The chamber they assigned her was overly pristine. Lila smelled. The sheets lay whitened and unblemished, untouched by human hands. The floorboards were devoid of a single speck of dirt, shining as if polished. Even the window looked beyond clean and showed
Lila, a girl who had never been outside the mansion's iron gates, a world she had never seen.
It felt like something was wrong.
She sat at the edge of the bed, her wasters in her lap, fists clenched like pleated bangles, her face losing color as she gasped. She was turning pale each second. Each harsh inhale felt like a crime. In this case, it was as if someone was waiting to enter and drag her back into the situations and conditions that served as her home. She just managed to get out of the dirt. In comparison with the echoing brawl of her parents' brothel, this was silence, absolute silence. There was no bed spring creaking, no boisterous laughter, no fists banging down doors demanding her presence.
There was nothing, just silence and the ethereal Viktor.
Ghost-like, Viktor had not spoken much since their arrival. He had only issued orders to his men in a language she didn't recognize, his voice harsh and authoritative. And Lila had still not managed to decipher each command's meaning. But like Lila, she was alone, and it felt crushing. With words so heavy, devoid of choice, surrender was the only option. Through the blend and chaos, one thing was clear: Lila could recognize she was in the presence of a man devoid of questions, only the will to command.
Where she languished alone in this room, which was spruced up almost too much, Lila's mind wandered to the times when her mother had contemplated selling her off for monetary value, and times when she nearly drowned her daughter for being 'too pretty' and drowning alluring men forever knocking on their door.
Lila had a bad past, and so her thoughts were following the past trauma she suffered.
Her mother's breath felt like sizzling wine,
"You'll end up in a ditch." Young Girl!
"Or, a bedspread eagle, similar to me, because that is all you're fit for." This is the only thing you have learned.
She rolled her eyes in disbelief.
Until now.
The deathly knocking felt overwhelmingly loud in the deafening silence. She winced, the thudding of her heart wrecking against her chest.
And that's when he walked through the door.
"Viktor," she called out.
Exhaling through his mouth, "Lila," was all he managed.
Waltzing in, he looked as if he was marching into his kingdom. An out quote said ``Home is where the heart is'' and it felt restricted to these four walls, walls that forced her to call this abominable 'utopia' home.
"It is contemporarily too cramped," was his first 'doing' quote. Looking good on paper, you'd think that it just wouldn't work in real life. He looked good on paper but didn't in reality.
A familiar scent smothered the room, a pungent mix of burning wood, leather fumes, plus the bitterness of metal. She could tell his coat was gone. Rolls of muscle and protruding veins were evident on his arms.
"Lila," he greeted.
"Well, that was weak. "Why don't you kick me when I am down?" she muttered under her breath.
She laughed, rolled her eyes, took a sip of what was thankfully tea, and said, "Fine."
Suddenly, all eyes were on her, like she was nothing more than a delicate doll waiting to be dissected alive. And here she was hoping she wouldn't have to sign off her life. The entire room was locked down without a break when it came to glancing around like a daisy flower.
You're scared,
Viktor said in a soft tone, not unkind, and yet filled with a certain degree of inquisitiveness.
Lila's jaws dropped, but the words she found to muster were tainted with too much tension for her liking. All she could do now was exhale.
Why shouldn't I?
He cocked his head to the side, as though she had said something humorous.
Yes, he said. But you should also be relieved.
She found herself gulping too hard.
Viktor moved closer, looking at her in a way that hinted at something. Each deliberate footfall matched the new words he was forming. Lila had to tilt her head back to meet the gaze which had completely encapsulated her being.
Where are you here for you? "You're not going back there," Viktor said without blinking. Ever.
In his words, her heart twisted in ways she did not want it to. She desired to trust him, wished to sink into that promise but that Ps in men like Viktor are wrapped in chains when they are captured by the word promise.
"There's always a price," she breathed.
It wasn't gentle, but it wasn't brutal either, a touch designed instead to remind him who he was, the woman he was reminding next to be, elbow against his calf, and what flesh paid. Paying the price, Viktor said, is learning to live in my world.
Finding sleep that evening proved to be a challenge. The mysterious sounds coming from the house, like quiet voices murmuring, the clattering of guns being prepared, and the soft brushing of expensive clothing against other expensive skin, somehow echoed the reality that she did not fit in.
But somewhere in the liminal space between consciousness and dreams, the sound of the door opening once again could be heard. Under the covers, Lila held her breath, muscles tight, and in shallow, rapid breaths.
Viktor.
He remained still but was lit from the hallway. To Lila, it appeared as if he was large and daunting. Darkness clouded her until only an awful conclusion came forth; until now, Viktor had yet to claim details that remained obscured as his price.
His character was frozen mid-step. A curious moon cast its gaze on the wolves, ravenous yet eager and unmoored.
"I saved you," Viktor bellowed, his voice a rough whisper. "I don't want you to regret it," he added before disappearing behind the quieted door.
He exited the room, and in the silence, Lila spent what felt like an eternity, with her heart pounding endlessly.
The burning feeling in Lila's chest flared the possibility that Viktor might be her protector, captor, or both.
For the first and quite possibly not the last time in her life, though, she believed in something.
Something so close to her fingers that it would cut her to bleed.