Chapter 371: 371

When Michelle heard a rift being split in the space, her brows furrowed into a frown.

“Where are you going?” she asked, but the only response was complete silence wrapping around the room.

All she could hear were her own thoughts, her breathing, and her heartbeat.

And for a moment, her ears also caught the sound of the rift that had been open closing.

Did Alexander leave?

Michelle didn’t like the thought of that, and she also didn’t want to believe it.

So, though she knew Alexander could avoid her detection, she summoned all her energies to scan the room.

And the result was exactly what she was hoping it wouldn’t be.

“You left?” At least from her perspective, the room seemed empty.

No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t sense Alexander.

Concentrated on trying to spot Alexander, as Michelle moved a bit, due to the binding of her arms behind her back and the ribbon around her throat, her balance was off.

Not even knowing why exactly, she ended up planting her face down into the ground, hitting the floor with a thud.

“Ouch…” she groaned.

But it wasn’t the pain that was bothering her.

It was the fact that she couldn’t sense Alexander.

Through the shadow pact she had with him, he could definitely feel that her heart rate had picked up—spiked—but she couldn’t really tell anything.

She couldn’t feel any differences coming from the pact.

He was still calm and amused like always.

As the silence continued to stretch, Michelle felt her heartbeat continuously speeding up and getting stronger.

She wasn’t scared—loneliness wasn’t something she would be scared of—but still, after just a while, she could feel her heartbeat not only in her throat, but even up in her head.

It was literally pounding just beneath her skull.

That was an extremely uncomfortable feeling that Michelle hated.

It made her involuntarily speed up her breathing while feeling increasingly short of breath.

Genuinely hating the feeling, Michelle tried to forcefully slow her breathing down, keeping it steady, but that didn’t prove to help.

She just ended up straining against the ribbon around her neck more.

In reality, Alexander didn’t leave.

He was standing just next to Michelle, watching her closely.

Through the shadow pact, he could feel all that was happening to Michelle, and honestly, he didn’t expect her reaction to be so strong.

The words she said in themselves weren’t all that surprising.

It was to be expected that she would say something like what she did.

But that physical reaction of hers was quite unexpected.

The fact that she fell down could be overlooked, considering that she was blindfolded and in a place she wasn’t used to.

But the fact that her body was showing a physical reaction to stress or fear was strange.

She clearly wasn’t scared.

Nor was she stressed.

Alexander knew that, so why was it that her body was acting like she was?

And if her body was having a stress reaction even though she was calm, what would happen if she got genuinely stressed?

Once Alexander thought of that, he couldn’t rid himself of the idea.

So, in the end, he decided to act on it.

So, he reached to the door and opened it.

At the same time, he revealed a part of his presence, but he altered his aura so Michelle wouldn’t be able to recognize him.

Sensing the new presence in the room, and hearing the door slide open, Michelle went stiff for a moment, silently observing the presence.

The person who came in was silent, so she couldn’t even tell anything from their voice.

And they were either not moving, or their movement was also silent, which was highly unsettling.

Michelle really felt like breaking out of the shadow essence that Alexander put around her, but she wouldn’t do that when a stranger was around.

She didn’t even know whether Alexander didn’t put any precaution on his shadow essence that would trigger if she tried to break free.

If that happened when she was alone, she could definitely deal with it, but with someone else nearby, she really didn’t want something like that happening.

Alexander watched closely how Michelle reacted, while also keeping a close watch on the shadow pact, to feel the state Michelle was in.

And it was quite interesting.

Her heartbeat remained the same, but her breathing got even faster.

To the point that it was more of gasping than breathing.

So it seemed she was a bit nervous, at least thinking about what was going on.

Alexander slid the door closed behind him before slowly walking towards Michelle, still not saying a word.

His steps were heavy, nearly silent, rhythmic thuds that carried through the room into Michelle’s ears.

In the silence of the room, Michelle was guessing that even if she asked who it was that entered the room, she wouldn’t get an answer.

Usually, when someone entered a room and found someone tied up and lying on the ground, they would say something very quickly, most probably right away.

And if they didn’t, they wouldn’t say anything even if asked to.

So Michelle kept her silence, just carefully listening to the rhythmicity of the footsteps as they approached her.

At the same time, she started gathering all three of her energies just beneath her skin, so she could react in an instant if need be.

As the footsteps approached, Michelle had quite a hard time hearing anything through her own breathing.

The fact that she had no control over her body was both annoying and worrying.

And she couldn’t do anything with it.

The frequency of her breaths was high, the inhales and exhales sharp and loud, blocking out all sounds she could hear.

She was basically hyperventilating.

Because of that, much more than she was worried about the silent stranger, Michelle was worried about what was going on with her body.

The case with the stranger—if he tried anything, Michelle was sure she could defend herself at least to some extent.

But if her own body decided to suddenly betray her, she would be in deep trouble.

When Alexander came to a stop right above Michelle, he could already feel through the shadow pact that she was getting anxious.

Squatting down, he stretched his hand out to Michelle’s neck.

Nearly in an instant she reacted.

Kicking her feet, she rolled to the side to evade the touch.

That movement naturally tightened the ribbon around her neck, making her choke a bit, but it wasn’t enough to stop her from moving.

Seeing that Michelle was still able to move, even though anxiety was clearly gnawing at her, Alexander chuckled.

Then, he reached out to her again, but much faster than before.

He didn’t give her a chance to react, his fingers wrapping around her neck from the back.

Alexander was expecting Michelle to resist, send a kick at him, or something like that, but instead, she froze for a moment.

Then, she opened her mouth.

“Alexander!” she was ticked off.

He had been messing with her the whole time.

Alexander smiled.

“How did you know it’s me?” he asked as he let his presence revert to normal.

Still tied and blindfolded, Michelle sent a kick at Alexander.

The one kick he had been expecting when he touched her.

“Your fingers have callouses unlike others,” Michelle muttered.

She herself wasn’t sure whether she liked or disliked the fact that she could realize it was Alexander just from the callouses and scars on his hands.

She actually knew him that well?

It was a fact that she wasn’t the kind of person who remembered the scars of other people.

She tended to not even notice that.

She was observant about other things, not scars.

So the fact that she could make out it was Alexander who touched her just from his hand did mean a lot.

Was she that attached to him?

While Michelle sank into thoughts about her own response, Alexander, still above her, was also thinking about that.

It changed his smile from an amused one to one mixed with genuine satisfaction and maybe even happiness.

He was aware that Michelle tended to ignore and never remember small details.

So he was highly pleased that Michelle remembered the scars on his hands.

And since he was pleased, he wouldn’t stay inactive.

Grabbing Michelle, he lifted her to her feet.

“You pay that much attention to me?” he asked with a grin.

Michelle couldn’t see that grin, but she could hear he was grinning from ear to ear from the tone of his voice.

Somehow, that made her ears tingle, but at the same time, she was partly annoyed.

That was probably because Alexander pointed out how much attention she was giving him.

Because just a moment ago, even she herself wasn’t aware of that.

So, Michelle didn’t want to answer Alexander, keeping her mouth shut and sealed, like someone had sewn it shut.

Seeing that, Alexander let out a chuckle.

“What? You don’t want to admit it?” he asked.

At the same time, he moved his hand to drag his fingers over the ribbon around Michelle’s neck.

The ribbon was a constant reminder that he had promised to make her bleed and cry.

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