BLACKPINK - Playing with fire

A sob left her lips at the sound of her voice. The soothing and tenderness clutched onto her heart so tightly that all she could do was cry hiccuping sobs. The voice she wanted to hear for so long.

Her mother was on the other end.

"Mom." Rory cried, clutching the piece of paper to her chest. "Mom, mom, where are you? Do you know where you are?"

"Rory, why didn't you come back like you said you would?" She sighed, sounding a little irritated at the broken promise. But, her voice softens when she heard the broken sound Rory was making. "Why are you crying honey?"

"I just miss you so much." She hiccuped. She rubbed her chest, kneading the area with her fist to relax her aching heart.

"I miss you too but there's no need to cry, we will see each other again soon." She stated, sounding so sure of herself. "I'm so proud of you, you know." She continued, "Moving abroad to study. Your father told me all about it."

"Mom, what are you talking about?" She asked, puzzled.

"Your father came to see me and said you wanted to study abroad so he let you go." She replied, "He covered all your expenses. I was so happy to know he's taking good care of you." Rory heard the tranquility in her mother's voice. "Ever since then I've left the hospital and been living in a residential home. I have amazing carers and so many friends to do things with. So, honey don't miss me too much and live your life."

Her words were slurring, getting with each other as she began talking too rapidly. Rory sensed she was nervous and the thought of her mother being threaten to say it crossed her mind. She panicked, pacing around her room thinking about the best course to take.

Only the truth will set you free, her mother's word rang in her head. Rory recalled the time her problems started, the time her mother was taken into custody for being unable to care for her. She tried to lie so desperately to the officers, the doctors and nurses and the social services. The lie was meant to keep them together but it had only caused more heart ache the longer she kept it up.

Rory swallowed, besides she was the one person she could never lie to.

Gideon's threats echoed through the room like a painful ear aching alarm. His dark angry eyes filled with promise to fulfil them flashed before her eyes. She didn't want to worry her mother either nor did she want anything bad to happen to her.

"Mom," she murmured, takin deep breathes to calm herself, "I'll make you proud."

The lie fell from her dry lips in a shaky tone. Then, guilt, an unwanted intruder, stabbed through her heart. Rory, to stop the pathetic sobs from breaking her so, covered her mouth with her palm, muffling them.

"I bet it's late over there." Her mother stated, "Go to sleep and focus on your studies, okay?"

"Okay, good night mom."

"I love you, Rory to the moon and back."

"I love you too."

The line goes dead and Rory sank to the floor, curling into herself - missing the warmth of her mother's holds.

Words weren't enough for her especially if those words held no truth. She'll never make her mother proud and they'll never seen each other again.

~*~

Three days after her phone call with her mother, Gideon was still not back from his trip and Rory had been locked up in their bedroom refusing to even come outside. Eventually, on the morning of the third day, Luci barged into her room with a blinding bright smile. Rory knew she was faking since no one can smile like that and not be embarrassed.

"Come out," she encouraged, sitting on the edge of bed, "The estate is beautiful. There are trails you can walk, a pool you can swim in and gardening and picking fruits."

"I'm not really in the mood." She said, staring blankly out the windows.

The sky was clear, blue and virtually no clouds. She bet it was scorching hot outside. She'd be cooked alive. Back at home the weather was wet and downcast, mixing with the nasty traffics fuse, making hard to breathe at times.

It was the opposite here. But, she couldn't help the restlessness boiling in the pit of her stomach. What will happen after Gideon returns? Did he intend to keep her inside the estate forever? Was she allowed to even leave?

Were the choices made any of her choosing?

"You aren't a prisoner." Luci stated, this time her brown eyes finding Rory's. "I'm sorry if you feel like that, it wasn't in our intentions. We just wanted to make you feel comfortable."

An unreadable emotion flashed across Luci's eyes causing guilt to creep up Rory's throat. Clearly, she had been causing some worry to Luci with her depressing behaviour though not intentionally.

"I am comfortable." She said in a shaky voice, hoping it was enough to convince.

It didn't. Luci tilted her head, swinging it side to side at having caught her in her lie.

How did everyone expect her to be comfortable in a home built on most likely dirty money. Fucking hell, her husband was probably putting bullets into people as they speak. Fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, brother and sisters all dying by his hands.

The drugs, corpses and mayhem in the streets were probably caused by him. That was what his job entailed. Then, the realisation that her father was in on it too hit her like a truck. Everything was crystal clear now, her father was the broker and her husband was the supplier. They were working together, getting drugs into the streets. The profit they made filling their fat pockets at the expenses of other people's lives.

"Rory? Earth to Rory!" Luci called, her palm resting on both of Rory's shoulder shaking her awake. "I've been calling you for ages. Are you alright?"

Feeling rather faint, she nodded, "I think I need some air. Maybe go walk that trail."

Luci beamed, clapping her hands together. She stayed until Rory was dressed just to make sure she actually left the bedroom.

Rory stepped out of her confinement for the first time. Breathing in the fresh air of the mountains, saps and pines while she tilted her face to the sun.

"Señora," María spoke from behind. She spun around facing the head housekeeper and a tall, lanky boy standing beside her, donning a half sleeve white shirt and a navy jumpsuit with the top tied around his waist. He wore a cap covering his black hair and had dark chocolate eyes.

He was cute and appeared to be similar in age to her.

"This is Alvaro." She introduced, "he'll walk the trail with you since he knows that area well."

María was on her way after that, leaving her in the presence of Alvaro. He tipped his cap at her, smiling and gestured for her to walk with him. She followed far behind, suddenly feeling nervous. She wanted to walk alone, not wanting to bother other people, though she didn't know the area that well and would probably fall into a ditch.

Alvaro stopped in front of a red ATV bike coated in dust. She wiggled her eyebrows, confused.

"Let me be honest," he spoke accented English, "it's a nice walk there but a killer to come back." Alvaro spun to face her, he pointed back to the bike "Besides, it's better to take one of these since it's more fun and we can take the dogs too since they need to go on their regular walks or else they get fat."

"Dogs?"

He nodded, pointing to an outbuilding beside the mansion. A wooden kennel in a wide cage housing three Alsatians - two of which were wagging their tail as they approached. Rory eyed the one with a chain attached to it's collar, a sable coloured one, who was sitting disinterested, staring the other direction. Though once they were in close range, it bared its fangs, growling viciously.

"That one is Feliz," Alvaro laughed, "but he is never very feliz." Like a switch he turned stern all of a sudden. "Don't go near him, ever. He will not hesitate to bit off your hand."

"What about those two?" Rory asked, crouching down to the level of the two excitement dogs.

"That," he pointed to black and tan male, "Is Mariposa." He turned to the reddish and black female, "that is Zorro."

"It makes more sense if you switch their names," Rory sighed, standing on her feet. Mariposa seemed more like a feminine name and Zorro was definitely masculine.

"Funny," Alvaro remarked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Aren't you named after a racing car? Rory was it?"

Her name left his mouth like a sin, he inhaled sharply at the sound and the way it played on his lips. Since she was the boss' wife, she had to be addressed formally - she was after all the owner of the house and the second most powerful person just below her husband.

Her husband.

Alvaro, when he had heard the news that the Señor was getting married, he hadn't expect it to be a girl two years younger than him. She was small and fragile - he could picture it her standing next to the Señor. He was a beast of a man ruled with an iron fist, full of violence, misery and darkness. The Señor needed someone as mad and crazed as him, not a little girl that would never survive him and the horrors he wrecked.

His suspicious was confirmed when she emerged from the car three days ago looking exhausted, daze and staring blankly at all their faces. After that she had never made an appearance for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nor did she made a single sound as she locked herself away from the rest of them. It was as if she was used to it, used to be hidden away where no one knew she existed.

A smile. Alvaro wanted to see a smile gracing that beautiful face of hers.

And he did, a small, amused and genuine one.

"I wasn't named after a child's cartoon." She said, "My mother named me after her mother who's name was Lorelei."

"I don't understand, they are not the same."

"Rory was her nickname."

"Nickname?" He repeated, he never heard that word before. It was foreign to him.

"It's a short version of your name." Rory shrugged, "Or, just a name someone gives you for fun."

"Do I have one?" He asked.

"Do you?"

"I don't know, no one has ever given me one." He flickered his eyes to her, shyly asking, "Do you want to give me one?"

"I'll think about it." She said after a moment. Rory turned to the trail, "Are we still going to..."

"Trust me we should take the bike."

She glanced back at the ATV with no idea how to ride it. As if reading her thoughts, Alvaro stepped closer, "I'll teach you how to ride it. The estate has a few of them to get around to different places."

He didn't give her a chance to speak but instead pulled her around the house and into a garage, different from the one at the front. Two UTV and several quad bikes, big and small, were parked inside.

"They help use get around." He said before she could even ask why they needed these bikes. "The estate is pretty big. This mansion is just one of many in the area." Her eyes bulged out of her head at the revelations. "There's at least two more like it. Some orchards and coffee farms. Oh and señor's sister owns a horse ranch, kind of like a resort."

"Luci?"

"No, Gabriela." He corrected while pulling out one of the smaller ATV, "She's hardly around since she manages several of the Torres' business. One of her many assistant is looking after the ranch right now."

His sisters was in on it too, Rory swallowed.

"Climb on." He instructed, patting the leather seat. "I'll push you out to the yard."

She complied, throwing her leg over the seat as Alvaro rolled her out. The back garden had a massive open space that was enough for her to drive slowly, at first, in large figure of eights. At the speed she was going, Alvaro was able to walk beside her, giving instructions on how to shift her weight to match the situation. He was a good teacher and didn't laugh nor tease her when she didn't get it.

By the end of the afternoon, she was able to drive fast enough that Alvaro had to jog to keep up with her. It wasn't until she craned her head back to see him slow down to catch his breath, turning smaller in the distance that Rory noticed she was laughing, a big smile dancing on her lips showing off pearly white teeth.

All the stress and worry had lifted from her shoulders.

She forgot about Gideon, his threats, her parents and her not-so-great situation. But how could she think about them when there was someone who had brought a sense of normality to her. She may have only known him for several hours but his presence made her feel comfortable and at ease.