Chapter Fourteen

أقل الناس سروراً الحسود

An envious person is the unhappiest

Rose

My eyes widen as soon as he pushes the man towards the side, punching his face. Everyone in the flight starts to turn around at the sight they see—their eyes widen in shock. The stewardess quickly run towards the cabin; getting help as I eye Elia.

To my surprise, the man fights back, revealing a small knife in his back pocket. As he pushes Elia down the aisle, he starts to directly point the knife towards Elia's neck but he kicks him on the groin, causing him to fall down onto the ground and lose the knife from his grasps.

I quickly put my head down as I see the man throwing another knife directly towards my direction. Everyone starts to scream as soon as the knife hits someone else in front of me—causing my eyes to widen and my body to react by running away from the dead body.

''This is an emergency!'' I hear one of the stewardess says at the back through the phone before eyeing us all—I immediately run towards the back of the cabin while Elia keeps the man on the ground.

I start to panic and my windpipe seems to having trouble as I fall onto the ground, holding onto my neck. Within seconds, someone pulls me by the hair before pushing my body against one of the counters; making me scream loudly but he wraps his hands around my neck; blocking me from breathing.

Then, he pushes me down onto the ground, hovering on top of me. His grip on my neck never loosening while I try to reach out for something—that might help me. My hands are trying to push him away but all I keep on receiving is the tightness of his grip.

I turn left to see Elia stabbing a knife onto the previous man's neck while I am suffering due to the lack of oxygen. My whole body starts to hurt from an unknown pain as I continue to fight back, not wanting my life to end here.

My eyes widen once more as I see two stewardess laying dead at the back, making me look straight into the man's eyes. He has anger raging with every strength he's showing from gripping hard, then, a small smirk appears—showing how he's winning.

Luckily, the man loosen his grip around my neck, slowly letting go after receiving a few hits by Elia. I quickly crawl towards the other passengers, not having the strength to stand up and run due to the pain I'm feeling. As I continue on crawling, I see that half of the passengers are dead while others are held as hostages at the back.

I let out a soundless scream as I feel someone pulling me by the ankle, making my body being pulled backwards. As the figure turns my body around, I see him pointing a sharp knife near my neck, making me shake my head in disagreement, ''No, please just let me go.'' I say, my voice shaking with fear.

My eyes wander around to find Elia's body on the ground, blood flowing from his head but I try to keep calm—assuring myself that he's alive. I close my eyes, wanting to make sure that when I open them again, this would all disappear but I keep on feeling the pain and the sensation, traces of reality.

''Get up!'' The man says, pulling me by the hair as he keeps on pointing the knife at my neck, making me follow his every orders.

''Please—'' He pulls my hair once more, making me scream as he places the knife on my waist this time, earning a low groan from me. Then, he sniffs in my scent by leaning in towards my neck before pushing me onto one of the seats.

I look around and see that there's no one at the back, as they are being forced to go to the front. My whole body shakes in fear, trying to comprehend what the man is going to do. I keep myself shut, only Elia in my mind—hoping that he'll wake up soon.

Surprisingly, both of his hands are on their way to pull his pants off after tying both of my hands on the seat. I start to shake my head and kick out my legs, ''Stop, just let me go!'' I say, but he starts to lift my dress up—revealing my thighs, making tears stream down my cheeks in respond.

As a man appears from one of the doors, I turn to look at him and see that he has a smirk on his face, ''Get it over with quickly.'' Then, he disappears to the front once more. My whole mind remains blank, trying to free myself from this kind of torture but I keep on failing.

The man in front of me slaps me across the face, making me scream in pain as he pulls my hair once more, ''Don't even think on escaping,'' He says, trying to undress me but I keep on kicking him away—which earns me another slap.

''Get the hell away from me!'' I shout, this time louder.

To my surprise, he falls down onto the ground with a loud thud as I see Elia standing behind him, holding onto the previous knife. I keep still, waiting for his next action as he drops the knife down and untie me, ''Come on, we're going to be okay.'' He says, pulling my body up before we run towards the front.

Once I see the amount of dead people at the front, I start to lose my mind.

That's when he starts to pull me out of the plane and we start to run as far as we can. I glance at the plane once more before we enter back the airport, quickly heading towards the parking lot. Once we're far from anyone, we both stop running.

''This is a disaster,'' Elia says, as he takes out his phone. I take my time to eye him and see that his hair is messily all over his head but from some reason, it will fool anyone into thinking that it's a new trendy hairstyle.

We both turn around to see a black car approaching us. I turn to look at Elia once more and see him muttering curses under his breath before pulling me by the wrist. We both continue to run away and avoid the gunshots but my stamina isn't helping. Due to all the running, I'm starting to feel the numbness on my thighs.

We manage to escape from the airport and head straight into one of the cabs available. I lean back on my seat, realising that we're still in Milan and how our flight back to California is a disaster. Elia quickly asks for the driver to drive as he leans back—breathing heavily.

''We're going to die, aren't we?'' I ask, breaking the silence.

Elia turns to look at me, confusion written all over his face, ''You're not going to die,'' He replies, typing something on his phone—and from the look on his face, it shows that it's something serious.

''Me? I'm saying about us!'' I answer, earning a sigh from him.

''We're not having this argument right now and we both know that what happened back there could get both of us killed. I'm not going to say that we're safe because we're never safe. You chose this path with me when I told you leave so we're in this together. One way or another, we can never run away from death, you know that.'' He states.

Within seconds, his phone starts to ring, making him turn away and answer it.

''Dovete venirci a prendere,'' He says on the phone—making me turn to look at the driver, seeing that he has been staring at us in surprise but once he caught me looking, he quickly look away.

''You know what, stop the cab.'' I say and once I see that it's not stopping, I say it again, louder. Once it has stopped, I step out of the car—walking ahead. When I hear footsteps behind me, I'm sure that it's Elia and when I feel someone grabbing onto my wrist, I turn around to make sure that it's definitely Elia.

''You're right, look at us. We've been running away from the very beginning. Honestly, I don't even know what the hell is going on. How long are we going to run, Elia? How far are we going?'' I ask, making him frown.

He sighs, ''Tesoro, you don't understand.''

''Enlighten me,'' I reply.

Once I notice that I'm not receiving a single respond from him, I start to throw both of my hands up in the air, ''You see, I just don't think you're taking this seriously. No, I'm not talking about the whole bad guy thing because I know how much the both of us want to escape that shit. What I'm talking about is, us. You do realise what happened between us yesterday, right?''

''How can I forget?''

His brown eyes are looking straight into mine, something running in his mind but he's keeping it to himself.

''Doesn't that mean anything to you? Is it just nothing?'' I take a step further towards him, lessening the distance between us.

I start to see him clenching his jaw before unclenching them, ''It means something to me. Of course, it means something to me but Rose—''

''—it's okay, I get it.'' I cut him off, pulling my hand away before taking a few steps back. I walk back towards the cab, entering the car while I eye him from inside and I see him turning around, sighing deeply before entering.

After a few minutes, I realise that we're in the middle of the city. We both step out of the car after Elia paid the driver and I look up to see that we're standing in front of a hotel. He glances at my direction for a few seconds before entering with me trailing behind him—our whole trip to our room is quiet, none of us utter a single word.

Once we're inside the room that Elia requested for, he drops his backpack on the sofa before heading straight towards the bathroom—leaving me standing here all by myself. I sit on one of the counters before closing my eyes, sighing deeply.

Within seconds, I feel someone reaching out for my hand —making me turn to look at Elia, while he has both of his brown eyes on my face, inches apart, ''You mean something to me, Rose. Somehow, I'm starting to think that you mean everything. Things isn't normal with me; I hope you understand that. If I have to give you up just for your safety, I would.'' He says.

''You wouldn't,'' I reply.

He leans in, ''I would. No one deserves a life like this, especially you.'' Then he leans back slightly, ''Tell me, you must have your life planned out. Somehow. A little bit, maybe? What do you want to be if it's ever possible for you?''

I keep quiet for a few seconds, thinking. For once, I realise how I actually have thought about this when I was stuck with Gonzales. I thought about freeing myself and start a normal life, ''I wanted to study law—probably becoming a lawyer one day, but that's never going to happen,'' I mutter.

I watch as he stands in front of me, locking me in place by putting both of his hands on the kitchen counter, beside my body—as he looks straight into my eyes, ''I'm letting you go, Rose so now I want you to let go.'' He says.

''I'm not going anywhere,''

He looks down at my lips for a few seconds, ''You're worth much more than you think you do, amore. You're worth a million dollars but to me, you're worth a lot more than any fortune—I'm considering myself lucky to have met you.''

I cup onto his face, ''I'm not going anywhere, Elia. Stop it,''

As my body feels his touch by my neck, I stay still, feeling him placing my hair at the side, revealing my neck, ''I want you to live your life. You're a very beautiful woman, you're strong, you're capable of anything. Forget me, Rose. It'll ease the pain,'' He leans in, brushing his lips against mine before fully kissing me—letting me feel sparks all over my body.

He pulls my body closer towards him by the waist as he stands in between my legs.

To my surprise, my eyes widen as soon as I feel a sharp pain on the side of my neck—making me look at him immediately, my breathing slowing down. My eyebrows furrow in confusion but as I meet his pair of brown eyes; I come to realise how I'll never see them again.

As I blink a few times, I only feel his hand at the back of my body before pulling me closer towards him; letting my body fall onto his, once I've lost all control before meeting the darkness.

Forget me, Rose. It'll ease the pain.