Footsteps hit... on the sidewalk, with ragged breaths, Elizabeth, wearing her soft jacket, finally steps into the threshold of her simple house at the end of the dull sidewalk.
"Finally! I'm so hungry!" she says to herself as she turns the handle of her door to be welcomed by silence.
She looks around loudly "Dad?! Mom?!" as her voice echoes back to her.
Elizabeth sits on the sofa, her back relaxed.
Her eyes slowly go to the clock hanging on the wall. It is 3:30 PM...
She sighed to herself, 'Hmm, where did they go? Isn't today a day off from work ?'
She grabbed her phone to call but... no answer... the sound of her phone beeping hit her ear, announcing that there was no answer to the young girl's question.
"Strange," she says to herself, her eyes wandering around the house, hoping that her parents left her a note of where they went. Instead, her eyes fall on her father's room.
A clean desk contrasts with the ink on the carpet, a deep black color..
The ink seems to have already dried. Pens are scattered on the floor in a mess. Elizabeth slowly raises her eyebrow.
Her senses began to close on the untidy scene she saw, only for a sound to interrupt her thoughts...the sound of footsteps in front of her house's door.
Elizabeth held her breath, her eyes on the approaching shadow...she didn't know how or when her heartbeats began to increase, only to be immediately broken by the sound of the door ringing.
She adjusted her sitting position and walked towards the wooden door, hoping it was her parents. 'Did he forget the key?' 'Impossible.. Who is this, I wonder?!'
She opened the door to meet sharp blue eyes.. He was a man who seemed rather tall, in his early forties, but what the girl really noticed was his cold expression that froze her nerves..
Elizabeth: "How can I help you?!" still gripping the doorknob tightly.
The man tilts his face to focus on her, looking like he's in deep thought. He slowly smiles in a calm voice, "You must be Henry's daughter then?"
Elizabeth tightened her grip on the door without even noticing, and replied nervously, "I'm sorry he's not here right now, so come back later!!"
She quickly tries to close the door, but the man stops her with his foot as if he didn't hear what she said, pushing the door open. He smiles more, saying, "Or we can wait until he comes hmm"
"What the &^% is going on!!" Elizabeth mutters to herself only for her eyes to widen when she notices a group of men behind him staring at her with the same cold, black eyes...uncaring about her answer.
They enter the apartment like the owners of the house, sitting on the couch and looking around.
With heavy breathing, she felt their gazes on her, some smiling sarcastically, looking at the pictures of her family with sarcastic voices, some saying, "Nice picture," and some looking at her with contempt wrapped in coldness.
For a moment, Elizabeth really thought about running away from the door, only to be confronted by a rough hand closing the door...
It was the same man with the blue eyes...the only one with a very empty expression that she could not read.
He slowly leaned towards her in a steady voice "Why don't you sit down?".
Slowly... Elizabeth smiles a fake smile, "Yes, of course," following the man's words despite her heartbeats that are about to explode.
She knows very well that she is trapped like a mouse. She slowly sits on a separate chair every part of her screams for escape. .
This seems to make some of them mock even more, Elizabeth can't meet their gazes and decides to look away from them, she has never felt like this before.
The same blue eyes were fixed on her too, his expression still unclear... He walked slowly and sat down among the men, looking at Elizabeth, his voice breaking the sarcastic whispers, "You're not as stupid as you seem."
Elizabeth doesn't know what kind of response this is. 'What does that even mean?' She doesn't even want to know. She still doesn't look at him and in a barely audible voice says, 'As you see.'
The man slowly leans his back forward, focusing on her more, making her feel uncomfortable. 'What does this bastard want?' That's what's on her mind. Luckily, no one hears her thoughts. She doesn't know what they would do to her if they knew.
The man spoke again in the same calm tone, "You haven't told me your name yet, miss?" Breaking the Silence.
His question raises Elizabeth's suspicions as she slowly looks towards him, how he sounds so polite in his tone and at the same time as if he gives her no choice but to answer.
"Elizabeth," she replied slowly, looking away from him and towards the door that was a few steps away.
Although only one thought was on her mind, her body was frozen with fear.
The man seems to know what she's thinking. "Don't even think," he says in a calm, indifferent voice. "Your name is Elizabeth, then? What an old name." Crossing one leg over the other.
Making his men laugh and whisper louder among themselves, Elizabeth doesn't even know how she started to look at them... impatiently with very dark, coal-black eyes she replies, "Very funny." both her hands are holding the armrest of the chair like it's the end of the world.
The girl's quick change of expression surprised some of them, causing silence to fall, between those who raised their eyebrows and those whose smiles slowly disappeared, but those who seemed to be enjoying themselves...it was the same man, smiling slowly. "You may call me Mr. Frederick then, miss."
Elizabeth's eyes were on him with eyes that were as black as an everlasting black...
She didn't even know when all this had started. She knew that the bastard wanted to test her last nerve, not caring about her tension... As if a rope was strangling her, wrapped around her neck from the intensity of tension...only then..
The door of her house opens with a creak that breaks the sound of her heavy breathing. It is her parents, Mrs. Nora and Mr. Henry. All eyes turn towards them.