Chapter 1 Captured Part 1

"Esme! Esme! Esme!". Cheers rang out in the hall as a diverse group of individuals hailing from a variety of worlds gathered together to watch the stars ascend into the heavens. Banners and light sticks were held high to indicate which side they supported.

"At this time, we will call the person who won the award for Best Actress." The host of the award show made the announcement while maintaining a tiniest hint of a smile on her lips.

"The person who has earned this Award is... Silvia Fox!!". After hearing this declaration, there was a hush throughout the room. No one, not even the host, had anticipated this result in any way.

"How did it turn out to be Silvia Fox? This whole thing is a con! ". The entire building was filled with screams of disgust and outrage. They had a disagreement with the person who was given the award. Nevertheless, the individual whose name was Silvia did not care. She rose gracefully from her seat and, with everyone watching, sashayed her way up to the stage.

She smiled broadly at the audience as she snatched the award out of the hands of the host and blew each of them a kiss at the same time.

"Ahem! I'd like to express my gratitude to you for the award. You have no idea how much this means to me, and none of you even have a clue. I have put in a lot of effort to obtain this, and I would like to extend my gratitude to those who have assisted me in growing and becoming more skilled ". Nobody paid attention to what she had to say because they all had the impression that they had been lied to.

How is it that this other actress, and not their much-loved Esme, has won the award for Best Actress? They were under the impression that Silvia did not have any talents other than her ability to seduce the directors and actors. Or did she also do that in order to triumph in this competition? Then why did they relegate their hard-working Esme to the background? What a scandalous idea!

Silvia removed the fake tears that had accumulated in the creases of her eyes by wiping them away. She fixed her gaze on the people who were present both inside and outside the building. Her eyes flashed a malicious glint as she smiled triumphantly with a victorious smile playing across her lips.

She left the stage with her head held high and her back straight because she did not care if anyone liked her or not. To her, the only thing that mattered was robbing Esme of everything she owned, including the award she had earned.

"Do you happen to be watching right now, Esme? No matter how hard you try or how much you go through, you will never be successful enough to reach the top spot! ".

During this time, Esme was being pursued by someone.

"Ah... Ah...". As she ran, she was out of breath. She did not even pause to turn around and look back; in fact, her body did not even have the ability to stop because it was aware that doing so would increase the risk of her life being taken. Therefore, she continued to run.

"Ahhh!!". Esme made her way down the cliff by rolling. Her body slammed into the water as it entered.

"Ugh...". She was in excruciating pain throughout her entire body, and the fact that the water was freezing only made matters worse.

"Get hold of her! Do not let her escape!". There were yells coming from the direction of the sky. Esme made an effort to stand but was unable to do so because her legs were in a twisted position. Her ankle was injured when it made contact with the enormous stone that was at her side. Even her waist was forced to bear the weight of the burden.

"Look, there she is! She slipped and fell into the water! ". The other men were made aware of the situation by someone. Esme was surrounded not much longer after that.

"What is it that you want from me? If you'll just let me go, I'll pay you twice as much as they did for whatever you did for them ".