Ill-Fated (Phantom Troupe x Reader) [Soulmate AU]

7.

Authors Note: A little shorter this time since I've been very busy with life... More coming soon)

You took another shaky breath, attempting to calm yourself down a little. The room was dark and stifling, but at least its darkness afforded you the privacy you needed to cry. Your reddened and puffy eyes stung as you wept out your frustrations. You were grieving all the sacrifices you've made in your past just as much as you were grieving for the future you lost when you bumped into Phinks. It must have been less than twenty-four hours ago that you were drinking bitter coffee in the small kitchenette of the New York apartment, but it felt like a lifetime has passed since then. In that time, you had been captured and taken to god knows where. Wherever this abandoned hovel you were now in was located, you knew it was somewhere nobody would find you. Of course, what could they even do if someone did find you? Call the police? As if that'd work.

You weren't sure how long had passed since you were first left alone in the room, but you began to calm down. Your mind has run you rugged with the what-ifs, so you sat in the darkness, exhausted and alone. Your fingers reached numbly for your stinging wrist, activating your Nen. You felt the cooling sensation of your special ability, relieving the pain in your wrist. You repeated the process with your other wrist and both your ankles. 'At least I still have my Nen. At least it's stronger now.' You thought, your mind desperately trying to search for a silver lining. The rest of your night went by in a restless blur. After struggling to sleep the whole night, eventually, you finally succumbed to a dreamless slumber in the early hours of the morning. 

You woke up to that ungodly scrape of metal against the concrete as the large sheet blocking the entrance slid across the ground. The exit revealed the wifebeater-clad broad chest of a tall man from yesterday. One of your soulmates, Uvogin, entered the room, giving you a patronizing wide smile that made you feel even more uneasy around him. You stayed in place, propping yourself up in your cot.

"Sleep well?" Uvogin asked, but you were sure he didn't actually care about your answer.

Uvogin walked over to the tiny bed upon which your frame lay. The previous night, he noticed a change in himself: a strange sensation of something missing, a magnetic force calling him to be near you again. Now towering above you, he couldn't help but admire how powerless you were compared to him; it was an addictive feeling of power. Reaching down, he picked you up from the bed. Your muscles tensed under his grasp, but he knew you wouldn't move.  He relished in the warmth that traveled up his arms when he held you; he savored that feeling of overwhelming strength he experienced near you. 

Your brain was still training to escape the fog left over from last night's tears and sleeplessness when you felt yourself get picked up by the tall, muscular brute. His hands grabbed you under your armpits, lifting you off the sullied mattress you had been lying on and lifting you into the air. He was warm, and his touch also made your body flood with warmth. If he was literally anybody else other than a maniac who was holding you hostage, the sensation might have been pleasant. Alas, you were not so lucky. 

"Time to go; the boss is waiting!" With those words, you were nonchalantly thrown over the giant's shoulder as he exited the door.

Once Uvogin set you back on your feet, he promptly exited as you tried to process what was happening: you were never a morning person. A man was sitting upon a mountain of rubble piled against the opposite wall of the room. Upon the top of the rubble, illuminated by the glowing sunrise, he seemed almost ethereal, like some kind of disciple. His energy was something else too and you couldn't look away from him. He was tall, with slicked-back dark hair and a red cross tattoo on his forehead. His large, dark grey eyes flicked up from the book he was reading to meet yours, and he smiled at you.

A disarming kind of smile that seemed dangerously real. But you knew better. You knew this man was the source of all your problems, the head of the spiders, who probably ordered his goons to find you.

Shutting his book, he turned his full attention to you and faced you directly. He reached out his hand toward you in a come hither kind of way.

"Ah, so there you are."