Is this destiny?

Philip was slowly walking toward Sarah and extended his right arm slowly as if he wants to touch her. His movements were completely non-threatening.

However, Sarah knew that there is something hidden in his right palm. When he was one step away, Sarah stepped on the side and leaped toward him. She grabbed his extended forearm with her hands and pushed it back to him. Her push made Philip step back, at the same time, one of her legs circled behind him.

Philip tripped on her leg and fell on the ground with a loud thud. His right palm ended on his neck. For a second, he froze. Philip stared at Sarah with his eyes open wide, shocked. He didn't expect her to be so swift, he always saw her as someone timid and weak. Even that time in the University hallway, when he grabbed her arm, she didn't even try to get herself free, it was Aiden who came to her rescue. How can she be so fast? And so strong?

By the time Aiden reacted, Philip was on the ground. Aiden rushed out of the truck, while two young men who were few steps behind Philip, hesitated for a second before leaping to save their companion. Sarah needed to let go of Philip in order to avoid two men. She jumped backward. Two men were focused on Philip, and Sarah used their distraction to swiftly circle around them and inject two men with sedatives, one each, in the neck.

By the time Aiden reached, all three men were on the ground.

He knows that Sarah had only two injections, but he sees all three of them down. "Which one did you take care of?"

"The henchmen.", she breathed heavily, mostly from excitment.

"What's with Philip?"

"Whatever was supposed to happen to me." Sarah observed Philip from a distance and didn't want to come close to him.

Philip could not move his legs or speak. At first out of shock, but now the drugs kicked in, and he was truly unable to stand up. His arms moved weakly, apparently out of his control.

"Watch out for his right hand." Sarah warned Aiden, seeing him approach Philip. "I still don't know what he used, but it went into his neck."

"It seems to be the same drugs he used last time on you." Aiden analyzed, and looked around. "We need to get them into the truck." There are no people in the area, but there are few cars parked nearby. Someone will come to get their car, eventually.

Sarah frowned. "They are heavy, get the truck closer."

…

Sarah and Aiden dragged four people inside the large abandoned warehouse outside of Fairfield city limits. Two henchmen were in one corner one the floor, leaning on each other, gagged and with cloth bags over their heads. Philip was few feet away leaning on the wall, tied up, gagged, and also with a bag over his head. Vivian was propped and tied up on a chair, gagged, in the middle of the warehouse. One light from the top was right above Vivian, so others were in the shadows, only partially visible.

Sarah observed Vivian for some time without a word. Vivian's eyes showed that she is terrified. She was looking at three men on the floor but could not see who they are. Aiden was further in the dark, and she could only see his shadow, but since Sarah is here, she assumed that is Aiden. Sarah approached her and removed cloth which obstructed her mouth, and then walked back in front of her.

Aiden was standing in the back, silently observing and wondering what Sarah is going to do.

"What are you doing?" Vivian spoke in raspy voice full of horror.

"Can't you guess?" Sarah asked.

"No... no, I can't. Why are you doing this?" Vivian's voice was breaking.

"Think about it... Why would I do such a thing? Did you ever do something to cross me?"

"No, never..." Vivian vigorously shook her head. "We are friends... best friends. I would never cross you."

"Oh?" Sarah tilted her head left and right while analyzing Vivian's expression. "Let me see if I can help you remember few things." Sarah walked to the pickup truck and got a laptop from there. She opened few emails side by side and showed the laptop to Vivian. It was Vivian's email exchange with Philip about Sarah's activity on campus.

Vivian's eyes opened wide in shock.

Sarah sneered. "It seems you remembered something." Sarah closed laptop abruptly with a snap and Vivian got startled. If her body was not immobile, she would jump out of that chair.

"What did you do to me?" Vivian asked realizing that she can't move and that is not related to her being tied up to the chair. They tied her up so that she does not fall down.

"I will answer that in a bit..." Sarah kept laptop on the side, pulled a chair for herself, sat on it facing Vivian and spoke lazily. "I have a question for you first."

Vivian didn't respond. Her eyes nervously glanced from three men on the floor, to Aiden's shadow to Sarah.

Sarah waited for some time until Vivian's gaze rested on her. "It seems I finally have your attention. You see... I know what you did. What I want to know is why you did it."

Vivian spoke, "I didn't..."

SLAP!

Sarah slapped her viciously. Blood dripped from the corner of Vivian's mouth.

"You didn't listen carefully, so I will repeat. I KNOW what you did. I want to know WHY you did it."

Vivian looked at Sarah with eyes full of hate.

Sarah had a satisfied smile. "It seems that we are finally getting somewhere."

"How dare you hit me?!!" Vivian hollered.

SLAP!

Another vicious slap landed on Vivian's face. Sarah smiled. "That is not the answer I'm looking for."

"You bitch!" Vivian didn't give in.

SLAP!

"I can do this all night." Sarah's smile widened. "You see? At first, I thought that I can't make myself hurt you... but right now I'm enjoying this very much. Part of me wants you not to answer my question, so that I have a reason to smack you like this."

SLAP!

Sarah slapped her again and stood up from the chair. "Yes, it's very satisfying. I wonder how satisfying will it be if I start using my fists, or legs... or some weapon. You see, you can't move, but you can still feel the pain." Sarah pinched Vivian's thigh and Vivian winced.

"What do you want to know?" Vivian said weakly.

"Why did you sell me out?"

Vivian's eyes showed how much she despises Sarah. As if a dam broke, she started talking without taking a break. "At first, I didn't want to talk to you at all... but then they told me to try looking pitiful, you might help me with the project. And if I can get close to you, in exchange for some information, they will give me money, and other things. When you did my first project, I realized that I can milk that brain of yours for more... and why not? You have everything, money, looks, brains... you can do few projects for me... Everyone is looking at you, everyone! You even got Aiden! And you act like it's all normal. Do you know how much rest of us struggle to have just a fraction of what you have? You ungrateful spoiled heiress!" As Vivian spoke, her expression was livider by the second. "And when your dad kicked you out and cut off your finances, I thought that finally you will face some hardships. I was laughing! At next moment, you got a new apartment and a car, without even blinking! You even moved in with him!" Vivian was now looking deranged from fury. "Finally, Philip got you, and I thought you will get your retribution, your piece of suffering! But noooo... you had to be rescued. Nothing happened to you. Even second wave didn't do anything. You came out of all that unscathed. How lucky can you be?"

"You knew what that drug does?" Sarah asked, she was not able to hide her surprise hearing such malicious words from Vivian. Sarah was hoping that they are blackmailing Vivian, and that she only gave them information on her movements. Sarah really wished that Vivian didn't know about their plan to drug her.

"What does it do? It would make you give yourself willingly to anyone for a day or two.. Philip handed around your picture, there were volunteers! More than a dozen of them waited for you that evening! Aren't you lucky?" Vivian laughed manically.