Chapter 4

Annabelle woke up with a blinding pain in her head.

She groaned and wondered what she had done to herself.

As she raised her hand to her head, she could feel something pulling against her hand.

She tried to open her eyes and panicked for a moment as she couldn’t seem to lift her eyelids.

Pain shot through her hand as she tried to pry her eyes open with her fingers.

“You are awake,” a soft voice said close to her.

As if the presence gave them strength, her eyelids finally lifted and she opened her eyes with great relief.

She regretted her action immediately as the light in the room stabbed her eyes.

The pain shot through her throbbing head.

“Why does everything hurt so much?” she wondered as she gritted her teeth and closed her eyes again.

“Oh, I am sorry about that,” the voice said as she felt the person moving away.

“There, that should be better,” said the voice agaain.

She felt the presence of the person by her bedside again as if she was waiting for her to be brave enough to open her eyes.

Then the person moved away again.

Why so much movement? Annabelle groaned inwardly. Then she heard the lady said to someone; “She is awake.”

“Who?” she wondered as she opened her eyes again.

True to her words, the light in the room was better on her eyes this time.

She had muted it and even though it was still uncomfortable to her eyes, it was better.

She saw the IV that was attached to her hand on the big bed she was on.

She raised her other hand despite the pain and saw that her head was heavily wrapped with a bandage.

“What is going on?” she wondered just before she heard the sound of a door opening somewhere.

“How is she?” someone asked.

“Eyes sensitive to the light. They are also dilated by pain.” said the familiar voice.

The footsteps got closer to the bed and she saw a middle-aged man in a medical coat peer down at her.

“Hi, miss. I am Dr. Aguillar. Glad to have you back with us. I am just going to elevate your bed so we can do your examination, okay?”

Before Annabelle could nod, she already felt the bed moving upward.

The lady who had been speaking before smiled at her before Annabelle concentrated on her environment.

She had thought she was in a hospital, but the room she was in was unlike any hospital she had ever seen.

It was more like a bedroom apart from the fact that there were five other beds like the one she was on in the large room.

The other beds were empty, and the shades were drawn.

Annabelle’s eyes caught a man standing close to the door.

She was unsettled by the way he was looking at her.

The dimmed light made his face shadowy, yet her mind tripped with fear.

He looked like…

“Miss? I need you to work with me here,” the kind-looking doctor said.

Annabelle quickly turned her eyes to him and answered all his questions.

As he mentioned things like mild concussion, a little cranial swelling and a need for monitoring, Annabelle had to force her eyes not to go towards the door.

Who was the man?

What was he doing there, like he was waiting to rip her apart?

Where was she?

And why couldn’t she remember how she got there?

The doctor assured her that she would be fine enough to move about soon, but for the moment she had to take things easy.

Before Annabelle could ask the doctor anything, the man stepped back and turned towards the door. “We are done for now.”

“She can talk?” came a hard voice that made Annabelle unconsciously place her hands on the bed and try to back away.

The pain in her hands made her head ring, and she did not hear what the doctor said to him.

By the time she could blink away the tears of pain in her eyes, they were gone.

Terror filled Annabelle’s body as he came closer to her.

He was dressed in an all black suit, shirt and pants.

His harsh, angular face was enough to make her scream, which she could have done if not for the pain in her head which she knew would only get worse.

She felt faint and knew the last thing she wanted was to faint in the presence of a man like that.

His piercing gaze wouldn’t let her look away even if she dared to.

There was a roaring sound in her ears that made her almost miss what he said.

“Who sent you?”

Who? Annabelle tried to remember who had sent her to the hospital.

A fresh wave of panic filled her body when she realised that she couldn’t remember.

How could she not remember anything?

She tried to remember how and where she had the accident.

Who sent her to a place where she was at the mercy of a man who looked like the devil himself?

She was blank.

Anabelle couldn’t remember anything.

“I will not repeat my question,” he said in a chilling voice that made Annabelle cringe.

She shook her head unconsciously and nausea rolled through her in waves.

Darkness leaked at the edge of her vision, but she held on to consciousness.

No, she wouldn’t faint.

She could faint now.

Now in the presence of the strange man looking at her with a passive gaze that terrified her more than anything else.

“Oh, the loyal type,” he said in a bored tone as he bent down and pulled something out of his shoe. Still, without taking his eyes off her, he approached her as he said, “Let’s see how long you can put that up.”

The dim light glinted on the object in his hand before he fully raised it up.

Blood drained out of Annabelle’s head as she saw the lethal stiletto knife. “What…what are you doing?” her pain did not matter to her in the terror that engulfed her as she tried to get off the bed.

He stopped while she was trying to force her body to cooperate. He tapped the blade against his palm while looking at her face. “Let’s see, I can start from your right eye and slowly pluck it out.”

“No, no, no. get away from me.” Annabelle forced out through her patched throat.

Her limbs were not cooperating and he was getting closer.

She yanked off the IV from her hand and turned to roll off the bed.

He was already by the bedside with the stiletto raised.

The terror in her chest came out forcefully in an ear-splitting scream.