04 | damsel in distress

Hope

I'm not a murderer.

At least I try not to be, despite every instinct of every side of me always looking for something to kill. It's a miracle that I've gotten this far without losing my mind. My mental state is relatively fragile that once I'm sent over the edge, I knew it would involve a killing spree.

I am my father's daughter. And I say that with pride and confidence, two of the things I didn't let myself feel before when admitting that. He was flawed but he became a better person.

I'm still a work in progress.

"I treated you, tucked you in, bought you new clothes and a cheeseburger. The least you could do is tell me your name." Tony said as he sat across from me in the living room. After the confrontation earlier, I had him spelled to the couch so that he won't make any attempts to escape.

"It's not like you'd remember it once the vervain in your system passes." I said. "Can I talk to the robot?"

"He's not a robot, he's an AI. And no, you can't talk to him." He replied, annoyance visible on his face as the sea in this beach.

I rolled my eyes before looking around the room, searching for any sign of the AI. What was his name again?

"Jarvis?" I called, my eyes still roaming around.

"Yes, Miss?" He answered.

A small, victorious grin stretched on my lips before glancing at Tony, who was still obviously annoyed by how I'm keeping him under my magic influence.

"Can you pull up any murders that happened in Portland, Oregon?" I said.

If this is 1994, that means it's the year that Kai Parker went on a killing spreee before he was sent to his first prison world.

"Why, did you do any bloodsucking there?" Tony asked, his tone unbothered in spite of how disturbing the topic is. Makes me wonder what he had gone through to be this calm and composed under such circumstances.

"I'll suck yours if you don't shut up." I threatened.

But I regretted it as soon as the words left my mouth.

"I know I shouldn't be turned on right now, but those words combined with me being magically chained up to this couch is kinda hot." He admitted.

I simply rolled my eyes. So far, I'm learning that it's best to ignore him because talking to him would just give him the advantage of irritating me.

"There's a family massacre on May 9th." Jarvis finally answered before stating the news out loud. "Four children were found brutally murdered and one left for dead in the home of the Parker Family. The murders ranging from drowning to stabbing and hanging, the incident was described as 'unfathomable'. Their brother was declared missing, Malachai, aged 22. He's still missing and they have not found the one responsible."

"Oh, I'm in 1994, all right." I muttered to myself.

"Did you do all that?" I heard Tony ask.

His question wasn't the reason my gaze snapped towards him. It was the fact that that question was accompanied with the racing of his heartbeat. He was actually scared. The first sign of fear, and it's not even from the things I did.

"I'm not a murderer." I said.

Keep saying it until it's real.

"And I'd believe that, if you weren't a vampire and you're not keeping me here against my will." He said.

"I don't hear you complaining."

"Do you want to hear me complain?"

"I'd rather not."

"Then tell me your name."

I ran both my palms down my face in frustration and involuntarily groaned at this man's stubbornness. I swear, if he doesn't tone down what I can already assume is his true personality...unfortunately.

"I won't." I said, dismissing him once again. But he didn't seem to get the message.

"Fine. I'll call you Spunky, then."

"Oh, for the love of everything good and pure, please don't make me a murderer." I whispered to myself, closing my eyes and asking what gods exist to hear my plea.

"You won't tell me your name, so I gave you one." He said, treating our interaction as some sort of challenge.

Sitting across from him and stopping myself from strangling him is my challenge.

"Is there an end to your stubbornness or is it simply infinite?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer to my own question.

"I'd say the latter." He said before tugging a smirk in the corner of his lips.

"Should I put an end to it then?" I taunted.

"You said you're not a murderer."

"You make me want to be."

Our conversation was cut off when the alarm I set on his clock went off. Both our attentions whipped to the alarm clock sitting on top of the glass coffee table in the middle, separating me from him enough to stop myself from knocking him out the entire time.

"The vervain should be out of your system now." I said before standing up and walking around the table to go near him while he remained under the grasp of my magic and on the couch.

I bent down to be closer to him as I placed the tips of my two fingers under his chin to tilt his head up, finally meeting my gaze. His deep brown eyes finally showed something it didn't before, uneasiness.

He knows I can finally make him forget everything.

"It's Andrea." I whispered, my voice soft and my gaze gentle.

For a moment, I saw the uneasiness wither away and replaced by something genuine. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was glad I told him my name.

With my blue eyes fixated on his brown ones, I let the words roll out of my tongue.

"You will forget meeting me. You know nothing about anything supernatural. You were tired, you went home last night, slept, woke up this morning, and did the usual. That's all. You never saw me." I said, watching his eyes dilate as I did.

"I never saw you." He repeated, his tone, unlike before, was as apathetic as the expression on his face.

I took down the spell that was keeping him stuck on the couch before staring at him a second more, my blue eyes tracing the almost invisible features on his face before turning around and using my vampire speed to leave the place in an instant.

—

Everything is weird...not as weird as when Lizzie and I were stuck in an 80s video game, but still, it was weird because this is actually real. This is not an illusion, this is not a game. Jumping into Malivore can really make someone end up in a different timeline...Or is it just me?

For an hour and a half, I was simply walking down the street, my eyes scanning the surroundings because I have no idea where to start looking. I have not even come up with a plan yet before leaving Tony's place.

Speaking of Tony Stark, I had no idea that he was known...like, world-renowned. Just walking down the street, I've already seen at least seven Stark Industries advertisements with his face plastered on each and every one of them. It's like he's haunting me.

But the universe seems to think that I'm not haunted enough by him when I found myself in front of the building of Stark Industries. Though, I'm not the only one.

A huge crowd was hovering in front of me as both normal citizens, reporters, journalists, and the cops were outside the building. My vampire hearing was enough for me to sort through the noise and listen to those with information rather than those nonsensical babbling.

"—It happened right before the beginning of the seminar held in Miami Enterprise Academy where none other than the CEO of Stark Industries, Mr. Tony Stark, has been abducted by an unknown organization—"

The mention of 'Tony Stark' and 'abducted' in the same sentence made my lips part. The reporter was saying something about how Tony went missing right before he was about to give a speech to a seminar in some school.

"Some were convinced that the young man had bailed the seminar but a witness says otherwise." Said the news guy.

I continued to listen to the news intently when the news guy mentioned the drawing of one of the people responsible for Tony's kidnapping.

"The men behind the abduction were still unknown, luckily, the witness remembered one of them, and managed to describe the suspect."

My eyes snapped over to one of the cops holding a copy of the said drawing and I couldn't help but curse under my breath at the familiarity of the face on that piece of paper.

"Crap." I muttered to myself.

I don't think I would ever run out of problems.

"Despite having a sketch of Mr. Stark's kidnapper, the police are still having a hard time trying to find the ID of the person."

I know who it is. I'd recognize that mud man anywhere.

With another curse word escaping from my mouth to add to the series of curse words I've already said since I came here, I turned around and started constructing a plan on how to get Tony out of Clarke's captivity.

Tony was in this mess because of me. In spite of how undeniably annoying he is, he did help me after I escaped from Triad. It's time to return the favor and help him too.

—

They really did a horrible job covering up that hole on the wall I left last night.

It was already golden hour when I arrived. The sun was slowly setting, creating a blanket of orange and yellow to spread throughout the once clear blue sky. And for a moment, while I let the sun set, I felt peaceful. Like nothing and no one was trying to ruin my life. All I felt was the warmth of the sun's rays on my skin as I basked under it, the normality of everything, the faint chirping of the birds. For a little while, I was convinced I was in a scene from a fairytale.

But then the sky turned a dark blue as it was sprinkled with white twinkling dots beside the bright silver crescent moon, and the hair on my skin stood up at the contact of the cold night breeze. Suddenly, I felt gravity push me down again.

The sound of Tony's pain-filled screams echoed in my ears and throughout the building before it stopped, replaced by loud, heavy breathing.

"Just a little more and all of this will be over." I heard someone say. It wasn't Clarke's voice. This voice was feminine and unfamiliar. But from what I can tell, whatever he's doing to Tony, it's hurting him.

"Oh, trust me little missy, this won't be over until I strangle you myself." He's being tortured and yet he still had the audacity to be that smug. How the hell did he survive this long with that personality of his?

His heavy breathing was once again replaced by his screams. I don't smell any blood so that's a good thing, I guess. But why the hell does he keep screaming like he's in pain?

I don't want to be too late to find out, so without hesitation, I sped my way towards the wall closer to Tony. Standing beside the said wall, I could hear his loud breathing and his racing heartbeat.

"It's done. The mind compulsion is gone." Said the woman. "You should remember now."

She wasn't torturing him, or at least she wasn't torturing him on purpose. She was trying to undo the compulsion I did to him. And since I just compelled him twice, I knew it didn't take very long for her to unravel the parts I hid in his mind.

"I remember..." he whispered. "...saying I want to strangle you. Can I do that now?"

For the first time since I met him, I actually smiled because of how stubborn he is. At least, his stubbornness helps me in this situation.

"I wasn't hurting you on purpose. And even if I was, it's nothing personal."

"Well, it's personal for me. I don't like it when people dig through my brain. I have a lot of nasty stuff there."

I roamed my eyes on the wall separating me from them. I gently placed both my hands and felt the rough surface of the concrete against my palms before closing my eyes, preparing myself to mutter an incantation.

"You're protecting her....is this woman important to you?"

I halted. My eyes flew open at the statement of the woman, that he was protecting me. Is he? Is he really protecting me or is he simply being himself, headstrong and complacent?

"No." He answered. "But unlike you, she didn't go abracadabra to hurt me. So, it's pretty clear where I stand when it comes to choosing between protecting her and complying with you."

I'm starting to like this Tony Stark.

I closed my eyes again before murmuring an incantation under my breath. A few seconds later, I feel the wall soften underneath my touch. Soon enough, the wall turned into liquid cement, slimy and thick as it flowed down to the ground, completely removing the wall that previously kept me out of the room.

I was met with a familiar pair of deep brown eyes. Tony looked at me and I swear, he almost looked like he was glad to see me.

"Didn't know you were the 'damsel in distress' type, Tony." I joked, shooting him a smirk.

"Trust me, Andrea, neither did I." He retorted, going along with my joke.

Never thought that name could actually sound expensive.

I let out a soft laugh before turning my attention towards the other woman in the room.

"Well, this one's going to be a lot harder to cover up." I said with a playful smile curling on my lips, referring to the wall I practically melted.

The unfamilIar witch before me, threw her manicured hand forward at the same time her lips moved from an incantation.

"Phasmatos sangu—" before she could finish her chanting, I muttered a different spell faster to stop her.

"Silencio." I chanted while closing my right fist. Not a second later, the witch's mouth is sealed, unabling her to speak.

"That's creepy." I heard Tony comment.

"You want me to shut you up, too?"

"I'm good."

I averted my gaze from the man before focusing it on the silenced witch in front of us and the necklace around her neck caught my eye. I know a dark object when I see one.

I used my vampire speed to stand in front of her before grabbing a hold of her necklace and yanking it off her neck. My sudden action caused her to jump and before she could run, I held her hand with both of mine, the necklace tucked between our palms.

"Torsion fou mort de l'espirit." I muttered.

An insanity hex. That would keep the Triad busy for a while.

With that, I jabbed her face with my elbow, knocking her out.

I turned around to look at Tony only to see him wide-eyed as he stared at the witch's unconscious body on the floor.

"Is she dead?" He said, his voice not even slightly bothered by the fact that there's a knocked out person in front of him. This man's composure is almost unbreakable.

"No." I answered truthfully.

"Good. 'Cause I didn't get the chance to strangle her yet."

"Would you actually have done it?"

"The woman was frying my brain! Strangling her would be the least I could do for revenge."

I shook my head. Then, my vampire hearing caught signs that the rest of the building was finally aware of my presence. I made my way towards Tony and broke the chains holding him in the chair like some kind of animal.

"I have a confession to make." He said as I was untangling him from the metal chain. "I liked it better when you tied me up."

"Tony?" I called.

His inability to shut up and to cage his wild mindset is making me question if this guy is really sane.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Read the room." I simply replied.

"Right. People are trying to catch us. We should go." He said as he slowly stood up, grunting as he did from just being unintentionally tortured.

"You're a genius, yet that's the first smart thing I've heard you say this whole time." I said.

"I guess you should get to know me more. Maybe over dinner?" He joked.

I glared at him. This guy does not know when to shut up. I'm so close to sealing his mouth shut.

"Tony." I said with a warning tone.

"It's my coping mechanism!"

"Flirting is your coping mechanism?"

"We have our own things."

"Well then let's cope when we're out of here!"

What a miracle it was when Tony just nodded in response instead of saying anything smug. I thought the day he would finally shut up was the day that I wouldn't be alive to hear him.

—

Y'all are amazing, you know that? The other day before announcing the rewrite, this book was at 94K+. Now it's at 97.1K. I take it that's a good sign???

Let me know what you think of this rewrite! <3