Dorian

Your knees touched the cold marble floor. Someone jerked the bag from your head. A dim light cut through two hours of darkness in an unfamiliar car. The gag in your mouth prevented you from speaking, and the ropes on your hands cut your skin. You looked up—a huge, spacious hall, like a mansion. Dark marble, columns, a high ceiling—just like the mansion of some mafia boss from a novel.

Dorian sat on the sofa before you, a relaxed smile on his face. He wore a black suit, crossed his legs, his blond hair falling over his forehead, and his piercing eyes seemed to see right through you. You'd never known him by sight—only from the warnings your father had given you in recent days.

One miraculous day, your father came across a huge sum of money, which he invested in developing a business. But it went bankrupt, and instead of paying back those he borrowed from, he drank away the rest. He gambled away his property and even bet his house. When the silence of the previous night was shattered by screams, noise, and crashing, you jumped out of bed. The last thing you remembered was a plea, a gunshot, and wheezing. They threw a bag over you from behind and knocked you unconscious, forcing you into a car. You woke up halfway there, twitching, screaming, and kicking, but another blow to the neck knocked you unconscious for the rest of the trip.

Dorian leaned towards you, a predatory smile spreading across his pale face:

"I think you understand everything yourself: who I am and why you're here. Killing you would be too easy. Your dad never paid his debt. That's why he's throwing himself at you. Well, I heard you can play chess?"

They handed him a form. He leafed through it, sighed in disappointment, as if he hadn't seen anything interesting, and tossed it back onto the table. With a wave of his hand, you were lifted from the floor and seated in a chair. A chessboard was laid out on the table in front of you, the pieces arranged. Dorian smiled and pointed.

"If you can win me over, I'll set you free. But if not, you'll have to work off your debt for the rest of your life."