• You never realize how much you value something until it’s gone. I understand it now though my reasons may seem silly to you. Time is a very precious thing and it is something that I will cherish for now on. In this place, this cobber stone box, there are no windows. Obviously, no clocks hanging on the wall as well. My cell phone had been broken for a few days now and I wished I hadn’t procrastinated about getting it fixed. I don’t know how long I’ve been here and it’s driving me crazy. My sense of time is thrown off, thinking it’s night because of the darkness of the room but assuming it’s morning from the fact that last time I was awake it was morning.

    But who knows whenever that was.

    I rolled my eyes, sitting down on my knees as I watched in, what I assumed to be, the direction of the door. Would I die in this stinky place? Alone and in the dark? I wasn’t afraid. My stomach growled because of its frustration of not having anything to eat or even water thrown from some mysterious place. I couldn’t even use the bathroom unless, all that is good forbid, I soil myself. I blinked, though I don’t even know why I bother to keep my eyes open. At least this way, I wouldn’t die from being tortured or raped or something like that. No, if my parents got my body [that if being big] then at least they’d be comforted to know that the only thing that happened to me was being chained, starved and deprived of a proper bathroom. A smirk found its way to my lips as I pictured my mother’s reaction to the news. “What? You mean to tell me my baby is dead for a shitty reason like that? No, no, no you got it all wrong. Me and my baby promised each other to go out in style!” I croaked out a weak laugh at this, knowing good and well that I would be just as pissed off about this as she was. My dad, the ‘sane’ one of our family, would have to hold her back from whoever did this for one reason only. “No matter what you do to them Leena, prison will be ten times worse.” Another weak laugh erupted from my lips, a little stronger then the last, as the first smile appear across my lips since I’ve been here. Damn, will I miss them.

    But that soon disappeared when a loud clanking came from in front of me and a piece of the darkness was blasted away by the door being open. My eyes burned, trying to adjust to the new found light and the tall figure that stood in the doorway. It hurt to raise my head, let alone look up to his face. But I did, not wanting to show that I was in pain. I wouldn’t let the b*****d know he won. See? Even in situation like this my stubborn and competitive side still wouldn’t let up. He stood there for a moment, as if expecting me to just jump up or scream my head off for some reason. But then he stepped forward, and my body instantly tensed up. He reached for my neck and I was ready to fight. No way in hell was I going down without one. But instead of touching my neck, he yanked the chain connected to it and thus making it release me. At first, I felt like that old man from Hunchback of Norte Dame, who kept screaming ‘I’m Free, I’m Free!’ but then, the pain of the tight chain crept slowly in and it hurt badly. I gasped, the pain being a shock to me and I knew my neck was bruised.

    But he didn’t give me time to adjust to my newly sore, stiff and painful neck before being an a** to me. No, course not. Instead he grabbed hold of my hair and dragged, yes people I did say dragged, me by it out of my cell. I could feel each individual hair strand being ripped from its root as he dragged me around like some bad joke of a cave woman. I screamed and cried, pleading for him to stop. Not only the pain from my hair but also my poor neck as well. It seemed to be ages before we stopped and I thanked all my stars that not a strand of my hair was left on his hands. I mean come on! My hair wasn’t the longest length in the world and I do like it better being shoulder length. My head was sore and my neck pounded with agitation. My body was shaking; the thought that he might actually kill me in such a painful way scared me. It’s bad enough I was going to die; but I rather it as painless as possible. I gasped as the sharp pains stabbed at me and cursed the man who did this. He would surely pay. The pain was subsiding, finally, and instead of focusing on the pain I started focusing on my surroundings. We were in what look to be a living room and a very expensive one at that. The Persian rugs were red and orange that accented the two antique couches that were facing each other. You know, the ones that had wooden legs and plush rug like designs in the fabric. The fireplace was going with such intensity that even though I wasn’t near it, the heat was radiating towards me in waves. There were various paintings on the wall, the majority of them being from the French Renaissance [Ha! Mrs. Marks would be so proud of me right now]. Two men were in the room with me, the one who dragged me here and another whose face showed how horrified he was with all this.

    You and me both, my friend.

    “My god Markus! What did you do to the poor girl? Was it so hard to simply bring her here not see how much torture she could take?” said the man as he walked towards me, kneeling down to my level and cupping my face as he checked to make sure no real damage was done. His eyes were the most calming blue I have ever seen. They were light sky blue, with odd traces of brown that dance around its edges. His eyes were slanted and showed his concern easily. His hair, styled in a short fohawk, was jet black and it was a lovely comparison to his pale skin. His bone structure was to die for, seeing as his high cheek bones, strong chin and well proportioned face was all too perfect to be real. He wore a white button up shirt with a sleek black business vest. Black pants and black dress shoes dressed his lower half along with a very expensive looking watch. He stood about five foot ten, considerably short compared to the other man. He was hot and it didn’t hurt that he was Asian. I gave him a goofy smile, a terrible habit that happens whenever I see a hot guy. He smiled back briefly before glaring at his friend in the corner.

    “Oh shut up James! I got her here in once piece. Be glad for that.” Growled the one called Markus in the very familiar way that the man who kidnapped me did. My eyes trailed over to his way and instant dislike boiled within me. I admit, the man was very attractive as well [I fought my urge to even show him my goofy smile; he may be hot but so didn’t deserve it]. But I also admit that because hot Asian guy known as James was nice and Markus was not, I discriminated against Markus and deiced he was uglier then Animal from the Muppets. The first thing I noticed about him was his dyed blond hair. It pissed me off to see that his hair was so effortless messy and that it didn’t look bad on him. His black roots showed, making his hair piss me off more. His eyes were a dark, though the more I look the more I realized that they were a deep emerald green. His face structure, though not perfect like James, was still good enough to piss me off. He wore a simple dark green tank that was covered with a black button up vest. He wore blue jeans, which were just the right fit for him. He stood at an even 6 foot 2 and towered over me and James easily. His arms jiggled whenever he moved, his black man bangles [what do men call those anyway?] slid up and down with his movements. He wore rings on both thumbs and a simple necklace of a cross and a dog tag hung from a sliver chain.

    James ignored Markus, looking back at me with apologetic eyes. “I’m sorry you had to suffer through this. If I had known that this idiot” – Markus made a deep growl when James said this –“had been treating you like this, I would have came sooner and stopped his stupidity” He finished as Markus made another growl. Ignoring Markus all together seemed to be a talent for James; he did it flawlessly and without missing a beat. “Now Jenessa, can you stand? If not, I’m going to carry you to the couch.” He said and I quickly shook my head no. Even if I could walk, who’d be stupid enough to give up a chance like this? He swiftly picked me up like I was a princess, something that made my face blush, before setting me down gently onto the couch.

    I admit; I’m not the brightest crayola in the box. I’m also not the dullest. So it took me a quick moment to asset two things that my mind found something wrong with. The first thing was my name. “How” – I croaked this out before clearing my throat for a new start – “How do you know my name?” I asked quietly, looking at James cautiously. He smiled, sitting down on the couch directly in front of me before speaking. “Your parents told me.” I’m terrible at hiding my facial expression and so I knew my face showed my confusion. He continued, answering my unsaid question. “Your real parents, I mean.” I felt my eye brow arch up, as my confusion deepened. “Uh, Leena and Michael Wilison are my real parents and if they told you my name they would have told you I prefer Jessie.” I pointed out, wondering where the hell did these two come from. James glanced up at Markus, who had yet to move from his spot leaning on the wall, before looking at me. “Jessie, I mean your birth parents.” He said slowly and calmly like I was some kind of slow kid. I stared at him, not blinking for a moment before nodding.

    Sure buddy, whatever you say.

    How can he tell me who my parents are? The people who raised me the last seventeen years? The people who taught me to walk and all that parent-y stuff? Right, he may be hot but boy was he off his rocker.

    James sighed, looking up at Markus again before speaking. “Your real parents” – I wonder why he insisted this lie anyway? – “had to give you up to their human friends for reasons we’re unsure of” he said, glancing at Markus again. My lips formed a lop-sided grin, as my eyes danced with obvious amusements. “Uh huh…’Human friends’ you say? What are you then? Some kind of alien or werewolf or somethin’?” I asked, my tone dripping in complete sarcasm as I said this. So you can see how surprised I was when Markus charged at me with speeds unheard of and grabbed my sore neck in a tight grip. His face was contorted with anger as his eyes pierced holes through me. I swear if I could I would shrink to the size of bacteria right about now. “DON’T YOU EVER COMPARE US TO THOSE MANGY FLEA BITTEN MUTTS! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” He shouted harshly, his breath ragged as he shook me. I knew that if James hadn’t of literally flung him off of me, I might of died from the rattling. My eyes were wide with fear as Markus flew into the wall, leaving a dent in the wall and breaking a painting in half. Markus growled and kept his eyes on me as two white things protruded from his lips.

    I didn’t expect James to do the same, a loud warning growl erupting from his lips as the same two things slowly grew from his upper lip. I screamed when they lunged at each other. They rolled around on the floor, fist flying faster than my eyes could catch and growls coming from both. As quickly as it started it ended and James had Markus pinned down. I was shaking badly now, seeing all the damage was done. A couple lamps were broken, an end table complete smashed to pieces, a couple of fist sized dents in the floor and even a hole in it. Markus eyes were still on me, and I don’t know why but they were both untouched. Even their clothes only suffered a little and yet the room suffered so much. Markus hissed at me, baring his sharp canines at me before speaking. “Next time you insult a vampire, you might not be so lucky as to have James here to protect you.” He growled out and that’s when my world went black.