Ticket to Verona

nineteen

~Aria 

*2 months later*

The sound of the door opening again made me close my eyes, fearful of another beating. 

I don't know how long I've been here but it feels like a decade. It's always the same routine as well; wake up, morning beating, pass out, beating, food, beating, sleep. 

Nikolai has been the only thing that has helped me survive this hell. Every evening he comes and helps tend to my injuries and brings me painkillers to help me sleep through the night. I honestly think I would have died already if it wasn't for him. 

"Please, no, I'm begging you-" 

"Ria, It's me." 

The sound of Niko's voice put me at ease. I knew he would never lay a hand on me, he has proven that I could trust him time and time again.

"Niko? Why are you here? Isn't it morning?"

"Yes, but we need to leave." 

"Leave? Where?" 

"I'm getting you out of here. I refuse to stand by another day and watch them torture you. I'm coming with you and I'm going to get you back to Leonardo and your brother."

My mind was conflicted. Of course I wanted to go back to Leo, but I didn't want to put so many people in danger. 

"Ria, you're overthinking this. Look, |I have a car ready for us but we need to leave now before anyone notices." He knelt down and unlocked the chains attaching me to the wall.

He picked me up. "I know your boyfriend will murder me, but you can't walk." He mumbled, running out of the door, locking it after him. 

I could barely keep my eyes open but I noticed that Niko was running through a secret trapdoor. He opened the hatch and asked me to climb down before following me. I was led through an underground tunnel. We were walking for about 20 minutes before we came to another door. Nikolai opened it and helped me up. The warm morning air hit me in the face. this was the first time I had been outside since I was taken. I noticed that we were in a random alley and a car was waiting in front of us. 

Niko opened the car door and helped me into the seat, getting in on the other side. It was then that I realised that there were two other people in the car. The one driving seemed to be a man and the one in the passenger side looked like a woman. 

"Um, sorry, w-who are y-you?" I whispered, slightly cautious of these random strangers. 

When they turned around I gasped and a smile subconsciously made its way to my face. 

In front of me were Gio and Astrid, both grinning.

"Hiya Ria, long time no see." 

"What? How?" I looked back and forth between the two and Niko. "How did you guys?"

"About a week ago I got a random message in morse code from a random laptop. turns out it was Nikolai, telling me that you were in fact not dead and that he needed help in getting you out. I told Astrid and we agreed to help, so here we are." Gio explained. 

"Thank you, all of you. But I have a question."

"Shoot, babycakes." Astrid replied.

"What about Leo? Does he know? or the others." 

There was a moment of silence and then Astrid got out of the car and swapped places with Niko. Gio started driving while Astrid explained everything to me.

"Aria, You've been gone almost 3 months. Two weeks after you were taken, Leo received an image of you, you were unconscious and bleeding out. The Russians had sent it to us, telling us that you were dead. Some of us refused to believe it, but many of us realised that it was probably quite likely that you were dead. 

At that point, Leo lost it. That day, he cried for the first time since I've known him. Everyone mourned your death and since then, Leo has been almost always silent. He only talks when he is giving orders and eats when Bria forces him to. He spends all of his free time in the library, and he even refuses to sleep in his room without you."

poor baby. 

"When he thought you were 'dead' he was broken." Astrid continued "We didn't want to risk giving him hope and endangering his life if it all turned out to be a trap. We're going back to house now, so hopefully, he doesn't murder us all." She laughed nervously. 

"what date is it?" 

"It's May 26th" Astrid told me "half past 11 at night." she finished, looking at her watch. 

it's my birthday tomorrow.

I grinned internally

"okay, what time will we reach the house?" I asked, a yawn escaping my lips. 

"Probably 8 am, we're going to take an hour break as well because it's a long way. get some sleep, babycakes, you need it." She smiled and I nodded, drifting off into sleep.

~Leo

It was her birthday today .

It was going to be the first birthday she had with me. 

It had been almost 3 months since she was taken, but I still haven't been able to accept the fact that she's really gone. 

With a deep breath, I walked into our room. I hadn't been in here for ages but it still held the lingering smell of her. Some of her clothes were strewn across the floor and the bed wasn't made on her side. 

I miss her so much.

He laugh, her smile, her voice, the way she would calm me down, the way she would fit so perfectly in my arms. 

I miss everything about her.

I walked into my wardrobe and opened one of my dresser drawers. I took out the small gift box that I had hidden under my clothes and opened it, trying to hold back the tears.

Inside was a promise ring. 

I had gotten it before she was taken, before we even left for Verona. I decided that I was going to give it to her when I told her I loved her. I was going to promise myself to her. I never got the chance to do that. 

I closed the ring box sharply, exhaling a breath I never realised I was holding. I walked out into my room and sat on the edge of the bed, my head bowed down to the carpet. I don't know how long I was sitting there before I heard my name being frantically called by multiple people. 

I ran out of my room, prepared for any intruder holding my gun out in front of me, my finger on the trigger. I was met with Theo and Enzo running up to me, tears glistening in both of their eyes. 

"What the fuck? Didn't I tell you I didn't want to be disturbed today." 

"A-Aria." Theo stuttered. 

"Aria's alive, she's here." 

~~~

Author's Note:

I could never kill off my main character, I'm a sucker for happy endings in all honesty.

thank you for reading!<3