm strikes so loudly, and I jump into his arms before I can rethink it. I can feel him holding his breath, stiffening at my every touch, but I don’t let go as the rain pours increase to three times the effect when it started.

Dale Lazarus shifts, trying to get away, but I hold on.

“You probably don't know this since you don't like me, but this is very dangerous,” he murmurs with a hoarse voice, his resistance hanging on a thin thread. “I can't – hand… handle it.”

Another crazy thunder strikes, and I get even closer, holding his shirt so tightly and burying my face into his chest.

“Dora…” he warns.

“Daddy…” I whisper back with a trembling voice.

.

I can see the line of breaking point stretched tight behind his eyes, and I know that one more touch, one careless word, or even a moment of genuine kindness could be the weight that finally pulls him apart, but then the rain pour increases, thunders gets even louder, lightens sparks on me that I can’t help but squeeze into him, tightly, unwaveringly, and heartlessly.

And after holding his breath for a long time, I watch him break, “Daddy wants you… Dora, what should Daddy do?”