Shutter

And we are back with Enid!

Flynt is a rather difficult character to write, so this chapter took me a while.

I hope you enjoy!!

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There is a dull roar in her ears, like wind.

Darkness surges around her, pulsing and dancing along her skin.

A happy humming floats through the air, contrasting the dark whispers tangling through her curls.

She tries to follow the welcoming sound.

Hoping it would lead her to safety.

Her limbs feel heavy as she moves, like she is dragging them through water.

She swims into the vastness and the distance seems to stretch on infinitely.

But there, in the distance, a small light.

The humming grows louder, the once cheerful notes now turning sharp and bitter.

The light blooms into a vision as she nears it.

A figure standing in the middle of a diner.

It's the waitress, Nia.

The woman's back is turned to her as she wipes down a table.

The humming is thunderous now, reverberating in her head.

Deafening.

Enid tries to open her mouth, tries to call out to her.

A shadow begins to form on the edge of the scene.

Midnight curling and blending into white.

Pale skin, pale hair.

A predatory grin on his sharp face.

He turns to her, giving her a wink as he raises the gun in his right hand.

A scream echoes in her throat as she tries to reach the woman.

Tries to save her.

She slams into an invisible wall, helpless to do anything but watch.

The humming quickens, rattling the plates on the table.

Loud enough to make her squeeze her hands over her ears.

Making her nerve endings quiver.

The bullet rips into the woman, scarlet bleeding into peach colored fabric.

Enid's scream is wrenched from her as she is dragged back from the scene.

Sinking further and further into the suffocating darkness.

When she wakes, it is with a gasp.

Heaving breaths raking through her as she takes in the foreign room.

She barely thinks as she darts from the bed, flying toward the door across the room.

A sharp force tugs on her ankle and suddenly she is slamming into the ground.

The wood was sharp, biting against her kneecaps as she went down.

Blood already slipping from the torn skin.

Turning, her mouth parts in horror as her fingers traced the thick silver band around her right ankle.

She struggles to breathe as she found the other end branded into the bedpost.

Trapped.

Panic surged into her lungs and she scrambled up from the floor.

Her mind raced with questions, worries.

The darkness from her nightmare eats at her, the humming haunting her.

The room begins to spin, her breaths coming out in short pants.

Hyperventilating.

Focus.

Theodore's calm voice reminds her, and she exhales slowly.

Slowly, she unfolds from her curled spot in the corner.

Taking in the bedroom around her.

Her cell is nothing like she thought it would be.

The walls are painted a light blue, matching the quilt strewn across the mattress.

A large window allows sunlight to beam across the dark floorboards.

Approaching the glass, she takes in the rolling grounds below.

She's at least three stories up.

A fall from that distance was dangerous.

She spends the next hour exploring the room, searching for something that could help her get out of the binding.

But there was nothing.

The bed was fastened to the ground in some way, so she couldn't lift it to free herself.

A small desk and chair in the corner that were both bolted to the floor as well.

She had a feeling the main door was locked, despite the chain not allowing her to reach it.

The door she could reach opened to a bathroom that only had a toilet, sink and shower.

She glances into the mirror above the porcelain counter, wincing as she takes in her ashen face and knotted curls.

Well, now was not the time for vanity.

Reentering the bedroom, she is once again surprised at its niceness.

She had expected something far worse.

Like a cell.

Flynt seemed like someone who would have dungeons filled with his enemies.

But this room was nothing like that.

If it weren't for the chain around her ankle, one might think she were a guest rather than a prisoner.

What did that mean?

Why had he brought her here?

Where was here?

The questions swirling in her mind block out the sound of a lock clicking open.

Fear strikes down her spine as the door creaks open behind her.

"Little mouse, you've finally woken up." Flynt's voice sucks the oxygen from the room.

He is dressed in a dark suit, the color stark against his pale complexion.

His eerie gaze trails across the room, slithering along her skin like a snake.

Humor flashes in his eyes as he takes in the scrapes on her knees and the band around her ankle.

Enid crosses her arms across her chest, trying to hide her discomfort.

"Where are we?" She asks, her voice not nearly as strong as she had hoped.

Flynt hums, turning to look out the window.

"We're in one of my homes. Back in Massachusetts, you may be sad to hear. Where exactly were you headed before we bumped into each other?" A look of genuine curiosity in his eyes.

Enid shuffles, not answering.

He turns fully toward her, leaning against the glass pane.

She fights not to squirm under his gaze.

A smirk curls along the edges of his lips.

"I must say, I'm rather impressed that you escaped from them. I certainly did my best to push you in that direction, but I'm astonished that you managed it so successfully. You're smarter than I thought." He wraps the compliment in an insult.

Her eyebrows furrow.

"What do you mean?" Her question makes him smile sharply.

"Oh, little mouse. Certainly, you've realized I was there with you nearly every step of the way. Sending your friend... Emilia, was it? She and the boy, Jake, were just so helpful, weren't they? Anyways, I sent her a text to check out the security footage at old Harold's shop. Knowing she'd bring you along. And then I got Almalfi to find where your immortals keep their files and sent him to tell you." He drawls.

Enid pales.

She remembers now the conversation she had with Emilia outside Harold's shop after they had watched the footage of Jake being taken.

"I got an anonymous tip. Some blocked number texted me that I should look into the security footage at this address."

That had been him.

He had given them their first big tip.

The first step toward the truth.

She should have known when Almalfi had met her there what felt like decades later.

"Why? Why would you help me?" Her mind races to make sense of what he has said.

His chuckle is chilling.

"I needed you out of their web before I could steal you. I knew I'd never get the chance unless you got yourself out of there." Flynt steps toward her and she takes a responding step back.

Pressing herself against the wall behind her.

"What do you want with me?" She demands.

Trying to be brave.

Never let them see your fear.

The familiar words punctuated sound of a knight being moved across a chessboard.

She straightens her posture.

"What a fascinating question, indeed. I hadn't quite foreseen how you would come into play. At first you were just to be a pawn. A tool to lure them here so I could kill them. But now... you intrigue me. Maybe I'll keep you instead of burying you with them. What a beautiful ending it would be, to keep the one thing they love." He steps forward again, his chest just a breath from her own.

Enid tucks her trembling hands behind her back, swallowing the bile rising in her throat.

Trying not to throw up as she realizes she is set as a trap for them.

His mirror-like eyes glint down at her in satisfaction as terror freezes her flesh.

"Just- just leave them alone. I'll do anything you want, just don't hurt-" Her plea is cut off by his scoff.

Rage bottles inside him and she watches as it boils in his veins.

"Your immortals are going to die. And there is nothing you can do to stop that." Apathy woven with his words.

Tears burn behind her eyes.

A good poker face is vital in many situations.

Her eyes shut as she remembers ocean blue eyes watching her fiddle with a pawn.

She clenches her jaw, forces the tears away.

"How soon will they be here?" Her voice is even, controlled.

How much time does she have to figure out a plan?

Flynt ghosts a hand across her cheek.

Enid holds back a flinch as his spiderlike finger traces along a cheekbone.

"First they'll have to find you. It'll be even more pleasurable to kill them after they've finally found you again. A rescue plan gone wrong. It'll probably take them a few weeks. It took me years to find their estate, but I didn't have the same resources." His voice fades from excitement to a bitter murmur.

A few weeks.

That was good.

That gave her time.

She scrambles to think of what to ask, what information would help her most.

"Why do you want to kill them so badly? You already took their parents from them." Enid can't help the anger that tightens her words.

His hand falls from her face, clenching at her shoulder painfully.

A sneer warping his sharp features.

His thin frame towers above her and she glares up at him.

"Did they not tell you the full story, little mouse? Of what their parents did first? How the Romanos killed my parents and my younger sister. She was only six, I was only ten. Left me orphaned, a bitter child with a legacy of billions. But I didn't want the money then, I wanted my parents. But your immortals- their parents stole that from me. It's only justice that I wipe their families clean from the earth just as they did to me." He hisses, fury blazing.

It scalds where her skin is gripped by him.

"But they didn't do that. It was their parents!" Desperation and confusion falling from her lips.

Flynt rolls his eyes, seemingly annoyed at her words.

"Our family's war has gone back centuries. It is my legacy to kill them. And I will. I will end their lines once and for all. And I'll make you watch as I paint my floorboards with their blood. Maybe I'll even make you help." A cruel smirk blooms across his ghastly face.

She cannot stop the tears this time.

Bowing her head so that he cannot see them.

She cannot imagine it- a world without them.

Cannot fathom the idea of being the one who takes them out of it.

And this man- this monster was trying to bring that very instance to reality.

She could barely handle missing them when they were still alive.

Their deaths would be the end of her.

He wraps his hand around her short hair, yanking it harshly so that her eyes meet his.

Pain alights along her scalp.

Flynt is pulling at her curls.

Her sanity.

"You're a monster." The whisper flies from her.

Enid watches in horror as a genuine smile bares his sharp teeth.

His thumb presses against her lips, parting them.

"I'm glad you finally noticed." Flynt runs the tip of his thumb across the soft skin.

For the first time in her life, she feels it.

A dark, sinister emotion flooding into her.

Hate.

Raw, unbridled hate.

And she opens her mouth, biting down on his thumb as hard as she can.

She doesn't let go until she tastes blood.

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I love seeing how Enid has evolved from the start.

She's grown into something much more than even I expected.

Wishing you all safety and good health!

Updates weekly.

Comments fill my heart with joy.

All my love, Sappho »