HIS CLAIM

19

Elsa

“Order some food, I’ll be up soon.”
“Don’t take too long.” I pouted a little that he wouldn’t be going up with me right away.
“I won’t.” He smiled and placed a kiss on my forehead before sending me up.
On the ride up I was thinking about what kind of food I wanted. Since I was so hungry, I couldn’t decide on one thing. Maybe I should just order a bit of everything? Hopefully, Nicholas wouldn’t mind since it was on his tab…
I slowly walked down the hotel hall to make sure I wouldn’t restrain my foot too much. I was halfway to our room when I let out a small groan, suddenly remembering Nicholas had the keycard.
“Just my luck…” I muttered under my breath. Just as I was about to turn around, I froze in place. The handle of our door got pulled down, having my heart pound like crazy.
The door opened.

A man, dressed up in all black from head to toe, even the face was covered, only making the eyes visible, came out of the room. My mind told me to run but my body wouldn’t obey. A heel slipped out of my hand and dropped to the floor. His head immediately snapped in my direction.

For a minute, we just stood there and looked at each other. Then he started to move towards me. Fast.

My eyes widened and I finally found the air in my lungs to let out a scream. But he wasn’t faced by it and fastened his speed. My mind screamed at me to move, and my body finally reacted. I threw the other heel at him and ran.
I ran as fast as I could towards the exit door, knowing the elevator doors wouldn’t open in time. I grabbed the handle, slamming my
body against the door to open it. I was almost out when I felt a pair of hands roughly grab me from behind and throw me on the floor. He threw me with such force the back of my head slammed right into the floor, making my vision blurry.

I groaned in pain and tried to get up, only to cry out in pain when he grabbed me by my hair to get me to my feet.

“Let me go!” I screamed and thrashed around to get out of his hold. But he was much stronger than I was, yanking me by my hair and putting a hand to my mouth to stop me from screaming. I was consumed by fear and panic. He was holding me tightly from behind, trying to get me to still. There was only one thing I could do.

I threw my head back, slamming right into his face.

He grunted in pain and loosened his grip enough for me to break free. Only to fall face-first to the floor.

Adrenaline was pumping in my veins, and my breath came out harshly while I crawled. I was trying to get up but I kept stepping onto my dress, making me fall right down again. My body reacted on its own and kicked him hard right in the face. He groaned and stumbled back, dropping something.

My heart stopped at the sight of the knife he dropped. For once, I quickly reacted and clumsily crawled to get it. He immediately noticed and leaped for the knife. I grabbed the knife and turned around, only for a scream to get caught in my throat when he landed on top of me.

Right into the knife.

He made a sound when the knife plunged right into his stomach. I stared at him wide-eyed, feeling my hands getting wet with his
blood at a fast rate.

“Oh, Gd…” My voice was shaking as I watched him get unconscious. I gulped and wiggled out from underneath him. I stumbled up to my feet, ran to the elevator, and repeatedly, pressing on the button until the doors opened. I kept my eye on him, making sure he wasn’t suddenly running after me. I felt somewhat relieved when the doors closed and I was on my way down.

I was breathing hard and my entire body was trembling. I could barely stand up and had to lean against the panel for support. I looked down at my hands. They were covered in blood. His blood. I tried to remove the sticky red liquid on my hands, but I was only making it worse and spreading it onto my arms.
The doors opened and I stepped out. I was shocked and confused. My mind wasn’t comprehending anything yet I still managed to continue walking. I felt something trickle warm trickle down my face. I put my hand up to my face to wipe it away, only to see more blood on my hand. I stopped in my tracks as I kept wiping my face but only to continue to feel the blood trickle down.