Trigger Warning

Aurora's point of view

How far can a mind twist to make one believe the inaudible and intangible? Because maybe, just maybe, my brain was playing tricks on me, and I was hallucinating, and Santiago was not really here. My sanity questioned what was real, if that was actually Santiago's voice, or just something my head conjured up out of panic. In the vast, sheer darkness of the room, I couldn't confirm or deny what I thought I heard. Was I going so crazy that I imagined his thick, Argentinian accent in my head as a worst case scenario?

Light flashed through the room and the brightness pierced my eyes. I winced, how long has it been since I'd seen daylight?

Santiago stood from afar and frightened coldness was ringing on my skin. His broad figure stood confidently as his finger left the light switch, solidifying my fate. It was him. He's here. Santiago's in Russia.

I prayed hard to God for a slim chance. The tiniest chance. Don't let this be when I die. I have much more I want to do. I want children, a family, I want to help the animals. I am kind, I am compassionate and I have a good heart and good intentions. I want to do good in this world and spread empathy and love.

Many nights I had slept next to a killer - Arlan. I had to wake up tangled in his embrace, a cold blooded murder's, and feel the morning breath on my forehead of someone who was uncharacteristically void of emotion, uncaring to end a beating heart. But I somehow always felt he would never go as far as to kill me. No matter how hard his anger flushed or his hand punished, I knew murder was not on his mind. That was the one punishment I had forever thought to be exempt from. And now, someone who had promised to end my life, was here with me. Santiago.

How he had even found me in Russia was beyond my comprehension. I could only assume Nate or Arlan had told him to come. Maybe that's why Arlan was dismissive of me when I tried to tell him Santiago threatened me; Arlan knew, he was helping orchestrate it. Everyone knew, but me. It was all to lead up for the grand performance of Arlan's cinematic horror piece he was planning. Maybe he had planned this all along, since the day he met me in Chemistry.

I found myself resenting the fact that I could've pretended to be asleep after Arlan had left me. Maybe then I'd miss out on all the horrors of everything: the beef dish, the tattoos, and worst of all - the man who wanted to murder me appearing in Russia with my other two captors. Maybe it would have postponed this interaction, the worst of them all: Seeing Santiago enter. It was a horror movie in real life, with I as the protagonist.

A sound emitted from Arlan's throat, hoarse and curt, it was a whimper. Followed bleakly by the word, "how?"

My head abruptly whipped to Arlan, shocked. His body had vitrificated, like water instantaneously frozen to glass, devoid of blood pressure.

"How are you alive?" Arlan shuttered in horror, his Adams Apple harshly gulping, a disturbed guise washed on his face.

Immediate shock hit my core as my mouth parted. My body coaxed into a state of insensibility, unaware of how to make sense of anything going on.

Santiago's echoing footsteps set forth terror in both me and my captor, I could see Arlan jump, meaning-

He was genuinely unaware Santiago's body was alive, full of heartbeat and flesh, still walking the Earth. Oh my God.

Santiago's figure all but tranquilly stepped forward, as if it were a Spring walk in Central Park.

Arlan's feet skid backwards in a clumsy attempt to stagger away from the man risen from the dead; He was panting.

"How!" Arlan yelled before his ankle twisted, a clamorous collapse of his body to the floor resounding. I cried and an elicited, mortified whimper cried from him as well as his hands braced his fall. Santiago continued roaming forward. When my captor and I were both terrified, I was truly fucked.

Hot tears incessantly trembled down my face as Santiago merely continued to step forward, Arlan's bulging eyes growing more and more petrified.

"How are you alive!" Arlan's shriek reverberated, sitting on the cold ground. A sob split from me as my shoulders flinched violently.

"We'll get there, Arlan. Nice to see you, by the way. But first," Santiago's frame shifted to mine. My eyes enlarged and body hair rose straight up with horror. "I want to deal with Aurora."

What do I even say? I can't think of any words. What could even help me at this point?

"I want to know about your relationship with Aurora," Santiago spoke, remaining routed where he was. I gulped shakily, unaware of why he was asking when he surely knew everything. He stood ten feet across from Arlan and I, slowly crossing his arms.

Arlan gulped as well, seemingly more shaken than I was. "She's my girlfriend," He answered. "I-I killed you! How are you...why...w-what are you doing here?"

"Is that right?" Santiago inquired. He rubbed at the dark stubble on his chin with his thumb. "I do love a good love story. Tell me, how did you two lovebirds meet?"

He was playing the exact game Arlan played with me - deflecting my questions and intimidating me. Now Santiago gave Arlan a taste of his own medicene. But what kind of sick game was this? Why was he questioning Arlan's motives, was it intended to hurt me? To remind me of all the traumas I had with Arlan as a sick slap in the face?

"I-in a class, what does it matter?" Arlan spat in frustration, his chest puffing wildly up and down.

"Oh, it does matter," Santiago spoke, my blood freezing.

What did that mean? What were his intentions here?

"It matters because you took her," Santiago finished coolly.

A defensiveness flashed over Arlan's face momentarily. I too felt hurt, like Santiago was sinisterly mocking me.

"So?" Arlan breathlessly said, face panicked. "What's wrong with what? Are you trying to guilt me? It's not going to work,"-

"Against her will, " Santiago spoke.

Arlan's mouth opened, forming words to speak. And I admittedly, too, was at a loss for words. All of this was senseless.

Arlan hissed from the corner of his mouth, "I was saving her,"-

"You took her to fulfil a savior complex, the same one you think your savior had," Santiago spoke.

Silence punched the air.

I just knew that struck a nerve, I could see it in the way Arlan's neck tightened. My shallow breathing was the only sound that met my ears. Everyone was entirely stiff and noiseless and I feared Arlan would lunge at Santiago. My teeth were clenched along with my body though I hardly noticed it with how anxious I was. Everyone remained routed in my place, my heart pounding.

"This complex you were taught that "justifies" kidnapping someone, it's all you've known since a child," Santiago continued, Arlan's neck veins ticking. "After you followed in those footsteps, you had the agenda to rip Aurora to pieces - all just to put her back together to claimed you fixed her. That's what's really going on, isn't it," Santiago provoked.

Where the fuck was all of this coming from? Is this not the man who's here to kill me? Santiago was doing nothing but defending and protecting my honor and it was confusing as hell.

"I said, isn't it," Santiago growled lightly.

"Shut up," Arlan mumbled, face whitening.

"Why? Is it too much to handle?" Santiago provoked louder, his words cutting.

"I said stop!" Arlan shouted, his bottom lip quivering and sweat coating his forehead.

"Is it too much to hear?" Santiago taunted. "Is it too much to tell you that you knew she had the liberty to choose the life she wanted, and you took that from her?"

Fresh tears wobbled down my cheeks as waves of hurt rolled through me. Arlan remained wordless in tense silence. I was completely, entirely stunned.

"Is it too much to hear you hit her, just like your father did your mother?" My gut felt like ice as my breath hitched in my throat. Any more taunting and Arlan might kill him. Actually kill him. This wasn't smart. "That you physically, emotionally, psychologically scarred her for life?"

Arlans eyes watered.

"I just wanted,"-

"What?" Santiago prodded harshly.

Arlan was quiet, panting, eyes searching the floor.

"Finish that sentence, you wanted what!" Santiago yelled harshly, spit flying from his teeth.

"I just wanted someone to love me!" His voice broke, before he began to wail.

The sobs wracked his strong shoulders and he collapsed face down into his knees. His cries bleed grief, misery, a surrender to truth. His wounds had opened and pain rushed through him, it was evident in his unadulterated cries. My heart couldn't help but shatter seeing such a pathetic thing before me. It wasn't pity I felt. Just pathetic. Arlan, at his core, was a lonely, rejected man whom no one ever wanted to love.

"I d-didn't care how I-I got it, even if I had to force it," Came his muffled voice as his shoulders shook. My own tears steadily dripped, stunned at everything. Time felt slow, surreal. "I wanted someone to love me."

"Aurora will never love you," Santiago avowed.

My eyes darted to Santiago with confusion, a chill parading down my spine. The shock was too substantial for Arlan to process, and me as well.

"Arlan," Santiago spoke, calmly. Arlan was still stammering, stuttering incoherent words. "I'm not the only one who's alive."

Silence took over the room, it was enough to zip Arlan's mouth. His jaw fell unhinged and I was completely and utterly lost.

What did that even mean? Someone else was alive? Was it someone I didn't know about, was it one of Arlan's parents? Both? The anticipation had my breath shallow. Santiago's hazel iris' gave no indication of mischief or amusement. His rigid features were stone cold serious. It seemed anything was possible. It seemed like it was true.

"Jake's alive."

My eyes immediately darted to Nate, my stomach clenching. Clear was the snap from weariness to shock in his face, his lips parting and brow furrowing. Then, a mounting sense of distrust morphed into his hard features, I could see the snaps of heartbreak in his chest. His eyes swam with torn emotions, unsure to believe such an implausible statement. My head whipped to Arlan, who was hyperventilating.

Steamed, angered tears clouded Arlan's eyes, his chest vibrating.

"Y-you s-son of a bitch," Arlan's husked voice trembled, almost warning Santiago to discontinue.

"Don't believe me?" Santiago quipped, his accent thick.

"No," Arlan groaned painfully.

"I kept him kidnapped for all these years," Santiago confirmed. His tone was so cool and matter-of-fact, it made matters all the more chilling.

"You're lying! Bullshit!" Arlan roared.

"You ran out when Obsidian Wrath was under attack from Silver Crest," Santiago asserted to Arlan, who was hyperventilating for breath, "Our mafia took Jake after he was shot and rushed him to the hospital. You don't know for sure that he died, you never did. He's alive, Arlan. We kept him," Santiago insists.

A horrified, shrill shriek resounded from my captor and I flinched, slamming my teeth into my bottom lip. Arlan curled into his body on the cold floor, rocking back and forth, perceivably mentally breaking. Mewls of whimpers emitted from him, his head violently shaking back and forth. Stutters of incoherent mumbles left him in strews and I was horrifyingly stunned to see my unbreakable captor shatter and collapse before me.

"Right here," My head snaps up as I hear Santiago's voice, Arlan's head snaps up, Nate's does too, to see. I pant to see Santiago now across from me on the other side of the room, a door visible. "Behind this door is where Jake's being held. I brought him here while you were sleeping."

"Stop!" Arlan whimpered, and the foreign sound of him crying met my ears. I was numbed, shocked to hear him cry. It was unadulteratedly helpless, vividly unfiltered with broken pain.

"Let Aurora go and I'll give you back Jake," Santiago speaks.

My ears ring and my mind buzzed with shock.

What?

"Let Aurora go and I'll lead you to the door where he's being held," Santiago gestured.

I glanced wearily to Nate. This is fucked up. Santiago is possibly lying about Nate's dead brother being alive.

"Why should I let her go?" Arlan bemoaned, wiping his eyes with his forearm. "Why?"

"Because you've done enough," Santiago spat, shocking me. "She may never love anyone, have you thought about that? Have you thought about the fact that she trusted you, only for you to kidnap her and hit her across the face?" He stared Arlan dead in the face, eyes unrelentingly bold and dark.

I peered down. This was intolerable. Unbearable. But above all, truth.

"Have you thought about that? How she might struggle to trust people? You ruined that for her. You only thought about yourself, meanwhile there was a real person with real emotions that you used and exasperated for your own selfish personal gain."

My head was spinning as a fresh sob split my lips, shoulders shaking.

"Come, Arlan," Santiago urged, his hand on the doorknob. "Come and reunite with Jake. He was your true family, your older brother. He loved you. You talk about wanting to be loved? No one loved you more. You know that. I know that. You loved him so much you tried to kill me for his death, but he's alive. Choose Jake."

My heart palpitated at a fever pitch. I didn't know if I could trust Santiago's motives. I couldn't trust anyone in this room. Was Nate's brother truly alive? Would Arlan let me go if he was?

"How can I trust you," Arlan moaned, crying. "How do I know he's really there? Tell me how you're alive!"

"Because I'm standing in front of Nate," Santiago's jaw hardened. "I wouldn't lie about someone's dead brother. And how I'm alive? I had the poisonous drink swapped out before you arrived with Aurora that day."

Arlan exhaled a shutter of disbelief as my eyes tore back to him. His wide, paranoid eyes searched and swept all over the floor as he tried to process. His eyes darted from Nate to Santiago, his limbs trembling. "Th-that's, n-no, I-I-I,"- Arlan whimpered, shaking his head.

"There's just no way...my men....they would have seen you," Arlan shook his head, overwhelmed. "Jake's not alive. it's been years. Years. I've come to terms with it, I've accepted it, I've grieved it, Jake's gone."

"But what if he isn't? What if he's alive, and you could see him right now?"

I couldn't steady my breathing, or process what was happening. It seemed like a negotiation, like Santiago was helping me, when he had promised to kill me. I didn't know what to trust, all I could do was sit, tied up and watch everything unravel before me. If Jake was alive, if Arlan did rise up and walk to the door, would that be it? Would he really be content and let me go, let me start over? Would I have freedom?

And how did Nate feel about this, did he even want to see his brother? Jake had neglected Nate since childhood, prioritized Arlan, made him feel like his true younger brother. This was just cruel to Nate. Despite the awful ways he had turned on me, as reminded by the permanent new tattoo on my wrist, I still felt positively gut wrenched at the thought of Nate seeing his brother. At the thought of Nate knowing his brother was alive.

I was almost crossing my fingers hoping he wasn't alive. Everything regarding Jake was twisted and cruel. He brought children into a mafia, forced them to become criminals and grow up to become ruthless, cold blooded murderers. There was nothing to be glamorized or romanticized about him, even though Arlan viewed him through rose colored glasses. He was, underneath it all, a monster just like Arlan.

Steadying his palms to the floor, Arlan shakily lifted his tall body to a wobbling stance. My heart deadpanned and began palpitating a million beats all over again. He gulped, eyeing Santiago, his body now covered in the dust from the floor. What will his choice be? Come to my side, and refuse to even entertain the option of Jake being alive? Or instead, will he take the chance and walk towards his enemy, the one he thought he'd murdered for murdering Jake, for the possibility of Jake being alive? And what would Nate's reaction be, to see his brother after all these years? His dead brother now back to life? How does one process something as unimaginable as that?

Arlan's left foot lifts, and soon enough presses to the ground in front of him. Slowly, it is followed by the right. And then, he is walking. Walking towards Santiago. My breathing hitches.

Santiago's breathing is leveled, he is entirely calm, watching Arlan walk to him. His eyes remain cool and collected, no ounce of satisfaction or sinister energy displayed on his face. All at once, intensely, gaggles of clashing words came into my head. Different phrases from Arlan that I'd heard since he kidnapped me, dancing around like a horrific chorus.

"You won't even say fuck. Ask for it like a good girl, go on," He'd scowled and slapped my ass.

"Stay here, do you hear me? Say yes sir," He grabbed my chin and made me nod vigorously, "Say yes Sir, I hear you."

"I do own you."

"You illiterate bitch, speak to me when I ask something of you!"

"Dove."

"You should know how to handle dick."

"Dove."

I'm panting hard.

Dove. Dove. Dove.

I peer down to my wrist where the dove tattoo sits, panic pooling in my gut.

"I have no problem squeezing your neck until you develop permanent breathing problems, breaking your jaw- or both."

"Dove."

"I kill innocent men in cold blood every day and you think I believe in being fair? I don't give a fuck if they have wives, families, I'm heartless, God damn it!"

I panted harshly, biting my lip to reduce my whimper, looking back up to watch Arlan walk achingly slow to his enemy.

"Aurora is supposed to be graduating high school," Santiago spoke, watching Arlan walk. "She should be shopping, and playing dumb rap songs in her friends cars, and playing sports and living her youth, and instead you took her and forced her into a house full of criminals and subdued her to your captive. You enhanced her anxiety, you stripped her of the life she should have, and on top of the abuse, you tried to manipulate and gaslight her to condition her to believe she deserves this, that she's beneath you, that she owes you everything, all of her, when in actuality and the sick reality, all you've done is abuse her and it's your fault. You reprimanded her when she was drunk, you rarely let her see her friends, you denied her being adopted and you only gave her a stupid fucking lamb for any comfort," Santiago spoke.

I was sobbing and hadn't even noticed, just watching the two men as Arlan's feet stopped in front of Santiago's, the two men toe to toe. My heart hammered. Arlan whimpered, at a loss for breath. Santiago hadn't seen the intimate ins and outs of my life with Arlan, how would he know to say all of this? Why would he defend my honor, reprimand Arlan to feel shame for all the ways he's abused me? All the ways he relentlessly, guiltlessly tormented me? How would he really know the truth of it all? Things he said couldn't be things to just speculate.

"H-how do you know all of this?" Arlan panted.