𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖛𝖊𝖓

The first thing I noticed when I blinked my eyes open was the color.

White surrounded me, the bright color seeming to surround me on all sides.

It hurt my sensitive eyes to stare at for too long, and it had taken me a few moments to adjust to the sudden change from the suffocating darkness.

I kept staring upwards from where I was laying, contemplating the strange place that I was in

Am I dead? I wondered, unable to see anything but the brilliant white before my eyes, Is this what heaven looks like?

I took the chance to move my head slightly to the right, and the small movement triggered sharp bursts of pain to explode from behind my eyes, making my entire body shudder at the feeling.

Nope, I thought, Definitely not heaven.

I moved my head back to its original spot, as I lay in the vertical position that I had first woken up in.

My senses soon came rushing back to me, and I took in my surroundings, doing my best to not aggravate the now dulled thumping reverberating through my skull.

I took in the other attributes of the plain room. Soft, warm blankets cocooned me as I laid on a large king sized bed, the mattress much softer than the one I had at home.

I trailed my eyes from the pure white ceiling of the room to the walls, admiring their deep grey color, and the plain black furniture that had perfectly complimented the dark theme of the room.

The large bedroom, although lacking a personal touch, was elegant and homey.

Soon after I had fully recovered my senses, I took a moment to wonder how I had got into such a strange situation.

I remember bits and pieces of what had happened; Garrett following me, trying to force himself on me, and the stumbles that had caused my fall.

But everything that had happened afterwards was blank, an empty void in my memory, one that I couldn't fill.

I struggled to sit up, pain exploding through my head as I ever-so-slightly moved it.

As I sat up, dark spots began to cloud my vision at the pain, but I quickly blinked them away as the worst of the pain had faded, dulling into a faint pounding.

The silence had made me wary. Of course, I had been used to silence taking over at my home on the nights that my mother chose not to come back home, but the silence here unsettled me.

Firstly, I had no indication to where I was, and I could feel mild panic building up in my chest as I continued to explore the foreign room with my eyes, this time searching for a possible way to escape should anything happen.

I struggled to my feet, using the headboard of the bed to pull myself ungracefully upwards.

As I was nearly about to make my way forward, voices rose from right outside the bedroom that I had woken up in.

Too far away to hear the muffled conversation through the walls, I began to slowly inch my way to the door, my body unstable due to the injury that my head had sustained.

I ignored my body as it screamed it's protests, my legs wobbling and my head throbbing each time I took a step.

But I continued my journey forward, struggling with each movement.

Once I had made it to the door, I leaned up against it so that I could better hear what the voices were saying.

"Why the hell would you bring her here?" The first voice screamed from behind the door.

It was deep and masculine, and despite the man's obviously enraged state, I couldn't help but to shiver at the sound of his voice.

I shook off the strange feeling that resounded in my chest when hearing the mysterious man's voice, and focused my attention back on the argument.

"What was I supposed to do?" another man shouted back, "I couldn't just leave a critically injured girl laying there!"

"I'm sure her friends would've come to get her!" The velvety voice spoke again.

No, I thought to myself, They probably wouldn't even realize I was gone.

"I doubt that," The second voice responded, "I could smell the alcohol from far off. None of them would've been in the right state of mind to be able to help her even if they tried."

The man with the hypnotizing voice sighed, his irritation evident even through the solid oak door that I was leaning against.

"You did the right thing," the man resigned, "I'm just worried for the pack. Having a human around could potentially expose our existence."

I pulled quickly away from the door after hearing the man's revelation.

Human? I thought to myself, Pack? What are these people talking about?

I firmly decided in my head that it would be best to get out of this place as quickly as possible before I had to come face-to-face with the people outside my door.

I began backing away from the door slowly, and towards the window that lay directly on the wall on the other side of the room.

My coordination was still off from my head injury, so I managed to stumble over my feet.

I landed clumsily on the plush carpeted floor with a loud bang, falling directly onto my butt.

The movement jarred my whole body, sending particularly painful shockwaves to my head, causing my vision to blur momentarily.

The sound of my fall must have been enough to disrupt the conversation outside, because the voices quickly hushed.

I prayed that the men would not come inside the room, especially while I was in such a vulnerable state.

But it seemed as if my prayers would fall on deaf ears, because soon after I had fallen, the door handle began to turn, and the door swung widely open.

I continued to hold at my head, doing my best to block out the waves of pain, but to no avail.

I didn't dare look up from my curled up position on the floor, for I didn't know if I could handle the brutal amount of pain that came along with moving, as well as the fact that I wasn't brave enough to face the mysterious men that had supposedly saved me.

Two pairs of footsteps moved towards me, each stomp sending painful echos through my head.

I felt one of the men crouch down in front of me, his weight shifting as he faced towards me. But I still didn't move my eyes from where they were trained on the grey-carpeted floor.

"Hey," he spoke, his voice soft, and kinder than I would've guessed, "My name is Antonio. I know that you're probably in a lot of pain, and this situation is probably terrifying since you have no idea where you are or what's going on, But I need you to do one favor for me. Can you look up?"

I considered it for a moment. The man didn't seem threatening, and the pain subsided mildly, at least for the moment, so that left me with my only option.

I slowly lifted my head from where it had been cradled between my hands, and brushed my curtain of ebony hair from my eyes, tucking it messily behind my ear.

I turned to face the man that was crouched before me, Antonio, but instead my eyes focused directly on the man who towered behind him.

My eyes traveled up the length of his body and met his, two pools of honey-colored irises.

And for a moment I forgot how to breathe.