And Then It Rained (Sequel to Rain Again; Stand Alone Book) (Completed)

Chapter Two: The Evil One

There were many times in her life when she had felt pain. It hurt when her father slapped her across the face because she snuck out with her high school friends to a party wearing a miniskirt. Her cousin, Ricky, the faketard was a constant pain at her side during her high school years—pulling her hair hard from her skull or twisting her arm until it bruised whenever he saw it necessary to discipline her. After all, her father had given Ricky the role of a CCTV camera so that he could monitor her modesty from afar. She could list down too many of such incidents the hands of men in her life had left symbols of dominance on her skin.

Nevertheless, she believed she had climbed out of that dark chapter with great struggles. She had a successful career in photography, made some money, and moved out of her father's house.

Yet here she was, lying under a man's beating hand—a man who seemed to have lost his mind at that moment. 

And her eyes burned and overflowed from the agony.

However, she didn't know when she started screaming when his second punch connected to her ribcage. But even the strongest warrior would have done the same too. Saliva sprayed out of her mouth. She coughed from the excruciating ache below her breast. Her head spun, and she saw little, swirly sprinkles all over the shadowy ceiling. 

She heard the noises of people progressing with hollers and gasps. Strangely, it felt like those noises were coming from the end of a long tunnel. 

Was she dying?

Did death feel so utterly painful?

Nah. The next moment she dismissed the notion. She had seen the moment her mother had passed away. She could never forget how peaceful she looked. It was like her mother was staring at the beautiful angels descending to pluck her soul.

Angels never yelled this way, did they? 

As her vision and ears reverted back to normal, she hissed, realizing the vice grip around her arm. 

What now? Was he attempting to rip her hand out of her shoulder now so she couldn't click another photo in her life? Well, if that was the case, then she was bloody going to start taking photos with her foot and shove it down her masochist family and ex-fiance's royal throat. But she would not bend, no way in hell.

Her eyes registered an irritated-looking Ricky removing Adi from her. 

"Hey! Stop. Hey, man!" Ricky hissed. "We can get in deep sh*t if she dies or anything. Let's go, man."

She tried to roll further away from these lunatics but groaned when even the littlest movement hurt like a b*tch. 

More footsteps entered the room in the next few seconds as Ricky was trying to drag the still-enraged Adi out of the room. She recognized the motel's manager and the staff who brought her clothes earlier. 

There was this other face she recognized, and she was fairly surprised by his presence there. "Alex?" she murmured in confusion. Wasn't it Alex Leon? The CEO of his now-bankrupted family business—Quartz. But what was he doing here in this motel?

She watched Alex fly in faster than anyone else. He looked at her and his face squared in shock and fury. The next thing she saw was him crossing the distance to Adi and Ricky and placing one on each one of their jaws. 

"Umph"

"Ahh..."

She couldn't enjoy the relief of her survival and the satisfaction of them getting hurt for much longer. White, blurry shadows began to surround her and were closing in. Along with a few more faces, Alex's face blurrily cut through those shadows. They all had sympathies on their faces—it was an emotion she didn't want from them. She tried to move her body, sit up, lift up her chin—anything that would make her look less of a victim. But instead, what happened was she fell into the numbing lap of unconsciousness.