Chapter 18: Chapter 17

Rihito’s P.O.V

Teresa you better be safe or else this guy’s going to murder every human being on this planet!

I sit in the passenger seat and pray to god that we safely reach the bakery. I knew I shouldn’t have let him drive but I couldn’t decide which was more dangerous him driving the car or him sitting on the passenger seat doing nothing but wait to get there. But right now all i can do is pray to reach safe and sound in a single piece.

As soon as we reach the bakery, we see the cops. Rina comes running and hugs me crying.

“Hey calm down ’kay? We’ll find her, what exactly happened?” I pat her back and ask her. This is the second time I’ve seen her so vulnerable.

“Teresa.. she...” Rina says in between her cries.

“What happened?” Roars the demon besides me.

He literally looks like a demon from hell!

“Ryouma! Let me talk.”

I make her sit.

“Calm down and tell us what happened?” I cup her face.

“She got kidnapped.” She cries.

“What?” We say in unison.

“We saw the CCTV footage because as a child was reported missing. But...” She trails off.

We go to check the footage and see Teresa being kidnapped with a small girl.

“That brat!” I hear Ryouma mutter, He turns around and catches a senior officer by his collar.

“I want my wife back within 24 hrs or consider yourself dead.” He threatens the officer.

“Oh oh! The kidnappers are going to burn in the fire of hell!” I click the tongue pitying those kidnappers unaware of their cruel fate.

Teresa’s P.O.V

“W-where am i?”

“Why is here so dark?”

I try to stand up but my hands and feet are tied up. As I try to adjust my eyes to the surrounding, I hear someone cry.

Flashback

Rina isn’t here yet, may be i should go to Ai-chan?

I walk down the road.

“This is my first time coming alone. I do know the way, right?” I stop for a minute.

“Of course i know it. I’m not even that stupid.” I mutter as I continue to walk.

After walking for 5 minutes.

“It should be somewhere around here.” I look around.

Did i actually forget it?

No. I cant be this stupid i mean it’s just a straight way with one turn. The turning point must be somewhere around here.

“Found it. I knew i wasn’t that stupid!” I pat my shoulder proudly.

“Ah! There it is! Ai-chan’s bakery!” I cheer as I spot the shop.

I walk towards the bakery.

“Huh? What’s going on over there?” I see two guys trying to put a little girl on the van forcefully.

“Hey!” I shout at them and run towards the van.

I try to pull the girl back to me. But instead we both are pushed into the van.

Flashback ends.

I’ve got to pull myself together. I can’t let my fear take over me. This little girl must be terrified more than me.

“Hi!” I slowly shift myself near the girl.

She avoids me and continues to cry.

“I’m Teresa! What’s your name?” I try to make a conversation with her. She looks at me for a second and replies with a weak voice.

“Hana.”

But soon after she again starts to cry.

I creep near her and pull her close wrapping my arms around her, thank god at least she wasn’t tied up.

“Hey! Don’t cry little princess.” I place a kiss on her head.

“I want to go to mama.” She cries.

“Of course we’ll go to mama. In fact she sent me here to take care of her lil’ princess.” I try to calm her down. Even I want to go to mom, I hear a small voice inside my head. I suddenly get a sharp pain in my head, my eyes getting blurry. Pull yourself together Teresa! This girl needs you here!

“Really?” She looks up at me with her innocent eyes.

“Hmm.” I nod. “But you’ll have to stop crying first. “You’re a brave girl, aren’t you?”

She nods in reply.

“Good. Now stop crying and we’ll get to your mama soon.” I kiss her head.

I did say we’ll get out of here. But how? Seeing the darkness around us I was starting to lose it. No! I’ll have to be brave. If I breakdown here what will happen to this child? I hug her close but i couldn’t stop myself from crying. I try to control myself but my tears won’t stop and I’m starting to feel dizzy.

The little girl turns to me and she slowly wipes my tears with her little hands. Now it was her turn to console me.

“Don’t cry big sister. Didn’t my mamma send you here? Mama will scold me if you cry. I know dad will come and find us. My dad is a superhero.” She smiles wiping her own tears.

That felt like a déjà vu.

I hug her and cry.

“Why are you crying? Please don’t cry.” The girl looks at me sadly.

“Sorry lil’ princess but big sister is not brave, I’m afraid of dark.” I answer her.

Stupid Teresa! Stop crying! You’ll scare the kid!

“Then close your eyes, then it won’t matter if it’s dark or not.” She closes my eyes with her hands.

She’s too mature for her age. I smile at her small gesture. Actually much better than me!

“That’s right big sister think of good things. I saw on TV that we can send our thoughts to our loved ones.” I open my eyes and smile at the girl. “I’ll ask dad for the help i’m sure he’ll hear me and save us.” She says as she sits down folding her hands to pray.

She closes her eyes and tries the telepathy. After a minutes she turns to face me, “Dad didn’t reply. At home daddy used to reply.” She says hanging her head in disappointment.

“Maybe there’s some network problem. Let’s do it together.” I try to cheer her up as we both try to send the telepathy.

“Daddy didn’t reply.” She makes a sad face.

“Maybe dad is busy but don’t worry as soon as he hears you he’ll come and save us.” I console her.

“You try to call your dad then.” She looks at me.

“Even my dad is busy.” I reply.

Well in fact my dad won’t even care! He never has!

“Then try calling a handsome prince who will save us from here! Close your eyes!” she closes my eyes with her hands.

“HIS” face flashes before my eyes.

I open my eyes abruptly.

“There’s no way he’ll come.” I mutter.

“Your prince?” she tilts her head to a side.

“Prince? More like a demon?” I make a face.

“Demon?” her frightened eyes stares back at me.

“I don’t know? Sometimes he’s a demon and sometimes a prince? but he’s not a bad demon.” I think of the time when we were at Hawaii.

“Or maybe he is?” I’m then immediately reminded of how he gets angry at me, left me at the road in the middle of the night.

“Like beauty and the beast?”

“Hehe! you won’t understand, Lil’ princess. It’s a bit complicated. but hmm... maybe.... something like that?” I pat her head.

“But try to communicate with him. Maybe he’ll hear you?”

“Will he?”

“Try, try. Or at least tell him to tell my dad for me.”

“Okay.”

Will he come for me? Would he care?

...Ma-kun...

I immediately open my eyes. What was that? What did I just say? Ma-kun?

“Ow!” Again the headache.

“Did he hear you?” Hana smiles at me, her eyes with expectations.

“Um done.” I nod.

“Now we’ll be saved.” She smiles as she claps her hands.

I get dizzy again, “Ow!” I close my eyes as I feel the pain in my head again.

“Are you hurt somewhere?” She worriedly looks at me. “I’ll remove this for you.” She tries to remove the ropes that tie my feet together.

The door behind us slowly opens and the kidnappers enter.

“What the hell were you thinking? I told you to kidnap the kid not the woman.” Three guys entered. One guy wearing a black shirt (Kidnapper no.1) was yelling at the other wearing blue check shirt (Kidnapper no.2). I think he’s the boss?

“But boss, she saw us kidnapping the kid, we couldn’t have let her go.” defends the guy wearing the green shirt. (Kidnapper no.3).

They look at us.

I hug Hana.

“For now get the little girl!” shouts the guy with black shirt.

The other tries to pull her away from me but I tighten my grip around her.

I’ll have to think of something!

“No please let her go!”

“Shut up woman!” The guy grabs my hand.

“Leave her please!” I beg.

“Don’t worry about the kid woman worry for yourself, because you’re useless to us!” threatens the green shirt one.

I gulp. This is not the time to be scared!

“I maybe more useful for you.”

“What do you mean?” asks their leader.

“Leave this girl alone and instead I can make you a millionaire!” I offer a deal.

The trio look at each other and then look back at me.

Good they’re interested!

“Looks like luck is on your side today, because my husband is the no.1 business man in the country, actually of the continent. Ryouma Carlton must have heard about him?”

“And why would we trust you?” The leader raises his brow at me.

“Big deal? you can Google him. You’ll find my and his pictures together anywhere on the internet or call him I’ll give you his number.”

“And you’ll call the police in the pretext of calling your husband? Guess what lady we aren’t fools!” The guy bangs his fist at the wall behind me. I reflexively shut my eyes.

Come on Teresa! Think of Mr. Monkey! You deal with a demon everyday, these guys aren’t even near to him! You can't get scared!

“Who said you are? In fact you’re the great kidnappers with great luck on their side! Show me your hands, look, it clearly shows you’ll soon turn into a millionaire.” I try to distract them with my words as I slowly get on my feet, thanks to Hana, my legs are free.

“Here is his number I showed them on the website of his office on their phone.” I hand them the address and I slowly walk to the door with Hana, as they were trying to make the call.

But too bad! They notice us!

The sudden sound of the gun shot makes me freeze there on the spot!

“Noooo!!!” I shout as I fall on the ground.

“What’s wrong? Get up sister. They’ll catch us. Get up!” Hana cries. But her screams no longer reached me. Her screams faded in the background and I lost my consciousness.

Third person P.O.V

At Ryouma’s Home.

"What do we do? Do something Ryuu. Get my daughter back. We’ll have to do something fast. What if her trauma resurfaced? How will she handle herself? I don’t even want to imagine." Midori cries hugging her husband.

"We’ll get her back." Ryuu Carlton assures his wife.

"According to my sources, they’re not professionals; they do not belong to any gang. Must be some amateurs, they even got caught on CCTV. We’ll catch them soon." Rihito assures them.

The cops and the kid’s parents who got kidnapped along with Teresa, waited for kidnapper’s next call.

Rihito looked at his friend and he knew he was losing his patience every minute. But Rihito dared not approach his friend because for the first time ever in his life, even he was scared him!

Ryouma’s phone rang. He didn’t even bother to look and picked it up.

“So you guys are the one.”

“Yes.” the kidnapper said proudly, not knowing the trouble they’re getting into.

“We give you 24 hours’ time. Give us 50 million and take your wife. You’re a billionaire; arranging 50 million within 24 hrs won’t be difficult for you."

“I’ll give you 5 hrs, surrender yourself after that if I get my hands on you, I won’t show any mercy!” He threatened them.

The kidnappers immediately cut the call and looked at each other.

“Did we commit a mistake?” They looked at each other and then at unconscious Teresa as they gulped.

“He’ll literally kill them if he gets his hands on them. Right now, maybe i should pray for the kidnappers because they don’t know what sort of disaster they’ve invited!” thought Rihito.

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