Hellbound Heart

"Uhm… Your Highness…" Mike reluctantly butted in. "I think we really need to move now. You both can continue your chat in the car instead."

"Oh!" Elijah looked up,. "You're actually right."

He stood before leisurely offering his hand towards Izabelle. Which Elle simply stared at with the same spiteful look in her eyes.

"Be good, Sunshine –"

"Be good?" Elle snorted. "You really expect me to be good after all that you did to my husband?" Elle glared contemptuously at Elijah.

"If you don't accept my hand on the count of three, I'll have you put to sleep too, Princess Elle." He stated, his grey eyes in the darkness were bright and dangerous.

"Can't you see I'm holding my husband? I can't –" Elle retorted, giving an excuse.

"Mike." Elijah gestured at the man next to them and without a word he came and grabbed the unconscious Sebastian from Elle's arms.

Elle tightened her grip on him, glaring daggers at the man called Mike.

"Let go, Princess. You know there's no use struggling –"

"Where are you taking him?!"

"Into the car, Sunshine." Elijah was the one who replied. "Don't worry, I'm taking you along with him."

Mike pulled Sebastian from Elle and due to the man's sheer strength, Elle was also pulled up along with the still unconscious Sebastian. Nevertheless, she still clung onto Sebastian, never letting go even as Mike brought him into the car.

In no time at all, Elle was holding Sebastian as she settled herself in the back seat. And when Elijah sat in the passenger seat, Mike immediately stepped on the accelerator, causing the car to speed off smoothly.

"Where are you taking us?" Elle then asked after a long while of silence when she suddenly started to feel dizzy. 'Oh lord… don't tell me…' Did they manage to drug her too?!

She fought hard to keep her eyes opened as she tightened her grip around Sebastian.

"You will know once we get there, Sunshine." she heard Elijah say before her eyes lost the fight and helplessly remained closed after a particularly long blink.

…

Shocked at finding herself inside a grey toned and minimalistic room, Elle scrambled to her feet, eager to leave. To look for Sebastian.

She had checked herself once over and to her relief, she was still wearing her clothes and there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. But her panic skyrocketed when she could not find Sebastian anywhere. Where did Elijah bring him to?

Rushing out of the door, Elle found herself in a wide marble living room. It was modern and luxurious and… surprisingly sparse. It was as though it was not a place that someone dwelled in constantly.

There were some basic but luxurious looking furniture but that was about all there was inside. It was like a new luxury villa that had just been finished and the owners were yet to move in.

Looking around, Elle's heartbeat thundered harder when she could not feel the familiar presence of Sebastian. She was starting to feel the dread of getting locked up again. But her fear for Sebastian's safety was far stronger. Where was he? She needed to find him!

After hastily wandering around the empty and spacious mansion, Elle finally found the main door. But to her dismay, she could not open it. It was locked!

She debated whether to yell for anyone but in the end, she decided not to call out, afraid that she might end up alerting her captors lest they return her to that room and lock her up in there. She must not let that happen again!

And so, Elle continued roaming around, searching for any way out.

But time passed yet her attempt in looking for an exit was a failure.

Frustration and helplessness began to get to her. Her worry for Sebastian was making her feel worse. She felt like she just wanted to scream her frustrations out.

Slamming her hand against the wall, Elle's eyes then caught sight of her new wedding ring. She paused and stared at it. As though it had some kind of calming power, Elle brought her fingers to her lips and kissed the ring before her eyes gleamed with determination again.

Moving again, Elle continued searching around, relentlessly. Until she noticed a small smearing of dirt on the marble floor. A dust patch.

Bending over, she swiped her finger over the patch and rubbed her thumb and pointer together, trying to guess and decipher more information from this. She was familiar with this kind of dust. How did it end up in a modern and marble place like this?

Elle's eyes widened. Her skill of looking for secret passages since she was young was suddenly activated. And deep within her, this dust alone was enough for her to believe that there was a secret passage leading to an underground chamber or area in this place! And she was certain that it should not be a newly built underground passage, judging from this kind of dust. It was highly likely that it was an ancient underground passageway!

She started to run her hands over all the tiles, the walls and everything in the area until she finally found it. One of the tiles on the wall was pushed back when she pressed on it and the floor slid open. It then revealed a stair.

Swallowing, Elle cautiously looked down.

There was some light and she knew there must be people inside. The first thought that came to her mind was that Sebastian was probably being tied up and tortured or something along those lines by Elijah deep within this underground passageway and it had made her to rush inside. No longer considering if her moves were wise or not.

The underground passageway was not as simple as Elle had initially thought. It was indeed an ancient dungeon. She believed that this place was certainly ancient, but had been modernized. Most probably it was an old castle that was demolished and had been rebuilt into a modern mansion.

Elle moved farther in without any hesitation. She was thankful that the dungeon was well lit and there was still no other pathway that could trick her and get her lost.

But after a long while of walking, Elle stopped between two pathways. One was dimly lit and the other, well lit-up.

One would consider the well lit-up path, but not Elle. Because as soon as she stood there, she felt a familiar presence coming from the dimly lit pathway. She could feel something dark and heavy flowing from it and a shiver ran down her back.

Facing it, Elle braced herself and entered. She was careful with her steps as it was dim. When she reached a little farther, she found that the lights inside were old candelabras instead of the modern bulbs used in the other pathway.

Her heartbeat started to drum louder in her ears when she started to see bars ahead. She knew this. They also have these back in one of their oldest castles in Dalenn. Dungeons that were used to be prisons.

Her steps slowed, measured, as she prayed that the worse case scenario she was expecting would be completely wrong.

But as she reached the massive bars and looked through them, her gasp echoed in the heavy silence.