Chapter 5

Amaya

Do you know the saying: the apple never falls far from the tree? I have heard it a few times in books and the few movies I watched as a child.

I have always believed it faithfully because it makes sense.

The people who raise you are the ones who prepare you for the world and who make you the person you are.

For many, these people are their parents. The children grow up to follow their parents' careers and become firefighters or cops, just like their fathers.

I was never prepared for the world. I was groomed for obedience or death. I was not taught to count change or to order food alone in a restaurant.

I was taught to keep my head down, not to wear provocative clothes, and to obey. That is all I ever knew.

I grew up with the only idea that I would die when I reached my eighteenth birthday, as happens to all orphans.

Going against the beliefs imposed on a child from the moment he can remember is one of the most complicated things to do. Never let anyone convince you otherwise.

This is why I was getting such a strong reaction to the Nightfall Flames package.

As soon as I left my room and found naked women, drinks, cigarettes, and sex, the word that immediately came to my mind was: hell.

These people were doing everything I understood as a sin, and they didn't even seem to care.

Entering Darien's office was both good and bad. On the one hand, being out of it all was like being able to breathe again.

But looking into those golden eyes made my throat close up again.

This man made me nervous. He was too intimidating, and his presence seemed to make itself felt in every corner of the room.

It was as if he could make everyone respond to him without much trying.

I could only relax when I left his room. I shut the door behind me and found a woman looking curiously at him with a gentle smile plastered on her face.

Her eyes were kind, and her smile had a dimple in it. She had blonde hair that fell to her breasts.

She reminded me of one of those beautiful women in the movies and books I used to read for entertainment.

Her presence makes me less tense. I have always felt more comfortable around women than men.

This was ironic, considering that all the punishments I have ever suffered were meted out by women.

I had heard stories of what the guards did when they could punish the girls in the orphanage, and just thinking about it sent shivers down my spine.

I have a vague notion that she introduced herself as Lia. She asked me if I was hungry.

I said no, it was a lie, but training myself not to be hungry was a practice I had acquired years ago.

She asked me if I wanted to accompany her to the kitchen. I thanked her but said no one more time. I just wanted to go back to my room.

That's just what I did. I went back and hid.

I wasn't too fond of leaving my room. This place, the pack, was. Too much. Seeing all these people who didn't seem to have any constant worry about sinning or not sinning was confusing.

I didn't understand anything, so I did my best to isolate myself.

The people I saw the most were Lia and Ace. I liked Moon Flower but never said much when she came by. The woman never gave up and always kept talking and talking.

She always came back the next day. I confess that I like her visits...

She explained the basics of this place to me, as she was not allowed to go too deeply into the subject.

But she warned me to forget what I had seen in the forest that day. This only made me think more about the subject. But we last talked about it since.

And Ace was bringing me food.

He made the food around here. He seemed to understand without my having to verbalize how uncomfortable it was to see the way of life of the surrounding people.

And he didn't hesitate to leave a portion of what he prepared at the meal. Eating was hard.

I was strongly accustomed to not eating more than a (at most two) small plates a day, and now that has changed as well.

I discovered, however, that I have a thing for Ace waffles.

The werewolf would appear, always with a little smile on his face and his harmless flirtation. I didn't talk to him much either, but he was pleasant.

Darien, on the other hand, I hadn't seen since the day I woke up here. I didn't know exactly how I felt about that.

Lia said he was solving some problems with the group but didn't explain in detail.

I knew I was hiding from the world. It was pathetic, to be honest.

I have spent years of my life wanting to explore the world, to see what else was outside those bars, and now that I am here... I can't.

Darien said that nobody here would hurt me. But what if he is lying?

The Sisters sometimes promised that there would be no more punishments, and they always lied.

I knew it wasn't fair to me or the people outside, but fear kept me from the unknown.

But when Ace arrived with a plate of pancakes that morning, exactly one week after I arrived in the pack, he offered me a crooked smile, and the first thing that came out of his mouth was:

"Good morning, dear... I hope you're in a good mood because we're leaving the room today." I latched on, sitting on the bed, looking up at him, my arms hugging my knees and my legs bent until they rested against my chest.

Ace was wearing a yellow button-down shirt with the sleeve rolled up to his elbows, showing some tattoos, black pants with two suspenders hanging off his shoulders, and a butterfly tie printed in shades of red, orange, and yellow.

Her dark brown hair was, as usual, not a strand out of place.

I liked the way he dressed. I thought it was fun and relaxed.

Ace puts the tray beside me on the bed, as he does every day, and I hesitate before eating.

They were tasty, but each bite was still a challenge. He sits at the end of the bed, a little away from me.

"Don't try to argue it. You won't be sitting around all day again. So get your perfect ass up, and let's get to the world of Nightfall Flames." I realized in the short time I talked to Cobra and Darien that Ace didn't speak like them.

He sometimes cursed, but not that often.

I stare at him in silence, finishing the pancakes.

"Can I ask you a question?" I murmur, and he smiles as he nods. "If Darien asked you to kill me... Would you do it?" I don't know where that question came from, but it escapes my lips.

Ace arches an eyebrow, looking amused. I know the answer before he even speaks.

"Is this the first time you've spoken in a week, and that's what you're asking? But, yes, I would." I don't freak out. It was strange how Ace could talk about killing me with a calm smile on his face. "But he won't. Darien seems to have some fascination with you, dear."

He gets up, goes to the closet that Lia had filled with clothes when I settled into this room, and grabs some.

He tosses them toward me, causing them to fall into my lap, with a shirt over my face. I turn around to find a smiling face.

"Now hurry up, hating to wait." Ace quickly left the room so I could get dressed.

The mere thought of going downstairs makes my stomach turn, but I know I can't stay in this room forever.

I don't even want to, to be honest. My hands were shaking, but maybe Ace's gentle nudge was just what I needed.

So, I put the tray of waffles on the cabinet beside the bed and put on the clothes Ace handed me.

A shirt with Nightfall Flames written in crooked letters across the chest and black jeans.

These shorts would show some of my scars, so I looked in the closet for something else. I grab some sweatpants from the few they had and look.

I hesitated before putting on a pair of slippers and resigned.

My feet were still a little sore, although they no longer needed bandaging, and, as much as I wanted to hide the marks left by the injuries, putting on anything other than a slipper would be highly uncomfortable.

I find Ace leaning against the other side, an expression on his face as if he had been waiting for his whole life.

"Why do they call you Ace?" I ask as doubt creeps into my mind, and as we start down the stairs, passing through some closed doors, he smiles.

"Well, my IQ is one hundred and sixty-six, so the nickname is appropriate. And they consider my clothes starched. I say I'm the only one who dresses fucking well," This makes me smile a bit because the gesture seems strange to me, and he blinks at me when he realizes it.

The scene downstairs was not the same as the previous week. Maybe it was because it was morning, so there wasn't loud music and half-naked women walking around. Not many, anyway.

But most people were only talking to each other.

My eyes pass over the faces, but the one I recognize is the white-haired boy Kron.

He was sitting on a sofa with two other men beside him.

The same crazed expression was on his face, but he wasn't smiling. I didn't know if this was reassuring or not. But the memory of his laughter still sent shivers through my body.

I unconsciously frowned at the very moment when I saw one of the men sitting next to him.

He had a knife in his hand and was cutting his arm, with an expression of ecstasy on his face. He seemed to be enjoying this very much.

"We all have our fetishes, honey," Ace whispers when he sees me looking, and we both go down the rest of the stairs.

I quickly spot a familiar blonde woman coming toward me, a smile on her face. Lia.

"You finally got out of that room?" She murmurs, and I see Ace walk up behind the girl, wrapping his hand around her waist. Lia rolls her eyes as he places a kiss on her left cheek.

"You know I have my tricks, don't you, love?" Ace whispers in his ear, and the Moonflower, unaffected, merely pushes him away, making the wolf smile.

"Yes, just as I know Rocket will kill you if he sees you doing that." Rocket. Your husband, I remember from some of our one-sided conversations last week.

As Ace and Lia talk amongst themselves, I look around, feeling the anxiety grow in my chest. I was in the world outside the bars.

It was a thought that should cheer me up, and it did. But it also brought a terrifying wave of bad feelings.

Millions of horrible situations were going through my head, and I didn't know what to do.

I can't breathe. The tightness in my chest grows even tighter. I can't be here.

I walked away from the crowd, not knowing exactly where I was going.

The increasingly distant conversations made my lungs start to work again.

I walk around the place, not intending to leave but needing to know where I am going.

The increasingly distant conversations made my lungs start to work again. I walk around the place, not intending to leave but needing to know where I am going.

So, I walk without much direction. Nothing caught my attention but the relaxing sound of my footsteps.

And that's when I heard it... A groan.

The door was ajar, but it was enough for me to understand what was happening.

Darien was sitting on a dark couch, his head thrown back, one hand clutching the leather of the cushion while the other gripped the black strands of hair of the girl kneeling between his legs. She was sucking his member.

The scene in front of me was... surprising.

In my defense, I would like to point out that I did not watch the video for longer than a few seconds. Enough to highlight the expression and the low moans of ecstasy emitted by Darien, the mild enthusiasm of the girl between his legs.

I was curious. With the kind of life I had led, I had never come close to a situation like this, and part of me wanted to.

Maybe it was curiosity or the will to go against the lessons stuck in my mind.

Or maybe it was Darien and the way he made it seem as if it were extraordinary. Maybe, it was I had no way of knowing.

My point is that I didn't watch for more than a few seconds. But it was enough. Golden eyes met mine instantly.

He smiles an odd smile. I turn and leave, my mind replaying what I have just seen.

The door was open, so as I walked away, I could hear the moans growing louder until they stopped altogether.

Then, after only a few seconds, footsteps. Holy shit.

I am walking back to where I left Ace and Lia when a hand on my elbow stops me.

I know what I will find, but I still pray I am wrong when I slowly turn around, bumping into Darien, standing just inches away, his eyes focused on my face.

My face was so hot that it felt like I could change the name of the hallway I was into a volcano.

I swallowed dry, my mind was collapsing, and I automatically stood up, "I didn't want to see, it wasn't intentional, and the door was half open, and I was just taking a walk...you left the door open, and I didn't see...why not?

"Amaya." His sure, slightly husky voice interrupts me, and I shut up. I glance down at my feet, not knowing where to stick my face. "Look at me.

I sighed and slowly lifted my gaze to meet his.

A slight smile remained on Darien's face, less intense than the one from a moment before, but it was still there.

"I don't mind."

I roll my eyes. "Huh?"

"That you saw. I don't mind." He bends down just enough to put his face level with mine and is smiling, growing a little. "You had a slight twinkle in your eye, you know... You looked nothing like someone who didn't want to see that. Fascinating."

Darien has a... fascination with you.

I shake my head, my heart racing in my chest. "I... I... I... I... no."

Darien lets out a nasalized laugh and straightens up, putting a little distance between us.

"I won't mind if you want to do more than watch next time."

With a little wink, he walks away, leaving me alone and slightly confused in the hallway.

"I didn't want to watch that!" I finally voiced, but there was no one left to hear me.