Chapter 10 Elena
ELENA
Iscream as a man barrels into the room and crashes into Maxim, knocking him to the floor. The impact is so hard it's as if I feel it beneath me.
I curl up in the corner, pressing my back hard against the wall as if I'm trying to disappear. I bring my knees to my chest like they can shield me from whatever this is. My heart pounds in my chest like it's trying to follow my lead and escape.
The pill goes into hyperdrive and shocks my system, trying to restore order.
Everything blurs at the edges for a moment, and the room feels like it tilts slightly before stabilizing.
Colors bleed together, and it feels too bright and too dark all at once.
My thoughts are slow, and an underlying frustration rises in me as my mind can't think clearly.
I blink a few times, hoping to clear the haze, and I focus on the man.
He's tall with broad shoulders and dark hair, and he's staring at me.
Wait. That face. I know that face.
My stomach twists and my breath catches. For a moment, it's like I forget how to breathe.
Adrian?
It looks like him, but it can't be.
No, he's not real. He's never real.
I've seen him before. In the basement where they first kept me, in the dark van when they transported me, in the corner of Maxim's bedroom when the pills first made the shadows come alive.
I've seen Adrian's face a hundred times in eighteen months, and every single time, he disappears when I reach for him.
Every single time, I'm left alone with the reminder I wasn't worth looking for.
So this is just another hallucination. Another trick my broken mind is playing on me for some fucked up reason.
The man who looks like Adrian is staring at Maxim, his chest heaving, his fists clenched at his sides.
Maxim groans from the floor, rolling onto his side, and the sound pulls my attention away from the hallucination.
The man who looks like Adrian takes a step toward me.
No. No, no, no.
I press myself harder against the wall, my pulse racing, the pill pulling me under, making everything feel distant and unreal.
He's going to disappear any moment now.
But he doesn't.
He keeps moving toward me.
"Leni."
The voice is low and familiar. Wait. What did he just say?
He reaches out, his hand moving toward me, and I flinch violently, jerking my body away from him so hard that my shoulder slams into the wall.
I shake my head, my eyes squeezing shut.
Not again. Not again.
"It's me," the voice says, closer now. "Elena. It's me."
I open my eyes, and he's crouched in front of me, his face only a few feet away. His dark eyes are wide, searching mine, and his lips are parted like he's about to say something else.
He looks so real.
The scar on his jaw is there, the one he got when he was twelve after Matei dared him to climb the old fence behind my apartment. The way his hair falls across his forehead is the same. It's exactly how I remember.
But it's not real.
"Leni," he says again. "It's Adi."
"No!" I gasp, the word tearing out of me like a sob. "Don't touch me. Don't call me that."
His face breaks.
I see it happen in real time. The hope in his eyes shatters, replaced by something raw and devastating. His jaw tightens, and his hand slowly pulls back.
I stare at him, my breath coming in short, shallow gasps.
This is wrong.
My hallucinations of Adrian are never like this. They're always of him smiling, or telling me everything will be okay.
He never looks devastated.
Am I going crazy? Is this real?
"Get away from her," Maxim yells, and I jerk my head toward the sound.
Maxim is pushing himself up from the floor, blood dripping from his mouth, staining his white shirt. He wipes his lip with the back of his hand, his eyes locking onto the man in front of me.
"She belongs to me," he continues. "Go down and buy your own whore."
The man who looks like Adrian goes completely still.
I watch his face, and something shifts. His nostrils flare, and his upper lip twitches.
That twitch.
Oh my god.
It's the exact tell Adrian always had. It's what he's done all his life before he got into fights. Before he threw a punch at some asshole in a bar who talked about me the wrong way. Before he tackled his brother Lucian for teasing him too hard.
He turns away from me, and in one fluid motion, he launches himself at Maxim.
The impact is brutal as Adrian's body collides with Maxim's, and they crash into the side table. A heavy lamp shatters, sending small pieces of glass and porcelain sliding across the floor.
I scream, my hands flying to my mouth, my body jerking back against the wall, but that doesn't stop Adrian.
He's on top of Maxim, his fists coming down over and over, each punch landing with a thud. Blood sprays across the floor and across Adrian's hands.
Maxim tries to fight back, his hands clawing at Adrian's face, but Adrian is relentless.
He's like a monster, and I can't look away.
This isn't the Adrian I remember. My Adrian was protective, yes. He got into fights, yes. But he was never this brutal. Never this terrifying in front of me.
This man is a killer, and I need to get away from him before he kills me, too.
I press my hands flat against the ground, my legs trembling as I try to push myself up. My knees are weak, my body feels heavy, but I force myself to keep moving.
I have to run. I have to get out.
But before I can stand, two armed men rush into the room. They're Maxim's guards.
Adrian doesn't hesitate.
He pulls a gun from inside his jacket and presses it against Maxim's face, and pulls the trigger.
It doesn't sound like a normal gunshot. It's quiet, and it makes me second guess if he's fired.
But Maxim's head snaps back, and his body goes limp beneath Adrian. A stream of blood starts to run down the side of his face.
I can't process it. My brain won't let me.
Adrian rolls off Maxim's lifeless body and fires at the two guards, but its more quiet than any gunshots i've ever heard.
The guards drop, their bodies going limp on the floor.
The complete lack of emotion on Adrian's face as he holsters his weapon and stands is something I've never witnessed before.
Blood splatters his face and his hands, and he turns back to me, and I scramble on the floor, my entire body shaking.
This monster is going to kill me next.
He has to. I'm a witness.
But he doesn't move toward me like a killer would.
He crouches down, lowering himself to my level. His knees touch the floor, and he stays there, his hands resting on his thighs, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths.
His dark eyes lock onto mine, and they're not cold. They're not empty.
"I'm me, Elena," he says, his voice tight. "Please come. I'm here to save you."
The words hit me like a physical blow, and something inside my chest cracks wide open.
The fog from the pill starts to recede, just enough for the truth to pierce through.
This is real. He's real.
"Adrian?" I say, my voice cracking. "Really? Is it you?"
His jaw tightens, and he nods.
"It's me, Leni," he says, his voice rough and raw. "It's me. Now please. We have to go."