The Silence That Surrounds

Sophia’s POV:

My eyes were still red when I got back to the table but nothing was said. Instead I was promptly taken back to my room and my ankle chained into the shackle that had been replaced under the bed since the first time Louis had used it on me.

Niall had been the one to chain me this time but I didn’t care. I just wanted to pace and walk around, however long my chain let me.

When my captor left, that’s the first thing I did. I tested how long the chain would go, where it stopped –if it had a way to unhook from the bed itself. Which, had I been caught, I would have lost my freedom so I ended up not exploring that bit too long. I simply resided myself to the window, opening the shades that held it secret and let the small bit of sun shine through and cascade over my body, unshadowing it from darkness and letting its rays of light warm me.

I wallowed in its touch, my eyes closed and my breath even. I felt rejuvenated –I felt, if I closed my eyes, that I was standing at the base of the tall window in my father’s office, staring out into a warm Summer, high above to the clouds where sometimes I would need the air conditioner. I could picture it so vividly that my hand touched the window, feeling the glow of heat that touched it.

I smiled. I sat there at the windowsill and got lost in my dreams that I had denied myself for those long four weeks. All I wanted was to sit here, to wonder what laid out there and now that I knew, I allowed my mind to reach out beyond my prison and wonder. I let it wonder back to the place that felt the most like home and all I saw were the shorter buildings, unable to compare to the height and structure of the rand building that was once my life –the very one I may never see again. In my heart, the heaviness weight me down but my mind was light. It soared to my safe place and nothing could harm me right now –no one knew my happy place and this world was just for me to enjoy.

I have no idea how long I sat there. I bathed in the warmth and enjoyed its comfort. I was glowing, I smiled but somewhere – the tears fell and I turned in my mind to see my father at the bar, smiling – laughing. He was telling a joke to my brother, they ignored me for the moment but soon their eyes fell on me and my brother offered me a drink. I declined but I listened in on their discussion of stock market days and who he would bid on in the next races. I didn’t even realize I had gone so inception until the shake to my shoulder shattered all my thoughts.

Just like that, the window to my father’s office disappeared and I was pulled back to the place I never wanted to face again. The images of what was –what use to be, shattered and I found myself pulled from bliss. I opened my eyes back to the small window to my prison, the sun still in the sky but time passed – I knew I got so far in that I hadn’t even seen Louis come in and unchain my anklet. I simply remained where I was and it took a moment to pick up my broken dreams and replace them back in the crevasses of my mind to piece back together later.

“Ms. Stone, are you alright? You –I’ve been trying to get your attention for the last five minutes.” Louis said, his eyes his the same cold color blue but he sounded somewhat concerned – which, for Louis, that was surprising in itself.

“I-I apologize. I got lost for a moment.” I told him, my voice raspy. I hadn’t even realized I had been crying, I didn’t even feel the tears. I was so happy. Now? All I felt was the heaviness of my heart and the sorrow of it weighing down my energy.

He nodded and guided me up.

“Harry wishes to speak with you. You did well Ms. Stone, just be reassured this. The information was validated and plans are already being worked on.” Louis said, a slight smirk on his face.

I did not trust that smile. Not at all.

“I had no choice.” I murmured, letting him lead me out toward the door and down the hall into the kitchen.

I saw Harry there with a lighter look then normal in his dark greens. Seeing this made my stomach churn. Something wasn’t right with this picture –not at all.

“It took you a while.” Harry raised an eye brow.

“I apologize, my mind ran away with me.” I told him simply, swallowing the buildup of saliva. “Can I have something to drink?”

Louis didn’t respond, he simply went and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and handed it back to me.

“Thank you.”

Louis nodded and sat down beside me, the others seeming to have disappeared – my guess was another job.

“We validated the information, it was as you said.” Harry told me, his demeanor seemed to drown in inflated ego –like it was the most unbelievable thing in the world to happen.

“I wasn’t lying, Harry. I had no choice to the fact, did I? You would have gotten what you wanted to know from me one way or another. I saved myself the pain. I didn’t do it to do you any favors. I just wanted the torture to end, I just wanted –“I covered my mouth to choke back a sob. One would think my tears would have run out by now or that I would have gotten all this out of my system in the first week. If only I had been that lucky.

“Perhaps there are differences between you and your father. However, you are right; I would have gotten the information out of you one way or another. Like I said, there are worst punishments to inflict then what you went through, Ms. Stone. I’m glad you decided to cooperate because it benefits the both of us. I get my father off my cock for a bit and you get what was agreed. Three questions, one request. No more, no less. The request can be anything –“I cut him off.

“Okay, I’d like to go home.” I folded my arms.

He paused in amusement.

“Anything that can be requested that has nothing to do with being let go. Keep your request simple and your questions noninvasive.”

Of course there were strings attached to these requests. I knew exactly what I wanted to ask as my first question but I wanted everyone to be here, I wanted to find the mystery behind the men who brutally took me hostage.

“Tonight at supper? If that’s alright?” I looked down and Harry shrugged.

“Your dime, Ms. Stone. Whenever.”

I nodded and leaned back, my hands gently placed on my lap. I was sitting proper as my father had taught me. It seemed quite ridged and off placing.

“Is there anything else?” I asked after a moment, Harry having gone back to writing whatever he had been when I was first taken in.

“Not unless you want to eat, no. You’re free to go to your room. Louis will assist.” Harry waved and I nodded with resignation. I didn’t want to eat, my appetite was nonexistent and I felt sick to my stomach with betrayal of my father’s associate. I knew why they would find him an asset – because he knew more of the business side of the company. I knew the systems…the pieces were beginning to make sense.

“I think I know what’s going on –“I started weakly but Harry looked up.

“No you don’t Ms. Stone and you won’t. That would be a evasive question and I believe I’ve forbidden that. Anyhow, your lunch will be served in your room today, I need to concentrate and it is obvious I will not get that while you’re here.”

Louis guided me to a stand and started to leave the room but I turned back one last time.

“I want to make my request now.”

I heard him sigh but his eyes gestured toward me and he held his hand out.

“Then get on with it, I have much to do today.” Harry said coldly but patient.

“I want you to return my cat to my brother, alive and unharmed. He loves that thing and would take care of it. I can give you his address.”

Harry chuckled and looked at Louis.

“If I was so easily able to track her scheduling then she is daft to think I do not already have her brother’s address. Fine, Ms. Stone. Consider it done.”

I nodded thankfully and let Louis lead me away, my hand grasping onto the water bottle tightly.

When we got back I went right to the window seal, sitting back against it and letting Louis reattach my anklet. I truly just wanted the solace of solitary and to piece back the image Louis had harshly pulled me from.

“I’ll be back in a few Ms. Stone, anything particular today for lunch?” Louis asked and I looked back from the window.

“You’re letting me choose, since when?” I asked, wiping at my tired red eyes.

Louis shrugged.

“It’s a simple question, answer it.” Louis demanded. Not harshly but he seemed to want to leave as quickly as I wanted him to.

“I don’t want anything, thank you.” I responded with politeness. I just wanted to be left alone. I wanted to go back to my happy place and center myself from the constant screaming of the voices. I had begun to wonder if they’ve always been there –it seems like forever since they’ve quieted.

“Very well, Ms. Stone. See you at supper.” Louis excused himself and left, locking the door with a soft click.

“Maybe I should have made my request to stop calling me Ms. Stone.” I muttered as an afterthought, annoyed by the formal nickname.

With nothing left to do, I simply stared back out the window, getting lost in the serene surrounding but unable to take my mind away completely. It was broken now, the link between me and London were separated and my reality closed in on me. I was dizzy with worry and now, the only thought to remain was my father. He was the only part in this that didn’t piece together quite right. I assumed his hunting trip would mean he would be able to get his head on enough to pull some sort of rescue – something that would set me free from this gilded cage.

Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps the shattered image in my mind was best left shattered. For if a father’s love was unconditional, he would try to save the one thing that couldn’t be bought. At least, that’s how it should be. My father believed everything had a price –everything had a worth but sometimes, the cost is much too high to pay.

“What’s my worth in all of this?” I questioned aloud to myself, the voices swarming around that thought like a thousand piranhas devouring the sacrificial cow. It was maddening but I began to see a pattern – the problem with patterns is they can go off. Perhaps, with some luck, mine was wrong. Maybe everything I thought up to now was wrong.

I sighed and leant my head to the wall, closing my eyes. I couldn’t think about this now – I needed the peaceful quiet while it was still granted to me. The voices were stifled with suggestions but I looked past them into the darkness. I felt its coldness drag me down to its depth, the sun no longer seemed to warm me. I was numb and I knew that I was falling, falling right off the edge of the cliff and into the black ink below. I welcomed and feared it. All my emotions boiled to the surface, no longer bound in chains as I once was. I was free but it was bittersweet. Anger welled inside and I did the only thing I knew I could do without getting in trouble.

I simply let the tears fall again but this time, no sob accompanied it.

Notes