A Step Closer to Love

Arabella felt her head throbbing, she tried to open her eyes but they felt heavy. She touched around her and the surface felt cold piercing through her clothes. She forced her eyes open and looked around.

She struggled to sit upright and looked around her. The room she was in was empty with only an iron bed frame some meters away from her. She held her wrist as she winced in pain. Her mind began to wander as she tried to focus on why she was there.

The last thing she could recollect was that she had an unexpected meeting with Aurora and she had been speaking gibberish. Her eyes landed on her feet which were tied together with a wire rope. She tried to pry through it with her hands but she could not.

She tried to stand on her feet but it seemed like nothing was working. She heard the metal door a few meters in front of the bed squeak open. Aurora entered and stood with her hands across her chest. The three men from the restaurant stood behind her.

“You are finally awake?” Aurora said in a mocking voice. “I was almost rushing you to the hospital because I thought you were dead” she continued trying to make light of the situation.

“Why am I here?” Arabella let out.

“Oh, you don’t know?” Aurora asked dropping her hands to her side and walking cautiously towards her.

“What are you trying to pull off by doing this?” Arabella let out a scream.

“How dare you scream?” the littlest man among the three asked walking briskly towards her. He was stopped by the stretched hand of Aurora in her direction. His steps faltered and he stood still.

Aurora took hastened steps and came to her front. She bent down to her level and held her face in her hand. “I have to do all I can to be with Kieran”

“Is that why you kidnapped me?” Arabella barked feeling uncomfortable with the wire rope on her ankles.

“Oh don’t act that way, you would make me seem like a bad person” Arabella could not believe those words come from her mouth.

“You don’t want to be called a bad person? But you go as far as to kidnap me?” Arabella scoffed. “You are a clown” Arabella barely got all the words out her mouth when Aurora landed her a slap across the face.

“I gave you the choice and you chose this so I don’t want to hear it,” Aurora said and stood to her feet.

“You are going to pay for this” Arabella said and Aurora laughed standing to her feet.

“Darling this isn’t a book or movie” Aurora said before letting out a sinister laugh and walking away. She stopped at the door and turned to Arabella. “I would leave you in the gentle care of these gentlemen” She turned and left the room.

“How dare you” Arabella screamed and was hit in the stomach.

“We don’t scream here,” one of the men said before they began to pounce on her with their fists.

Kieran glanced at the clock for the nth time in thirty minutes. It had been four hours since Arabella left the house. He was worried because she was not responding to all his texts, even though she was reading them.

He decided to call her. He had been trying to respect her privacy so he would not seem to be clingy to her. He wanted her to be comfortable but was getting worried already since she knew not a single place in the city.

“She is with Chole, Chole is almost like an indigene” Kieran whispered to himself. He had been trying to hold himself back. He tapped his phone furiously and slammed the phone to his ears.

The line went through but no one picked. He furrowed his eyebrows together and called her back. This time the call did not connect and her phone was now switched off.

“She might be out of battery” Kieran whispered to himself. He was trying to not make a scene out of the situation but for some very strange reason, he was not comfortable at all.

“I am not being clingy, I would just call Chole and ask to speak with her it would take only a minute” he nodded as he spoke to himself. “This is not being clingy one bit” he tried to convince himself further.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“Hello, Kieran?” Chole’s cool voice rang through the air. She wondered why he was calling her on a Sunday afternoon.

“Yeah Chole, I know it’s a girl’s day out but I just want to speak with Arabella for a split second, her phone is unreachable seems like it is out of battery” Kieran rambled and then stopped himself.

“Arabella? I am not with her” Chole said confused as to why he was calling her.

“She left already?” Kieran asked. Maybe she was already on her way home.

“Left where?” Chole asked and then her mind finally remembered that she had been the one who helped Arabella and Aurora see secretly.

“Did she not go to see you?” Kieran asked when he heard the uncertainty in her voice.

“We were supposed to meet today but….” Chole trailed off. She was not sure if she should tell Kieran since Aurora had begged her to keep it a secret.

“Is something up?” Kieran asked. Chole sighed, she knew it would be quite difficult to play dumb since she was directly associated with the situation.

“Aurora had begged me to help meet her, she was supposed to be home by now” Chole mumbled the second statement to herself but Kieran was able to make out what she was saying.

“Aurora?” Kieran asked as she felt his heart sink and he could not tell the reason.

“Yeah she said something about apologizing to her and I helped them meet” Chole continued.

“What the fuck” Kieran almost said in a scream. He did not say anything more before he cut off the call.

Aurora’s line did not go off before she picked up, it was obvious she was waiting for his call.

“Took you long enough to call”