Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1 – The Day It All Began
Total chaos.
Vicky had gone out for a simple walk in the center of Athens. She loved the city center—watching people shop, hearing the streets fill with voices, laughter, colors. The small shops in Monastiraki, always alive, always breathing. There, she felt safe. Alive.
She had no idea that today was the day everything would change.
As she approached her favorite café, she felt it for the first time—that familiar tightening in her stomach. An instinct. A warning. A shadow.
Two men.
They were following her.
Maybe I’m imagining things, she thought. Let me check.
She stopped outside a shop, pretending to admire the display window. They stopped too.
No. I’m not imagining it.
Her heart began to pound. She turned sharply and started walking faster, heading toward the narrow streets. There, she knew how to move. How to disappear. She had learned young—not by choice.
Behind her, the two men picked up their pace. They were following her. Steady. Silent. They weren’t hiding their intentions. These were professionals.
Panic wrapped around her like a wave. But inside her, a voice rose louder than fear.
This will not happen again. Not like before. Not this way.
She started running. Turning abruptly. Changing direction. Playing the only card she had left—instinct and her knowledge of the city.
The men ran after her. She heard voices—Turkish, most likely. She knew enough to understand this wasn’t random. This wasn’t opportunity.
She was a target.
Her breath burned. Her heart slammed so hard it hurt. She wanted to scream, to shout, but no sound came out.
“No. Not again. Not again.”
She burst suddenly onto a main road. In front of her—a black van. No markings. No plates. Two dark-haired men stared at her through the windshield. Cold. Empty. Human machines.
The other two grabbed her from behind. She didn’t even have time to raise her arms.
Vicky screamed with everything she had.
“Help! Help!”
The world froze for a split second. Someone shouted:
“Call the police! They’re kidnapping her!”
A taxi driver behind the van rolled down his window.
“Let the girl go!”
One of the dark-haired men turned slowly. Calmly. He pulled out a gun.
He fired.
The sound ripped through the air. The taxi driver collapsed onto the steering wheel. And then—then real panic erupted.
Screams. Running. Chaos. No one dared to come closer.
Vicky fought, screaming, kicking. If she was going to die, she would die here. Where people could see. Where it would be heard.
The tall man clamped a cloth over her mouth. She struggled for a few more seconds—
—and then everything went black.
Her body went limp. Dead weight.
They threw her into the van.
It took off. Speeding. Through alleys. Onto avenues. Behind them—sirens. Patrol cars. The police were moving.
The center of Athens turned into a chase scene.
And Vicky—unconscious now—was at the heart of a war that hadn’t even begun..
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