Silence.
That was it.
Aurora felt completely still at the object in front of her. Gulping down hard but subtly, she didn't waver.
She still held eye contact with Viktor.
"Hmmm..silent now,are we? He mocked as he twirled the gun around his fingers.
Clinking heavily with the rings on his fingers.
Viktor loved the smell of fear because of what his presence could evoke from people's emotions.
'Fear.'
Oh how he loved such an emotion from his prey.
He knew Aurora was trying to cover up her fear by holding eye contact with him.
He smirked and walked closely towards her with the gun in hand.
He placed the tip of the gun on her forehead, dragged her hair harshly.
"Don't you think you're growing some wings around here? – I have treated you nicely Aurora and yet you want to act all independent now?!!"
He held her hair tightly in anger and harshly spat.
"Don't you DARE forget who you are here and of course… you suddenly forgot about the previous night?"
Aurora felt her heart tighten and fall. She closed her eyes tightly, clenching her hands from the pain inflicted on her hair.
Not a sound came from her, and Viktor didn't like that very much.
He struck her across the face –hard.
He gave a stiff laugh watching as she fell to the ground with busted lips.
Aurora groaned in pain as she landed hard on the floor from the impact of the slap, as the rings busted her lips.
This was the first time he'd ever slapped her, she never thought Viktor could ever do such a thing to her.
She lightly grazed her cheek, as the impact had left a swell on her cheek which sent waves of pain through her body as she felt it.
Her throat tightened as her vision became blurry. She felt a sharp ache on her head as she tried to stand but it was of no avail.
With her head bent and on the floor, she heard his sickening laugh.
"Quiet now?" He taunted trying to evoke an emotion from her, so he could lash out on her more.
She still didn't give him that satisfaction to hear her cry or plead.
She cleaned her lips with her palm and said nothing.
She held back the pain,anger,sadness…everything.
Viktor took slow steps towards her, his footsteps echoing in the whole room.
He dragged her up harshly, and forced her on the seat but Aurora didn't struggle.
He smirked as he saw it as a sign of weakness.
His ego was surely fed at the artwork he left on her.
He whispered, "run along now but one thing is for sure…you can't escape from this, I promise you that."
Pushing her back on the ground, he unlocked the door and nodded at the guards to do their work.
"Take her out!"
They dragged her out as he took a cig to light and laughed.
Aurora knew too much already, it would be foolish of him to let her go freely.
And fucking Derrick caused all this.
He hissed, 'such an easy target.'
So…he thought.
********
They two guards threw her out roughly through the back.
She still felt weak as she knelt on the floor, with her busted lips and cheeks, she tried to stand but her legs gave out on her.
The smell of blood was most she could perceive.
Her emotions were running wild as she tried picking herself up.
She really regretted everything, this was all Derrick's fault.
She never knew getting to meet such a devil could turn her life around.
She wanted to scream but her voice gave out on her.
She felt this great pressure in her heart as it tightened, breathing was hard at this point.
Not at the pain she went through now, but from that night.
**
''Please Derrick stop this, it isn't you."
Derrick watched her as she was struggling against the kitchen counter in his hold smirking.
"If I don't teach you a lesson, who else would tame this your bratty attitude?" He taunted, his breath stenched with alcohol.
The food she'd cooked for him had already gotten cold.
As usual, he came back later and poor Aurora had just wanted to do something nice for him and stay over.
Till he came back swaying in his footsteps, laughing and throwing slurs at her.
She rushed towards him to help him steady his steps but he pushed her out.
"Get my food now!" He snarked at her.
"But I thought you could freshen–
He slapped her across the face, grabbed her neck and pushed her on the couch aggressively.
He climbed on top of her, harshly nipping at her neck. He wanted to have her so bad until she pushed him off her.
"Sorry…I..i can't." She meekly said her eyes looking around with slight jittery of her fingers and her heart beating in an irrational fast beat.
To her relief he left for his room. Aurora had thought he wouldn't eat, so she went to the kitchen to store the pasta in the freezer but felt a great pain in her back.
Derrick had hit her from behind. He'd come back downstairs and saw that there wasn't anything on the table.
Matched towards the kitchen and saw Aurora packing the food and out of anger hit her back.
Dragged her away from the freezer and pushed her against the counter.
Almost raping her that fateful night.
****
Tears kept streaming down Aurora's eyes like a fall.
She didn't know what she did to deserve all of this which added to her frustrations.
She finally had the courage to pick herself up and walked home.
Not before getting strange looks from people who offered her no help at all.
At some point she held herself against buildings, even with her blurry sight, still kept walking and tried to strengthen her walking steps.
*******
Reaching home, she felt numb and didn't have an appetite for anything.
Heading straight for the bathroom, she brought out her first aid kit and cleaned her lips and cheeks.
Although the pain she received was unbearable, it could never disrupt her plan.
She prepared a warm bath as she was in there at once, then headed for her room to get some painkillers from her side drawers.
It was already evening as she really found it hard to walk back home.
She didn't want any cab, because they could easily track her home which wouldn't be a good one.
She quietly and steadily sat on her bed, as she'd taken some painkillers, staring at the open space in front of her.
She checked her phone and saw she had many notifications from Sandra.
'Okay then, I'll see you around later in the evening then.'
With this, she remembered that she was coming over this evening anytime soon and rushed to her bath.
She wore her silk pajamas and a robe on top. She wanted to cover up everything.
She needed to cover up all the marks she had.
Stressing herself in front of the mirror applying lots of foundation on her face.
She couldn't allow Sandra to know of this kind of life she's living.
Aurora blamed herself because she knew of Derrick's works and yet supported him then.
She was too naive then and only thought the dirty works she did for him were out of love, not knowing it was out of total dependency and lack of maturity and he took advantage of it all.
She'd kill herself before letting Sandra know this life she hated so much.
Tears were slowly filling up her eyes ready to burst any minute, her throat clogged as she held the tears back.
Finished with the last touch of makeup, she heard the doorbell.
'She's here.'
Opening the door Sandra stood there with a mixed expression.
She was worried, annoyed, confused?
She couldn't decipher why Aurora didn't reply to any of her messages.
At that, the only thought she had was something bad had happened to Aurora, like she'd been kidnapped or worse –Derrick.
No matter how much she didn't like interfering in other people's business, she never liked that man from the start and never fully supported Aurora's decision to date that skinny pig.
Sandra couldn't stop this feeling of dread since this morning, and her first thought was –Derrick.
Once Aurora opened the door, she felt relieved but annoyed at same time by her lack of reply to her text.
"Girl what happened?, why didn't you read any of the messages I sent, y'know how worried I was? Girl what's wrong–
Sandra questioned but along her ranting, she noticed something off about Aurora.
Aurora was just standing there with a smile that didn't reach her eyes unlike before.
And throughout her rant, Aurora never spoke up or anything…weird.
She followed behind Aurora as she entered inside and closed the door.
"Do you need tea or anything?"
Sandra glanced at Aurora, hinting something wrong.
Heck she didn't even turn her face. Now this is where it got more weird.
"Aurora…what happened?"
No response.
Sandra went to the kitchen, where Aurora was making something like a…coffee?
She touched Aurora on her shoulder which resulted in a reaction she didn't expect.
Aurora turned so fast towards her with a look of pure anger but it quickly vanished.
"I'm just making some coffee and biscuits to enjoy the evening." She smiled as she said, but the more she talked or smiled, the pain worsened.
Sandra left it and waited till she was done whipping up the coffee.
In the middle of their 'break', Sandra spoke up.
"Aurora! I don't know what happened to you girl, since this morning your behavior have been odd and now I've come to spend some time with you –all you want is just some cup of coffee?" Sandra vented out because this was a really strange behavior from Aurora.
Aurora didn't know where to start from, but it was hard already to move her lips.
She'd made coffee because it was the easiest thing she could eat now without pain but she feared that Sandra might catch up soon.
In the middle of her thought, Aurora couldn't notice how keenly Sandra was observing her until she asked.
"Aurora…why does your lips have a blood clot ?
*********