When Hesper woke up, it was already evening and the sky was turning dark. She laid on the concrete floor, the wide and empty factory silent.
"Mmph…" Her mouth was stuffed and there was intense pain in her head. She struggled but her hands and feet were tied, so she couldn't sit up.
"It's been a while, Ms. Rivera."
A familiar voice came from the dark. 013 squatted down and took the cloth out of Hesper's mouth, chuckling. "I'm sure you missed me. Were you anxiously waiting for my return? Have you heard that the feeling of fear is similar to infatuation?"
Hesper scoffed. "I thought you'd gone into hiding. All you did was play a trick in the beginning. Wasn't expecting you to suddenly pop up like a rat in the drain."
"You're still so sassy. When I saw you in a wheelchair today, I felt pity for you."
"...What do you want?"
013 smiled and untied Hesper's hands so that she could feel his heartbeat. "Can you feel that, Ms. Rivera? My heart is extra excited because it knows that today is the end of your life and pride."
He placed his hand on her legs. "I wonder if this pair of legs can stand another round of pain."
"You should just kill me right now." Hesper struggled to lean forward closer to 013. She could clearly see his eyes. "If I escape, you'll suffer."
"Oh, really?" The young man grabbed her jaw and was going to continue speaking but was suddenly hit by Hesper's elbow.
That was a move she used before, and now she was even better at it. After training with Seth for so long, even though she was drugged, she was still confident that it was a hard hit.
"You'll have to find out for yourself."
Looking at the sky, she wasn't able to tell how long it had been since she was taken, but she was sure that Rickard would quickly find out that she was missing and find her.
What was different was when she was staring down 013, Hesper could guess who he was and that was why she paused.
013 said on the plane that he was manifested because of hatred for her, and Hesper believed him. There was no reason for him to lie to her, but she couldn't understand why he hated her so much.
Maybe he was too good at acting… so she couldn't tell.
"I don't think you'll always be lucky." 013 walked closer to her. "This is an abandoned food packing factory. There's flour everywhere and I have a lighter."
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