...

"I promise you, he will come," I said through gritted my teeth.

The man laughed, a calm laugh before he left the cube of a room I was staying in. His laugh was too calm I feared the chance of me leaving there alive was horribly low.

I stared at my shoes and felt with my hands tied behind the back of the chair. I attempted to untie myself realising the knot was tight. Then whilst the fingers of one hand brushed against the other, I remembered I had a bracelet made of diamonds on my wrist which was given to me by Valerio a few hours before we left. For the first time in about an hour, hope sparked within me. A strong element within my bracelet could-

But first I needed answers. I needed to make as much noise as possible to get his attention. I screamed for help.

I heard his footsteps approaching and the rusty door open behind me before he said, "Your screaming won't work, cher. We are far, far away from anyone and anything. You are here for a reason."

I looked up as he stood in front of me, "Then would you mind telling me why I am here? Who wants me captured? I could've sworn there's a catch; a warning-"

"Oui, it seems the translator works really well, you really are smart as they say."

"Just explain yourself, damn it!"

"For a victim, you are sure noisy," he pulled out a gun and pointed it at me. Seeing my eyes grow wide, he smirked, "Perhaps if I had this out, you would be more patient with me and if you are more calme, I would be more patient with you. We wouldn't want to see you dead after many hours being alive under my hospitality, would we?"

I gulped in response. Behind my back, my fingers were at work blindly attempting to send the location from my smartwatch. I heard a ping and probably the captor heard too because I forgot to connect my earpiece to the watch. That resulted in the captor reaching behind, taking it and crushing it beneath his foot.

Whilst he was busy doing that, I took the opportunity to begin my escape; using the diamond bracelet to slowly cut through the rope while looking hopelessly at the real victim of this whole scenario - my watch. He seemed done when I saw the manic grin on his face and the gun being raised level to my head.

"Do you want me to kill you, or to tell you what we want from you?"

"We? What do you mean we?" He gave me such a look that caused my mouth to shut tight.

"It's nothing much, T.O.S only finds you useful if you choose a side and will use the fortune to help fund the chosen organisation."

"Is that all that they want from me? Is that what comes with my inheritance?"

He nodded in response, "So what should it be? T.O.S or U.B.S.A?"

I pretended to give it some thought, to stall for time, as I felt the ropes become looser around my wrists, "I remain neutral. I would rather use my so-called fortune for something else rather than for either Organisations because they are just as bad as each other."

At this moment, I knew I screwed up. So I closed my eyes as I heard him cock the gun, "It seems you chose the wrong side".

I was prepared to die.

But I was greeted with silence. No pull of the trigger, no bang, no blood and I certainly did not die. I slowly pried my eyes open to see his finger hover around the trigger like he was hesitating; no, he was frozen.

Yet I dared to ask after a few seconds, "What's wrong? Are you afraid?"

There was no reply. I looked at the hand that held the gun. I anticipated that it was on the verge of slipping away from his grip, landing on the floor and with a thud, I was right.

As soon as the aluminium body of the gun came in contact with the hard concrete floor, I looked up to see the captor shaking vigorously; almost as though he was having a seizure.

Then I watched as he crouched, gasping for air and began pleading, "Please, don't kill me! I swear, I was not meant for her to die by my hands!" Repeatedly in French. But he was not facing my direction. It seemed like it was a mental battle, judging by the way his hands clasped his head and his body crumple to the floor in what looked like excruciating pain. I took it upon myself to free my hands and feet sneaking myself out of the room. The captor was too busy drowning in his own pain that he didn't hear the rusty door being pried open or me slipping out.

I was too focused on survival, I left him behind and ran blindly through the darkness, feet pounding the floor, closer and closer to the exit emitting light which flooded my vision.