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Elena remembers getting pushed down by her stepmother to the hardwood floor of their newly built estate outside the Esid capital, and she remembers the exact pain that shot up from her side to her arm. Hitting that wooden floor with full force, watching her stepmother stare down at her like it didn't matter much, made her understand what it means to be born a woman here.
Whether she stays on the ground, or gets up, she's in danger either way. Staying down means letting her push her again, letting others hurt her, leaving her safety up to others' kindness and help. But fighting back means that there is a chance of losing, and losing is almost always more violent than simply giving up.
She had to make a choice that day, the first time she was pushed down. A choice between getting up and fighting back, or laying there and not doing anything. Her choice would come to define her relationship with her stepmother, her relationship with her family and her relationship with life in general. The choice she made that day made her the person she is.
She stood up, and she pushed her back.
But choosing to fight back is not a simple choice. It comes with consequences. Once you pick up your boxing gloves and learn how to fight, you can never put them down again, you can never stop fighting. The better you become at defending yourself, the more violence will find you.
Elena knew that every day after her choice of standing up, would be a fight for survival, in one way or another. But it was better than letting her fate be controlled by someone else, letting her safety be in others' hands. So, she picked up her boxing gloves, both figuratively and literally, and learned how to fight. How to defend herself, and how to fight back.
Not just against her stepmother, but against anyone in her way. If her brothers would ever hit her, she would hit them back harder. If a trained assassin would come to get her, she'd kill them before they'd kill her. She was ready for anything, because that day, she chose to put her life in her own hands. And that is a heavy responsibility. One that she sometimes forgets, when business and papers and numbers take over her brain. But one that she rarely is allowed to forget for long.
"This meeting better not take long." Today is one of those days. One of the days where she almost forgets how to fight. She tries to rub the tiredness out of her eyes, and grumbles as her feet drag across the concrete floor. She's lost count over how many hours she's been awake, but honestly it doesn't matter anymore. She's managed to squash as many news articles and as much buzz as possible over her company's failure, and gathered enough small to mid-sized investment projects to at least dampen the criticism. As long as Vera manages to get that huge project from Elsi before the month is over, everything is going to be fine.
Right now though, things are still shit. Other than damage control, she also has to keep her father happy to avoid him switching sides over to her brother, and by extension, all the executives over at VOID Group. That's where she's headed now. A meeting, for damage control. A few convincing words, smoothly placed threats and propositions for the future should smoothen things over with them, so that they won't feel obligated to vote for her brother once the vote actually takes place.
Elena is tired, though, and she hasn't been home in days. She's hardly in the mood for pleasing the upper management at VOID Group right now, but she finds herself walking towards her car in the underground VOID Investment company parking lot, followed by three bodyguards, two of whom are Doscorian.
Elena turns to look at them as they walk, remembering that she is usually only followed by Cyrus and not any guards. "Once we get to VOID Group, you three stay by the car. I don't need others noticing the increased security, it just projects weakness." If they see her like this at VOID Group, it definitely won't help her 'everything is fine' point to get across to the members of the board.
Where is Cyrus, anyway?
Elena is too tired to remember any of this. She does remember something about him mentioning important things to do over at Venus Foundation B, and she also remembers waving him off with a stressed frown. But now more than ever, she's starting to miss his presence. Cyrus' level headedness is often needed when Elena needs a reminder of how she is supposed to act. Cold, unapproachable, scary and always one step ahead of everyone else.
She's so tired, though. So tired, in fact, that her car which is only a few meters in front of her now becomes blurry and abstract. That's why, at first, she doesn't fully react when one of her security guards leans in, stops walking and talks loud enough for all of them to hear.
"Security alert, ma'am."
It takes a full three seconds for her to process those words. When she does, a question barely has time to leave her mouth before the tyres of a black van squeak loudly against the concrete floor. "What?" Two vans pull up right next to them, driving way too fast for the underground parking lot and barely stopping before running into them. The bodyguards look at each other before the doors of the car have even opened.
"I'm calling for increased security."
"Alert the cops, too. This is an attack."
The doors open just as he says it, and a dozen masked men pour out of the two vehicles. Elena feels awake for the first time in days. All the tiredness leaves her body, and she stands in complete shock as the bodyguards take protective stances. Elena doesn't let herself be shocked for long, though. The reason she increased security was because she knew this would be a risk. That somebody would want to hurt her, most likely Esias.
So, instead of standing around all surprised and unable to do anything, Elena grows angry.
"What's this supposed to be?"
She spits on the ground in front of her, watching with a tired, annoyed expression as the group of masked men close them in. Her bodyguards look around, glancing back at Elena for any direction on what to do. Elena does nothing but eye the unfamiliar men up and down, trying to figure out who they are. Black masks, large and built, all of them with rather obvious Doscorian features and yet without a single familiar face in sight.
It's weird. Elena knows a big part of the Doscorian community here in the capital. In a group of ten, which these men are, she should at least be able to recognise one, if not two. But none of them are familiar and that bothers her a lot.
"We've notified the police and the other security guards. Run now, before anything worse happens."
One of Elena's bodyguards tries to communicate with the group of unfamiliar men, showing the alert button on his watch to tell them that it's true. They only edge in closer, and one of them even dares to scoff. "We'll be done before they arrive." His ominous tone is hidden behind some kind of voice-changing filter, but the strong Doscorian accent is still quite clear.
Elena is less curious about his scare tactics, and more interested in what his accent says about him. While her bodyguards have spent a long time in Esidian with smooth accents that are barely noticed in their everyday life, these men are clearly newer to the country. It's like they've read scary sentences in an Esid dictionary on the plane and came straight here from the airport.
Whoever hired them wanted everything to be as neutral and as anonymous as possible, they wanted outsiders to do the job, someone from Doscor with no connections to the Doscorian community here. No strings attached, no leads to follow.
Elena puts her phone in her back pocket, and stretches her neck from side to side. There are a lot of them, and they could very well overpower her and her bodyguards. But she won't go down without a fight. They've got two minutes until other security guards get here, ten minutes until the cops do. She can work with that.
"Usually I'd threaten to fuck your mom, but since I'm married I'll have to let you off easy."
Elena remembers getting pushed down to that hardwood floor by her mother. She remembers that, and then she remembers standing up and pushing her back. She remembers how good it felt. And she remembers how good it has always felt to fight, to train, to punch something until her knuckles feel numb under the thick red boxing gloves.
Today she's without gloves, and not in a fancy gym with her trainer. But today she isn't alone either, and she's more than happy to fight for her life. She's more than capable, too. Elena turns to her bodyguards, a smile on her face not reflecting the seriousness of the moment. "Beat them til they find the balls to take their masks off, got it? Until the cops get here, everything is self defense." Her bodyguards look back at her, and when they see her smile, they can't help but nod and smile too.
The masked men don't stall for time after that. They practically lunge forward, several of them going straight for Elena. It's like they're here to kill. That's what it feels like, when she dodges punches so hard they could crack her skull open. But Elena is pretty sure they're just very well prepared. They know she can fight, and they won't underestimate her for a second. They are professionals.
Elena's profession is being a CEO. She's studied business, not fighting. But she knows enough from private lessons with a former boxing champion. She dodges, presses her chin inwards against her throat, balls her hands into fists and punches right back whenever given the opportunity.
Her bodyguards do their best to fight off the masked men, despite there being only three of them and ten of their opponents. She has to fight off a fair share, kicking them in the back of the knee, punching them in the gut, targeting their eyes and throats, even managing to kick one right in the groin to the point of him collapsing to the floor.
They are completely surrounded. Elena's heartbeat picks up. After avoiding the third punch in a span of five seconds, her head spins and the fourth fist lands square over her chin. Her head snaps to the side but she turns right back around, punching them back, and then kicking them back before avoiding yet another attacker.
After thirty seconds, her focus is mostly on trying to keep them off her rather than fighting back. Elena manages to land a punch on someone's face but they punch her right back. One of the attackers manages to wrap their hand around her throat, and Elena claws at his grip with a grimace on her face. She looks at whoever it is, straight in the eyes through their black mask, and he notices that he has her attention. That, for some reason, gets him to talk.
"We've got your wife, you know." Elena stops clawing at his grip, just for a split second. Her eyes widen, and her heart drops to her stomach, even though she's the one in a chokehold. His expression brightens up behind the mask when he notices how bothered she got from his words, and that makes him continue. "In an ambush, just like this one."
Elena sees red. She stops clawing at his grip and pushes her arms between his, forcing them apart and away from her throat. As soon as she's free, even as red marks form around her throat, she punches him repeatedly in the face, again and again. She's so fast and so enraged that he doesn't have time to keep up. He only stumbles backwards, and eventually onto the floor. Elena finally stops, but not before kicking him where he lies, and spitting out: "Poor choice of words."
They end up being her last words in that fight, though, because her anger had made her blind to the other attackers around her, who had just been watching him try to choke her out. Before she can even get a chance to look around, something hard hits her right in the back of the head, and she collapses to the floor right next to the man she just beat herself.
Elena thinks it might be over for her, when she lies there in a mixture of her and the attacker's blood. There are footsteps around her, and she fully expects one of them to kick her or punch her. But she hadn't realized how much time had passed, and apparently, neither had the masked men. Before she knows it, there are loud yells, a warning shot fired up into the air, footsteps everywhere, and two cars speeding away.
Her mind is unfocused. Time moves both too fast and too slow. She has no idea if she's okay, if her bodyguards are okay or who is around her. Who is picking her up, where the sirens are coming from, and why she is suddenly lying on a more comfortable surface. Her vision is blurry and something in her head is thumping really hard, it's difficult to even hear her own thoughts. The only actual coherent thought and worry that punches through her brain is Hollie.
Hearing about Hollie being ambushed like this, thinking about her being ambushed like this... it was both her savior and her downfall. It saved her from that chokehold, but it made her so angry she couldn't think straight. She was dumb, and she got hit. And yet all she can think about, still, is Hollie.
The horror in her stomach won't leave. Grabbing onto the nearest blurry person-like figure around, Elena tries to rasp out a: "Is Hollie okay?", but it's difficult to talk properly, and she doesn't know if they understand her. Instead, she hears their voices, like they're coming through water, and their words don't give her any consolation.
"Let's get you to the hospital, Mrs Void. You're going to be alright."
Elena has never felt so powerless, so silenced in her life. All she needs to know is if Hollie is okay, and yet all she can do is let them push her into an ambulance while not answering her questions. She can't even stop herself from passing out, before she does. She can't do anything.
Elena welcomes a dark and blurry sleep with worry wrenched into her gut.
"Are you spying on me?"
The underground parking lot beneath her university is rather dark and plain, with only three exits and barely any bright lightning. Today is a quiet day for her school, apparently, because there aren't many cars around either. Just her car, (or the one her driver drives her around in), that is standing in the very corner of the parking hall.
Hollie takes brisk steps towards that car, her footsteps echoing against the concrete floor almost as loudly as Vera's voice, coming through the speaker of her phone. Her bodyguards won't stop glancing at her, probably because they can hear every single word.
Hollie's patience is running thin. It's not anger, that she is feeling, or even annoyance. The underlying emotion behind her harsh tone is nervousness. She can't believe that she is talking to Vera, of all people, over the phone. Hollie doesn't even remember ever giving Vera her number. In fact, she probably never did. And yet here they are, talking on the phone like it's normal.
A few months ago, this would've been crazy. Now, Hollie has the guts to actually snap at her from the other side of the line. Vera! The CEO, powerful socialite. Hollie used to be this semi-rich girl that was always kept behind lock and key, the youngest, and a daughter of a family that had fallen off the gala invite lists long before she was even born. But now she is Elena's wife, and that means that she is someone.
Clinging onto someone else for support is probably not the best way to gain confidence, but for Hollie, any way is a way. Her broken ego will cling onto anything for confidence. And now that she has kissed Vera, the nervousness that claws at her throat over how Vera is finally going to react when they talk about it is enough to have every bit of her confidence working overtime. Finally taking up space, finally allowing herself to be snappy, finally putting her foot down. The scoff on the other line is quick to put a stop to that parade, though.
"Take a look around, darling. You honestly think I don't know everything you do?"
Vera's voice echoes through her phone, and Hollie feels cornered. She looks up at the bodyguards around her, who are walking in a rectangular formation to keep her closed-in and safe. Their eyes, that never land on her, have clearly been watching. And their ears, that never seem to listen, hear every word that she says.
Suddenly, she feels so angry at her bodyguards. They are nothing but spies. Who needs bodyguards anyway? Certainly not her. If she talks to Erland, that's her business. These bodyguards are useless and only work against her. She's been perfectly safe since getting married and that isn't going to change today. Hollie scoffs, and lifts her mouth up to her phone to make sure her words get through loud and clear.
"I'm hanging up."
"Don't talk to Erland anymore."
Vera cuts through her sentence before she can even finish, and Hollie slows down in her footsteps. Her bodyguards slow down, too, mirroring her movements. Vera's commanding, almost rushed voice sends waves of mixed emotions through her.
On one hand, wow.
Hollie kind of likes Vera's voice when it sounds like that. Commanding, not leaving any room for argument. But her brain is quickly confused because she is torn between finding it attractive, and knowing that Vera probably didn't mean it like that.
Is Vera commanding her because she is jealous? Because that would be attractive. Or is she commanding her to not talk to Erland because she is protecting Elena's image and their marriage in the public eye? Because if that's the truth, which Hollie is pretty sure that it is, then she can do nothing but scoff and respond in a frosty tone. "Is that an order?"
"Yes."
Vera's response comes immediately, like she doesn't even take time to think about it, which is quite unlike her. Hollie wants to take that as a good sign, a sign that Vera is driven by something impulsive rather than her own self interest. But Hollie can't allow herself to imagine that Vera would even be attracted to a single hair-strand on her head, so instead of complying, she fights back.
"Too bad I'm not one of your workers, Vera. I don't take orders from you, or from Elena."
It's quiet on the other line for a while. Her bodyguards glance at her, probably surprised by how clearly she's laying out what she wants to say. Hollie kind of regrets her words the moment they leave her mouth.
Who is she to challenge Vera? She accepted this marriage, knowing that both Elena and Vera have immense power in this country, and she has nothing. Knowing that she has no allies to rely on, and that making an enemy of her wife and her wife's girlfriend probably isn't smart. Considering that they are the only people she knows in this world of rich people, apart from Erland of course.
She senses that she might have taken it a bit too far with her little rebellion, and she proves herself right when Vera's next few words hold a warning tone. "Don't push it. I know Elena spoils you and lets you do whatever you want, but I'm not as nice as she is." Hollie holds her tongue, her footsteps much slower than before. Elena spoils her? Hollie wants to scoff and argue back, but she doesn't find the right words to say.
There is an angel and a devil in her head, both saying two different things. On one hand, the devil screams 'dusting trophy wife' at her at the top of its lungs. On the other hand, the angel recognises the truth in Vera's words. The dresses and the jewelry, the freedom to do whatever she wants in just six months time, the beautiful apartment (no matter how badly furnished), and the attention. Increasing her security, worrying about her even when her company is plummeting.
Hollie wants to argue back, because this entire marriage is a burning dumpster fire. Everything is a mess and yet she has felt more alive than ever before in these past few weeks... Hollie can't help it. She feels confused, Vera's words both don't make any sense and confuse her so immensely that before she can come up with anything to say, Vera has already calmed down, and is saying something else.
"You have to be on the right side, Hilarie. These are difficult times."
Hollie snaps back into reality, and shakes her head despite knowing that Vera can't see it. "Whatever. You called because of-" she has to swallow the rest of her sentence, though, because squeaking tyres echo in the parking hall and cut her off. Two black vans pull up right by where they are standing, cutting off their path to their car.
Hollie steps back, looking around, confused. Her bodyguards look rather more concerned than confused. She watches with a sinking feeling in her stomach as the car doors slide open and a whole group of masked men jump out. One of her bodyguards immediately turns to her, grabbing her by the arm. "Ma'am, please hide. Run to that car."
He gestures at a large black car standing off to the side, and when she doesn't respond, he simply drags her off towards it while the other bodyguards block the men's view of where she is going. Hollie can hear them talking angrily in both Esidian and Doscorian, but it all blends together as her heartbeat is loud in her ears, blocking off all other noise. Through her growing panic, she can hear Vera's worried voice from her phone.
"Hilarie? What's going on?"
Her mouth moves before she can even think of something to say, and she barely recognises her own voice. "I don't know, there are people here, I have to run." Shock runs deep in her veins, pumping through her bloodstream, and it leaves her feeling dislocated from her body. When her knee hits something hard, a swear word leaves her mouth, but she doesn't even feel the pain. "Fuck." Her bodyguard forcefully pushes her behind that car, and pushes her down to crouch down.
"Where are you?"
Vera's voice echoes from her phone, but it's buried beneath the sounds of yelling and punching and people being thrown to the concrete ground only a few steps away. Hollie shrinks in on herself and hugs her body close. She isn't prepared for this. She has never felt danger, seen danger or been around danger in her whole life. Shock takes over her whole system, her whole brain and her whole body.
She barely registers her bodyguard as he bends down to her level, and looks straight into her eyes. "Stay here, we've alerted the police but we'll have to fight them off until they arrive." With that, he quickly leaves her side, but Hollie doesn't register it until he's gone. Once she snaps back to reality, she's all alone with echoing sounds of a bloody fight forcing into her ears.
Hollie has no idea how much time has passed, or where her phone is. She tries to keep as silent as possible, knowing that she should probably try to run away somewhere, but also recognising that if she stood up right now, her legs would buckle under her weight. Besides, she can't leave. If there was a way out, her bodyguard would've taken her there. Instead she is stuck behind that car, hearing her bodyguards fight for their lives as the sounds seem to only grow louder and louder.
Nobody prepares for a moment like this. Hollie had always thought she'd be capable of thinking, running, acting if faced with danger. But she finds herself paralyzed, unable to even think for herself. It's a horror of a situation. She has left her safety and her life in the hands of others, relied on the kindness and help of others to survive, and it truly is terrifying.
In that moment, she blames her father for not preparing her for the dangers of the world, hates herself for being such a sheltered and scared person, and longs for the moment when this will all be over.
In the middle of it all, as she is hiding her face in her hands, all she can do is wish for someone to show up and save her. Elena would know what to do in a moment like this, and so would Vera. She prays, over and over again, that the next face she sees is the face of Elena or the face of Vera. That this will all be over soon. But the next face she sees is the sickeningly amused face of a masked man, suddenly standing right above her with a twinkle in his eye.
"There you are. Not a very good hiding place."
Even though she can't understand a single word that leaves his mouth, Hollie doesn't have to guess for long. Before he has even finished his sentence, the unfamiliar man grabs her by the hand and forces her up. Her legs feel like jelly, and she struggles to support herself. But the will to fight kicks in quickly after that. "Let me go!" Hollie does everything she can to rip herself free, even as his nails dig into her hand hard enough to draw blood.
He tries to drag her away, and she pulls in the opposite direction, even going as far as to lean her entire body weight downwards. The man takes exactly ten seconds of that before he stops, grumbles something in Doscorian and then slaps her right across the face. Hollie's head snaps to the side, and tears spring into her eyes just from the pain. But she turns her head back around, and keeps fighting without saying a word.
This time, she finds the strength to kick his legs. Once she kicks hard enough, he grows frustrated and stops again. "Stupid bitch." Hollie regrets fighting back when he raises his fist, and she closes her eyes. She fully expects to be punched right across the face.
"Not so fast."
But the punch never comes. Instead, a deep, monotonous and familiar voice cuts through the air. Hollie breathes in, and snaps her eyes open. Relief washes over her body like rain on a hot summer's day. Her eyes brighten, and the horror that had been engraved into her chest loosens up and disappears in an instant.
"Cyrus!"
Elena's trusted secretary is right in front of her. He has blocked the man's punch by grabbing his fist. The man quickly reacts by letting go of Hollie to use his other hand to punch Cyrus, but the secretary is much faster than him. He blocks the punch, and then punches him right back, except his punch is much harder. The masked man stumbles back, his mask cracking in two.
Cyrus doesn't waste any time, though. Right in front of Hollie, he punches the masked man once, and then again, in quick succession. The man falls to the concrete ground, completely passed out. Only then does Hollie notice the sudden increase of Elena's security around her, and around the parking hall. Cyrus had come with a whole crew. They are everywhere, dressed in VOID uniforms, surrounding the masked men and forcing them to surrender.
Cyrus, however, focuses only on her. The words spill out of his mouth, quick and panicked. "Sorry, I came too late." He turns around, with a look of worry on his face, and seems to inspect her whole being. It's the first time Hollie has seen worry on his face.
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
Hollie doesn't even know where to begin.
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