"I'm truly madly crazy deeply in love with you."

-Skylar Torres
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⚓SKYLAR⚓️

"NO TORI!! DONT LISTEN TO HIM!! HE'S NOT 3W! !!"  Jonah shouted in anger, as he gripped the bars.

"Ah my dear Jonah, if I were you, I would shut my mouth this instant." The man behind me spoke calmly yet venomously.

Jonah's lips formed into a grim thin line, while Emily quivered in fear. Slowly turning around, I felt a drop of perspiration trickle down my forehead.

"Hello Ms Torres, care to take a short walk with me?" A pair of grey eyes questioned with an evil smile. He had jet black hair with streaks of grey hair, looking extremely familiar.
He placed his hand on the small of my back and led me away.

"Boys, do what you have to do with Jonah. " he simply said to the men that came along.

Heading away from the prison cell, the last I heard of Jonah was his pained begs.

"Who are you?" I asked once again.

"Where are my manners? Alec, pleasure to meet you Ms Torres." He kissed the back of my hand, despite the fact that a knife was pointed at my spine.

Covering up my disgusted expression, I knew I had more to worry than just that.

"Why didn't you kill me?"

"You ask a lot of questions, no wonder my son likes you."

"Jeremy?"

"No, Dante." His expression toned down to a serious one.

"You're Dante's dad?!" He remained quiet, emotionless.

A moment of silence passed, still walking to hell I know where. A small crashing sound in my microphone echoed through my ear, I knew it was Gabriel's microphone being shut down.

They had him too.

"Where's Jeremy? Where's Gabriel?" I demanded.

"It's surprising you still come running back to find your lover boy, despite the fact he broke your heart hm?" He questioned with a grin.

He's just trying to get into my head, don't listen to him.

"My decisions are none of your concerns, just answer my question. Where. Is. Jeremy?" I gritted my teeth in anger.

A chuckle left his lips, before he tapped a few digits on his phone.
"Since you're so eager, my dear, right this way! Don't tell me I didn't warn you." A sly smile danced across his lips as he led me into another larger hall this time.

We stood in the centre of the room before he spoke "Now let's see who are our audience today, shall we?" He suggested with a wicked smirk.

Without waiting for my response, he continued. " Here we have three people as our audience, Gabriel, Emily and Jonah!" All three of them were brought out by Alec's men with their arms cuffed to their backs.

I felt Alec's hand tighten around my wrist, I knew something worse was yet to happen.

"Why would you even kidnap your own daughter?!" I let out a breath.

"Don't worry dear, all your questions will be answered soon. I'll tell you everything cause either way, you all are going to die!" He giggled with a sadistic smile.

"Now let's see who are our baits today!" I didn't like the words he chose to use, I was sure he had a deeper meaning to it.

Upon his words, Dante dragged a bruised up Jeremy out before slumping him against the cold concrete floor.

"Skylar..." Jeremy said breathlessly, almost in pain.

"JEREMY!" I screamed out, sprinting towards Jeremy.

"I-i didn't mean to hurt yo-you when I kissed that girl...Alec said
h-he would kill your mom and you if I didn't break your heart..."

I shut him up by placing my lips on his, ignoring his slightly bloody cut on his lip. I just wanted to feel him close to me, his warmth and comforting words. Alec's words forced me to pull away.

"And let's see who our second bait is...drum roll..." it wasn't a moment later that my knees began wobbly just at the sight of who got pulled out.

"MUM!" I tried to run forward, but Alec's strong grip prevented me from doing so.

My eyes remained on her as it felt like the entire world just paused—tears rolling down her feeble pale face, lips tattered and bruised yet determination shone in her eyes.

That is my mum—strong as ever, trying to hold the broken pieces of her life together just for her daughter.

Tugging continuously away from him, I could feel Alec's irritation running thin as he pulled me harshly against his chest. His nose flared when his eyes met my fearless yet deadly look.

"Why? Why? Why me? I've never done a thing to you!" I spat into his face, but all he did was wipe his face in disgust before tightening his grip with a low chuckle.

"You had a choice Skylar. If you hadn't chose Jeremy as your boyfriend, maybe your life would have been different...but a silly little naive girl like you didn't even comprehend his warning. He warned you that entering his life would be a dangerous one, didn't he?"

"He did, but I can't choose who I fall in love with. But a person like you would have never felt that!" I smirked, my eyes masking the fear that crawled into my stomach.

He leaned closer, his expression twitching, the vein at the side of his forehead bulging out.

Looking towards his left where Dante stood, a crooked smile draped upon his lips.

"Dante boy, do dad a favor?" Dante nodded almost robotically, as if he was controlled. Something wasn't right with him.

"Go look for dad's favorite gun, it must be all the way in my top office...and don't come back till you find it." Though his smile, his cold tone didn't bring about a good father-son relationship.

"Yes sir." Dante nodded curtly, before making his way up the flight of stairs that seemed to be infinitely long.

"Now, who's ready for story time." Alec's eyes narrowed mischievously, bringing the knife close to my neck.

"Alec I swear to god, if you do anything to her, even a scratch on her,  I'll—" Alec interrupted Jeremy's threat that screamed hell.

Jeremy gazed at Alec with pure rage, and I swear I saw fumes.
"Get this straight Jeremy," he shoved me to one of his man who held me firmly by the arms before stalking over to Jeremy and squatting to his level.

Grabbing Jeremy's chin roughly, he made sure Jeremy was looking directly into his eyes before continuing " You're at my mercy, so I make the bloody threats and rules here! Got that boy? You hear me!" Alec yelled into Jeremy's ear before swinging his arm right into his gut.

How could I just watch Jeremy get hurt before me? How?

Clearing my cloudy thoughts, I recalled the entire plan we prepared. I took deep breaths, hoping I won't get caught.

As he groaned against the cold floor, Alec straightened up his suit with an accomplished smile.

"Now let's begin...shall we? " he glanced at Jeremy, Gabriel, Emily, Jonah and I but for some reason, a small voice at the pit of stomach told me that Jonah knew everything.

"You see, when I was in Highschool, I had four best friends—Elena, Daniel and Isabella." I interrupted Alec, overwhelmed by what he said.

"You were friends with my mum and Jeremy's parents...?" I looked across to my mom (Isabella) as she casted me a guilty look. My eyes met Jeremy who mirrored my surprise.

"Small world eh? Now stop interrupting! Anyway, as I said we were close friends and nothing could come in our way...that's what we thought. Coming from a family full of mafia gangsters, everyone feared me, except my friends. Ultimately, I became the bad boy while Jeremy's dad was the golden good boy with literally everything.
When we were 16 years old, Isabella had her first boyfriend also known as her husband–Typical billionaire son. That left Elena, Daniel and I. Well, to make it simple, Elena was beautiful. Both on the outside and inside. Isabella was still our friend, of course, she just didn't take any sides on who should be with Elena. I loved Elena so much, I would push mountains for her but no...she wouldn't date a bad boy. She chose to date Daniel and as if that wasn't enough, THEY MARRIED! DO YOU KNOW HOW I FELT?!! SEEING THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE BEING SWEPT AWAY BY PRINCE CHARMING!!" Alec was pacing back and forth as he gripped the ends of his hair in frustration and regret.

Jeremy interrupted him, putting the puzzle pieces together.
"So you had an arranged marriage in the end since you needed a heir to continue the mafia legacy...you got Dante, Emily and Mateo but you didn't get over my mother yet. So that's why that afternoon, you went to kill my mom and sister so that you could make my dad feel what you've been feeling—helpless, remorse, sadness. You even framed my dad and told Dante to lie! YOU HATE THE FACT THAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE HAPPIER THAN YOU'LL EVER BE! HOW DARE YOU!??" Jeremy pulled himself back up to his feet, ready to punch the life out of Alec before one of Alec's man held him down.

I, on the other hand, remained awfully quiet. I didn't know how to feel. Usually you would feel one pure emotion by itself but right now, there was a whole bundle of them.

"You're wise, just like your dad." Alec snickered, cracking his knuckles.

"But-but how are we involved?" I stuttered out.

Alec whipped around to face me, giving me an jubilant smile.
"Good question dear, and this is where the exciting part comes but I think your ex-boyfriend can explain that much better. Right, Jonah?" Alec bursted out in a laughing fit.

Jonah bowed his head, unwilling to look into any of our eyes–especially mine.

"You remember the time we dated, Tori? The time when I was that wild kid selling drugs and partying all night long?"

"Yes, how could I ever forget..." I muttered, nothing but sadness drawn to my heart.

"During that time, I loaned money from Bronze Eagles, not knowing who I was actually messing with. When I couldn't pay up a large sum of money, Alec offered me an alternative...he wanted me to be his spy for a mission. He made it sound so simple 'just spy on a girl', he simply said. "

" Being foolish like I always am, I didn't pay much concern to the contract which also involved me losing all ties to friends, family and...lovers especially. I was torn Skylar, I didn't want you to be in danger. So I suggested the fake death to Alec which he agreed to."

" That girl you caught me kissing, was all a trap–you were meant to see it and feel hurt. That car that drove into us, was all planned! I escaped through the door, where Dante picked me up on his bike. With all the fog from the fire, you didn't see anything. It was a perfect trap, and I wish I could have told you. " I was speechless, my mouth apart.

" My training in Bronze Eagles was about 6 months, and it stopped exactly when you came to LA. I didn't know who was the girl I had to spy on and it turned out to be you. Trust me when I say, I couldn't get you out of my mind.
Though my only job was to keep an eye on you, I did more than that. I overheard Alec's plans, that manipulative son of- I ended up betraying him. I knew I couldn't tell you his plan entirely, you would have too many questions and spending time with Dante didn't make it any better so I had to lead you to it..."

"You're 3W!, aren't you?" I questioned Jonah.

"Yes, yes I am 3W!" Jonah breathed out as if a weight was lifted off his shoulders.

"But then why did you set the church on fire when Sky and I went there?" Jeremy cut in.

"Alec and some Bronze Eagles members were coming so I had to get you guys out of there as soon as possible." He shrugged apologetically.

"But why did Emily get kidnapped??" Gabriel now spoke up.

"I knew I had to bring Jeremy and Skylar together, I watched Skylar enough to know that shes in love with Jeremy. I had to strengthen that love, so that Dante wouldn't come in between. "

" I manipulated Alec into thinking that by kidnapping Emily, it would bring fear to the town and that he could threaten Jeremy this way. He trusted me too much. All the threats he told me to send, I didn't deliver them at all. I continued to send my own clues. However, he caught me–" I interrupted Jonah, realization slapping me hard across the face.

"Alec then took charge, and delivered his threats still under 3W! so that it wouldn't be obvious that someone else is sending threats but...he didn't take note of what color envelopes you sent your clues in...it was a hint to us that it wasn't the real 3W! , am I right?" A smirk plastered on my face as Jonah nodded in agreement.

"I get it, I might have been silly in the past but don't forget that we're in the present now, and you'll all going to die." Alec slammed his fist against the coffee table, feeling slightly humiliated about his actions.

It seemed as though all my questions were cleared but it all didn't make sense. Why want does he want to kill me? Or even use Dante?

At that moment, Dante came strolling down the stairs in deep thought.

"Dante son, this is not good time and I told you to come back down after you found my—" Alec couldn't finish his sentence.

"Dad, what's this?" He raised a tape to our view.

My eyes flew back to Alec, watching him stiffen up and wipe his palms against his pants.

"Dante, would you give that to me?" Alec's voice became sickly sweet.

I suspected Dante to obey but instead he stepped away. "What does this tape contain Dad? Tell me!"

"No way! It can't be!" Jonah exclaimed, trying to move forward as much as he can.

Upon hearing his words, Alec gave a deadly look towards Jonah who smiled gleefully.

Why was Jonah grinning like a maniac?

" Alec, why don't you tell them the truth about your entire plan. For once in your life, tell your son the truth. Or I will." Jonah threatened, his expression free of fear.

"Tell me Dad." Dante was persistent.

Thinking about it, I realized that Alec must have been hiding something big from everyone, even his own son. Especially since he sent Dante to get something while he told us about his past. Suspicious much.

"FINE! You want the truth?! I'll give it to you...Dante, you've been diagnosed wi-with Repetition Compulsion since birth." Alec clenched his jaw, his eyes tearing up.

"What-what's that?" Dante whispered out, his arms dropping to his sides.

"I read about that before.." Gabriel, being the genius, offered to explain.

"Repetition Compulsion is psychological illness in which a person repeats a traumatic event or its circumstances over and over again. This includes reenacting the event or putting oneself in situations where the event is likely to happen again. This "re-living" can also take the form of dreams in which memories and feelings of what happened are repeated, and even hallucination." Gabriel ran his fingers through his hair, stressed by this news.

It all makes sense...

All this time, I thought it was some supernatural coincidence. The tablets I found to the incidences with Savannah and even the distinct paintings that Dante could draw.

"You...you manipulated Dante didn't you." I glared at Alec, all attention was now drawn to him.
Alec folded his arms across his chest, challenging my assumptions.

"You used his illness to your own advantage, to make sure you completed your mission entirely. Jeremy was the last member of the Lockhart family that you needed to kill in order to destroy Daniel entirely. After you threatened Savannah that you'll kill Dante if she didn't leave him, you planned it out perfectly.
You knew my mum was coming to LA with me and you took that opportunity to influence Dante especially when he was at his lowest after the break up–so that he wouldn't be in the straight frame of mind. You made him believe that I was just like Savannah, and that he has a second chance to get the girl of his dreams back. All his dreams with Savannah, he drew them out, hoping to achieve them with me--" Alec chuckled lowly, walking towards me slowly.

"And how could I have possibly influenced him? He still has a mind of his own!" He stared at me in amusement.

" You took away his pills, changed it with some other pills." Now it was my turn to chuckle as his face went pale.

"Y-you said those were vitamins..." Dante placed his hand on his forehead, not believing my words.

"And you know what's the truth, that you don't even dare to admit?" I questioned Alec. He remained quiet, his grey eyes clouded with worry.

"You too, are diagnosed with Repetition Compulsion." I raised an eyebrow as he stumbled back.

"Ho-how did yo-you figure this out? How? " Alec shook his head in confusion as I heard gasps.

"Simple. Different people in my life represent the people that played a big role in your life. I'm a representation of Elena (Jeremy's mom), Jeremy is a representation of Daniel (Jeremy's dad), Dante is a representation of you and Gabriel is a representation of my mom. The good boy, bad boy and girl between them with their other friend who helps them along the way. Am I right?" The sides of lips twitched upwards, enjoying the sight of outsmarting Alec.

"Dad...don't tell me this is true...? You've not been using me...right?" Dante crouched down to his dad.

Alec looked at Dante with a huge wicked smile before using that chance to snatch the tape away from Dante's hand.

"Grab him, boys!" Alec's men held Dante down almost immediately. Fighting hard against them, Dante still couldn't escape.

"Sure, call me a psychopath! But in the end, I won't be the one dying today." Alec's eyes twinkled sadistically.

He held the tape in the air, "This tape contains evidence that I killed your Dad, Jeremy. But you'll never get it!" He walked towards Jeremy.

"You wanted to kill me because you feared I'll get my hands on it." Jeremy gritted out, while Alec just beamed in pride.

"Boys, bring out my favorite and do as planned." He instructed and not long after, his men brought him a normal looking gun. Some men tied Jeremy onto a chair while others tied my mom onto a chair.

"This gun isn't a like a normal one, if that's what you're thinking. The bullets in this gun contain toxic which makes your death much more of a painful one!" He cackled evilly.

Predicting the worse, I knew what was yet to happen had something to do with him calling my mom and Jeremy 'baits' .

My eyes widened when guns were pressed against both their foreheads.

"Boys let go of Skylar, I don't think she'll dare move now." Alec snickered as he slung his arm around my shoulder.

"Let's play a game, shall we? You, Skylar Torres, are our lucky contestant. The rest are our honored audience while your mom and Jeremy are the baits or props of the game." He stroked my hair as I quivered.

"There are two simple rules. Firstly, you have to kill either one or both of our baits. Secondly, if you do not kill anyone in 45 seconds, we will kill both of them." Alec clapped his hands in excitement.

I looked over to Gabriel, who looked away, knowing that in just a few minutes I would be labelled a murderer. The other expressions went by in a blur.

"Now let's see how this ends, aren't you guys excited to see life being drained from their eyes?Anyway...Your time begins in 3...2...1!" Alec pushed the stopwatch button.

"KILL ME!" Both of them shouted in unison. I squinted my eyes shut, while my fingers trembled just by holding the gun.

"Skylar, listen to me. I've lived most of my life already and I'm going to die from