Chapter 5 CHAPTER FIVE
IMELDA’s POV,
I don’t know where I’m going but as long as it leads me away from these mad men, I am okay. I don’t know what the heck I was thinking when I walked into that cave and woke up a sleeping man.
I don’t know how long I ran until I got to the gate but it was locked. No matter how I try, it doesn’t open and this is when tears gather in my eyes. What the hell is going on? I am supposed to be enjoying my holiday and not having an existential crisis.
“It won’t open for you,” his voice pulls me out of my train of thought and I turn around to see him behind me. He has a casual look on his face like nothing matters to him, “I bottom you here and I am the only one who can take you back. Do you understand that?”
“I want to go home” I tell him, “please.”
“You can’t, Amber ”
“My name is not Amber,” I half yell, anger welling up inside of me, “and please I want to leave. This is not fun anymore.”
“Come inside,” he suggests and turns around, walking away.
For a few seconds, I stand there wondering what to do. I can’t leave and he—
I angrily make my way into the house again and there I see him seated on the couch, his entire attention on the man in front of him.
“What are you telling me, Zeke?” He asks again.
“No horses, master.” He replies, “we lost them a long time ago.”
“Who the hell asks for horses in a time such as this?” The words are out of my mouth before I can even stop myself. I can't go home and I can’t let the two of them frustrate the life out of me.
“And the subjects? The treaties, tributes”
“Master—
“Answer to me first,” I scream and the two of them turn their heads to me, “I want to leave and I don’t look like I’m joking about it.”
“This used to be your house, Amber,” he says as he pulls his huge body off the couch again, “so why do you want to leave?”
“For the last time, I am not Amber and you do not know me.”
“You killed me,” he flares up. For a moment, the creepy man disappears and all I can see is danger looming around him. His eyes darken for a few seconds before he lets out a sigh and rakes his fingers through his long wavy hair,
“So you keep silent and allow me to process this how I deem fit.”
“You do not get to tell me what to do.” I yell in his face. I have gone through a lot in my life and talking back to someone like him means nothing to me.
“It is bad enough that I walked into that cave to wake you up from whatever knows but I won’t let you try to dictate my life for me. I want to go home and I want to go home now.”
He takes a few steps towards me until he comes face to face with me. For the first time; I see how small I look in front of him. He looks like he can pick me up and fling me across his shoulder without even grunting.
“Listen to me and listen good, Amber” he starts speak, his voice low and dangerous, “for the last five hundred years, I was in a dark place and trust me, I want to take you there to experience it first hand so don’t me n ditch everything and take you there myself. Five hundred years is a long time to hold enough resentment.”
My forehead creases into a frown as his words continue to filter across to me,
“You are fucking mad.” I roll my eyes to the back of my head.
“You don’t speak to the master like that,” Zeke calls out but instead I hiss at him. I can’t even be mad at him, he and his master are cut from the same cloth.
“Respectfully, you are mad” I hiss again, “and if you don’t take me home now, I will call the police and have you arrested for illegal confinement and abuse.”
“Since when did you start talking too much, Amber?”
“Trust me.”
Without another word, I grab my bag from the table and pull out my phone
“Will you take me home or should I call the police?”
“Police?” Sleeping beauty turns to Zeke who has a downcast look on his face, “what’s a police?”
My jaw drops again. Is this man even real?
“More like prison guards, master”
“Oh. That’s the name now?” He sighs, “it keeps getting worse”
He turns to me again, the smirk on his face returning,
“Why do you want to leave, though?” He asks again, “I mean I have everything here for you so why do you want to leave so bad. Five hundred years ago you were joined to me at the hip and now you are acting like you don’t even know me.”
Five hundred years ago? What rubbish?
“Are you perhaps on drugs?” I move to touch his neck and his forehead curves but he doesn’t say anything.
“Because you speak like you don’t even belong to this world. Do you need a doctor maybe?”
“First of all, Zeke had the right to exchange my horses for those four wheeled things and you are acting like I am the mad one? Where were you all when the world changed for the worst?”
I look at Zeke hoping to get any kind of gaze to confirm this man in front of me was mad but he looks like he totally understands what’s going on.
I live in Miami, sleeping beauty” I say after a while, making my voice as calm as ever. I have realized that trying to use force will not get me anywhere, “and I need to go home. I don’t know you and I don’t know who this Amber is. I promise I won’t even think about you when I leave okay?” My face breaks into a fake smile as I place my hand on his arm, “so let me leave okay?”
“My name is Adonis,” he finally speaks up after a few minutes of looking at me like I am some kind of mystery he is trying to unravel, “if you are pretending to forget. You always called me your love”
