The dreadful night - I
Remorse is a mortal residue. Regan knew it was not the time to be remorseful and drown in sorrow. He felt as if he failed himself and her too. The distance made him realize that he was never furious with her. His heart yearned for her like always. The anger and distance were a disguise to hide away his weakness and insecurity of losing her. He could feel the fear in his chest waiting to take over. A fear like never before. A fear of losing her forever. Anger boiled in his system as he felt hungry for destruction. Within a couple of hours he had went through intense emotions of unstoppable anger, remorse, self disgust, self loathing, regret, grief, violence, yelling. He didn't know how to handle the pressure that was eating him up. He wanted peace. He wanted her.
Since the last three hours, he hadn't sat for a single minute and barked commands to every resource and connection that he had to get back to her. His house was a mess with everything splintered on the floor.
Two hours back, he was still in his office doing nothing to be exact. He was a mess after avoiding Anna for so long. A weird terror was gradually rising in his chest and he couldn't understand the reason behind it. He had deliberately kept his phone switched off for the entire day and avoided to share the same space with her until he cleared his mind. After going through the torture of ignoring her for the entire day, he switched on his phone when he couldn't take it anymore. The first thing that caught his eyes were the several calls that he got from her with messages concerning about him. Lastly, she had left a voicemail which had exhibited her anxiety to know if he was alright.
'Regan.....
Where are you? Is something wrong? We haven't met for the entire day and your phone is switched off. Are you alright? I wanted to talk to you about something. I am going home but I'll be waiting for you. Please come early.' She paused for a few seconds and continued again. 'I wanted to say that... I missed you today and I can't wait to see you. It's the first time when you have stayed apart from me like this..... I mean after we got together. I....I am sorry if I am bothering you. Its just that I don't know.....I am just anxious. I don't know why. I hope you are good. See you at home. Come soon. Bye.'
Unlike other times, she hadn't stammered in nervousness, but it was still evident in her voice. Her each syllable dribbled his heart soothing his insecurities. He didn't need to understand that she had meant every word. Deeply. After a long grueling day, her voice appeased his aching heart and subdued the agony of his mind. He felt preposterous to let his heart wavered by what he saw the previous night. He realized that he just needed her presence to live and be ecstatic. Maybe she didn't love him yet, but her concern and desire to want him were enough to escalate his heartbeats with pleasure and contentment. Without waiting for another second, he had darted towards their home to apologize to her for his fallacious actions. He had expected to find her waiting for him like usual, but the house was vacant in her absence. He had immediately tried to call her but was unable to talk as she was not responding to his calls. His anxiety reached its peak when he was unable to get to Zander also as he also called him several times. His calls remained unattended for a long time. Nearly after half an hour or so, he got a call from Zander but his words dried his throat that he was unable to utter a word for a few seconds, and a far worse dread than any he had ever known clutched his heart. Quickly after realizing about the situation, he had activated all his resources and informed the cops that Anna was abducted. She was taken away from him due to his ignorance. The fear that he had pushed back in his mind during the previous days resurfaced and clutched his heart like never before with only one thing in his mind to get her back anyhow.
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Anna was laid on the floor when she opened her eyes and met darkness. Her heart throbbed in fear as she gradually tried to sit up and searched for a ray of light to pacify her thumping heart. She could feel the sweat that had drenched her skin, the throbbing of her eyes, the ringing screams vibrating in her ears and the thumping of her heart against her chest. For a moment, she thought it to be a nightmare, but the moment she remembered the events that brought her into the dreadful darkness, her guts clenched in more fear knocking all the other thoughts aside. She hesitantly moved her eyes in the darkness and realized that her fear had taken the form of reality drowning her once again into an endless abyss.
She remembered the call that she got her way back to home. It was from an unknown number informing about Regan's accident and his critical condition. Without thinking anything about looking into it for its reliability, she had asked Zander to change the direction and take her to the unknown destination. She hadn't even realized but the mere thought of something terrible happening to Regan had left her tearing up miserably until Zander asked about the matter and she told him everything between her sobs. He had tried everything to calm her down but nothing helped as she just wanted to go to Regan and see him safe. She and Zander both tried to contact him repeatedly but his phone was switched off elevating her anxiety and fear. The calls to the office somehow seemed to be blocked as he was unable to contact anyone close to Regan. Not even Nolan or Drake. Soon they reached the place, but Zander couldn't help but felt suspicious about the whole situation. Before he could alert Anna, she had already find her way out of the car as soon as it stopped. Her eyes were frantically searching for a glimpse of Regan but everything came to a stop when she heard a gunshot and found Zander on the floor with blood oozing out of his body. She stood still on her place, with tear stricken face not believing the sight in her front. And as if it wasn't enough, her eyes landed on the person who was the reason of her fear, pain, loss and nightmares, holding a gun in his hand towards him with a sinister smirk that gave chills to her spine. He raised the gun towards her but didn't fire, instead he cuffed her hands and legs and bind her mouth. The next moment she felt a sting due to a syringe that was plunged into her forearm making her limp and she surrendered herself to darkness.
She didn't remember how she reached to her present state as she wasn't herself as soon as she found her daunting past standing so close to her. She clenched her dress and suppressed the sob that was ready to escape her lips. She didn't know for how long she was unconscious. She didn't know how he was able to reach her. She didn't know if she was ready to face him again or if she would ever be able to get to see Regan again. Amidst the chaos in her mind and the deathly silence, she heard the haunting footsteps that were lurching close to her. Each passing second felt like forever as she stood on her wobbly legs still not ready to face him again. She held her breath not daring to make a sound as if her silence would take him away from her, but the screeching sound of the door broke the little hope in her heart of it being a dream. Suddenly, she was blinded by the bright lights that illuminated the darkness and she covered her eyes with the back of her hand, but soon snapped out of it when she heard him calling out her name.
"Hello little one. It's nice to see you again."
"Kent!"