| Fan Fiction |
by mango
“If you don’t mind me asking, just exactly where are we heading?” She muttered, her eyes darted from Sammul to Bosco for a clear answer. Unfortunately, she could tell how stubborn they were, keeping their lips tightly sealed, didn’t even intend to explain the situation to her. Not that she needed them to, Tavia, herself, had already made a wild guess. She just wanted more details and confirmation. And it didn’t help much when the windows were completely blocked with curtains, shutting her off from the view of the outside world.
“I’d tell you, but it wouldn’t be fun,” Bosco replied jokingly. Slowly, the car came to a stop as Bosco and Sammul exchanged looks in the front. If they think Tavia hadn’t caught it, they were so wrong.
Sammul glanced back at her. “We’re here. Let’s go in, Tavia.” Although she didn’t have a good feeling about this, she nodded her head, anyway.
“Meet you there,” Bosco said quietly before turning his attention towards Tavia. “Happy Birthday.” He had a strange look on his face as he said so. It was like he found something hilarious behind the meaning and she couldn’t decipher it. Tavia thanked him politely as she headed out with Sammul, walked along side him to wherever he was taking her. Tavia noticed that Bosco had stopped the car right in front of a dark alleyway. Worse, it was a dead end, so why didn’t Sammul stop? Beside the alley, a few meters away, was the main entrance to a night club. Tavia caught sight of the two bouncers in front, performing their tasks and in front of them, stood a long queue of bodies. The hot pink neon sign flashed in the dark, but she didn’t catch the club’s name. Tavia refrained herself from asking Sammul more questions, afraid that she would annoy the heck out of him. She simply followed his lead as he advanced forward, nearing the brick wall at the end. He stopped a few feet away before they could’ve crashed into or even touched the dead end. Then, she finally noticed the rusty, old door against the side wall. It took a good 2 minutes when the door opened and out came a large built man. His hair messily spiked up, his muscles flexed as he pushed the gate open. The shirt he was wearing seemed too small for him. She felt extremely intimidated. This guy can knock her over any day, anytime, anywhere.
“Sam gor,” he greeted Sammul respectively. “Tavia jeh, you’re here too.” He slightly bowed down to her. No one had ever greeted her like that as if she was the heiress to a notorious pack. The gesture made her feel strange yet, surprisingly, made a huge lift in her self-esteem. What made her even more bewilder, was the fact that she had never met this man in her life, but he knew her. Sammul whispered something into his ear as he nodded his head in compliance, then, hurried along. Inside, there was only a flight of stairs that descended to the bottom. Sammul and Tavia made their way down with Sammul leading the way. At the bottom of the staircase was a long corridor. It didn’t look too bad as she would’ve thought, initially. The interior was way better than the exterior yet it still gave her the chills. The huge, double doors faced her from the end of the corridor. There were 3 wooden doors on the right and 2 on the left. One of the door, located on the right, was opened, the lights illuminated from room as she heard the shuffling of someone’s feet. A head popped out and made Tavia jump back in fright for she didn’t expect it at all.
“Sam gor! Sam gor is here!” The guy, around 18 years of age, hollered for attention. Soon, the rest of the men, with a few women dressed in dark clothing, came running out as they lined themselves up. Needless to say, Tavia was speechless. The words – vocabulary - were robbed from her.
Sammul nodded his head and clapped his hands as they all slightly relaxed. “Today is Tavia’s bir—“ Sammul didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence when they tensed up, once again, straightened their back and all attention was focused beyond where Sammul was standing.
“Boss!” Everyone said in unison, loud and clear like they were afraid they couldn’t be heard. Tavia whipped her head around to find Raymond nodding his head, an indication that meant he had heard them and acknowledged it. Yet it was not only him alone, but he was supporting someone else beside him. That someone was injured as well. His left arm was bleeding profusely. Raymond had placed his hand atop the wound to stop the crimson liquid from flowing out.
“Chris!” One girl shrieked and ran up to Chris as a few also rushed over to help him. Tavia felt nauseous at the sight; she didn’t feel like asking what happened to him either.
“Bring him into the room,” Raymond ordered. A quarter of the crowd obediently did as told. Those that were left behind started firing numerous questions at Raymond. “Please, one question at a time,” he pleaded softly. “On the way back, we ran into a little…incident.” For a split second, she felt his eyes on her. “Chris should be fine. You did not explain it to them?” Raymond asked Sammul.
“Not yet,” he answered truthfully, without a single hint of fright, unlike the others.
“Hm,” Raymond pondered. “You may tell them. I saw Bosco on the way. He seems to be enjoying himself. Maybe you could stop him from having too much fun.”
“He’s been waiting for this. I really should get going before he decides to crack any more skulls,” Sammul suggested as he pointed to a few men to come along with him.
Tavia blinked at the disappearing figures, blankly. Everything was still in a mess for her. Standing in the spot, frozen, she tried to calm her nerves. When she blinked again. Raymond was already by her side. His hands were still covered in Chris’ blood. He must’ve seen the frown on her face and said, “Will you wait for me in there?” Tavia followed his gaze towards the double doors. “I will go and clean up.”
“Okay…” she mumbled, making her way to the room. With both hands on the knob, she pushed it open. Prior to what Tavia had thought, there was no bed in this room, but only a couch centered against the wall and in front of the large plasma screen. To the right was a small bar. Tavia made her way over there as she examined the mini fridge and polished countertop. Hanging from the top were some wine glasses. There was not a lot in the fridge, but it wasn’t like they could cook here nor would one stay for dinner. Heck, she didn’t think anyone was allowed in here except Raymond and maybe, Tavia, but that was a different story. As she was exploring the area, she noticed there was a small washroom with a bathtub slightly covered with dust, but she didn’t think anyone would’ve used it, anyway. Her body automatically jerked when the door creaked open and closed with a ‘click’.
“Oh!” She sighed with relief.
Raymond’s brows furrowed. “Did I scare you?”
Immediately, she shook her head. “No, I just thought – never mind. How is…Chris?”
“He will be fine,” Raymond assured as he approached her and took a hold of her hands. Her palms began to sweat; she was still hesitant about this close proximity between them. “I’m sorry,” he apologized suddenly.
She was puzzled. “W-Why?” Tavia frowned.
“For creating a mess on your birthday. You should be smiling,” he mumbled, his thumbs lightly brushed the corner of her lips. “Not frowning.”
“I-it’s n-not your f-faul-t…” she stuttered, uncontrollably as she grabbed onto his hand in a secretive attempt to remove it from her face. It made her uncomfortable, nervous yet warm all at the same time and she didn’t know how to correctly deal with that. Taking in a deep breath, Tavia lifted her head up to meet his gaze; she grinned, he did too.
“Happy birthday, love.” He leaned in and placed a soft kiss upon her lips. Tavia closed her eyes, tightly, allowing no lights to seep through. She responded to him, very slowly, but even as she did so, only two words repeatedly played in her mind, I’m sorry. His lips molded against her perfectly, expertly. Her head began to spin, it felt ever so light. A part of her could not lie that she did not enjoy it, because she did, so terribly.
What was she doing?
He pulled away and then reached into his pocket. Tavia watched in silence. A second later, in his hand held a small box with a red ribbon on top. She feared as she wished it would not turn out to be a ring. He wouldn’t be asking for her hand in marriage so soon, would he? Definitely not, she assured herself. He opened it to reveal a silver ring with a small blue zircon diamond and a peridot diamond, side by side. “Do you like it?” Tavia gulped.
“I…can’t..” She denied, shaking her head.
His face fell. “You don’t like it?”
“Yes – no – I mean, it must’ve been expensive,” she stammered.
He smiled in relief. “Then, all the more, please accept.” Raymond left her no time to protest and reached out for her hand, securing the ring on to her finger. She sighed inwardly. She knew that no matter how much she refused, he would not listen. It was beautiful, but…she couldn’t accept this now.
Her head snapped up. “What is happening?”
He was silent, searching for the right words. “Just a little misunderstanding.” A little misunderstanding that resulted in a bleeding man and back-ups needed? She didn’t think so. He examined her expression thoroughly. “You don’t seem to believe me?”
“Please, tell me what is really going on,” she replied firmly and eagerly. It wasn’t like she was kept in oblivion; Tavia knew what their profession was. “I can’t convince myself that it’s just ‘a little misunderstanding’.”
“What can I do to convince you then?” She did not reply. Raymond paused, didn’t want to scare her. “Troubles from an old friend. Bosco and Sammul should be okay. A few of Ron Ng’s m--”
“Ron Ng?” Tavia croaked, nervously.
Raymond tilted his head and looked at her curiously. “Do you know him?”
She shook her head vigorously. “No, no, of course not! But..I’ve heard…of him. I think…it was Sammul or Bosco…th-they mentioned h-his name…something…about him…also…” Tavia avoided his gaze at all cost.
“Hm. Really? I sh—“
“Oh!” She exclaimed in a panic. Her heart pounded against her rib cage. He can’t find out. She had to stop him from asking. “How come…” Tavia surveyed the area for an excuse to change the topic and the first thing her eyes landed on was the mini fridge. She blurted the first thing she could think of. “How c-come the…the mini fridge is so mini?” As the words left her mouth, she bit her lips in embarrassment. She must’ve sounded like a fool. She took a glance at his perplexed expression; he was totally lost. Tavia would’ve been equally confused if someone asked her that question.
Raymond continued to stare at Tavia, trying to comprehend her question. He saw the pink blush creep its way unto her soft cheeks. He chuckled merrily, fascinated with her outburst. “You amuse me, love.”
Dear Lord, please grant her a wish to disappear.