Chapter 24: His Secret #2
The cold metal between Diana's fingers felt cold. It was a smooth golden ring, engraved perfectly. She couldn't help but let her fingers inspect it as she sat on the bed in the dark room.
Diana almost knew what it was the minute she saw it, and she felt her heart drop. Her lips accidentally let out a self-deprecating chuckle, as she thought of how naive the original Diana was. Completely oblivious to what was going around her, maybe noticing things here and there, but never questioning them.
That was a deadly fault.
The metal shone brightly under the light and she raised it to her eye-level to observe the engraving closely. It was such a fine job on a small object, and she couldn't help but stare at the flaming phoenix, feeling her eyes widen as her memories did serve her something at the end.
She had seen something identical once when she was coming over secretly to see Elliot. It was a week before eloping with him where she felt miserable at the way her family was treating her and was going to Elliot for comfort. She had forgotten to take her shawl with her and that day, she remembered, was particularly cold.
As she shivered and tried walking faster, it was that moment when she had heard a few cries coming from an ally nearby.
She had remembered that Elliot warned her about the neighborhood and its dangers, especially telling her to avoid anything lurking in the shadows or the allies, saying it was better to be safe than sorry. So, she decided to ignore the cry, steeling her heart and hiding away her curiosity. But she heard it again - this time louder.
Diana could vividly remember the word 'help' mixed in-between the cries.
Her legs automatically stopped. Diana could feel them shaking.
Her heart and mind were having a mini-tug-of-war. Her mind was telling her to escape and act as if she heard nothing, but her heart kept repeating how she would always regret it if she didn't help.
She closed her eyes for a second, knowing she had to put herself and the baby first. Diana made a secret promise to herself that if it got too dangerous, she would just run away.
Decision made, she allowed herself to sneakily look at what was happening while hiding her body behind the wall.
What she saw there made her blood turn cold, and her throat instantly tightened, holding onto a scream. Diana had to blink a few times to make sure what she was seeing was right.
A young man, who looked to be around her age, stood confidently in the alley. Both hands tucked inside his jeans pockets and a shrewd smile placed on his lips. His golden hair played with the wind, and his sparkling green eyes were tinted with bloodthirst and plain cruelness. He looked as if he was watching a fun show, and the man that was trying to crawl away from him was probably just that.
The beaten up man barely had any strength left as fingers were dug deep inside the dirt, and looked as if he was trying to sit up. He was about to succeed if not for the feet that steeped onto his back.
"You didn't answer me," She heard the blond man say. He was only answered with grunts and a few moans of pain.
Diana hugged herself and knew at that exact moment that she had made the wrong decision. She decided to turn away and leave the scene before anyone noticed her, but it was too late when her eyes clashed with his green ones. She swore she felt her whole body shiver.
No, his eyes weren't normal, they gave her the creeps. It was of a hungry animal; a creature that was observing and inspecting every inch of her body, trying to pick out her weakness one by one until he found the perfect moment to devour her.
His blond hair had fallen onto his face and when he combed his bangs back with his fingers, she saw a brilliant golden ring on his finger. Her eyes followed his hand as he removed them from his hair and returned them onto his sides as if she was enchanted.
There was something engraved on them, but she couldn't see it clearly from her location, and as she saw him moving closer to her, she decided that her time was out and she had to get away.
Diana ran from her place to where she was supposed to meet Elliot, her body shaking with fear and every hair on her was standing. She kept looking back every few seconds and was glad to see the man not following her.
She knew now what was engraved on his ring-
A Phoenix.
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Diana was trying to call Elliot but every time she did, it would go to voice mail. Deep inside, she knew he wouldn't answer, and if it was the past her, she would think he was busy with a client.
But not this time.
She walked toward their closet and changed to some jeans, a sweater, and a jacket before slipping on some random shoes. Her eyes caught the sight of herself in the mirror before leaving and didn't mind the dark circles and her tired look.
Moving outside, it didn't take her long to notice that the fight was over and that there were still people standing outside, enjoying the night breeze. Some even still had the same energetic look from the 'match' they had seen earlier.
Besides it being odd for people to be awake at this time, she found it to be even weirder that few people kept glancing at her way and whispering about her. But, the moment she would meet their eyes, they would look away instantly.
In another time and place, she would have minded that, but right now, she wanted to get to the bottom of things. So, when Elliot didn't answer for the millionth of time, she decided to go to his usual coffee shop that he liked to spend time in, but found that it was closed.
Diana clenched her teeth and held her phone up, searching in her contact list and noticed that she didn't really know any of his friends' numbers. No, in fact, there weren't that many numbers in her phones, in the first place.
She tried to think of any place he would go to at this time but found that all these shops were either closed or he wasn't in them.
Inside her head, there was already a vague reason as to why he wasn't answering, or why she couldn't find him anywhere he usually went to. But there was a part of her that hoped she was wrong - though, if she was right, it would instantly make things way easier.
After failing to find him anywhere, she had only one choice left, which was to ask around for him. It made her slightly uncomfortable that she would ask unknown people around for him, especially this late.
The first few people she asked didn't have any idea of where he was, but after her fourth try, she found a group of people standing on the side of the street, smoking and chatting about some random stuff. Their voices weren't loud and if anything, they seemed to have this private aura around them.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
tara_
tara_ Thanks for reading another chapter of my story. I know I haven't updated in a while and that is because of uni.... and tbh, I don't know if I should continue this story or not.
For now, I will keep writing chapters and posting them (since I already have a few written).
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