The Essence Of The Darkness
Episode 49: Ensuring Taste

Xavier rubbed his wet face after washing his face in the bathroom sink. His eyes were pushy as he looked back at his own reflection in the mirror, filled with a seething feeling from within his soul.

Gabriella's words before her death really bothered Xavier's mind, undermining his ability to make perfect plans, shadowing him with a dilemma.

Lana. Lana. Lana.

He used that name again like a spell. His eyes were closed as he lowered his head back to the sink water faucet, then used cold water to neutralize his heated brain The spark of cold water fell on his face, then used cold water, while his mind imagined a plain face with rays of sincerity that he had never found in any woman before.

How could the only woman who had managed to knock on his heart, turn out to be the woman he had been looking for all this time with the aim for him to destroy? Lana who is so innocent and sinless...what makes her bound to Akram?

Though Lana, both in physical appearance and nature, is very different from the women of Akram's taste so far. Xavier has been watching Akram for so long that he knows that Akram only wants to touch his hands to women who fit his criteria. They should be extraordinarily beautiful, come from the upper class or be noble-blooded, have a grooved mole body of seductive adult women, and most importantly, have, not involving the heart in an agreed romantic relationship as a relationship without the burden of responsibility for each other.

While Lana. Lana's beauty was unique, shining because of the sincere innocence in her eyes. Meanwhile, judging from her work as a cleaning service, of course Lana is not from the upper class.Lana's body is also not tempting, even tiny tend to be thin which makes anyone want to hug and protect her. Most importantly...maybe a woman like Lana can establish a heartless love relationship with Akram?

Xavier is very good at doing analysis and predicting accurate results in stock investments that always benefit him in every bet. In addition, he is also very skilled at predicting human disposition and always precisely guessing their true nature from just a quick scan.

But was now the time for him to admit defeat? Could it be that his good premonition and his fascination for Lana, had come from a false prediction?

The only reasonable answer to why Lana became Akram's lover was that she was glared at Akram's charm, coupled with his wealth and power. There was no other answer, although Xavier had been trying to deny it.

All women are the same....

Xavier has learned that all women are traitors who easily switch hearts. If they could not be tempted with treasures, then they would be tempted with their dazzling faces. He has proved it all from his experience all along as he seeks to seize and destroy women who from the outside seem to love Akram sincerely.

The nose-piercing aroma of disinfectant was pouring out in the air, tucked away from the open door of his dining room which was currently going through the process of 'cleaning'. The scent glued its particles unexcusedly to Xavier's sense of smell, making Xavier instantly recall the existence of the rotten woman he had just eliminated. The body of the woman must have been removed by officers, especially those who are very skilled to eliminate all the results of Xavier's cruelty practice, until it ended without a trace and without evidence.

Like Gabriella, the woman who has now become a terrible corpse. The cheap woman was the same as the others, so easily wanting to jump into the hands of Xavier that he had even just known, forgetting that he had previously worshipped Akram Night half-dead.

Even Anastasia....

Xavier frowned ever deeper, his expression turning stern as he hardened his heart, trying to forget the darkness of the past that was really useless to remember.

If he keeps remembering the past, then this stubborn brain will stop at nothing to awaken his old memories deeper. Launching his memories back and forth further, to the most terrifying black point of his life: The three months he was kidnapped, being tortured and experiencing all the pain that a nine-year-old should not feel.

Those torturous prowess suddenly managed to sneak out from the deepest heaps at the base of Xavier's memory, he said, it just appeared and was clearly drawn before his eyes as if it was still fresh and had just happened.

Xavier's face paled while nausea roiled in his stomach, climbing up into his esophagus and flooding his mouth uncontrollably.

Xavier bowed his body in the sink and vomited as he could, his mind tormented by the trauma of the past that still bore a large gaping and festering wound in his heart.

A wound too deep to be healed by time.

***

***

"You can come to my room later in the day, to have lunch with me," Akram tidied up his tie and put on his suit, then glanced at Elana who was chewing the last bite of something that had been in the form of a cup of toast in her hand.

This morning, the two of them managed to go through the preparations to leave for the office in a flawless peaceful situation. They woke up when Akram's phone alarm went off. Then, Elana firmly rejected Akram's sensual appeal that invited her to take a bath together and immediately chose to run away from Akram's room to run to her own room.

A wise decision. Because, if Akram managed to drag him to the bathroom, it is certain that the man will forget himself and cause them both to fail to go to work today.

Now, they were enjoying breakfast near the kitchen pantry. Elana was trying to finish a cup of her homemade toast with a filling of butter and a grated crunchy gouda cheese. Elana finds this strange cheese in the refrigerator and when she asks Akram, the man says that the taste will match the tongue of Elana. But when Elana offered her bread to Akram, the man refused, saying he did not like sweet food.

Akram said gouda cheese has a dominant sweet taste because of its lactic acid content that is lost during the manufacturing process. True, melted gouda cheese is crunchy, sweet and savory taste very delicious mixed with the distinctive fragrance of nan creamy from butter is roasted as fragrant as ever.

Akram himself has spent his black coffee made by the Vsixty drip method is complicated, even though there is an espresso machine in the kitchen that is not even used. The man had also been kind enough to make a cup of delicious chocolate for Elana which was instantly spent by Elana up the toilet.

They had passed the breakfast session without any significant upheaval and suddenly Akram offered a trap wrapped in a lunch offer for him. It sounds tempting, but of course Elana will not fall in her snare. Even if Akram did offer lunch without any intention, Elana was convinced that in practice, it would not end as a regular lunch.

"No. Thank you," Elana replied slowly. "My co-workers would suspect that every lunch hour I disappeared under the pretext of making a report for the orphanage, and then." Elana's cheeks flushed. "Then I didn't come back" he continued in a stifled voice.

Akram eyes glittering. "They'll understand if you spend your lunch time 'making a report' to their boss, directly," he said in a seductive tone wrapped in sarcasm.

Elana's cheeks grew red, like a layer of rose petals as smooth as a freshly bloomed velvet. The woman seemed to grumble, making Akram have to grit his teeth to refrain from pushing her into the kitchen pantry and doing a nice short sex session.

"You promised," Elana looked up, then looked at Akram with a denouncing look.

Acram thinning lips. "Kiss me" he suddenly growled.

Elana widened her eyes, as if in disbelief at the sudden transition of the core of their conversation.

"Ap... what ...?" akram looked at him confused, as if he did not believe his hearing.

"You're still learning to be active when making love and I'm willing to compromise because you have no experience other than me" Akram sizzled slowly and watched Elana with his heart-pounding sharp eyes. "In exchange, I want you to kiss me every morning before we go to work,"

Since the accident, Akram has made arrangements for them to leave and return to work separately so Elana can avoid danger. The driver will deliver Elana early and drop her off in a safe area close to the orphanage run by the Akram company, then Elana will walk to the nearest bus stop and wait for the bus to pick up employees.

Likewise, when she returned home, Elana would take an employee bus and get off at the same stop, then walk at the pick-up stop where the driver was waiting for her. Elana enters Akram's company as an orphanage child who gets a job because of the company's social program, so her co-workers will not suspect that Elana was picked up and dropped off at the stop.

Akram has also infiltrated one of his most skilled bodyguards to disguise himself as a cleaning service to escort Elana. The man acts as a transfer employee from the branch office who happens to get off and up at the same stop as Elana, when in fact he is in charge of guarding and protecting Elana along the way to leave and go home from work.

"Kissing you as compensation?" Elana frowned, as if thinking that what was proposed by Akram was something unreasonable.

"Yes. Kissed me. Here," Akram pointed at his own lips shamelessly.

Elana pursed her lips. "How can a kiss be compensated?" his protest in a weak voice, irritated at Akram's absurd attitude.

"I can decide anything I want. I could even ask for more compensation if I wanted to," Akram narrowed his eyes, moved closer to the woman and waited. "So?" he then demanded it in an arrogant tone.

Elana gulped, in her heart cursing how shameless this man in front of her who always tried to take advantage of every situation, especially in situations that could otherwise bully Elana to the toilet.

But, Elana stepped closer towards Akram. He had to tiptoe to reach Akram's face. Because, if Akram stood upright and was not bending towards him, their height difference was too far. Slowly, Elana touched her fingers to Akram's cheeks, making Akram's eyes instantly sparkle full of antipasi.

Shortly after, with a lightning-fast motion, Elana landed her lips. Not on Akram's lips, but on his cheeks.

"I.. I'm leaving first!" Elana takes off her touch from Akram, then runs away and comes out of the apartment slamming the door behind her, leaving Akram still glued with her hands rubbing her cheeks that used to be kissed by Elana.

***

***

Xavier was sculpting behind the wheel of a car parked in the shadow of a lush tree in a slightly closed position. His parking position was in the perfect place where he could keep an eye on the in and out lane at the front gate of the Akram company.

She begins to get sick of playing cat-splitting with Akram's men who are blatantly stationed surrounding her house. Earlier, Xavier got out driving in his own inconspicuous car, while he spread out his other two cars, with his men acting as himself in the rear passenger seat of the driver as a distraction. Now Akram's men are definitely following the cars around the city aimlessly until Xavier orders them back to the city.

Xavier knew the time was cramped to ascertain what he was looking for. Akram's men are not stupid humans. They will surely realize something is wrong when the car they follow continues to drive around to an uncertain destination and they will eventually realize that they have been deceived.

Akram seems completely desperate and exerts all means to protect his favorite girl from Xavier's attack. Apparently, this one girl is different, making Akram really unwilling to lose her.

If he managed to damage this one, then the destruction that Akram would receive must be very extraordinary. In fact, it would probably be much more fatal compared to the previous Anastasia incident....

Slowly, he stared at the digital screen that was directly related to the communication tool in his ear.

"Did you get it?" Xavier was silent for a moment, listening to his interlocutor's answer across the street. "OKAY. I'll see it. I'll call you later." Xavier cut off the conversation, then stared at the digital screen in front of him with interest.

There was data coming in that he had to download before Xavier could see it. The data was automatically opened later, the content is information about employees who work at the headquarters of the company Akram. The data was not intact because the security system owned by the company Akram immediately knew there was a hack to break the data retrieval process when it was not fully completed. But this incomplete data was enough for Xavier.

After some time, Xavier found a special page for the hygiene division. He went through the names carefully. No one can beat Xavier when it comes to reading data, his genius brain has the ability to read data quickly and without being missed. He tried to find Lana's name from all the names and his lips thinned when he finally came to a conclusion.

Lana's name, or something similar to that, was not at all recorded in the employee data in front of her. Whether the woman was listed as an employee of another division who happened to be not in the data she got, or as expected, Lana entered the company based on authority from above directly, he said, from Akram Night itself.

Xavier knew he had to make sure of everything before he acted...

Pressing the connecting device in his hand, and immediately spoke so connected with his interlocutor.

"I want you to monitor one person with specifics and report them to me as soon as possible in the second that he steps out of the company of Akram Night."

***

"Please, through this area, representatives from the research and development division will wait in the front room to show the progress we have achieved in the last three months." Elios moved his hand politely to show the way for representatives of corporate partners from neighboring countries interested in working together on their latest technology research development.

Akram is the one leading the way, taking potential partners to the grand hall where technology demonstrations and simulations of their latest invention robots will take place. He speaks quickly in a foreign language belonging to his prospective business partner to explain the detailed details required.

However, Akram's steps suddenly faltered when in the sixth floor hallway, his head turned to one of the meeting room's doors that was slightly open and attracted by the movement inside.

That's Elana.

Intentionally, Akram slightly stopped his steps, making the group that followed him stop. His actions made Elana immediately cross paths with Akram and the entourage he carried as soon as he stepped out of the room.

"Oh," Elana's eyes widened as she recognized Akram. His gaze was directed at the group of foreigners dressed in official suits who were behind Akram and he immediately bowed while nodding his head in to greet him.

"Se. good day, sir," cried Elana nervously.

Akram raised next to an eyebrow, then returned a thin Elana nod.

"Good day," Akram replied calmly, then did not turn his head twice before continuing his footsteps passed followed by the people behind him.

Elana was still standing glued as she looked at Akram and the others until they disappeared at the end of the hall, then she shrugged while stepping into the empty meeting room next to the space she had just cleaned earlier, continue his work cheerfully and tirelessly.

***

***

Time had already shown three o'clock in the afternoon and Elana sighed as another room cleared her until it glittered on all sides.

His sixth-floor cleaning partner was ill and the cleaning service staff were mostly redirected to the left-wing area of the building under renovation. That's why they lack cleaning power so Elana must do cleaning activities alone.

The sixth floor is specifically used for internal meeting areas in large rooms lined along the hall where there will be a demonstration area similar to a large round hall at the end of the hall. The meeting rooms on the sixth floor are empty so Elana can clean them comfortably.

Now he had cleared the last meeting room on this floor, and had completed his task today brilliantly.

The sound of the door closing behind her made Elana turn her head, and Elana's eyes widened in shock when she saw who was coming.

"Acram?"

Elana raised an eyebrow when she found the figure of Akram crossing her arms while leaning against the closed door behind her back.

"You are the lover of the owner of this company. If you want, you can come up with your chin raised in this place and make everyone salute you" Akram watched Elana with a sharp, soul-piercing gaze. "Why did you choose to work as a cleaning service that must drain your energy until the afternoon before?" tanyanya. Akram's forehead wrinkled while a rare trace of confusion implied from his voice.

Elana widens her eyes. "I'm just being myself." Elana's cheeks flushed red as she raised her chin in a defiant manner towards Akram. "And I. I'm not your lover!" loudly protest.

A wrong action, because it is tantamount to provoking a hungry wolf who is wondering whether to devour its prey at once or play with it first.

Akram immediately approached Elana, pushing the woman to the side of the large meeting table behind her.

"Not my lover? You stay with me, eat with me, sleep in my bed and make love to me," Akram wrapped his arms around Elana's body and pulled her closer. "How could you not be my girlfriend, then?" whispering in Elana's ear, Akram landed a kiss on the side of the woman's face.

"Le. let me go, Akram. I... It's still at work, "Elana used both hands to push Akram's chest hard, but it's useless because Akram did not budge at all.

"Nobody's gonna bother us. I placed my two bodyguards in front of the door," Akram lowered his head, sinking his lips in the groove between Elana's neck and shoulders, then clenched there, purposely leaving a mark.

Elana widened her eyes, a groan escaped from her lips as a result of Akram's intimate actions towards her. Frantically he moved his hand to Akram's arm, trying to release the man's arm that was encircling his body.

"Akram... You don't mean to fuck in.... Here, do you? I... I just cleaned this room!"

Akram immediately grinned at the words of Elana. He lifted his head and he looked down at Elana who looked up so that their noses almost touched.

"Of course I won't tarnish your work" said Akram softly. The man moved his fingers to get rid of the unraveling children of Elana's hair, then slipped behind Elana's ears. Meanwhile, one hand held something into Elana's hand. "I just wanted to say hello for a minute to appreciate your hard work. See you tonight at home" Akram continued. The man suddenly landed his lips on Elana's cheek and kissed her softly, before then stepping away from the room without looking back at Elana.

Elana stared at the closed door that Akram had left and frowned in confusion at the man's attitude.

What exactly does Akram mean? Was the man replying to her this morning?

When Elana looked down and looked at the thing Akram had gripped into her hand, Elana's eyes widened when she found a chocolate bar wrapped neatly in a very expensive-looking package in her hand

***

***

The rain was heavy as Elana stepped down from the stopped employee bus. From the corner of her eye, Elana saw a bodyguard figure disguised as an employee who appeared to come down from the bus and follow behind her as she should.

Elana developed an umbrella and stepped slowly through a pedestrian walkway that connects the bus stop with the parking area in a nearby city park. As usual, a pickup car that would drive him to Akram's apartment, had been waiting there.

The atmosphere this afternoon seemed darker than usual, with the sky overburdened blackened as if ready to lift dark clouds to spew heavy rain that was almost unaccountable. Around Elana is also quiet, probably because most people choose to take shelter because they know that heavy rain will come soon.

Elana sped up the pace, knowing that she had to reach the waiting car immediately if she didn't want to get caught in the heavy rain. His steps faltered when he approached the car. Somehow the raindrops that fell made the feel around her so different, prompting Elana to want to get away from here.

The dark black car seemed to be parked alone in the middle of the parking area and Elana frowned as she stepped closer and found no one there.

Usually the driver stood politely waiting while opening the door for him as soon as Elana came closer...

Soon Elana turned her head to ask bodyguard Akram who she knew was following. His eyes instantly widened when he found no one behind him.

Where did that guy go?

Elana watched the surroundings vigilantly. The garden lights started to light up at the same time as the dense darkness had filled the surroundings of Elana completely, creating a terrifying feel that made the fur of me sit up

Elana's hands instantly clenched in horror along with the rumbling of thunder that made the sky churn over her. The details of the rain grew louder and Elana's premonition immediately shouted a warning alarm, as if realizing that danger was approaching.

Suddenly he felt the urge to turn around and run as fast as possible.

Unfortunately the situation seems to be too late for Elana. The figure of Xavier suddenly stepped from behind the large trees in the garden, close to where Elana was standing and staring at Elana meaningfully.

***