My heart is beating fast and hard in my chest, staring at Ryder and Lena calmly sitting on the couch and just giving me a bored look. Seeing Ryder again makes me want to run as fast and far as I can just to get away from him.

"What are you doing here?" I ask him with a tight, shaky voice.

Ryder lazily sweeps his eyes up and down my body and the gesture makes me almost throw up all over the living room floor. I want to hide somewhere where he won't be able to ever look at me again. His eyes on me make me uncomfortable and scared. "What do you mean? I'm just visiting my friend," he says, casually dropping his arm around Lena's shoulders.

I look at Lena with wide eyes, but she just turns her head towards him and smiles. What? My heart speeds up, my stomach dropping. Out of all the people in the world, she found Ryder and decided to date him? I don't even want to know what's going on between those two and since when, but it starts to kind of make more sense to me now how Ryder could find me so easily after all this time.

Lena turns her head back to look at me again. "Sit down, Gabby. We'll have a talk."

I shake my head. "I'd rather not. Alexander is going to be here any second," I say, clinging to the hope he's going to show up soon. What is taking him so long?

Lena gives me a small, patient smile. It looks like she's almost sorry for me because she's about to tell me something I won't like. "Oh, don't count on him. He's going to give us all the privacy we need."

My eyes widen and I feel panic starting to grip my insides. "What does that mean?" I ask with a small voice. What did they do?

Lena shrugs, intertwining her hands together. "Just that he's not coming up any time soon. Don't worry, he's completely safe. You, however ... That depends on your cooperation."

I'm full-on panicking right now. "Where is everyone?" I ask, hoping that Amelia and Clara aren't here. Oh, God.

"Out," Lena says courtly, not offering any more explanation.

I feel my palms starting to sweat in fear of what's going on right now. I have no idea what's happening and what this is about. "What do you want from me? Why are you doing this?"

Lena just cocks her head, enjoying the sight of my scared state. "If you sat down, we would get right to it."

I shake my head. I'm not getting near any of them. I can't even look at Ryder without wanting to curl into a ball. I tried to leave all those fears behind and I tried escaping those people, only to run into new ones who are evil to me. I don't know if I have such luck in life or I just attract people like that. I never mean any harm to other people, I'm just trying to do my own thing and live my life, but it seems like it's just not possible because something or someone always comes in the way of that.

"I'll stay here," I press further, not backing down. I'll stay here because I feel safer when there's at least some distance between us.

I nervously look towards the door, but there's no sight or sound of Alexander. That worries me because what if they do something? I know Lena is basically obsessed with him, but I don't know what she's capable of doing.

"Chill. We're not here to hurt you. Just talk," Lena says, leaning forward and putting her hands on her thighs.

Ryder crosses his arms over the chest and my eyes immediately fly to him and the movement, nervous about every single move he makes, no matter how little.

"Okay, then. I'd be happy to know what you two want from me. Why are you doing this? What are you gaining from it?" I'm acting brave when I'm not and I just hope that if they see I'm not scared of them (or at least I'll convince them with my poor acting skills), they won't do anything to harm me.

I know people like them. They love seeing other people getting hurt and they love being the cause of pain. I'm scared, but I don't want them to know.

Ryder's mouth lifts up into a sardonic smile. It runs chills down my body and not in a good way. "How sweet of you to think you're in charge here. We'll talk about whatever the fuck we want to. You're just here to nod your pretty head in agreement."

My mouth tightens. I feel resilience in every pore of my body. It makes me want to fight. And then flight. "It depends on what you want me to agree to." I already have a feeling, but I can never be sure with these two.

Ryder grins again and shakes his head at me. "See Sin has a full time job with you."

I don't reply to that comment. I don't even want to address it. I just lift my head up higher, looking at him with a disgusted look on my face.

"But not for long," Lena says, cocking her head to the side.

I want to roll my eyes. I knew it. She's going to try this again. I take a deep breath and remain my straight posture. "What do you want from me?" I ask tiredly.

"You to break up with Alexander," Lena says with absolutely no shame at all. It looks like this all seems very normal to her.

"And why would I do that?" I ask.

Lena raises her eyebrow, giving me a conceited look. "Because I said do."

I purse my lips, crossing my arms over the chest. "I did break up with him, Lena. We aren't together right now, but you didn't know that because he didn't come to you. He's not ever going to come to you because he loves me. You can make me break up with him with whatever tactic you're trying to use, but he's never going to be yours. You can send me away and he's still going to come after me. Wouldn't this be sad? What's the point of having someone when you know they'll never really be yours?"

Lena stands up and takes a few threatening steps towards me, but I don't back away or show my fear. What's there to fear, anyway? What is the worst they can do? I don't know where Alexander is, but I know he wouldn't let anything happen to me. "My motives are not your concern, Gabrielle."

"I'm not going to break up with him just because you told me to. I'm not a puppet, Lena. I've known him for far longer than you do and I love him for who he is not for how he looks like. I'm not breaking up with him just because you're obsessed." I stand my ground probably for the first time in my life and I have to say ... it feels good.

All my life, I've been bowing down to people and let them take what they want from me, but it's time I stand up for myself and not let anyone walk all over me ever again. This is just like high school drama with a mean girl and it's not funny. It's just annoying me that this has been going on for so long and no one did anything, so it's time I put an end to this and not rely on other people so much anymore.

Lena's mouth stretches into a smile. "I have photos, Gabby."

My stomach sinks at the voice she uses when she says this. "What photos?" I ask, my eyes narrowing slightly in concern.

Lena's mouth pulls up in the corners as if she finally has me where she wanted me. I feel my stomach clenching, preparing for the punch she's going to deliver with her words. "From France. You were having quite the time of your life at such a young age."

My throat is burning. "What?" I ask in barely a whisper. Surely it can't be ... It's not possible.

She unlocks her phone and shows me the screen. My eyes start burning when I see what she's showing me. "Where did you get this?"

"Made some friends all over the world while I was away, babe," Ryder speaks up, his tone light-weight, almost bored. As if he's not ruining my life right now.

"And what do you want to do with these pictures?"

I have to remind myself to keep breathing. That this is all in the past and I left this behind already. That is not me anymore. That ruined half of my life and it can't ruin more of it because Alexander knows about it.

"Good question. Maybe I could go and show them to Rosalyn and Alfred so they can see what a slut you were." She spits the word slut in my face as if it was my name.

My whole body is starting to shake. "I was a minor here. You don't know what happened to me."

Lena's eyes roll up at the ceiling in feigned boredom. "As if I care about what you did in your past. At least you were more fun than you are right now." Her eyes look me up and down, her gaze mocking me.

I'm going to be sick. I'm really going to be sick. "Why do you hate me this much? You don't know me, yet you want to take everything from me, even though you got to have the same experience as I did. Why do you think I have something worth having?"

Lena snorts. "I'm just having some fun. I don't give two shits about you, actually. You're just fun to mess with."

My arms drop down to my sides. I feel defeated somehow, although I know I haven't lost this battle yet. Her having the pictures doesn't mean anything. I was young here and I got taken advantage of. Lena clearly doesn't know that so those pictures aren't something she can threaten me with.

"I could also post them online, remind all the angry people back in France that you're still alive and now living in England."

I want to scream and punch something. It feels like the ground beneath my feet is crumbling and I'm falling ... and falling ... My head feels heavy with thousand different thoughts, all running into different directions. "I don't get it," I say, my voice small, fear desperately crawling out, even though I want to swallow it down and ignore it. "I can break up with Alexander, but that's not going to change anything for you. Can't you see that?"

"No, maybe not. That's why Ryder's here. He's going to take you on a little vacation, away from Alexander so he can forget about you for a while."

I'm shaking my head before she can finish her sentence. There's no way I'm willingly going anywhere, especially not with Ryder. They're going to have to drug me or, worse, kill me to drag me with him. "No," I say adamantly. "I'm not going anywhere." I have classes to attend, a whole life here. Nobody is taking this away from me because I had to work hard to be where I am today. My throat is closing and tightening in fear.

Ryder stands up this time, walking closer to me. My muscles twitch, ready to take off and run in any given moment if I have to. He causes irrevocable fear in me. "How much do you love your boyfriend?" he asks me.

I just stare at him.

"Okay, let's put it like that. What are you prepared to do to save your boyfriend if you knew he was in danger?"

My body jolts up. "What?" I ask for the millionth time today, my breathing speeding up.

Lena's head turns as she looks at Ryder in question.

"Yeah, Gabrielle. It's a very simple question. I think you understand what I'm asking, don't you?"

I look between him and Lena. "What did you do?" I whisper, my voice gripped with fear.

Lena continues staring at Ryder which starts to worry me. "Nothing ... yet. But what I'm going to do depends entirely on you, sweetheart."

My face must be paler than a wall.

"What the fuck did you do?" Lena hisses at him.

What is going on?

"Took some matters into my own hands. I owed him, after all." He points at himself and all the bruises he's carrying. I noticed he's limping on the leg Alexander shot him at.

Lena full-on glares at him. "That was not a part of the deal," she says angrily.

Ryder looks at me with a big grin on his face. "No worries. What happens to him is in our dear Gabrielle's hands."

"What happens to him?" I repeat dumbly, my heart literally pounding in my chest. I want to imagine I'm somewhere else right now. That this is not reality and it's just a bad dream I'll wake up from soon. That Alexander and I are both safe, somewhere together. What did they do? What could they do in such a short time? At his own home?

"Your precious boyfriend's currently having a talk with a few of my friends down in the garage. They also happen to carry guns just in case they would need to use it and I'd say the longer this takes up here, the highest are the chances he'll get hurt."

All the blood drains from my face.

Lena turns to Ryder, glowering with anger. "You fucking moron. That wasn't supposed to happen!"

"Why? Because you have a soft spot for him? Yeah, I don't fucking care about that. He hurt me and it's time for a payback. And I'm punching where it'll hurt him the most." His eyes slide back to me, but he's blurry in front of my eyes because I can't breathe and I can't see anything.

"Please don't hurt him," I beg. "Please."

Ryder shrugs. "Your call," he says.

I feel the bile rising in my stomach. "I'll do anything," I finally say. I don't care anymore, he can take me and do whatever he wants with me as long as Alexander doesn't get hurt. I don't know if he's speaking the truth and if he's really in danger, but knowing him, I'm not sure I want to risk it.

"Now we're talking," he says happily, giving me a wolfish grin that makes my stomach turn in disgust.

He comes to me, grabbing my arm with his hand in a tight grip and I involuntarily try to flinch away from him, my body struggling to get away from him. "You made your mind up. Stop fucking playing and cooperate, damn you," Ryder hisses, gripping my arm even tighter.

"No," I say in panic, thrashing my body around and yelping. I'm panicking and I just can't willingly go with him. I can't. My body is refusing to cooperate.

He suddenly releases my arm, but puts his hand on my neck and squeezes so I can't breathe. I gasp for air, my body stilling for a moment before my feet start kicking out in panic when I can't get any air in my lungs. He's holding me with one hand and I claw his arm with my fingers, trying to pry it away, but he pushes me against the wall, his grip strong and relentless. He takes a phone out of his pocket with the other hand, putting it on a speaker when he calls someone.

"Yeah?" the voice says.

"Shoot him," is all Ryder says and hangs up.

My eyes widen and I start struggling even harder. "No," I choke out, squeezing my eyes shut.

I hear it a few seconds later. Something loud. Something that sounds awfully like a gunshot. My whole body goes still, but the tears start running more fiercely. "No," comes out as a whisper from my lips because I'm defeated and defenseless. I stop struggling completely and Ryder releases me. I sag like an empty bag against the wall, crying and choking for my breath, my hands going to my neck.

"What did you do?" Lena words my question, her voice faint, her face pale.

Ryder moves his head from side to side, cracking his neck. "What I should do a long time ago," he replies.

I throw up. In fear. In panic. In grief.

What did he do? What did I do? 

*

Sorry? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯