Sold?

"Congratulations" He smiled, "On your very first kill." He spoke the words like they didn't mean anything to him.

'First kill.' He clapped for me as if killing someone was something to be proud of. Something I was supposed to do, like it was a given.

I was in shock first and stared at Arius wide-eyed with a blank expression, then it turned to disbelief. Did I really just kill someone?

I glanced at the body lying cold on the floor.

I just murdered someone. Murdered!

Thinking about it made my emotions turn red and I glared at Arius. He made me do it!

I was infuriated now and I raised my gun at Arius in anger. He didn't budge from his place, the hideous smile on his face didn't fade.

He just looked back at me with curiosity, as if waiting for my next move.

His relaxed expressions, with no sign of fear whatsoever made me lose it and I fired the gun.

…

Nothing happened.

So I shot it again and again but Arius stood his ground, his grin turning into a toothy smirk. He was very amused at my reactions and how this played out to be.

"Did you really think I'd leave any bullets in it?" He was mocking me. Of course the gun didn't have any more ammo, why else would he leave it in my hands so calmly? He had the whole thing planned very nicely.

He was a cunning man.

The heat of anger mixed with humiliation and fear was getting to my head, to the point it was making me dizzy.

I gritted my teeth, "You said, I only needed to scare him." I spoke between my teeth grinding.

"Well clearly you failed at that, and a full 100 to you for failing so nicely." His was voice was filled with sarcasm.

"You had something to say to him!!" I yelled at him in confusion.

"Yea, 'Goodbye'. He was an annoying fellow." He scratched his eyebrow, unamused.

What?

Goodbye?

That means he had the intention of killing him from the start! And not just that, he had the intention of making me kill him from the beginning. He had it planned and in order to achieve his goal he messed with me and made sure it happened.

"You lied to me." I glared at him but he didn't say anything back, "You bastard!" I threw the gun at his face which he caught easily with one hand and passed me another smirk that made my blood boil. I could feel the heat in my body rise up even more after seeing that nasty smile.

I was beyond angry but there was nothing I could do to Arius. He was way to strong for me, moreover he was an excellent schemer.

Turning around, my eyes landed on the man I had just killed, his lifeless body in a puddle of his own blood.

'I killed him?' The words didn't sit in my mind. I bit my lower lip, I really killed a man? It still felt unreal and even though I repeated the words in my head so many times my mind was refusing to accept it.

I just couldn't and so in the end I ran out.

I wasn't thinking properly, it felt like my capability to think was being messed with and I was feeling nauseous.

Maybe if I can go far away, out of his reach. He won't be able to harm me even with the collar. I mean how far can the limit be?

The streets were quiet, the sky was moonless making the night as dark as it could get. I ran towards the alleys where there were no street lights and the only thing one could see was darkness. Only after a little did things started to become a little clearer.

After running away for quite some time I felt something strange, a tingling sensation of pain that kept increasing. I realized I had been feeling it for a while but since it started slow I couldn't tell until now.

I fell to the ground, scraping my knees as blood started trickling down my nose. Everything started getting blurry.

What's this? It's not the collar...

My stomach churned and I coughed up some blood.

I felt all the energy leave my body and I collapsed on the dark road.

"Anyone... there?"

Like anyone was going to listen to such a feeble voice.

Wow. After all that, this is how I'm going to die.

In a dark alley, on the road...

Footsteps.

I heard footsteps slowly approach me.

The person stopped right next to me and sighed as he looked down at me.

"Arius..." I managed to say his name and I have to say, I was relieved to see him.

He took off his coat and placed it on me, then picked me up bridal style.

"It hu-rts..." My throat was really dry, rather, it felt like it was burning.

"I told you the wine wasn't for you." He kept looking forward as he made his way back to his car.

Wine...? Wait, Was it poisoned? Is that why he placed it back?

"But... You-?" I coughed again.

Arius wasn't bothered at all, "That amount of poison won't affect me." He glanced at me as I was fading into unconsciousness, "And running away won't do you any good. I'll find you even if you ran away to the other side of the world."

"That seems- like," I gulped, lubricating my throat a bit but it didn't do much, "A confession."

He lightly laughed at my comment. Somehow, this chuckle of his felt genuine. It made me feel a bit giddy even amongst all the pain.

"Well, I do like how you're a strong person." He said as he readjusted me in his arms.

I think I saw some street lights. Maybe we had reached the car?

I couldn't tell for sure since I drifted into darkness after that.