(A LASTING MEMORY)

  “Huff……you??” she questioned, gazing at the guy in front of her. It was Axel

  “How…how did I get here…..oh my God…what have you done to me….what are you doing here?” She shuttered

  He ignored all her questions, going to stand before the window ignoring her presence. She scoffed at his snobbish attitude.

  “You were drunk…but I think you are fine now” He muttered after a long minute of silence

  “Yea…I know that…harhh…oh my God...drunk? Geez, I was drunk? But how did I get here” She snapped

  “Can you just save your strength for now….stop blabbing”

  “What the F-, I can’t be possibly blabbing, jeez, did you do anything bad to me...gosh you kidnapped me, huhn.” she cursed, sitting up to check herself. He scoffed facing her

  “You have such a wild thought...it’s a good thing that you are awake. I’m outta here” He resorted, going out of the room.

  “Hey wait…come back here…you haven’t answered my question…hey” But he was gone already. She sighed, rubbing her temple, her head still hurt and her body ached slightly.

  She tried getting down from the bed to freshen up in the bathroom, and after she was done she came back into the room only to find a maid, arranging the whole place and some clothes where laid on the bed.

  “Erm….good morning ma’am” The maid shuttered, bowing to greet her. She couldn’t find her voice at first but later got hold of herself and replied her.

  “Oh…morning…err…”

  “The boss sent me to clean up the room and give you these dresses. You can wear them, I’m done arranging the room already” The maid smiled.

  “Oh..ok…I will just do that”

  After changing into the dress which was a flawless gown that got to her knees, designed with colorful embroideries; she was led to the dining room for her lunch since it was already afternoon when she woke up.

  The house looks classic and the food was just so delicious and sumptuous, no doubt, Axel has a good taste when it comes to classically setting his apartment.

  But she suddenly felt lonely, since the maids over here are just minding their businesses and treating her like a princess, like seriously, they are just too formal.

  After her lunch, she waited in the living room perhaps to get on the nerves of that rude brat, Axel, just like she do call him. But she couldn’t view his green light, he seemed to be in his room all day, or did he go out, she thought.

  Sighing briefly, she decided to feed her eyes with the beautiful structure of the house but bumped into the chest of someone just as she was about climbing the stairs.

  “Ouch” she groaned

  “Can you just watch your way” She heard a soft voice. Looking up to face him, she sighed and placed her hands on her waist, akimbo.

  “Huhf…is that the best way you say sorry” She huffed, he rolled his eyes

  “Please just leave my way…I need to go out now. Aiden will be coming here to pick you up tomorrow…just telling ya” He stated

  “Huhn…can’t I leave now, I don’t wanna stay here for the next few hours watching that annoying face of yours…harghh” She spat, glaring daggers at him. He chuckled slightly, taking off his sunglasses to have a better view of her face.

  “And what made you think I wanna have anything to do with you, huhn. Just get it stuck to your skull that I don’t like you one bit, and if you think I have a hidden motive for getting you out of that club, then you must be joking. Tell me….do you know where you would have been now if I hadn’t rescued you…huhn”

  He asked, pointing his index finger at her. Ariel was short of words, now she was longing to ask how he managed to get her off the club last night. She could now clearly remember the image of the guy who came into the restroom.

  He brought out something from his pocket and placed it on her nose perhaps he was trying to drug her to rape her, or what will be his motive for drugging her, she thought. But how did she escape from the assault, was Axel able to rescue her from him, but how? All these questions kept streaming in her mind as she watched him speak. He smirked at her sudden change of expression.

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  “So do you want me to relay all that happened last night…hun…fine..I will tell you so that you can learn how to keep that ugly mouth of yours shut and learn to be grateful” He spats.

  FLASHBACK

  Bullet tightened the piece of cloth on her nose, making her unconscious. Satisfied at her unconsciousness, he smiled to himself, bringing out his phone to call one of his boys to keep watch for him as he was about to take the back route of the clubhouse, but a voice stopped him with a clicking sound made by the gun the owner of the voice was holding. The person was standing behind him, preventing him from seeing the face.

  “Your hands in the air, idiot….” The voice spoke. It was one of the guards of Axel, who had been keeping eyes on him. Bullet laughed heartedly in a wicked way and scoffed.

  “What do you want …boy…, as you can see..I’m damn busy here..”Bullet muttered evilly.

  “F*ck that, bastard, and don’t lay your hands on the girl or I blow your head off” the guard roared vehemently. No doubt, Bullet is no match for him.

  “Fine…fine you can have the girl, I will just leave” He made some movement, pretending to be leaving, but swiftly pulled out his gun, aiming at Axel’s guard, but he lost target as the other guard came from behind and shot him on his arm; he groaned in pain.

  Ariel was lifted from the ground as they made out through the back exit, leaving Bullet to groan and writhe in pain, as blood gushed out of his shot arm.

  Axel was waiting in the car when she was brought out to him

  “What happened” he asked seeing her in that state

  “That bastard drugged her, perhaps he wanted to rape her” The guard explained. He felt a surge of anger rush inside of him and felt like asking them to go fetch him so that he could receive a tough beating of his life, but he restrained himself.

  It’s just a waste of time; he might be some horny hungry guys that want to f**k pretty girls. They all got into the cars they brought and zoomed off.

  End of Flash Back

  “So that’s it….happy now..huhn…” He asked, she sighed.

  “And one more thing” he turned to face her.

  “I can see that you are eye sighting this building, just don’t cross your territory by going into my room, and don’t break anything, I’m going for a walk” He spoke coldly, tucking his hand in his pocket as he walked out.

  “Huh….. I’m going for a walk, don’t cross your territory by going into my room, and don’t break anything” She mimicked his words, frowning and hissing.

  “He is just so rude” She thought.

  ~~~~~

  Axel smirked slightly after leaving Ariel to curse him under her breath, he delved his hand into his pocket bringing out his phone as numerous notification bars popped up, with Aiden’s missed calls. He decided to call Aiden first before attending to others.

  Aiden picked the call at the second ring, as his baritone voice sounded in the background, he seem stressed out.

  “Hey Bro, what’s up” He muttered coldly, yawning loudly

  “I’m cool…you? You sound odd” Axel replied, concern written in his voice

  “Hmm…yea…I’m just a bit stressed out…” He replied

  “Oh…huhf…too much work, huhn” Axel asked with a chuckle

  “Not really, I think I’m missing someone….I mean…guy…you won’t understand” Aiden mumbled, he scoffed

  “I think I get you though, well your girl is here. I believe you will have to come pick her before I change my mind and lose it with her…”

  “What…wait…wait, what do you mean, which girl” Aiden voiced out a bit louder.

  “I don’t know her name. A dark-skinned, long-haired girl like that…” Axel explained, as Aiden gasped, his heart leaping for joy

  “Jesus…..that’s Ariel…oh my goodness, where did you find her…I mean…gosh..she didn’t come home last night”

  “Yea I saw her at a club last night…” Axel muttered, explaining in full detail, the events that took place the other night.

  “Club!!!! What…..I mean, she wasn’t going to a club last night. If I could fully remember, she told me about a certain get-together she is having with her friends or so….but a club was out of it, geez.” Aiden sparked

  “Well, just come pick her up. That girl is a pain in the ass” He scoffed

  “Hun…no..Ariel is not like that, she is a sweet, quiet girl”

  “Perhaps she behaves that way towards you, I’m done here, I wanna hang up….”

  “No, no, no, please hold on…please Axel, I need a favor from you” Aiden pleaded, Axel furrowed his brow a bit before replying.

  “And that is?”

  “Hmm…..can she stay with you for a while?”

  “What!!???, you are joking right? You know that I don’t like getting close to girls like you do, jeez…I love my privacy. I only helped her because I know her to be close to you…sorry I can’t even let her stay a few more minutes.” Axel snapped

  “Come on guy, when will you forget about the past and move on, geez it’s been years already. Is she still tormenting you?” Aiden howled

  “I moved on remember, but that bitch left me broken” Axel flared already getting annoyed with the fact that Aiden is bringing back the past, which they vowed not to talk about.

  “Chill guy, I did not mean to get you angry, but I still care about your well-being. I don’t like seeing you reticent or moody all the time, you know.

  Tied down to one nightmare or so, try to forget about the past, forget about Flora too, and stop this act of getting intimidated around girls, or afraid of hurting them. What happened in that past was a mistake and none of us wished for it to happen.

  I don’t wish to see you this way Axel; you need to feel loved again. Try to come out of your shell, okay, and everything will be fine” Aiden assured

  By this time, Axel’s eyes were already filled with tears, which were threatening to fall, as the phone shook slightly in his hand.

  Aiden felt this from the other end of the line; he believed he had crossed the line and shouldn’t have reminded Axel of his past. He sighed softly thinking of what next to say so as not to provoke him.

  “I’m sorry for reminding you of the past; just don’t take it to heart. I’m having a shoot in a few minutes and ever since I found out this morning that she didn’t come back home last night and haven’t been found after the party, I wasn’t myself all through.

  To be sincere Axel, I really care for Ariel, and I want her to be safe no matter what. I won’t be able to come over to your place right now due to the long distance…please...I promise you she won’t do anything to hurt you. Just let her stay for a few days….”

  “I’m hanging up now Aiden….thanks…..” Axel muttered coldly, hanging up before Aiden could mutter a reply. He wiped the threatening tears from his eyes, as fresh memories of what happened a few years back came flooding into his mind. He braced himself up, as he tried to keep them from coming further. No matter what he did to forget about her, that bad memory would still come to torment him, he had learned to live with it. j