Victory Storm - I Have You Now

"Seriously? Is this how you want to play it? Are you really sure?" I challenged her, determined not to let me fool myself again.

"I ... I don't know ... I ..." she mumbled uncomfortably, starting to look around in fear.

"Be careful what you say, Kendra, because this time I won't give you a second chance. Am I making myself clear?" I stopped her, but my threat seemed to trigger an adverse reaction.

"Who is Kendra?" she gasped, starting to shake and fidget.

She looked terrified.

"Where am I?" she stammered trying to pull herself up and sit up, but causing further pain, which made her moan. "It hurts!" she blew softly, bringing the hand to her chest, right where she had been hit by the bullet. "What happened to me?", she murmured dazed and in pain, looking at her bandaged arm and touching the bruises on her face and legs that she discovered from her blankets.

It was a moment and suddenly all that apparent calm vanished to make way for Kendra's fear that she was wriggling like a trapped animal.

Trembling and shaken, she removed the drip and tried to get up.

"There's no use running away " I slapped her, grabbing her arms as she tried to pull herself up.

Being able to stop her was more complicated than I had thought, as she was wriggling frantically and uncoordinated from her pain.

However as soon as she tried to get up, lifting herself up on her legs, I felt her give way.

She was pale as a sheet and I had to grab her around the waist to keep her from falling badly to the floor.

Kendra slumped against me.

"My head is spinning" she whispered to me, putting her arms around my neck.

I picked her up and she hugged me even more, as if she was afraid of falling into the void.

I put her back on the bed and slowly her hands came off my neck, sliding over my shoulders and down my arms.

If she hadn't been so upset and trembling, I would have thought she was provoking me to seduce me.

Her light and delicate touch had something intimate and tender, but I didn't get carried away.

I was about to retreat when her right hand grabbed mine.

Suddenly the tremor stopped.

I looked into her face.

She was staring at me. She had a confused expression, but her eyes were glued to mine as if she was looking for who knows what answer inside me.

"Do you remember me now?"

Faced with yet another silence from her, I broke away from her badly, but as soon as my hand left hers, Kendra gasped in fright, abruptly rising to take it back.

That gesture cost more pain in her chest.

She screamed out of the pain and this prevented her from leaning further forward to get to me.

***

KENDRA

My head throbbed violently and I didn't understand anything.

My mind was empty of all memories and crumbs of rationality, but full of pain and confusion.

That man in front of me scared me, but at the same time he created a sort of reassurance in me. Maybe it was because he seemed to know me, but his hard, stern, relentless gaze and tone were like a warning siren.

One part of me screamed to escape, while another begged me to stay and ask him for help.

I didn't know what to do and when I was again overwhelmed by fear and pain, only in his arms I felt something vaguely familiar.

Maybe it was the scent of his skin. A woody, fresh and aromatic essence. Intense and virile. He reminded me of something ... but what?

And that face ...

I had already seen it but it was all so hazy in my head, at least until my gaze was captivated by him.

There was something in those ebony eyes. Something wild but controlled. Powerful and magnetic, but also as elegant as the clothes he wore.

I immediately felt a certain awe at his gaze fixed on me, as if I were used to always taking a step back to avoid unleashing that aggressive side of his that seemed ready to escape and destroy anyone around.

Finally, that voice ... Yes, I knew that voice. I was sure. It was it who had sent me into crisis, because I was sure I had heard it before, but that low tone, rough and with a foreign accent that fascinated me, had actually put me in agitation.

Even his words had frightened me.

I had looked for their meaning, the reason why he was so angry with me, but I had not found it.

That thought had made me lose my temper and I found myself wanting to escape from that danger that I felt looming over me like a sword of Damocles.

I was terrified and weaker and weaker, so much so that my legs couldn't hold me, but in his arms I was able to catch my breath, numb and reassured by the scent of his skin.

But then he let me go and, as my hands ran along his arms to his fingertips, I suddenly felt panic flooding me and suffocating me.

When I saw his hand separating from mine I was assailed by an inexplicable fear.

I could almost see myself as an external spectator, while my body tended towards what seemed to be the only lifeline to avoid falling into the void.

I jumped forward and suddenly the pain in my chest, just below my left shoulder, pierced me as if someone had stabbed me.

It was a moment and suddenly the whole reality around me became dark.

I felt disconnected, as if I had been catapulted into another world.

I was on an elegant and very spacious staircase.

In front of me there was that man's hand again.

It was leaning towards me and I could feel my body tensing towards it, but the pain in my chest returned stronger than ever.

My breath broke in my throat, while my body fell backwards, into the void.

I tried to counter the invisible force that was pulling me towards the abyss, but I could not.

In front of me there was only that man leaning forward to grab me.

I saw his hand extended to me, but I only managed to touch it for a split second.

I looked up for a brief moment before falling.

I met my gaze with that of the man.

I read a shadow of fear and disbelief in it.

"Aleksej", I whispered desperately for help, as his hand became more and more distant and the pain unbearable.

Then everything disappeared and darkness returned.

A darkness torn only by my own screams mixed with those of the man who called the doctors.

With my heart pumping frantically and my body shaking with fear, I opened my eyes and realized I was crying.

I was completely curled up on myself, like a sheet of paper before being thrown into the trash.

I blinked several times to free myself from tears and in the end I saw it: that man's hand was in mine.

I was squeezing it so tightly that my nails stuck in his skin.

That image was like a sweet awakening.

"I did it ... I got you ..." I stammered shaken by a tears of relief and shock at what seemed to be a hallucination, as I was back in the white room where I had woken up again.

"What are you saying?", he asked me confused and out of breath.

"I… I was falling. Aleksej… ", I tried to explain without knowing how to do it. I was so devastated that I couldn't come up with a meaningful sentence.

"Then you remember me now", he hissed with a hint of sarcasm in his voice that left me unsettled.

Aleksej.

Yes, I remembered him, even if for the moment it was just a name and a physical body, devoid of an identity.

A little light of hope and memories of a distant and confused past.

I smiled with relief.

At that moment the doctor and two nurses came running.

I immediately heard the man get angry and shout something. It took me a moment, but then I realized that he was speaking another language.

A language that I gradually felt I knew.

They were talking about post-traumatic shock, reabsorbing brain hemorrhage, anxiolytics, while the man next to me was furious at not being warned about what had just happened and screamed that he was paying them enough to get answers about my health to make me heal.