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You had exactly 15 minutes to escape.
Your wedding ceremony was just about to start. So, how did this come to be? You came all the from —- over to —- for one reason, to visit your family. However, next thing you know, they lock you up in a hotel room room, dress you up, and only tell you that you’re getting married. Nothing else, as if it was the most mundane thing to happen on a Tuesday morning.
The door clicks open. You hold your breath behind the door all for half a second before your sisters voice chimes through. “Hey. I stole the keys from mom,and I have your phone and wallet in my hands. Take these and run. Contact me when you reach the city.” She whispers. “Thanks.” Is all you manage after the past few weeks. She and your brother were the only ones you could trust within your family. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say they were the only sane people in this hotel. Your father, or rather, your entire family was always hot on your heels asking when you would marry. You always knew it was a responsibility you could not avoid, as the oldest, however you never thought they would go to such lengths.
“One last thing! The grooms side of the family are also staying at this hotel. You are the ONLY bride having her wedding up in the mountains at this time of year. They will know you have escaped if they catch sight of you.” She warns. “I’ll be careful.” You reply. You run across the hotel hallways and quickly make your way down the staircase. Your heart was hammering against your ribs and your thighs were burning. As you make it down to the grand reception room, you notice a small sign leading towards the back exit of the hotel. You stealthily make your way towards it and push open the door.
The afternoon sunlight greets you with the warmth of a mother’s embrace, but the biting wind still makes you shiver underneath all your extravagant layers. It was early winter, and the serene scenery atop the mountain made you stare off into the distance for a short while. Pushing away the urge to rest or cry, you sneak away to the other building on this mountain. you didn’t have the luxury or time to cry your eyes out anyway.
There were only three buildings standing atop the mountain peak. The hotel you just escaped, the banquet hall where you were going, and the building opposite to it, where your wedding was supposedly going to take place. As you walk towards the banquet hall, you notice a red sports car that looks surprisingly similar to your sponsor, who was Rafayel. ‘If only he was actually here, and that car was his.’ You thought. He noticed your passion for art two years ago, and decided he was going to take you in as his disciple. You were about the same age, and even if he was your teacher, and instead of being over bearing or micromanaging your work, he acted like a friend and always respected your boundaries. You developed feelings for him early on, but never confessed. How could a man like him even think of a girl like you in that way? He deserved someone better.
You make your way into the building and quietly step into one of the staff rooms available only to employees. It was a dimly lit food storage room, with aisles of food. You open your phone in hopes to call a cab, but your hopes are quickly diminished due to the lack of signal in the area.
Just then, muffled noises and faint footsteps quickly become more clear as they approach the room you currently reside in. Panic grips all parts of your body and all the possibilities run through your mind. ‘What if my parents found me? What if a relative saw me? Did my parent find out about my escape, and pressured my sister into telling her where I was? What If the groom saw me!’
Forcing the panic down your throat, You decide it’s best to hide behind one of the aisles for now. ‘at best, it’s a staff member, if they come I can make some flimsy excuses about being lost. At worst, it’s the groom, I get caught, and I have to marry.’
From where you can see, a man quietly steps into the room and sighs. his head is facing the floor. He’s wearing casual clothes, so he can’t possibly be a staff member. You assume he came into the room for some peace and quiet. You inch a little closer towards him to get a look at his face- ‘his hair colour, it’s purple!’ There’s only one man you know with this specific hair colour. ‘Rafayel! But, what’s he doing here?’ Attempting to hide your excitement over seeing him here, you call out to him.
“Rafayel?” You probe. He jolts his face toward you as the expression of shock silently spreads across his face. His eyes scan you throughly before glueing to your dress. “Are you-you-“ the sentence seems to be stuck on his tongue. But, you already know what he wants to ask. It’s practically plastered all over his face. “Yes and No. I’m running away, and I need a car, and an accomplice.” You answer his unasked question. Despite his earlier shock, he quickly recovers his expression and turns to face you. “Lucky you. I also find myself in need of an excuse to skip this party. Shall we make our grand escape down the mountain?” He waves his keys on his hands. “On one condition though. You drive.”
To answer his request, you grab the keys from his hands and push open the doors to the staff room. You didn’t have time to ponder over why he didn’t ask more questions, or if he even cared about you getting married off against your will. You were just going to have to ask him later, when you weren’t running out of time.
You had already made a successful escape out of the hotel, but you had to have been reported missing by now. The ceremony had to start long ago. They were probably searching for you. The real challenge now, was making it down this mountain without being spotted. You hurriedly start the car and bring it towards the route you had to take. Rafayel was just in the seat beside you. “You should know, Thomas was here with me.” He says. “Well….He’s someone who can improvise for himself.” You reply.
As soon as you start going down the mountain, you catch a glimpse of the man who was to be your groom.
The car speeds down the mountain at an alarming rate. Your heart had nearly dropped to your stomach seeing his face. He had ashy black hair, and he wore a suit with similar accents to your wedding dress. It catches the light the same way yours does. His knuckles were wrapped into a ball almost turning white with rage. You swore you could see his angry expression from all the way over there.
Your sister didn’t tell you about this. She didn’t tell you that that man had talked to your family.
She didn’t warn that you knew the groom, and that he was an EVER associate and that he had pursuing you for months trying to manipulate you and that he didn’t actually love you and that he was going to use your protocore heart for evil purposes and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that and that
“HEY! ARE YOU OKAY?” Those words from Rafayel shift Your world back to reality and you attempt to calm down, even though your palms are already sweaty and you can’t almost sense the impending doom that is about to overcome you. If it’s him, he won’t let you go without a fight. “We should switch. I admit it was a bad idea to let you drive when you’re already this nervous. I’m sorry.” Rafayel apologises. You steal a quick glance at him, and start driving even faster than you were before. You were going to test the limits on this thing today. You didn’t want to show Rafayel you were weak. You wanted to be someone brave like him.
“You know, just before we went down the mountain, I stole a quick glance at my husband to be. I’m letting you know in advance since I’m such a good friend, but he might turn you into cooked fish if he saw you with me. And I imagine he’s already in his car, deciding which way he’s going to cook you.” You tease. If the stress is eating you, might as well dump it onto another fishy. But contrary to your expectations, he replies “worst comes to worst, I’ll destroy his car. He can’t chase us if he’s busy being burned alive is he? Then we’ll see who the cooked fish really is.”
That brings a little giggle out of you. You love this side of his. But before you can retort an equally witty reply, two cars suddenly appear behind you. You recognise those license numbers. One car belongs to your father, and the other, to that wretched man. Rafayel seems to notice too, but he doesn’t immediately panic. “Hey, they won’t be able to overtake us with the speed at which their cars are moving. You just need to reach my beach house, and we’ll be safe there. There’s No entering without permission from one of the residents just outside the community gate. It’s heavily guarded there too.”
◦ 2 HOURS LATER
The cat and mouse chase stretches all the way down the mountain. There were moments where one of the cars almost caught up, but there was no outshining Rafayel’s Ferrari(?). The exhaustion of riding a car for such a long period of time was catching up to you, but you wouldn’t give in. You could almost see the city lights now. Victory was just within reach of you.
When you finally reach the city, you quickly weave through the familiar streets and confuse the men chasing you into getting lost. Your father has always preferred to live outside the city, and that man lived in the suburbs secluded from society for his experiments. Although you were grateful everyday for their absence from this city, you never knew it would come in handy like this. You both eventually make it to his house and park his car.
“Today was such a tiring day cutie. Who knew that instead of attending a banquet, I’d help a bride escape her wedding.” Rafayel points out from the sofa. You couldn’t see his expression, but there was hint of annoyance in his voice. You both were lying down and taking it all in after such a hectic day. You both showered and cleaned up, and Rafayel offered you his old clothes as well as his signature cardigan to wear for the chilly weather. “Rafayel, I’m sorry..”
“What are you sorry for?” He seems even more mad now. “Well you sound mad. I thought it was because of me. I used your car very roughly, and I even got you in unexpected trouble. You’ll have to pay the price if my father ever catches me.” I didn’t consider this when I asked Rafayel for his car, and I was very careless too. He sits up to face me now, and he starts playing with the loose strands of my hair. “I’m not mad at all about that. I’m just mad that your family decided on your marriage without your consent. I’m mad that you had to go through such a scary experience and I’m mad that I couldn’t protect you properly.” He blabbers on.
He continues, “By the way, who was the man you were getting married to? You were terrified of him.” You steel yourself for this question. It was hard to answer, but you wanted to do it. You wanted to be honest to Rafayel. “It’s a long story.” You say. He replies “And we have all the time in the world.”
You start your story by telling him how he approached you. He cornered you in a back alley, and asked for your number. After that, he called, texted and pestered you hundreds of times. You eventually gave in and went on a date with him. It was awful, by the way. He only kept speaking about how he overheard you had a protocore In your heart at the hospital, and how this protocore heart could be used like a powerhouse for an entire city. It all made sense when he told you he was working with EVER. Point is, he made it clear he was going to use the relationship as leverage to experiment with your heart.
whenever you denied a date with him, he would get increasingly upset with you and in some cases, stalk you. He would wait outside the hunters association, outside your house, or even just follow you around the street. If you ever caught him, he’d make a flimsy excuse about protecting you. This went on for months, he delivered flowers to your house, love bombed you, wrote you letters,etc. he always wrote about he loved the protocore inside your heart, and that was what made you special from other women. He never saw who you really were, he just saw how you could be of use to him.
Eventually though, you got a restraining order for him and resolved the situation, or so you thought. Your family, meanwhile, was pressuring you into getting married around that time, so you quickly got busy putting up with their lousy antics. When you finally decided to visit them to solve things through, they locked you up and told you to get married. You didn’t know how exactly how that man contacted your family, but you were sure that your father and him struck some sort of deal for your hand in marriage.
“What a despicable man. If I were him, I’d win your heart fair and square.” He comments, still playing with my hair. “Hey. Do you know how you’re going to get yourself out of this marriage? There’s no garuntee they won’t just kidnap you now and finish the wedding.” He questions. “I don’t know what I’ll do. The only way to escape this marriage is to enter another one. But, where am I going to find a contract husband?” I question myself.
Still carrying that nonchalant expression, Rafayel answers, “I’ll be your husband. Buuut, I’m not going to be a contract husband. You’ll have to give me all your love and undivided attention. You’ll have to love me as much as I love you. Or wait, scratch that, it’s okay even if you don’t love me as much. I’ll just make sure you never leave.”
3 DAYS LATER
We signed the marriage papers that night. Rafayel said that we would hold a proper wedding ceremony, when my father was dealt with. Thomas had to hitchhike down the mountain, and my siblings, thankfully weren’t suspected of helping me escape. They thought that Rafayel helped me out on all of it. I took the man I almost married to court, and my family backed off for a while. I originally just thought I needed a contract husband to be able to protect myself and not be able to get forcefully married while I collected evidence against my family for court, but who thought that Rafayel actually returned my feelings?
You’re currently standing outside the courthouse. Once you rightfully bring your parent’s crime to justice, it will all be over. After that, you can live a peaceful life with Rafayel, your true husband always and forever.