Sofia had felt fear before, many times, and in many degrees throughout the years of her life. But this time, this fear that was consuming her felt way too dense, way too final.

Maybe because this monster that stood before her now had become her phobia.

For so long, he had haunted her through her nightmares, repeating his monstrosity while feeding from her fear. Dr. Bethany, the proficient psychiatrist, had helped put a stop to them and her progressing rapport with Max had acted as a soothing balm, cutting short her misery.

But the numbing fear was still in the back of her mind, she knew it was, for she could feel its cold fingertips freezing that part of her—behind which it hid. And now, with the creator of that darkness returning, the fear had suddenly burst forth and threatened to consume her whole.

Instinctively she was opening her mouth to scream but before she could succeed, Mevil crossed the minuscule distance between them in a long stride. His one hand went around her waist in the speed of light and another clasped on her mouth, his fingers locked like an iron chain around her face.

"No, my love, not yet," he drawled, his lips touching her earlobe intimately making her tremble in disgust. "We'll have ample time later to hear you scream, and trust me, scream you will. I'll make you," he whispered the last bit meaningfully.

Bile rose in her throat.

This is not happening. She repeated in her mind. This is so not happening.

But it was, it was happening for real.

She screamed against the palm of his hand in desperation but the only noise that came out was a scraped whimper.

Bruising her skin his grip tightened menacingly around her face.

"This is what I love about you the most," he muttered hungrily, nuzzling his nose on her cheek. "This feistiness. And I must say, sweet, you feel so soft in my arms and you smell just like I remember from that day, in my hotel room. Mmmm..."

She began struggling like hell to get out of his iron grip, trying to claw at his skin with her free hand, aiming to at least take a chunk of meat out of his body but he was stronger and much heavier. In the face of her desperate excuse of a fight, he rested all his weight upon her, letting her body paste painfully against the metal of her car behind them. His smell surrounded her and she cringed in disgust.

She would have puked if she weren't more worried about her survival. Because Mevil stunk, really bad. And it was not only the sweat.

Just like virtue smells like heaven, sin has a distinct smell, too. When a person has evilness pouring out of him, for some reason he begins smelling repulsive. Maybe it's a system the universe created to warn away all creatures around such evil.

For a moment Mevil moved off his hand from her waist. She took the chance and tried to scramble out from underneath him but the cold pressure of a metal barrel against her jaw made her freeze.

"Now," he let out a harsh, threatening breath. "I'm going to move my hands, sadly, off of your beautiful body. But if you try to run or scream then whoever comes hearing it will die. Remember that, Sofia, and remember that their deaths will be in your hands."

Scalding tears blurred her vision and as they rolled down her eyes, his hand slid off of her mouth. Nevertheless, the gun stayed pressed against her jaw sharply until the place began to throb with pain. He stared at her carefully for a long moment and when he was sure she was not going to scream, he smiled in satisfaction and moved back a step. She was thankful for the feeling of his horrid body lifting off of hers.

But the gratefulness was short-lived.

His gun slowly trailed down the length of her neck, parted the thin shawl still somehow loosely wrapped around her shoulders, he slid the barrel down her collarbone until it rested on the swell of her heaving breast above the flimsy pajama top she was wearing. His eyes sparkled with lust.

"Later...," he muttered with a hungry look, eyes moving briskly up at her face. "Now be a good girl and get inside the car."

Her eyes only widened in response. Feverishly she glanced around, searching for a way, for something—anything—anyone. And yet at the same time, she didn't want any of the people she loved to turn up.

Mevil looked on the edge and she was assertive that he would stay true to his threat. A flash of her family lying in a pool of blood crossed her mind and she recoiled within herself.

No, this—she would never let happen.

If she had to choose between herself and the others, then it was a no-brainer which one she was going to always pick.

In between all the struggle, at some point, she had dropped the car keys onto the ground. Mevil bent sideways to pick it up, his gun however stayed put in place, pressed into her skin.

It was another opening, Sofia's frenzied mind detected, and perhaps her last chance. She had to make use of it, and fast.

Within a flaring second, she brought up her knee hard and fast, satisfying was the crunching noise of it jabbing at the side of his face that was level to her stomach for his bent position. He groaned out in pain and collapsed on his side. Not waiting for a second, she whirled around but before she could make a run for it, Mevil recovered with surprising agility. And before she knew it, he hurtled closer with a mad grunt and grabbed her elbow.

"You b*tch," he growled low and backhanded across her cheek hard. Her face swiveled to the right by the force. "I told you not to run." he slapped her again on the other side of the face and she cried out aloud but even that sound of pain disappeared back in her throat when the barrel of his gun was again placed on her. "And I told you not to scream!"

She was whimpering madly by now while Mevil unlocked her car with the key hurriedly. Her ears were ringing from his strikes and her vision was blurred with pain and fear as he roughly shoved her into the passenger seat.

"Move an inch and I'll take you dead," he warned. "Trust me, Sofia, after all the things you've done, I'll gladly ravish your corpse if your breathing self resists so much."

The deranged look in his eyes made her believe that he might do just that.

Failure had not settled well with Mevil. Somewhere in between losing everything, he had lost his freaking mind as well. Literally.

Her breaths were coming out in heavy pants, for it was even worse than all her nightmares combined. She couldn't control the sickening feeling in her stomach anymore that bathed with ice and all the things repulsive at that moment. Leaning forward she emptied her stomach, puking her guts out on the floor mat of her car while shaking in panic.

By then, slamming close the door, Mevil had stormed around and got inside the driver's seat.

Rubbing a trembling hand across her mouth as her retching stomach calmed a bit, she scrambled across the seat and away from Mevil as much as she could, almost cementing herself into the car door in the process.

One last hope bloomed inside her chest. It was her car after all. Her car—which never started these days without thorough coaxing.

And how would Mevil kidnap her if the car never started at all?

With bated breath she watched him twist the key inside the keyhole. But killing her last hope, the car roared start. Sofia's heart dropped.

The traitor!

And there's no escape.

The car couldn't have chosen a worse time to start being obedient. All those times in the past, this bloody tin-can of a car had refused to start—raising all kinds of tantrums against her coaxing of many degrees and innovative ideas.

Why the hell would it start in just one try now—that too, in the hands of none other than the reeking pigface himself!

A maddening kind of fury began to erupt inside her chest at that moment, the kind of fury that overshadowed her fear.

Mevil's one hand had a good grip on the steering wheel while the other hand still had the gun in it with the heel of his large palm handling the gear, rather poorly.

From the periphery, she saw a tiny blob of fur shoot out the still gaping door of the house.

Pasta!

The pup stood dumbstruck for a mere second at the driveway before it scampered forward, barking like crazy, while Mevil reversed the car out of the driveway. The wheels squealed in protest as he roughly drifted the car straight out to the road.

Soon, the sight of Hayden's house and Pasta's tiny form still barking while sliding left and right outside the gate disappeared from the rear-view mirror.

The car, at its highest speed, zoomed through the empty night streets of Asthel.

Mevil glimpsed at her smugly, noticing she was eyeing the gun.

"Don't even think about jumping out," he said. "However, I must admit that at the speed we're going, that move will only bring you serious injury and serve to my benefit by the way." He laughed like he'd pointed out something very funny.

Sofia hugged her arms around her body and looked out the windshield in disgust.

Her mind was overworking, trying to think up something. But so far, there seemed to be no way out of this predicament.

"Let me go now, Mevil," she spoke out suddenly, gulping down the tremor of her tone and forcefully firming her voice in warning. She hoped against all odds that it would scare Mevil enough to let her go despite the bigger part of her which knew better.

"You're only adding to the list of your offenses." She breathed, somehow stopping herself from sobbing in panic and frustration seeing no change in his expression. "Max will kill you when he gets to put his hands on you!"

"I'm dead enough already," he snapped harshly. "I can't find my wife or that cretin brother of hers. All my money's gone, my business—" his face pinched and he shook his head abnormally. "She took it! She took it all and I can't find that slut anywhere. But I need to find her so that I can bloody teach her a lesson. The biggest lesson of her worthless lifetime." He growled menacingly.

"I broke out of jail," he hissed. "And I searched and searched... and searched, but I still can't find her." he slammed his gunned hand on the steering wheel, and the car swiveled a little, screeching as it did so.

Sofia cringed. She braced herself with a palm against the windshield while the car straightened back on its track.

So, this was what Max had wanted to tell her over the phone, that Mevil had broken out of jail. This was why he was sounding so over the edge.

The car, while never losing its speed, jumped up a speed-breaker. Almost simultaneously, somewhere inside the car a weird ping reverberated, it was a lot like the noise this morning when she had Skyler and Sam beat the car into starting. The difference was that the noise this time seemed a hell lot louder. It also had a concerning, squealing quality added to it.

"And guess who's responsible for this entire ruckus." He glared at her, his accusations continued regardless of anything else. "You. It's you. Single-handedly you ruined my entire life with the help of that pathetic husband of yours. You and that Max Wilder have been damned thorns at my side since the day at the Crugs'." He sneered. "I put reporters outside the Crugs', thought the juicy bits in the tabloids and media would teach you two a lesson. But no, what happened instead? You two freaking got married!"

What the hell!

Sofia was gaping by then.

So, it was him!

He was behind the forged allegations regarding her and Max all over the tabloids and media.

"I was so mad. So mad that he took you away for himself before I could have you." Mevil kept on his angry rant, looking as though it was relieving for him to finally get it all out of his chest. "Then one day, I found hope when I got a weak thread of that magistrate who got you two married. It was hilarious blackmailing all the information of your so-called wedding out of him, he handed me your pre-nuptial papers shaking like a leaf. And I sent it to you, thinking that the scrap of that self-respect you always keep preaching about would make you walk out of that marriage. But no! Once again, what did it do instead? Nothing. Suddenly you were going out on dates with that scoundrel Wilder." Mevil heaved like a wild animal.

Fear went out the window, and Sofia was now shaking with an indescribable amount of rage.

"It was you! It was you all along, you pig!" she yelled through gritted teeth.

Mevil sharply turned towards her, his nose scrunched up in the ugliest sneer ever. "No. It was you. You deserved all that I'd planned for you. But you've been with luck it seems. Luck that got into your head and made you step out of your boundary, and put your nose in somewhere you should have never. You're the sole reason that piece of filth Genevieve disobeyed me. You provoked her. And then, you dared steal that cretin boy from my property. You helped them run away. You destroyed me, Sofia! Now bloody tell me where's she?!" Mevil bellowed, spit flying everywhere from his mouth. "Where's Genevieve? Tell me, damn it!"

Sofia pressed her lips thin.

Like hell, she was going to tell him! She didn't say that out aloud though.

There was no point in riling up this insane freak anymore and raising the possibility of him pulling over the car somewhere and starting to hit her—or worse. She shivered at the thought, knowing she was just delaying the inevitable.

"No problem though," he defused a bit, lust and wickedness gleaming across his eyes. "I can always f*ck the answer out of you later."

Blood drew out from where she bit the inside of her cheek hard, her heart thudding in a suppressed panic attack.

They were nearing the outskirts of the city by then, and as each second passed, she dreaded the thought of going far and far away from her family—and Max.

In the ferocious speed, Mevil was driving, they were on the highway shortly and all the while he kept on with his angry rant, sometimes cussing Sofia, sometimes Max, then Genevieve, and, finally, all of their ancestors.

The guy had lost his mind. It was official.

Suddenly, his face lit up. The change of expressions from fury to delight was mind-boggling.

"We're here, love," he announced with a Cheshire grin.

Her stomach turned, outside she could see only forest and more forest on both sides of the road.

But then, unexpectedly, his Cheshire grin evaporated.

The car swiveled left and right on the road, jerking and squealing but never slowing down—not even the slightest bit.

The terror that had begun to grip at her guts into a tight knot of retches yet again, released with the confusion of Mevil's mad driving. She saw his knees literally bouncing, feet stomping on the clutch and brake. His face was crunched up in concentration.

What's going on?

Then suddenly, making her gasp he gripped the steering wheel in a death grip with one hand and raised the gunned hand at her face.

"Why won't the car stop?" He shook the gun at her face, madly screaming. "The brake's not working. What did you do to it, b*tch?"

Sofia lost it that very moment. She just had had enough of this shit.

"I? I did!" She screamed back as the car madly raced down the highway. "You kidnapped me. You have that gun pointed at my bloody face. You're driving my car. And then you go on and ask–what did I do to it?! You demented bastar*!"

"Shut up!" He bellowed, louder than before. "Shut the f*ck up!"

Cursing and muttering to himself, he went back to stomping on the brake.

Her car's brake failed!

Was it good or bad for the current situation? Sofia couldn't decide.

Just this morning, she had wished for the car to start without giving her a headache and to move without stopping her in the middle of the road. But she'd never thought that her precious car was going to execute the fulfillment of her innocent wishes so ironically!

It surely had started without a tantrum and was now refusing to stop—by a surprise brake failure.

Now, what if Mevil led the car towards a possible crash?

He was already deranged enough, and she could see he was getting increasingly agitated by the fact that he could not stop the car. To top it all, the speed was maddening already. And from the recent development of the vehicle status, there was no slowing down in the near future.

Mevil's violent curses filled her car.

It was then she noticed the blur of a mansion they passed, the classy bright fluorescent lamps before the front gates lit a lot of space on the highway. Her eyes stung at the sudden bright light while the car zoomed past, leaving the mansion behind.

The muscles in her cheeks tightened in the excitement of realizing that it was the Wilders' cabin which looked more like a mansion—the one on the outskirts of the city, the same place where Max had thrown her the birthday bash.

That meant—they would soon be upon the point where the highway would divide into two separate roads. The right one, a severely unkempt road, where she had met Max the day he had proposed.

She closed her eyes briefly for a moment and Max's smiling face flashed beneath her eyelids.

His seductive, teasing voice rang in her ears.

Even in his absence, all her ways would always end up toward him.

Her eyes flickered open, and this time they were filled with certitude.

She could not let Mevil prevail with his repugnant intentions. He had already tormented her enough in her nightmares, through her fears. Genevieve and her brother, countless women, and heavens knew how many more lives had been made into hell because of this one devil disguised by the flesh of humans.

A plan conjured up in her mind. A hasty, a very deadly plan it was, but was her only way to save herself, to survive.

Soon, the headlights of the car lit the divided roads ahead.

Sofia held her breath with her mind made up. Her heart drummed crazily as she balled her hands into tight fists. And as the car came up just inches away from taking a turn to the left, swallowing the lump in her throat she made her move.

This is it.

With a cry, out of the blue, she pounced on an unsuspecting Mevil who was still busy fuming over the brake. She let her right hand's nails sink into the side of his face while her left one gripped the steering, pivoting the car successfully towards the right.

Screeching and squealing, her white ambassador hurtled into the rut-filled road.