"Let me go!" A young girl with blonde hair and green eyes begged the three boys standing in front of her. The three had sadistic  smiles plastered  on their faces.

"Oh come on Sophie. We know you want us,  everyone does" The one with the black hair stepped forwards and grabbed her arm in a strong grip.

Sophia yelled for help but was cut off when someone smacked her right  across  her face.

"Shut up Bitch!"

"Josh hurry up open up her clothes"

"No guys, just tear'em up, hurry"

The one with black hair laughed sadistically "Come on Sophia, Daddy's hungry"

With that, Sophia screamed one last time before everything went black..

Her eyes shot open to her dark surroundings her heart felt heavy like some force was acting upon it. It felt so real, those boys, that dark ally, her own scream, everything.

She brought her hand up to her face and slowly sat up. She felt relief wash over her when she realised the dream was over.

Bringing her knees up to her chest, Sophia sat there looking at her trembling hands.

These dreams were returning, even om the plane she  had had a bad dream about her past. Also a few days ago.

Being a mature woman she knew she could not ignore this. It took her a whole year to come face to face with her past and  finally overcome depression  for her daughter. She knew she would have to meet up with a psychiatrist real soon, prevention is always better than cure.

She stood up from the floor and started walking towards the- "Why was I on the floor?" Sophia whispered  to herself. She turned around and found Conner sprawled on her huge bed. He was so big, it made her bed look small.

"What the hell!" She quickly walked over to her side table and picked up her phone.

5:13 a.m. 

Sophia sighed, she still had a few minutes before Maria came to wake her up. She better get this man out of her bed before everyone  assumes things.

She walked over to him in order to wake him up, but then stopped.

How can she forget what he did to her. Oh she wanted payback 

She walked over to the washroom with an evil smile plastered on her face. She had no intentions of letting him wake up and walk away like nothing happened.

Sophia walked back to the bedroom with ice cold water in a mug. She knew this would piss him off, and that's exactly what she wanted.

Sophia smiled at him with triumph and walked closer to him. He was facing her, his eyes were closed and his breath was steady. He looked.. at peace.

Sophia shook her head, now was not the time.

Without further ado, she brought the mug up to her shoulder level and adjusted it right on top of his head. 

"Wake up baby boy" She smirked ready to pour the cold water on him when  suddenly..

"Oh my god! Sophia que fais-tu?" A horrified voice made Sophia stop dead on her tracks. She whipped her head to the side and looked at a terrified Maria holding a tray with steaming cup of coffee.

"Yes Ms. Morin what are you trying to do?" Sophia almost dropped the mug from her hand, horrified.

A tired looking Conner was staring at her with a questioning  look.

Sophia retreated her hand and brought her hands back to her chest.

"I-I was .." She had to make something up but her mind was blank. She did not know how to face the situation.

"I was trying to wake him up. He came to my room last night and was passed out, I  tried waking him up but I could not.  This was the last thing  I  could do to make sure he was okay..'' Sophia faked a sad expression  as she looked at Maria, fully ignoring  Conner.

"Oh dear, I thought you were ..oh leave this. I brought you coffee" She looked at Conner with a serious  expression, "And you young man, meet me in the kitchen,  we need to talk" With that she walked over to the side table kept  the coffee on the table and walked outside.

Sophia sighed as Maria walked out. She quickly went into the washroom and poured the water in the basin and kept the mug near it.

She walked out hoping  Conner would've  left but to her surprise  he was sitting on the bed with his head in his hands.

"You heard her. Go" Sophia crossed her arms over her chest and stood there like she never did anything.

Conner looked up at her and nodded. "I apologize Ms. Morin. I had no clue why I  came to you" He slowly  got up and walked to the door.

Sophia watched him as he took slow calculated  steps towards the door. He wa clearly  a bit hazy from last night she could tell. Sophia walked over to the table towards  her coffee.

Before she could pick it up, she heard him speak.

"Next time you try to pull a prank on anybody, make sure they are really asleep"

Oh well.

_______________________________________

Sophia walked towards the dining  table with Alberto walking ahead.
"Thank you Alberto,if it wasn't  for you I could've never made it out of that maze" Sophia shook her head as Alberto laughed and welcomed her.

She had been walking for about 5 minutes  and instead of reaching the dining  room, she came right across the pantry which was in the opposite direction. But she was lucky enough  to have found Alberto working there who was kind enough to lead her back to the dining room.

"Ms. Morin where were you?" Conner asked her, seated on the head position  of the table and Zayn to his right. Sophia rolled her eyes and ignored his question, also ignoring Zayn.

Conner raised his brow, but dropped the topic for now. He had gotten a real good scolding from Maria in the morning for not treating the guest right. Conner could only apologise to her, she was that furious.

Sophia sat on his left a Maria walked in with about 5 waiters carrying huge trays filled with food.

Sophia did a happy dance internally, so much food!

"Oh Sophia!  How happy you look!" Maria coed making Sophia blush.
"Oh that's not true..!" She looked down at her plate not even daring to look at the two males.

Maria soon served everyone their  breakfast and went away to finish some work.

The whole breakfast went in silence. Sophia was too busy to easy that she failed to notice how the two males looked at her.

"So Sophia,'' Zayn cleared his throat "I won't  lie, I'm very much  surprised to see you out of all the people here. No offense, but how?"
Sophia  nodded at his statement and finished the bite in her mouth before keeping the spoon and fork down,"I  was working in a company back in Canada and he just appeared  out of no where and became our companies CEO''
Conner looked at her with a bored expression, "I did not just "become" your new CEO Ms. Morin. I threw the previous one out. He was good for nothing"

Sohpia groaned in annoyance,"Same thing."

Zayn watched the two bicker and laughed under his breath.  Sophia looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "Have something to share?"

"Absolutely nothing but watching you two fight like this is quite amusing.''

Sophia scoffed and returned to her meal.

"So, how have you been?" Zayn asked out of the blue.
"Good."
"Good?"
"Yeah that's what I said"
"Okay. If you're free today I would love to  take you out, Sophia" Zayn offered.

Sophia looked up at him and she could've  sworn she skipped a beat.

Zayn smiled at her with such a grace that she almost forgot about her meeting today.

"That won't  be necessary.  We have a meeting in an hour" Conner cut it, not looking up from his plate. Sophia frowned at his behaviour "But we'll  be free in another 3 hours or so. Zayn, I  would love to go out and roam around Paris." She smiled at him and Zayn grinned back.

"Like I said, that won't be necessary. I will take you where ever you want to go. Maria, take away the plate. Ms Morin, let's  get moving" With that he stood up and marched out of the room followed by a grumpy Sophia.

"I didn't even have ice-cream!" She mumbled.

__________________________________________________

"I'm telling you the meeting was a total waste! I can't believe we flew here for this! That man had no sense of business " She let out a frustrated growl.

''Not very lady like to growl Ms Morin."

"First of all, stop calling me Ms. Morin. That's  not my name anymore, I'm Sophia Dixon. Richard is not my husband anymore, respect that would you?"

''Not very lady like to growl, Ms. Dixon."

She narrowed her eyes at him, but kept her mouth shut.

"Do you have Zayn number? " She asked him looking through  her phone.

"Why do you need that?"

"He was going to show me around"

"To which I said I would be doing that" Conner sighed.

"Really?" She asked her eyes suddenly  lighting  up.

He nodded and then turned around and ordered  the driver to take them to a certain street.

"Where are we going? Because what ever you said I clearly did not hear Eiffel tower"

"That you would love to see at night. I'm  taking you to a certain street shop."

"Why don't  you think I  could afford  big shops?"She snaps.

"I never said that. Would you trust me for once?" He asked and he almost sounded  defeated.

She huffed, "Says the man who left me years ago"

_________________________________________________

Ting

Sophia entered a small shop, almost too small which was full of clothes, accessories  and shoes. She was shocked, how could something so small fit so much?

"Ah! Bienvenue!" An old lady wearing a black jumpsuit and silver earrings came out of nowhere and stood in front of her.

Sohpia looked back at Conner, not sure  what to say.

"Trish elle ne parle pas français" Conner told the lady and she smiled,
"Oh i didn't know and-" She cocked her jead to the side and looked behind Sophia, towards Conner.

"Cona! Is that you!" She literally ran towards him and hugged him, her eyes watery,"How have you been? And-" She looked back at Sophia, "Where's Jojo?"

Sophia  felt a sudden  drop in the atmosphere of the warm cosy shop.

"She's not here." Conner replied. Something about that statement  made my heart drop. It sounded, empty.

No, not  the kind of empty you feel when you're  tired but something much much worse. It was like every bone in your body has been crushed  and the leftover have all been burnt while you are alive and able to feel everything happen, it was almost broken.

As if sensing something was wrong, the old lady frowned.

"Okay" She whispered. Then abruptly turned towards me and smiled,"So, what would you like?" She asked going over to the small counter and standing next to it. "Gold diamond or silver? I have anything and everything.'' Suddenly she stopped, her expression changed from soft to cold, and then jist like that it was happy again. She walked towards a large window and picked up the triangle box right front of it "Well listen here, this is a special little box kiddo. My sister was a gypsy and she has roamed hundreds of countries  and towns, from so many places and hearing so many ancient stories, she brought me these." She pointed towards a number of things in the box. They looked old, but god were they all beautiful.

"Take whatever you want Chica, but make sure you choose the right one" She winked.

Sophia turned around and looked at Conner, who was busy on his phone, she sighed and turned  back smiling, "What do you mean?"

She shook her head,"All these things you see here, have some kind of ancient story attached  to them. So maybe they'll  bring you happiness or maybe sadness. Whatever you choose, be careful. Oh and if you're scared, just  tell me I'll  show you some real good accessories."

Sophia wanted to laugh but chose not to. She did not believe  in magic. Not now not ever.

She looked through  the box, everything looked more beautiful  that the other. There were lockets, bracelets, things made with  wood, thread etc. But a certain ring intrigued her the most.

It was a round shaped ring, it had a sapphire  attached to it and was extremely  beautiful.

"Hmm, I would like to take this one." She held up the ring and suddenly she heard something behind her drop.

She turned her head around to find Conner's phone on the floor. He looked shocked, almost pale.

"This?" The lady asked, just as shocked.

"Yes this. Why, what's wrong?" She asked confused.

"Oh nothing. Are you sure this is the one, I  mean, nothing else?" She asked again. Sophia felt irritated, "Yes  ma'am  this " she held up her hand.

The lady nodded, and took the ring from her hand and went away to pack it.

Sophia walked over to Conner who had now picked up his phone and looked at her woth a strange expression. "What was this all  about?"

He shrugged.

"Here you go." The lady came back with the ring packed in a white box. She still looked unsure, her facial expression still looked somewhat disturbed.

Sophia took the packet from her hand and smiled, "You said everything has a story behind it. What is the story behind this?" She asked.

The lady bit her lip and shrugged, "Nothing, just and old myth"

"Tell me about it."

"Stubborn kid" The lady mumbled,"Well, this ring belongs to a witch. Or so people called her. The man she loved rejected her and also humiliated  her with every chance he got. She ran away, far far away from her home. She then lived in a jungle. Years later, she fell in love again, with a hunter this time. Don't  ask me how but he too fell in love with her. But as soon, he left her because of his mother's  pressure. She was broken. Vengeful, she swore to destroy every one that ever hirt her. She made various accessories clothes and stuff, dressed up as an old lady and sold the accessories to ladies all over the town. Slowly, women started dying. There was chaos every where and people left the area. And soon, the town became barren, priests were called and a ritual was performed. She was summoned and was ordered to be killed. She was taken to the jungle and was tied against a tree. A hunter was called to eleminate her but it was the same man who she fell in love with, it was the hunter. He was not able to kill her, he loved her. So they fled. And tada, the end"

Sophia looked at the lady with a a blank Expression. "So how is this  accessory  connected to this story?" She asked.

The lady smiled, "They say this ring too, was made by the witch."

Silence.

No one spoke a word. Sophia looked at the lady, her eyes wide and Conner looked astonished. But soon covered it up like always .

Suddenly  A loud laughter filled the room, it was Sophia who laughed  like it was the funniest joke she had heard of in her entire lifetime. Sh wiped the tears around her eyes and stood up straight. "So you mean this is made by a witch?" She asked. "What does this ring signify anyway?  That my town will get barren and ladies may die?" She asked laughing.

The old lady looked agitated. "It's the way you see it. Maybe this ring means a second chance or maybe revenge, maybe death?"

Sophia nodded, but didn't look that convinced.

"Let's go now, it's lunch time. Thank you Trish" Conner said and without any ado, went outside the door. Sophia smiled at the lady, and thanked her. "I'm sorry but I dont  believe in this story. It's cooked up, anyone can tell. But the ring is lovely. And yes, I don't believe in second chances."
"And what about death?" The old lady whispered.
"Death?"
"Don't you believe in death?" She asked.

Sophia  shook her head and walked out of the shop, to her that lady was bonkers.

She took out the ring from the packet and slipped on the ring on her finger, it shone like it had been brought back to life.

She went in and sat in the car, "Wow. That lady was strange."

And like always she got no answer.

"Well how do you know her?" She asked.

This time, she felt him stiffen. "I was 8 when i worked here" with that he turned  his head away, indicating  that the conversation  was over.
She wanted to asked him about this topic further,  but then decided not to, but she wanted to know what was wrong with him.

Why was he always such an ass to everyone. Why did he never smile.
Why did he never laugh.

And most importantly who was Jojo?
__________________________________________