The Essence Of The Darkness
Episode 15: Surprise

"I will present myself as your gift. Feel free to devour me all whole night."

"It seems Miss Michaela deliberately announced her arrival to this place, she didn't even bother trying to avoid the paparazzi and instead let them follow her. Our office lobby is full of clustered journalists. The security forces managed to hold them back from going any further, but I'm not sure we can contain the gossip and speculation that will develop in the media. You know, they've been like vultures shrouding carrion, especially since the photos of you spending the weekend with Miss Michaela were scattered some time ago." Elios hooks up without being able to hide the disgust tone of Michaela's cunning.

Akram's expression instantly turned grim and horrifying when he heard the lengthy explanation Elios gave.

So, Michaela, the cheesy and cunning woman plans to force herself to acknowledge their relationship by deliberately attracting journalists to this place. The woman does not accept when Akram cancels their promise and decides to put Akram in a difficult situation. Akram finds out Michaela must have been hysterically half-dead when Akram broke his promise to accompany the actress on Tuesday night, and now Michaela waits until the weekend to take her revenge.

Rumors of their relationship had been blown away since the spread of the holiday photos, although Akram's silence that refused to provide clarification managed to defuse the gossip by itself. Akram himself is touted as the most in-demand bachelor who always appeared flocking women before. Let alone award-winning actress Michaela, she has even been seen dating European royalty, world-class models and many more high-class women.

The public should forget about Akram's relationship with Michaela as soon as possible and consider Michaela just one of the lucky women who are in the row of women who have been courted by Akram. But now, with Michaela coming into his office blatantly at the weekend, bringing in a crowd of reporters anyway, will develop new rumors that gossipers will greedily devour. Michaela deliberately wants to make their dark relationship exposed in her attempt to have Akram.

Akram gritting his teeth held back anger. The stupid and arrogant actress thought that she could trap Akram and make Akram hers? Akram will show Michaela how terrible he is when he decides to strike back.

"I'm going to meet Michaela," Akram decided in an ice-cold voice.

When Akram entered the luxurious room reserved for the waiting room for the VVIP guests he had an appointment with, Michaela immediately stood up from her seat and poured over to him.

"Acram! I missed you so much!" Michaela glanced and whispered in her sighing voice full of temptation. The woman was wearing a very sexy red tight mini dress stuck to her body and displayed so much of her exposed skin. With experienced and seductive body movements, Michaela swiped her large chest onto Akram's body, writhing spoiled to him.

Akram glanced at Michaela's manager who was standing awkwardly at the back, throwing a warning-filled glance at him that the hapless manager immediately understood. With a hasty step, the manager moved away leaving the room while hunchback muttering a farewell permit.

After the door closed behind him and Akram was just the two of them in the room with Michaela, Akram's hands moved, pushing rough and distancing Michaela's sticky body like glue on his chest.

Michaela screeched as her footsteps were pushed backwards forcefully. The woman staggered to lose her balance before holding on to the back of a nearby sofa. Her red lips blushed open, staring at Akram with a contrived, parched expression.

"Acram? Why are you pushing me?" michaela's eyes glazed over. "I came here because I missed you, I didn't even hurt when you canceled our previous appointment, but, why are you being rude to me?"

Akram put on an expression of disdain, completely untouched by Michaela's fake fondness. In the past, Akram did use Michaela for interludes to satisfy his physical lust. She enjoys the woman, with her beautifully groomed body and adoring demeanor infatuated with her, and doesn't mind giving her a little time and money to spend with Michaela. Of course, all of that is done in a relationship without status, with the aim to satisfy his lust.

But, it seems that Michaela became big-headed and thought that she was able to master Akram's heart, as well as forget herself and not realize how low her position was in Akram's eyes.

Now, after Akram feels in the arms of Elana, enjoying the sanctity of the woman where Elena's body has only ever been touched by her, she is, knowing the innocence of the soul of Elana who chose to reject and hate him without glare by the physical perfection of Akram and his property, then Akram saw clearly how fake and cheap Michaela when compared to Elana.

Michaela is indeed clad in high-end items, with the appearance of the body and face almost perfect which requires an extraordinary amount of maintenance costs. But even a snake wrapped in a diamond is still a snake.

Akram did not want to mince words, he quickly put the tablet he was carrying and placed it on the table.

Michaela looked at the tablet in confusion, then turned her gaze back towards Akram, her eyes filled with questions.

"What is this, Akram?"

"Open up." Akram.

Michaela gulped, inexplicably Akram's cold demeanor made him feel a bad premonition that provoked his fur to stand up. But unmindful, he grabbed the tablet and opened it with curiosity. And when his eyes were directed at the image display plastered on the screen, his face turned pale. His trembling fingers moved across the photo, and his eyes widened when he discovered that there were still other photos that were no less vulgar there.

It was pictures of him in bed, naked in the most humiliating conditions and having illicit relations with a married man in various vulgar positions. Michaela does not hesitate to sell her body for career purposes, but she is always careful to keep her good image in the public eye as a single celebrity who is adored by many people.

If these images are scattered, then the image he has been protecting will fall apart, as well as his career. But....but where did Akram get access to these intimate photos? Is the power of Akram so great that the man in front of him can easily uncover the rotten secrets of the people he wants to destroy?

"A... akram?" michaela's voice trembled in a terrible shock as well as her body. His legs suddenly went limp, causing his body to slam helplessly onto the sofa.

"You remember, don't you? Those are the photos when you feed your body to a married film producer to get a role in his movie. I still have a lot of vulgar pictures of your scandal with a lot of other men in my hands. And if you don't want my assistant to hand over the photo to the reporters gathered downstairs, you're gonna have to get out of here, meeting the reporters down there and explaining that your arrival to this place has absolutely nothing to do with me. You came to see my marketing director and offer yourself to be our company's brand ambassador, but we rejected you because you were deemed incompetent enough to be the face of our company's representative." Akram spoke with a piercing voice, full of threats that shook the guts of anyone who heard it.

"Kram.. Don't do this to me. After everything we've done together. We're having fun in bed, aren't we? Have you forgotten?" Michaela began to whine uncontrollably. "I just want to be with you, Akram, I love you! Please! Please... Acram!"

Akram flicked his hand, his expression this time completely dark threatening.

"I'm still so kind as not to smash you to pieces for now. Go Michaela and never show up in front of me again. If you dare to break my warning, I won't think twice about destroying you. You should know that it's not just your career that I can put out, if my patience runs out, I can take your life easily and throw your rotten corpse in the gutter like worthless trash."

The rainstorm seemed to choose to come this weekend, blowing a roaring wind that blew the leaves until it swayed non-stop. The huge trees that surrounded the entire island held the force of the storm, appearing to meandering, as if shaken from where it was rooted deep in the ground.

Tonight, Elana spends her time as usual, in solitude, sitting on the sofa by the big window and gazing at the dark night sky out there.

His days in this villa were filled with monotonous routines without breaks that increasingly made him accustomed. Elana will wake up in the morning, take a shower, eat breakfast, then spend her time in a large library that holds a lot of valuable books with various interesting titles located on the second floor of this villa.

The waiter would deliver her lunch at the right hour, and after lunch, Elana would spend a few more hours in the library without getting bored.

The only thing that Elana is grateful to be in this villa is that she can spend her time among an endless pile of precious books to enjoy. When reading, he seemed to be detached from the dimensions of space and time, entering into the story of the book and forgetting all his pain in the real world.

When the afternoon comes, Elana will take a bath and the waiter will bring dinner to her room. After that, Elana would lie down while continuing to read again the book she brought to the room until she fell asleep, or if not, she would turn on the television to watch entertaining shows that could dissolve her boredom.

His days should have been as they always were and once this day arrived, nothing should have changed. But somehow Elana's subconscious mind realized that today was different.

Today is Friday, which means it is the beginning of the weekend that Akram will come to visit him, and also today is his birthday.

Well, maybe today could be said to not be his real birthday. Elana believes that the birthday given to her identity by the orphanage is not her real birthday. Maybe the orphanage decided to include the date where he was left in the orphanage as his date of birth to fill in the formality of his birth data. Elana is a baby who was dumped in an orphanage, no one can be sure exactly when Elana was born into this world.

But for Elana, her birthday was special to her. In the past, she always spent her birthday with a simple celebration in an orphanage with her sisters who were both orphans and lived there. Because the orphanage is a simple orphanage with limited income and only rely on the kindness of donors, then every birthday celebration of children there including Elana celebrated simply. The mother of the orphanage will make sponge cake with the cheapest ingredients that will be eaten together after singing a happy birthday song. Indeed, the celebration is not luxurious, but still warms the heart because everything is gathered with sincere prayers shrouded in happiness.

When Elana left the orphanage, she celebrated her birthday at work. His co-workers would stick a small candle stick on a cupcake that was no less small, they then sang a song for him and they laughed together. So, arguably even with a simple celebration, Elana never spent her birthday alone.

Maybe this will be the first night for her where she spends her birthday in solitude.

The heavy rainstorm made Elana doubt whether Akram would bother coming to this villa tonight. Elana thought that Akram would certainly prefer to spend his time in a luxurious place with high-class service and women who adore him and serve him endlessly. For this reason, Elana was convinced that Akram would not come.

After all, he accidentally saw the news of the artist's gossip on television earlier, about the prestigious award-winning extraordinary beautiful artist who today specifically came to the company Akram Night to offer cooperation. The artist clearly held a press conference explaining the details of her purely professional relationship with the Akram company, but Elana knew that what was displayed on the surface was not that simple.

Maybe tonight Akram is spending time with the actress, right? Actually it was not a time for Elana and even became a big advantage for him. If Akram finds another woman to serve him, at least he will be free from the compulsion to serve Akram.

Even so, sitting alone on his birthday this time somehow felt so miserable....

Elana rubbed her arms with an irritated feeling to herself. Was she so desperate and unwilling to be alone on her birthday that she was wracked with loneliness at this time?

Perhaps because she suffered from homesick after being forcibly removed from her previous life, it was also possible that the torrential rain out there was growing a sense of melancholy in her chest. Elana does not know which is the cause, which Elana knows she must overcome the seeds of weakness that begin to grow in her heart and try to stay strong.

Elana leaned her body against the back of the sofa, letting out a long sigh before then closing her eyes. He knew that he needed to build up his strength to deal with the intimidating Akram. He should have forgotten the unimportant things, tried to focus more on thinking about how to survive, and gathered the strength to break away from the clutches of Akram.

The thunderous sound of lightning that followed a terrifying bright flash of light piercing through the window glass left Elana aghast. His eyes opened, forcefully awakening from his deep sleep which he fell into accidentally.

Elana straightened her back, opened her eyes wide and realized that she had fallen asleep on this sofa. Flashes of light penetrated again through the window glass that has not been closed curtain, he said, followed by the sound of thunder rumbling and shaking the glass panels made Elana realize that the rain is still falling until now and this time even more heavy out there. From the intensity of the rain, Elana suspects it looks like the storm will continue until tomorrow.

How long has he been asleep?

Elana glanced at the clock on the wall located directly opposite her, squinting because she had trouble seeing the clock from the middle of the dimly dark room.

Elana's forehead wrinkled. As he remembered earlier, he fell asleep without turning off the lights. Then... Why is the room dark now? Could there be a power outage due to a storm? But Bibi Ana said that the villa uses renewable electricity with solar panels capable of storing enough energy to meet electricity needs for the next few months.... Does the effect of rainstorms also interfere with the function of electricity on the island?

The sound of the door being closed at the end of the room made Elana immediately turn her head in alarm. His eyes widened when he found the figure of Akram standing near the door.

Elana watched Akram in the darkness, staring as the man opened the thick coat that wrapped around his body. The coat looked heavy and drenched, dripping water down, and Akram casually threw the coat up to the floor, then stepped closer to Elana.

Akram's hair and face looked wet and splashes of water appeared to stain the official dark-gray suit worn by Akram.

Akram's coming? Rainstorms are churning out there and Akram can still come? How-to?

The man stepped closer, then stopped right in front of Elana who was sitting on the sofa.

Elana's own body was frozen, between confusion and shock due to the presence of Akram which was completely unexpected.

Then as if to surprise Elana even more, Akram suddenly knelt in front of her who was sitting on the sofa. The man pointed out the box he was carrying, and took out the contents.

Elana's eyes widened when she saw a triangular piece of cake with white cream and strawberrry in Akram's hand. There is also a small candle stick stuck in the piece of the cake which then lit Akram with a lighter

Akram then lifted the cake up, close to his face, making the yellowish glow of the burning candle illuminate the side of his face and accentuate the shadow of the aristocratic lines there. The candlelight also bounced in Akram's hazel-colored eyes, creating an illusion of glittering flames that bounced off his eyeballs.

Amidst the darkness with the flame illuminated, Akram looked like a god from an imaginary world that had appeared from within in the fantasy book that Elana had read earlier this afternoon.

"I don't think it's too late, there's still a few minutes before midnight." Akram spoke calmly without a single speck of smile outstretched, splitting the silence with his firm and deep voice. "Happy birthday, Elana."