Nightmare

Grusha's POV:

“No, no, no don’t. I’m sorry. Please don’t do that. Please…”

The girl who was tied to a chair pleaded, not knowing what she had done wrong. She apologized for whatever she had done because she had a fleeting thought that if she begged he would let her go; he wouldn’t do anything to her; he wouldn’t harm his own daughter, his own blood. Right? Or she thought. A dark chuckle echoed throughout the basement snatching the slightest thought she had.

“Please don’t do this papa.”

She was a crying mess, frantically attempting to free herself from the bound chair. But her words fell on deaf ears as he did nothing but continuously chuckled like a maniac looking at her attempts to escape from his captive.

Her struggles came to an abrupt end when she felt a sharp blade at her throat. As the blade moved from her throat to her cheek before stopping at her temples, her breathing became more rapid.

He circled the chair until he was in front of her still holding the dragger against her left temple. He bent a little coming face to face with the trembling girl beneath him. His blood; his daughter. He would have thought that way if he was sane, but the sanity of that psychopath was long gone, rendering him insane to the point where he could hurt his own blood.

He stared at her grey orbs, which were shimmering with tears, making them more alluring and intoxicating. Her grey orbs stared at his dark eyes in terror, unknowingly awakening the beast within him.

He abruptly stood up, lifting his hand in the air, causing her to shut her eyes in fear and the blade came slicing her left eye, causing her to scream loudly in pain.

“No!!!!”

I abruptly woke up, panting heavily, clutching my chest with my hands. Drops of sweat were sliding down my forehead and neck. Warm and fresh tears were making their way down my cheeks.

‘The same dream, again.’

I felt as if my respiratory tract was blocked, not letting m lungs consume enough oxygen. I lightly squeezed my chest as I tried to slow down my breathing.

‘Don’t panic. Take deep breaths.’

After few more seconds, breathing returned to normal. I wiped my eyes and unintentionally my fingers touched my left eye, which was exposed probably due to my squirming while sleeping. I closed my eyes feeling the scar that trailed from my eyebrow to my cheek. The scar, which still exists despite the wound’s complete healing, serves as a constant reminder of the dark past that I desperately want to put behind me, whenever I look in the mirror. Maybe that’s what he wanted.

I opened my eyes and slid out of the bed to grab the glass of water from the nightstand as I felt my throat getting dry. I took the glass off the nightstand only to feel the glass is empty. Sighing in disappointment, I took the glass and went to the kitchen.

A sudden chill hit my skin causing goosebumps to stand. I hugged myself and rubbed my palms against my arms in an attempt to warm up my skin as the thin fabric of my negligee was not really helping. I turned on the lights as I walked into the kitchen and filled up my glass from the filter.

It’s been three days since brother came home. I have no idea if he is still alive or not and it is not like I care. It is because, after that day I felt like something is off or as though something is about to happen. After my brother had left, I went to my father’s room, and it was a complete mess, indicating that some kind of drama had taken place there. Moreover, the presence of more bodyguards around the house did not make my concern any less valid. All of these things combined did nothing but increased my curiosity, but since there was really nothing I could do, I made the decision to wait until the mouse popped out of the bag.

Just when I lifted the glass to my mouth, I felt something moving from the corner of my eyes. I set the glass down and turned to see what it was, but found nothing except the swaying curtains in the living room. I gulped down the water and set the empty glass on the kitchen counter before again eyeing the living room keenly.

Something is wrong.

Pulling a knife out of the knife holder, I quietly moved towards the living room. How absurd of me to think that a knife would be my go-to method of self-defense despite the fact that I have never used one for anything other than chopping vegetables. I don’t know why, but for some reasons I wasn’t scared. I may have been overly curious. I was holding the knife in front of me ready to stab anyone who crossed my path.

I moved cautiously towards the swaying curtains and was startled to see one of the large windows open. I clearly remember closing them before going to bed, and also I had to struggle a little bit to put the window hook in place because of my ridiculous height. Then how is it….?

“Ahhhh!!!”

I dropped the knife out of shock as I was being pulled down, behind a large couch in the living room, by a strong hand on my arm, and a yell came out of my mouth before I could stop it. Just as I was about to scream,

“Shhh….madam. It’s me. Giovanni.”

‘Giovanni? Giovanni? Who is Giovanni? I don’t know him.’ I was panicking a lot that I began to push him away as I backed away from him in fear. Then it dawned on me.

Giovanni. One of my brother’s men. He was injured in a fight, so my brother appointed him to keep an eye on me. He was always mean to me. He was not happy with the decision of ‘babysitting’ me, as he called it, because he thought that he was still capable of fighting. For some reasons, he always gave me bad vibes. Though he was asked to watch over me, I hardly ever saw him around the house and I never wondered about it since that was none of my concern. I would have doubted this sudden appearance of him, only if the situation was different.

I stopped struggling when I made sure that he meant no harm as he kept the gun away from me indicating that he was not going to hurt me. He still gave me bad vibes, but I decided against the odds to trust him since he was one of ‘our men’.

“What is happening?”

I whispered to him the moment I calmed down. Just as he was about to respond, we heard footsteps in the living room.

The living room was completely dark except for the light in the open kitchen. Shit! Shit! I ought not to have turned on the lights. And the glass???

“Someone has been here.”

I heard a deep voice states from the kitchen. I saw some torch lights hitting the curtains in front of us, indicating they are coming near.

Suddenly, Giovanni picked up the knife I had dropped and threw it to his left side. I heard it strike a glass-possibly the flower vase in the corner of the living room-and heard glass shattering. Giovanni grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the hallway on the right side of us, which led directly to the backyard, while the attention of those men was diverted by the noise. He was running fast despite having a leg injury that I nearly tripped over my own legs.

“Catch them!”

Oh shit! They saw us. I hear Giovanni cursing under his breath as we ran as quickly as we could. I looked behind us and saw those torch lights approaching us. I looked ahead of us and could see the door to the backyard. Okay, we can make it. We can make it. Or I thought.

Suddenly Giovanni fell to the ground while holding onto his leg. He is shot!! I didn’t even hear the sound of gun. He was groaning and cursing while grabbing his leg. Not knowing what to do, I knelt down to at least help him to stand up.

“No. Don’t wait for me. Run. Run from here.”

He yelled at me while groaning in pain. How can I? I mean, he was here to help me, so how can I leave him here like this? I turned around to see them approaching when Giovanni pushed me away and I gave him one last glance before sprinting for the door.

Just when I opened the door, I was dragged by a hand clutching my hair and I screamed in pain as I felt my scalp burning. I fell to the ground while clutching the spot, and a metal object came in contact with my right cheek, causing me to fall onto my left cheeks. My vision became blurry and I could feel something warm oozing from the side of my lips.

“We got her.”

I heard someone says when a hand on my hair forced me to stand up again. I clutched the hand that was holding my hair in an attempt to loosen his hold, but to no vail. I was being dragged through the hallway and I almost tripped over Giovanni’s body as my vision was blurry and my legs were wobbly. I was dragged up the stairs to my father’s room and now I was terrified since my curiosity was long gone. I observed the door to my father’s room being only slightly ajar and light filtering out. There were two armed men standing at the door whose faces I couldn’t see clearly due to the darkness and my blurry vision. One of them opened the door when they saw us approaching and I was knocked to the ground as soon as we entered.

I knew that whatever that was in front of I was not good, so I immediately started backing away. I froze in mid-movement when I felt my back hitting something firm and I turned around to see that I was at someone’s legs.

“Grusha…”

I felt as though time had stopped when I heard that voice. I would have thought this was some kind of dream if it weren’t for the burning sensation in my scalp. I couldn’t believe my ears and I slowly turned my head only to see the worst sight I have ever seen in my life. Lone tears escaped my eyes, slightly clearing my vision.