Elena couldn't describe the sort of adrenaline push that led her to do this, but she found herself deep in it, and by the time she came back to his right senses, the hare had slept too long. First, the bouncer had returned and motioned for her to come. She followed the strange man into a hallway leading to the restrooms. There, he thrusted some folded clothes to her."Mind telling me what you're gonna use this for?" he asked. "Do you sense any weapon with me?" she asked. He looked her over quickly. Two laughing girls just entered and passed them. "I don't think so," he said."Do I look dangerous?""No, you don't." He scratched his balding head nervously."Wanna search me, then? Will that make you feel suddenly safe?""Of course not, ma'am." A nervous laugh. "You can do your stuff. Any other thing?""Um, nothing much. I just need me a rope, a roll of duct tape, a lighter" — She grabbed one hanging out of his pocket — "and a slave whip." She made it look like a BDSM plan. "That's a

It didn't take a long while after his first muffled scream for pain that Smith recognized who the masked waitress was. Elena! his eyes seemed to shout.The terror in them only pleased her. The sweat dripped from her in heavy streams. But it was nothing compared to the amount of perspiration that oozed from Smith's body now. His sky blue shirt was drenched, his face fumed and bobbed. His eyes were pleading for mercy. Tears rolled from them down and across the duct tape!Elena was finished with the fire. The lighter lay aside. His balls were blackened like a camp pot. She stood over him like a gorilla, breathing heavily. She pointed towards his blackened balls."That was for the times you forced your dirty self on me even on the days I was too sore for sex," she said. "And this —" She struck his left fingers with the pointed shoe " — is for the times you pushed substances into my mouth and body."He groaned and trembled in pain,

Elena felt smaller hurdled beside Barah in the car. He eased the car to a quiet stop beside a black Jeep, a very high car which only reminded Elena of a firetruck smashing into... "We're here," Barah said, jolting her. Elena hugged herself; a cold had gripped her. Her fingers trembled, her feet were chilly. Her neck was stiff and her teeth clattered against each other. She sensed Barah's eyes on her. "You're going to come out now?" he asked.She shrugged and reached for the door. Her hand was useless against the button, so Barah leaned over to help her open it."Remember you're yet to confirm the news," he said as a form of consolation. But the timbre in his voice, the glint in his eyes and the slowness of his gestures: all pointed to one direction — the truth of Ethan's news. It was becoming clearer that Ethan would not have made the phone call for nothing. He wasn't an adrenaline- driven teenager to execute such a low minded trick. E

Liam's forehead was bandaged up with a wide blood-stained cloth which needed changing. His lower lip was split almost in halves. His nose was wrapped up. His fingers, too. A transparent oxygen mask was held over his nose. Two monitors beeped beside his bed, and Elena didn't know what the screens read.She tried to take further steps towards Liam, but she couldn't. It seemed like he was surrounded by an aura of unapproachable essence. She did not feel worthy to go close to him.He was in a delicate state, a precarious condition, where the smallest violent jolting would shatter everything, according to the doctor. She didn't want to be the cause of this.Her gaze lingered on his face. Liam, Elena seemed to realize, was a jaw-dropping handsome person. His face was smooth and devoid of any wrinkles or blemish. His stubble was neatly carved, like a piece of artwork. But his eyes were closed. Elena then peered at his chest, and let out a big

Elena let her head rest on the wall behind her. The activities of the nurses buzzed around her. Once in a while, a stretcher would be rolled past Elena, flanked by crying family members, and desperate nurses.There was the anguished scream from the patients. A certain woman was fervently calling for death to take her away from this world of agony. Her nurse had long given up on her, and her family members weren't coming anymore, she said.A man coughed so hard Elena thought he was going to cough his intestines through his mouth.Death hovered everywhere around her. She smelt it, saw it, and heard it. And here, in the same ward, was her husband. Lying in a semi comatose with a bloody bandage around his head. How worse could life get?She thought about when she met Liam. When her father had forced her on him, and made her try to steal a document. Then he had presented her as repayment. And there followed the days when she had a fervent fear and hatred for Liam. When he overworked her s