TRAPPED: Hideo Colombo Book 1

“ARE YOU all right, miss?”

I heard a man’s voice that I hadn’t noticed earlier when I entered the elevator. I lifted my face to look at him. And even though my vision was still blurred, I tried to reflect on the man’s face. He was also standing in a corner and leaning on the side while wearing a black hat.

“What are you crying about?”

But instead of responding to this stranger, I hid my face once more. I don’t want him to see the tears on my face.

“It’s not appropriate for a beautiful woman to cry.”

I frowned when I raised my face to look at the man again. This time, his eyes were focused on the front. I gazed at him. His face is full of beard. He also has a tattoo on his arm. If my guess is right, it’s a bird’s wing. I just couldn’t see much because he was wearing a black long sleeve polo with the sleeves folded up to his elbows.

Later, I could not immediately take my eyes off him when he suddenly turned to me. Our eyes met. And I suddenly felt fear because of the way he was looking at me. His eyes seemed full of darkness that I couldn’t explain.

A few moments, I slowly averted my eyes from him and raised my palm to my face to wipe my tears that ran down my cheeks. And from the corner of my eye, I saw him move and grab something from his pocket.

“Here! Take this and wipe your tears,” he said.

Even though I wanted to avoid accepting the handkerchief, he handed it to me… I was also forced because my tears didn’t stop flowing.

I slowly raised my hand to accept his handkerchief. “T-Thank you!” I whispered to him.

He just smiled at me before focusing his eyes on the elevator door again.

I wiped the tears that kept flowing down my cheeks. But later, I smelled something strange in that handkerchief and I gradually felt dizzy. I looked at the man when I heard him speak, but I couldn’t understand what he said. Until my vision gradually darkened, along with the weakness of my knees.

***

“Oops!” when Ysolde fell, and he caught her. He even smiled foolishly when he brought the woman, who was now unconscious, to his chest.

Just then, the elevator door opened. He carried Ysolde before walking out there and walked into the basement parking lot where his car was parked. He opened the door to the back seat and put Isolde on board. Then he got into the driver’s seat.

YSOLDE’s POV

When I felt the sun’s rays hitting my face, I barely moved in my bed. I stretched before opening my eyes. But my eyebrows immediately crossed when I noticed that the ceiling of the room was unfamiliar. I looked around. This is not my room. Whose room is this? Why am I here? I sat on the bed. But I also suddenly closed my eyes tightly and held my forehead when I felt it tingled.

“Wait… why am I here? Whose room is this?” I looked around again.

And suddenly, what happened last night came to my mind. From the time I left the house and ran away from Giuseppe… until I got to Shiloh’s unit, and I witnessed how she and Zakhar cheated on me. I was stunned when I also remembered the man I was with in the elevator. That man gave me a handkerchief and then, I don’t know what happened next.

I suddenly felt a tremor in my chest when I remembered what happened last night before I lost consciousness.

“My God!” I covered my mouth. “Did that man kidnap me?”

Holy! Why am I asking that? That man must have kidnapped me last night. He gave me a handkerchief with a pungent smell. After I wiped it on my cheeks and nose, I slowly passed out.

My heart beat faster because of fear. When I looked at the bedroom window, I immediately got up from the bed and ran there to see where I was now. But suddenly, I frowned when I only saw the beach and the sea around the house.

“My God! Where am I?” Because of the fear I was feeling at that moment, I couldn’t think straight.

I just stood in front of the window for a few minutes before I returned to my trance, then I turned my sight to the door. Even though my knees were shaking, I walked closer to it. When I tried to open the doorknob, good thing it was not locked.

Even though my heart felt so scared right now, I sauntered out of the room until I reached the top of the stairs. The entire living room was quiet. I also couldn’t hear any noise around to determine that there was someone else here besides me. I could hear the soft waves on the beach through the open sliding door.

Furthermore, I went down the high stairs. My steps were still careful as I turned my eyes around. There’s really no one here but me.

When I finally made it down the high stairs, I was suddenly surprised when I looked behind me and saw the enormous portrait of the man. I held my chest because of the shock.

“Jesus!” I gasped.

But later, I was also stunned when I recognized the face of the man in the picture-even his tattoo on his arm. It’s him! That was the man I met in the elevator last night.

Suddenly, the hairs on my body stood up because of the overwhelming fear that rose in my chest. I also recoiled when I stared into the man’s eyes. God! It’s just a portrait, but this man’s gaze is so sharp and terrifying. It felt like my knees were going to buckle at any moment.

I turned around and took big steps towards the open door to get out of this house, but I screamed loudly when this man suddenly appeared in front of me.

“Ahhh!”

“Hey! Shut up.”

I could not run away from him when he suddenly grabbed my one arm and pulled me to his body and with one of his hands, he covered my mouth.

“Shut up if you would rather not get hurt.” He said loudly in front of my ear while tightly wrapping his arm around my waist.

“Just… shut up.”

“Mmm.” I shook my head as I felt the heat in the corners of my eyes again.