Chapter 94: Chapter 94

Avril sobbed as she raced down the hallway, down the flight of stairs and into the living room. Her cries were increasing with every step she took. She didn't know where she was going, but she was going. The air was too choked up for her to breathe. She had to go. She had to find a place she could breathe.

“Fiorella! Shit, you scared us!” Camper called as she made her way to the front oak doors. She didn't look back at him, didn't comprehend what he said. She grabbed the door handles and pulled them apart. A gust of wind slapped her hood off her face, and whipped her hair behind. Yes, this was what she needed. Air. She stopped crying and ran into it.

“Fiorella!!” Camper cried from behind.

“Told you that girl was crazy!” Ñiraka shrieked as they bolted after her. The four guards in front were on high alert now, after the alarm went off. They couldn't leave their post to join in the search because they had to protect their prince.

Avril sprinted beside them, and they let shock wash over them for three seconds before two sped after her. They caught her in an instant, and one twisted her arms to the back before kicking the back of her knee to get her to the ground.

The other guard drew his sword and pointed it at her.

“Dang, dang, dang, dang!” Camper blurted.

Avril took deep breaths, letting all the clean night air into her lungs.

The other guards were already making calls to the dungeon about Avril's arrest. Ñiraka stood rooted to the spot as she saw all their work nullified. She didn't know what to feel. Anger, or worry.

Camper was making his way to the guards. But what would he say to them? They couldn't kill off four guards in front of the prince's castle and get away with it on a night like this.

All of a sudden, the air was pierced with a high pitched laughter. Avril was laughing.

Camper halted in his tracks. Even the guards were stunned.

She kept laughing even while held down. The guards making the call paused, but it wasn't from her weird behavior anymore. They looked at each other, then sheathed back their swords with looks of defeat.

“Let her go. She's been made free,” one with a deep voice said to the guards holding her down. They stood dazed for seconds, everyone was.

“She's been made free,” the guard repeated. His colleagues let go of her immediately, making her fall sideways to the ground. She laughed and stayed there, completely looking crazy. Camper hurried to her immediately.

“Fiorella,” he called and squatted by her. He grabbed her up to himself and hugged her sideways. His eyes were shut with relief as he clasped her there in his hold. Avril's laughter slowly returned to sobbing. She sobbed and gripped his strong arms.

Ñiraka gulped down dryly. She looked to the guards who were still looking quite shocked, wondering how and why the wanted was already free. She exhaled in relief then, and made a decision.

“Ssh, it's okay, Fiorella. You're safe now,” Camper said and released her. She looked to the direction of Dakar's room.

“Take me away from here,” she croaked, her face glistening with tears from the lights.

“Your house?” he asked and she nodded. He carried her up in his arms, and sped her to her place. It was awfully quiet and cold there. No lights were turned on, and it was locked. Camper made a call and the keys were brought back immediately. They had been seized earlier.

They entered and Camper turned on the lights. The room was dusty now, but looked normal. Her soft, flower patterned queen sofas were intact with their cushions on them.

“Let me get you something to eat,” Camper said after making her sit at her dining table. He rushed into the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with warm bread and peanut butter.

“I'm no excellent cook like Dakar. But I found these left in the fridge. I microwaved the bread.”

He flashed her that smile of his, and she managed to nod. He made her wash her hands in a bowl, then set it before her.

“Coffee,” she mumbled.

“Oh. My bad.”

He darted back and returned a minute later with a mug of steaming instant coffee. She took a sip of it immediately, but didn't touch her bread.

Camper watched her intently, but said nothing.

“Dakar... He lied to me,” she spoke up after more than ten minutes of silence. Camper furrowed his brows. She was still staring into her cup of half drained coffee.

“He lied to my face, and denied ever knowing me. He treated me like trash. He was rude, he was cold. He acted like I never existed in his world. I thought it was because he had lost his memories of the island. But he remembers. He never forgot anything. Yet he lied to my soul, and made me worry and cry that I had lost him.”

She slowly lifted her face to look at Camper's raised brows. He was shocked. But she realized quickly it wasn't because Dakar never forgot, but because she knew he never did.

“You are aware of that?”

Camper gulped and drew a chair to sit adjacent her.

“I'm sorry,” he said.

“Yeah, that's what Dakar said too.” She sipped her coffee.

“Dakar's...?” he wanted to ask if his best friend was truly awake.

“I want my girls. Where are my girls?”

“Safe in Milan. Where we were supposed to take you.”

“Verona?”

“She's in Remus.”

“Can she stay with me tonight?”

Camper nodded and brought out his phone.

“I'll call her.”

**

As usual, it was the spilling of the first rays of sunshine over Avril's face that woke her up. She blocked the rays with her palm over her face, before opening her eyes to the world. Two small yellow birds flapped into the room through the open window, chirped noisily after each other then flapped back out.

Avril groaned as she stretched and sat up in her massive bed that suddenly looked like luxury after all those nights in that Godforsaken white room. The sheets and duvet were a blend of gold and tiny white flowers, a beautiful match to her silk gold pajamas. The only thing that did not fit into the beautiful look of that morning was Avril herself. Her hair was a mess of strands on her head, her eyes were swollen from tears of the previous night, and had dark circles from lack of quality sleep. That last part was a courtesy of nightmares that had shared the bed with her.

She was with Alejandro, in their massive bedroom and reaching out for him on the bed. But he was a bloody body filled with bullet holes and glassy eyes. She screamed and tried to run off the bed, but his lifeless fingers grabbed her arm. She had managed to free herself and run off the bed, only to run into the arms of Freddie who stood with pale skin and bloodshot eyes.

“Let me go!” she had screamed.

“Never,” he had rasped into her ear with vigour.

“I'll lock you up under my ship and have you to myself for all eternity,” he snarled as he pulled her out to sea. Then Dakar came running in his wolf form. She had screamed his name with cries, but he couldn't reach them quickly. Avril decided to do what she knew best. She grabbed a dagger from God-knows-where and slashed Freddie across his face. He groaned and let go of her that instant, but his face began to heal that second. She gasped in shock and ran away from him... to Dakar. He was speeding towards her on their beach of colourful sea stones. She ran to him, but found herself suddenly standing in Remus. In the middle of guards who had her chained hands to feet. There he was on his princely throne. His eyes red, cold and hateful. His hair fallen on his shoulders, and a crown of sharp spikes on his head.

“I don't know you,” he had said to her.

“Burn her,” he ordered the guards. And she screamed as she was pulled away to be tied to stakes and set ablaze.

“That is one terrible nightmare,” Verona's smug voice pierced through her reminiscence. Avril blinked and found the redhead leaning against her door frame. She was fully dressed, in a black baggy t-shirt and black jeans having two rips at the knee. Her boots were on, the laces intricately tied.

“As much as I would've loved to pet that nightmare out of you, you have to get out of bed right now and eat something.”

“I'm not hungry,” Avril bit out and tossed the duvet off her legs.

“Trust me, babe. You're going to need food to strengthen you while you stand before the King Alpha in thirty minutes.”