" No matter how much you run, distance might not solve anything"
- Murakami( Kafka On the shore)
Elisa POV
The crickets croaked with delight and the grasses oscillated concurrently with the wind. The flowers closed its petal and return to its deep slumber as it bit goodbye to the yesterday. The stream gently glided with its usual nobility and merged within the crystal pond. The sky held the pinkish blue hues amidst the fluttering clouds. The scenario was saccharine and everything felt peace and secure.
I sat nearby the old geek silently stealing glances of him; he was still in his own world after speaking about those wise words on love. His gaze was soft and his smile was gentle as if he was smiling to other someone. I followed his gentle gaze and stared at the emptiness in front of me. There was a vast stretch of silence; we were dwelling in our own made up thoughts.
My finger passed through his messy hair as I gazed gently in his penetrating eyes. His brown eyes filled with love, kindness and compassion staring directly through me as he slowly lifted me to his waist and showered me with fluttering kisses on my face.
I giggled as his warm breath tickled my skin and loved him more when he kissed me on my lips. His kiss was light unlike those tongue twisting French kisses in movies but that soft peck held his promise of aeternum which made my eyes glisten with tears.
He looked at me lovingly while I was still clinging on his waist and mouthed those three beautiful words. I replied back his endearment with a slight touch on his cheek but to my disappointment I was just touching the empty air before me. I missed everything about him and each and every second is killing me softly and dreading me to escape here but I know that it is impossible to escape this lion's den.
I turned towards the old man and he was still lost in his own euphoria. I gently tapped him on his shoulder and turned him towards me. It was awkward and bit uncomfortable but I managed to ask him if he wanted to talk to me. I was taken aback when he regained his composure and held his usual stoic expression towards me. I assumed that he wanted to be left alone as I stood up and turned around to leave.
Suddenly he held my wrist and urged me to sit down; I sat down compellingly and urged him to start speaking. His melancholy expression came alive as he stared at nothingness in front him and started to speak his inner thought. It was comforting and delightful to know that he trusted me even though he had been together for a month. This old man was indeed not too bad.
He said he loved a girl called Ophelia and it was not a surprised because he is always seen carrying the portrait of that beautiful woman. He told me on how he met her and how he felt when he saw her for the first time and his description was so accurate that I could feel I was there when they first met.
I could imagine the sky laden with cumulus cloud perfectly hiding the sun beneath it, the atmosphere being cold and crispy as it made my hair stood up. The sky gently showering the land with crystal snow as it gently landed on the ground and fused with it. I could imagine a girl in wearing a turtle neck shirt that accentuated her slim torso with a low skirt perfectly hiding her tall legs.
Her ears protected by a rabbit ear shaped earmuffs and her auburn hair tied up into a beautiful ponytail as a tendril of hair fell alluringly on her cheek. Her eyes held that innocence and purity that could engulf any person and made people grin unknowingly when it turned to crescent shape as she smiled. Her nose stood prominent as it turned pinkish due to the cold weather.
Her hand was covered with a warm wool gloves as she rub vigorously to retain the heat. I could visualize everything he said and it was indeed true that she was a beau.
He continued with his story on how he fell for her deeply that there was no one who could move his heart from her and how he stalked her address and name. There was a gentle smile plastered on his face as he spoke reminiscing his first and only love. He told me that it was a spring day when he proposed her under the peach blossom tree and how much he was delighted when she agreed to his proposal.
He told me that he was the luckiest man on this earth that he would give anything just to be get back to that moment. He was indeed the man in love. After speaking how he has given his every first to her, his face turned serious and cold. He told me it was that rainy day when he was nearly assassinated and how he was taken over by a mafia family.
It made me realize that the initial story he told me when I was first forced to live in his mansion was his story. He told me how he was forced to learn combat and weapons but there was some certain sentimental note in his voice as he spoke about his other part of mafia life.
Every wealth and luxury was given to him when his mafia family was murdered by someone whom he assumed to be their enemy. After months of training and handling the mafia family he went back to claim his darling and show his gratefulness to his adoptive parents and how excited he was to met them once again.
His eyes was crystal clear with unshed tears when he reiterated that time when he found that his adopted parents and one and only loving brother whom he had always protected and loved formulated all the plans to kill him.
Not only that those kind mafia family that protected him was killed ruefully for helping him. On top of everything, Ophelia was married to his brother, Andrew Alexon Knight. It pained him to see her clinging lovingly to him when she promised to be with him for eternity.
This led him to drive frenzy and made him muddle headed. He remembers that day when a man that looked like he was in twenties came to him and handed him a picture of Ophelia and Andrew holding them closely and lovingly.
He was pretty much enraged when he saw a small baby bump as Andrew placed his smooth hand on her belly. This all led him to go crazy and above that the man provided him with the plan of revenge. Being blinded with consuming revenge he agreed with his preposition and killed all his family members.
He was crying as he spoke on how he brutally murdered his parents, he said he still remembers his mom looking at him disappointedly as he shot her with a gun. He still smells the blood of his dad as he mercilessly stabbed him.
The most painful part is that he still remember his brother pledging him his innocence while he strangled him to dead and he was too blinded by the notion of revenge circulating in his system that he became paranoiac.
He looked at me as if he was asking me to embrace him, I slide beside him and gently patted his shoulder as his shoulder shuddered spilling all his inner anguish. This old name was really lonely and pitiful.
After he regained his composure he continued, he told me he felt bitter after what he did and more bitter when Ophelia ran away from him. It was after some months when he was traveling for his business venture when he met Ophelia again. Seeing her after a long time made him forget his entire grudge as he embraced her again to his life.
She was hesitant for a while but after he confessed everything to her, they reconciled. She told him how she was forced by his brother and the torture she went through when he went missing, still then remembering their promise she held strong and waited for him but he came too late.
He thanked the lord for giving her and he knew that she was scared for him. She tried to create space between him and he somehow managed to build bridge between them. Most importantly he came to know that the child in her womb was his and he felt immense merriment that they got married in a wonderful chapel.
It was that mid afternoon when one of his employees urgently called him for some business matter and he had to work so unwillingly he left them with a promise to come back. When he came back he found his world missing and that shattered him again and he searched for them everywhere but he couldn't find him.
He was living a soulless life until 2 months ago he found out an envelope directed to him that urged him to kidnap me to get his son back. I was surprised by his story because it perfectly resembled a fairy tale but there was someone thing which made me confused and unclear on why he did kidnapped me.
He shrugged his shoulder and told me he doesn't know anything because he was just directed to kidnap Sam's girlfriend and as per his instruction I was the only girl near to him. He was so into getting his son back that he just thought kidnapping me would solve everything.
I was flabbergasted with his word and if he were younger than me I swear that I would have beaten him black and blue for unnecessarily kidnapping me. Still then I had to maintain a calm face and smile at him.
Yet that information was a huge blow to my guts but what came after was the tsunami. He smiled at me and told me that if his son was alive he would be older than me and he would definitely take me as his daughter in law.
I was stupefied once again for his statement because I have known the old man for a month; he was usually stoic and careless to me so it was a bit shock knowing the old man wanted me as his son's bride.
I would love to live in this beautiful mansion without any care of facing poverty and all but still then I had already someone whom I trusted and like a lot so I was about to gently reject his idea when he said something that stopped me in my track of speech. "Jack Alexon Knight" was his son name and that he was senior in the same college that I was studying in. What was the most disconcerting was that when he showed me the picture.
The same messy hair perfectly held up in semi pony tail, same brown eyes which I fell for and the same million dollar smile which never fail to bring smile to my face. It was him, my love, my companion and my best friend.