Leaves rustled, the air howled echoing the night breeze.
Sophia let out a shaky breath, she didn’t know the time only that many hours had gone by and the day had gone darker yet no one was here.
She hasn’t even heard a voice or anything, it’s like she was forgotten.
She buried her face into her hands while sitting on her haunches scared to sit on her bum and something or an insect crept in.
She was putting on a skirt and a flimsy tank top, she groaned to herself and pondered why she was stubborn but she had to.
Sophia was miserable and tired of waking up to the same walls and environment everyday she realized she might lose her sanity before even really leaving.
“Fuck you Luca” she hissed as tears slipped down her face, she was fed up and drained from everything.
She’s tried stomaching everything for the past few weeks but it was indigestible and now she was choking on it and soon will vomit it.
Living with her father’s murderer, he never gave her her phone even after he promised.
What was he scared of?
She would call the police and tattletale on him she scoffed.
She wasn’t a fool.
She might be a dummy in class and never understood anything while growing up but that didn’t mean she didn’t know her father and who he’d had business relationships with and as friends.
They certainly had the police department in their pockets.
She sighed and lifted her hand to clean her face and maybe stand up and find her way back when she heard sounds of foot crunching the grounds or more like footsteps.
Sophia quit cleaning her face and tried standing up instead, she had never gone into a maze.
Her father had it in his estate but never allowed anyone inside apart from her mom and himself.
He always said it was their private place that one day he was going to take her round it when she was grown up but that topic ended after the death of her mother.
Sophia staggered as she tried to stand up, her legs felt like Jell-O and almost buckled but she stood strong clutching the air.
I need to leave here she mused and eyed the mazes’ leaves, she couldn’t hold onto a single twig without it breaking.
Uhh.
For all she’d been walking around here.
She hasn’t seen a single bench but wires and wires.
Everything in the compound was strange, from the owner to his workers and his building.
Turning a different corner, Sophia contemplated if she had walked past the place.
Everywhere was the same.
A crow squealed from the distance and she shivered.
Now she was scared.
Her heart beat as she heard more crunching on the ground, this time more closer to her.
She strained her ear to listen to any more sound but she got the night breeze and a new sound of cricket.
She surged forward ready to continue what she’d started but a gruff voice she could remember everyday from anywhere whispered behind her.
“Here you are”
Sophia froze.
She would know that voice anywhere and anytime, the dread of him coming close to her after his warning rushed through her and she bolted not turning back.
“Oh my God Luca!” she breathed under her breath, her voice quavered as she ran.
She turned different corners and bends in the maze, sure she was definitely straying away but still…
“I warned you not to leave the house. Didn’t I?!” She heard his voice again, so close to her back and ear, she stumbled on her feet almost flying to her knees but staggered front, her hands flaying.
She looked around, everywhere was pitch black but she was convinced there was light in the maze, faint but still there.
Now nothing.
Her hand shook as she stopped running, trying not to hyperventilate.
“You don’t listen” she heard his voice and the crunching of the ground, this time so close to her.
His breath fanned her neck, hot with the smell of alcohol.
She shivered, not sure if it was from the cool night air or him.
“You never listen to me. Why?” Luca brushed his lips on her neck, breathing in her scent.
He sniffed her and closed his eyes savouring it, he’d never come this close to her where he knew he had little power.
Rose flowers.
Maybe it was from her body wash or perfume she used.
He sniffed more, enclosing her.
All the time they were ever this close either she was in trouble or needed consolation.
They never had anything intimate and this was way intimate.
And now she was in trouble.
“Why Sophia?” He whispered, connecting his lips with her neck, she shuddered, wobbling on her feet.
He had to hold onto her waist to steady her.
“Hmm?” he kissed her neck, his hand on her waist tracing her bare skin.
Sophia arched her neck more for him to kiss.
Her breath laboured with shaky breath, she didn’t know what was happening but she loved it.
She never had a male this close to her, her father never allowed boys or his soldiers come anywhere close to her even in the school and when they went out.
She’d only kissed a boy five times and those five times were all sneaky and instigated by them.
But now, she felt heady and they hadn’t even kissed yet.
She gasped as he bit her neck “where did you go?” She didn’t know which he was asking about.
Her head or…
“Nowhere” her voice was shaky, she muttered.
This wasn’t how she planned her trip to the maze to turn out into.
Yes, she didn’t know her way out but in.
“Why are you so stubborn and everything I’ve been fighting myself against?” She heard the malice and anger in his voice, she gulped, her throat bobbing.
“You know I always knew you were going to be trouble right from the first day I set my eyes on you”
Sophia stayed quiet, not saying anything to his words and closed her eyes instead.
Trying to steady her breath and heartbeat from whatever was going on.
Jolting when she felt him whirled her neck and her eyes opened to his face.
She couldn’t make out his face only the lines of his jaw and the blinking of his lashes before trying to lean away from him and his thick presence but he held her close, she opened her mouth to say something however he silenced her by smashing his lips on hers.