RISE OF THE DRAGON HEIR: from amnesia to ascension

chapter 31

The entire house was as silent as a graveyard by the time Victoria made it back. Not a single sound could be heard—the usual sound of the TV blaring was absent; As Jack never missed his nightly shows, not even for the world.

But tonight was different from the rest. The house was equally as dark and Victoria had a hard time finding the switches so she could turn the lights on.

"Jack?" Victoria called out, wiping the perspiration from her face, "Where the hell are you, Jack?" She called out again, but the only response she got was her voice echoing off the walls and bouncing back to her.

It felt like the house was empty, there was not a sign of a soul in the house—all the house workers, including the security guard that was meant to be stationed at the gate had suddenly disappeared.

Victoria marched up the stairs to be sure of what was happening. Had those men all taken everyone in the house out? It was possible that they would have, if they wanted to keep anyone back from coming after their trail.

"Those cowards!" Victoria unconsciously sneered. She marched angrily to Jack's bedroom and kicked the door open.

"Jack, I know you're in here!!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. She had not expected to see Jack lying limp on the ground in the pool of his blood.

Her eyes bulged and she let out an electrifying scream that almost brought the four walls of the room down.

"Jack!!!" She screamed—standing frozen in one spot with her hands raised slightly in mid air.

Her knees grew wobbly under her. She had become so nauseous from the sight before her that she wanted to throw her insides out.

"Jack, what happened to you?!" She blurted out, her expression contorting into one of genuine concern.

Not that Jack's death wouldn't bring solace to her but the thought that she would be accused of killing him all because she didn't want to get married to him scared her.

"Jack, Jack, can you hear me?" Victoria asked with trembling fingers as she took a step closer to Jack to see if he was still breathing.

She focused her gaze on his chest, hoping she would see its rise and fall to conclude that he was still alive, but the more she waited, the more she felt her own breath running out.

A chilling sensation coursed through her veins as the haunting possibility that Jack had already met his demise took hold of her mind.

"Jack?" She called out one more time and began to retreat. The stench of blood and sweat clouded the whole atmosphere.

Victoria stepped out of the room immediately, the gory sight of Jack lying in his pool of blood embedded in her memory.

She rushed to her own room to fetch her phone and call for an ambulance to take Jack to the hospital.

Victoria searched her room frantically for her phone.

"Where is it, where is it?!" She kept on chanting as she searched on but there was no sign of it anywhere.

Finally, she found her phone among the piles of clothing she had kept on her bed earlier for folding.

She wiped the sweat from her face again with the back of her palm and hurridly began dialing "911"

She paced around the room Impatiently, waiting for the calm to go through. When it finally did, Victoria found it hard to get her words out of her mouth.

Her hands trembled so much that it slip and fell onto the ground. The sound of the phone falling onto the ground jerked her back to reality.

She bent to pick the phone up and dial "911"

While waiting for the call to go through, she made her way back to Jack's room.

Her hands began to tremble again as she clutched her phone, her eyes fixed on Jack's lifeless body lying in the pool of blood. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

As the phone rang, Victoria's mind went blank. She had expected to be able to rattle off Jack's address and explain the situation, but now that she had the operator on the line, she couldn't seem to form any words—again.

"911, what's your emergency?" the operator's voice was firm but calm.

Victoria opened her mouth, but all that came out was a faint gasp. She tried again, but her voice caught in her throat.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" the operator's tone turned slightly urgent.

Victoria's eyes welled up with tears as she struggled to speak. She felt like she was going to pass out. In a panic, she hung up the phone again while her hands shook uncontrollably.

She took a few deep breaths, trying to compose herself, and dialed 911 for the umpteenth time in that moment. But as soon as the operator answered, Victoria felt her anxiety spike, and she hung up once more.

She was trapped in a nightmare, unable to escape the horror of Jack's lifeless body and her own inability to call for help.

She didn't want to let her frustration get the better part of her but trying to call for help seemed helpless at this point since she could barely even conjure up the words that would cause the paramedics to show up at the house.

Slowly and with her hands over her face, she walked out of Jack's room.

"You've caused me a lot of pain, Jack, but you do not deserve to die." Victoria finally said and was surprised herself that she was now able to speak after several failed attempts earlier.

She wiped her tears away and began making her way out of the house. She wasn't going to let Jack's life go to waste. She wanted to go back and check his pulse but was too scared to even touch him.

She took her phone again and redialed 911, but this time, she made sure that they were aware of Jack's state.