Chapter 2 Hell Unveiled
LILA POV
Either I had the worst hangover of my life or I was actually dying. My head felt like it had been split open and stitched back together wrong. Every heartbeat sent a fresh wave of pain crashing through my skull, radiating behind my eyes and down my spine. It wasn’t just pain; it was pressure, thick and suffocating, as though my brain were swelling against my bone.
I groaned softly and immediately regretted it.
Nausea surged violently, my stomach rolling as I forced myself to breathe slowly. Even the air felt hostile. Too fast and I would vomit. Too deep and my head would explode. I settled for shallow, trembling breaths, counting them, clinging to them like a lifeline. Cold air licked at my skin.
That was the first thing that felt wrong. It wasn’t the gentle chill of air conditioning or an open window it was damp, invasive, seeping straight into my bones. My arms prickled with goosebumps, my teeth chattering faintly before I could stop them. I swallowed.
My throat burned. My mouth tasted rancid bitter, metallic, foul. The taste alone made my stomach clench again. My tongue felt thick and useless, glued to the roof of my mouth, my lips cracked and dry. What the hell did I drink?
I squeezed my eyes shut, willing the room to spin less, the pain to ease. I needed to remember. Something, just anything about how I got here. Instead, warmth bloomed.
A memory slipped in, uninvited but comforting.
Nikolai’s laugh echoed softly in my mind low and genuine, the kind that warmed you from the inside out. I remembered the way he used to pull me against his chest whenever I complained about the cold, wrapping his coat around both of us even if it meant he froze.
“Stop shivering,” he’d tease, kissing my temple. “You’re going to give me a complex.”
I remembered lazy mornings, sunlight spilling across white sheets, his fingers tracing idle patterns along my arm. The way he looked at me like I was something precious, something worth protecting.
“You’re safe with me, Lila,” he had murmured once, forehead pressed to mine. “No one will ever hurt you.”
The memory tightened painfully around my heart, then it shattered. When I opened my eyes, gray concrete walls loomed around me.
No sunlight, no warmth and no Nikolai.Ice cold dread crept up my legs, crawling along my spine and settling at the base of my neck. The rough sheets beneath my fingers confirmed it coarse, unfamiliar, nothing like the silk I slept on at home. This wasn’t my bed.
My breath hitched as I looked down at myself.
A thin, yellowed nightgown clung to my body, faded and shapeless, like something pulled from another century. My clothes were gone.
Panic surged, someone has unclothed me and where the hell I'm I?
“Welcome to Hell…”
The words weren’t spoken aloud, but they echoed clearly in my head, paired with a smile I recognized far too well. My heart stuttered.
“Nikolai?” I whispered, hope flaring weakly despite everything but the smile that haunted my memory wasn’t warm. It was dark.
Mechanical air hissed somewhere nearby, the sound sharp in the silence. A section of the wall slid open with eerie smoothness, revealing a hidden door. Pain twisted through my stomach as I pushed myself upright, my head screaming in protest. I pressed my back against the headboard, heart racing and then I saw him.
“Nikolai?” The word escaped me again, louder this time. Hope exploded in my chest, irrational and desperate. He was here, he hadn’t abandoned me as I thought. He hadn’t disappeared but as he stepped fully into the light, that hope died.
His eyes were black void of warmth, burning with something cold and ruthless. Nothing like the man I loved. “What’s going on?” I asked, my voice trembling as fear replaced confusion.
He approached me slowly, holding a box. The light revealed him fully he had darker hair, shaved at the sides, longer on top. A sharp scar carved down his face. He looked older, harder, carved from violence instead of love.
“Hello, Lila,” he said softly. The sound of his voice sent chills racing down my spine. “What is going on?” I whispered.
“First of all,” he said calmly, setting the box on the bed, “let me introduce myself to you.”
I stared at his outstretched hand. “Why would you introduce yourself? I already know you.”
His lips curved faintly. “You don’t know me, Miss Falcone.”
My chest tightened painfully. “You’re the man who broke my heart,” I said. “You disappeared without a word. And now you’ve kidnapped me?”
He stepped closer. “My name is Nico. Nico Moretti. Nikolai was my twin brother.”
The world tilted. My ears rang. “That’s not possible,” I whispered. “Believe me,” he said coolly, “this is no joke.”
Miss Falcone, Nikolai had never called me that and now fear surged as his hand suddenly closed around my neck, pinning me back. I gasped, panic exploding in my chest. “You knew he was a Moretti,” he growled. “How could you not know he had a twin?”
“He told me his name was Romano,” I choked. “Nikolai Romano.”
His grip tightenedthen loosened. “Romano?” he repeated slowly. For the first time, his composure cracked, he stepped back abruptly, dragging a chair closer and sitting down, his eyes never leaving my face. “I can see your family taught you well.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I sobbed loudly, “Humanity makes us lie to survive.”
“I’m not lying!” Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Why am I here?”
He stood so suddenly the chair skidded across the floor. “You’re here because you couldn’t keep your filthy hands off my brother,” he snarled. “Someone must pay for what was taken from my family.”
My heart slammed violently. “That someone,” he said coldly, “is you.”
“I didn’t kill him,” I whispered. “You didn’t pull the trigger,” he said, eyes blazing, “but you might as well have.”
“What are you saying?” My voice broke again, “We buried Nikolai.”
The words crushed the air from my lungs. “No,” I whispered. “That’s not true.”
He turned and left without another word. The door slammed shut after him. I slid down the headboard, shaking, my body curling inward as the silence swallowed me whole. Nikolai was dead and somehow, I was the one being punished for it.
