Jennie's Safety

There's nothing to worry about. Jennie is on the other side of the door.
The door complained bitterly as I pushed through it. My heart lurched to my throat and I gulped. How had I not noticed how much noise the door makes?
The foyer was dirty, shadowy. Machines I didn't recognise lined the walls and middle centre. The walls were cream white and the floor was uncarpeted and the room smelled oddly of purifiers. What had happened in just a few hours.
Don't panic. Don't panic.
The windows had its curtains shut and from the three doors that were within sight, two were closed and the other was ajar with light creeping through the open space.
Muffled screams echoed through the walls. The sound came from the lit room.
I couldn't move at first, though; my arms and legs were shaking, and for a moment I forgot how to put one foot in front of the other.
A sound, something crushing against the floor... maybe, made me jump. Suddenly, it felt like the walls were living, breathing things that were plotting against me. The shadows shaped forms that were demons intent on haunting me.
It was blazing agony.
I took each step with caution, afraid that something out of the ordinary might spring from the shadows. The screams stopped just as I walked into the narrow office, leaving a ringing in my ears.
The office housed a desk and a chest of drawers in the north wall. It was dark, empty. There now, nothing to be afraid of. See? You were being paranoid again.
And then suddenly the lights flickered on.
I staggered a step back in surprise, stumbling in panic, my eyes frantically searching for the looming danger. I realized I wasn't alone at all. There was a woman, bloody, beaten, something about her looked familiar but it was hard to tell through the dried blood and the gag in her mouth.
There was something more pressing. Something that intensified the fear that attacked me. Something a lot more sinister. It was the shadow of a man. Not my imaginary demons but a man in the flesh, breathing the same air I was.
Shouldn't I have been relieved that I wouldn't face the shapeless shadows alone? That there was a man that could terrify the imaginary demons away?
Yet I only felt surprise... and shock... and most gripping of all... fear.
There he stood, still as statue in front of me, studying me with his head cocked to the side. His eyes amused. It was Nikolai.
I couldn't swallow the sudden lump in my throat. Instead, I stared back, and then he frowned, his eyes puzzled as though he couldn't understand something.
He shook his head and shrugged. His demeanour casual, relaxed.
"At the sound of my fingers snapping, you'll be fully awake." his voice was commanding, low.
He snapped his fingers, and the cloud of confusion that had trapped me evaporated.
I stood still, terrified in spot. My eyes took the unfamiliar room in — yes I knew it was Nikolai's study but I'd never stepped foot in it before — it wasn't something I'd do willingly either, and widened at the sight of Nikolai and then my blood ran cold.
I held utterly still but my eyes swept the room, frantically.
"Jennie?!" I cried in shock, the familiar woman no longer a face without a name.
Jennie struggled against the shuttles bounding her hands behind her back and the rope at her feet, she said something, a single word but it disappeared under the force of the gag. I thought she said RUN.
I took an involuntary step forward, his sharp, intelligent, scary eyes flickered down to catch the movement.
"Don't even think about it," Nikolai spoke in chilling tones as I took another step towards Jennie.
I took complete immobility.
“My apologies, Nuru, I’m a gentleman, really, it’s sad that I had to get you here without your permission. If I had asked nicely you would have told Roman and there would've been a mess.” He was smiling down at me now, his voice very kind. "Isn't it brilliant this way?"
"You're right." My voice was low, calm and surprisingly full of gratitude. He'd spared my Roman.
I ghosted forward again, and then froze. His eyes were abruptly on my feet.
"You must not want me to get angry," Nikolai said pleasantly... still calm. Maybe a little bit too calm. "See, I used my unique skills to get you to believe that you had a dream where I was hypnotizing you."
"Oh," I said in a faint voice. "Why?"
"Ugh, you're slow... but,"— he raised his index finger vertically — "because it's you..." — he turned the finger to point at me — "I'll explain," he mumbled in a delighted, happy voice. "I have a soft spot for you... always." his voice continued in that soft purr, very kind. "The real hypnosis was the worry I instilled in you. It was when I told you to worry about Jennie, to worry that I'd hurt her. To come straight here after school. The 'dream' was only there to intensify the urgency, the uncertainty. The fear I witnessed all day in your eyes was trilling. It's amazingly brilliant!"
I stared in shock. He was just so... happy. It wasn't consistent with the Nikolai I've always known.
He turned his misty eyes toward Jennie, and then grinned. His whole face brightened — became ecstatic.
"Ah, Nuru." He grinned, shifting the eyes to me. "You are such a joy to me. You brighten up my day. Truly you do."
I took a casual step forward. Nikolai didn't miss it. He sighed, almost with impatience.
"I like it — the fire in your eyes — when you're angry."
I didn't say anything. I wasn't angry at all. I was calculative, determined to get Jennie out of this alive.
"You want to save your mother," he asked, still casual, his eyes studied me with keen interest now. "And you believe you can."
"Yes," I answered honestly. I tried to make my voice light, relaxed but it revealed my panic and pitched two tones higher.
"You think you can fight me off?"
"Not really."
He took a step forward and closed the distance between us, he trapped a loose strand behind my ear. I was too scared to even manage a shiver of disgust.
He moved to the back corner and leaned against the wall, his legs crossed. He didn't think I would try to run and he knew if I was stupid enough to try, it would be futile.
"Then?" He seemed genuinely interested.
"I was hoping you'd choose to kill me instead of murdering my mother."
"Murder!" he was outraged, his face twisting to a scowl. "Nuru, it's not murder. You make me sound like a lunatic. I'm hurt. It's called corrective death."
He was silent for a moment, his eyes watching me.
"You know, when I first came here from Russia, I thought it was going to be an effortless job. Find out what was keeping Roberto here and that would be the end of my mission. But to my surprise, as the years went by, you caught the interest of the Carter kid. With you, I had thought it was a stupid teenage crush but you dared disobey me. As it turns out I was wrong. So wrong! And that's not brilliant!
"I would've let it go." he continued, his voice very calm. "I'm a reasonable man. But I had worked hard at keeping you a virgin. At preserving you. You didn't honestly believe you would drug all of those men and none would come complain, did you?
"Traditionally I was drawn to his money, Roman now, is it not? A seasoned billionaire. I started following him, listening to all his conversations. Very boring I must admit... but still rewarding. What better way to be rewarded than the knowledge that he works for the CIA and has some damming intelligence we've been in the hunt for. Things worked out far better than I would’ve thought.
"This" — he gestured to Jennie — "wasn't my intention. She had followed me, imagine she had a gun." his eyes widened in excitement and he wiggled his fingers. "She wanted to kill me. Wow. And now here she is, subjected to sit here helplessly and watch as I finish what your father started."
I stared at Nikolai in horror, still too scared to even blink. He walked towards me and stood in front of me again. His eyes were bright with anticipation, the way a predator would look at prey in the final moment before attacking.
My heart staggered in its beat. If I didn't run, I'd have a heart attack.
“Women are truly pathetic, you lot just don’t know how to keep yourselves safe — you especially, you’re a magnet for danger. Just look at the kind of men you attract.”