Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty

My mom had started dozing off there on the chair. She was too tired to keep her eyes open, even though she was in a very uncomfortable position. I felt a pang of guilt as I watched her sleep there without being able to save her. I felt ashamed and I let my tears fall as much as they wanted from my eyes. I scanned the room to find out how many of the hooded men might be there but I saw none except the man that had given Roland his drink. I think he was the very person that hit me earlier on. He stood by a corner, almost blending in with the shadows.

Roland Bones still slept soundly on the chair with his legs crossed on the table. How long was he going to keep us waiting in these ropes? My hands and feet were already hurting from the tightness of the ropes tied around them as I sat bound to a chair. Somehow, a deeper, dark part of me wished Brandon would just show up and save us, magically, like he always did. But another part of me didn’t want him here at all. He was already hurt because of me, and these people were no-smilers, and he might just get hurt even more. I guess that was why he was really mad at me earlier. Or, maybe… wait no! I didn’t even want him here at all! He was a complete crook, I won’t be surprised if he is behind all of these and then shows up in the most critical moment like my knight in shiny armour to save me, manipulating me into believing that he was my saviour. Such a sly fox he was!

The photos I found in his drawer were proof of everything. I used to wonder why he always showed up right on time, and now, I am almost forced to believe that his meeting me at that restaurant was no coincidence at all. Same with the club, same with everywhere else! The hotel! It was really a set-up andit was well planned, and his affiliate sat there coyly, acting like she had no idea what was going on at all! Oh, Mia! What did I ever do to you?

God, how I hate them now! All of them!

Thinking of them makes me sick altogether. I don’t know if my position on the chair was also contributing to it, but I suddenly felt so nauseous, and I badly wanted to throw up. My face was distorted with pain and irritation and I turned around to look for Max with my eyes, the guy who slapped some stars into my eyes. My eyes finally found him in the darkness, but when I was about to speak, everything came tumbling out of my tummy to the floor, and I think my mom got startled and woke up.

“Are you okay honey?” she asked in a sad, tired voice and I shook my head negatively in response, and almost immediately, a bit more vomit gushed out of my mouth to the floor.

“What the fack are yo doin’?” I heard Max ask angrily. He was beside me as he spoke in that weird accent.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Can’t you see that she is unwell?” my mom shot back at him angrily.

I tried to steady my swooning head from rolling off my neck, and for a moment, I thought my mom would disappear from her seat and come to me. She kept calling my name and asking if I was okay but I couldn’t answer her a word. I was feeling too weak to do so, but I knew I was not really ill. I was just irritated by the people I trusted that turned out to be foes, and each time my mind thought about them, it gave me a representation of them as real, big maggots. Eww. I couldn’t just control it, no matter how I tried to get my mind to stop seeing them that way, the more it did, so I just let it be.

I think the stress too was a contributing factor. Travelling for over 224 miles and then getting bound up thereafter was something certainly unmaidenly, and my body was definitely not taking it. And all these while my guts were throwing tantrums, did you know that Roland Bones was comfortably sleeping, enjoying his so called power nap? That man was really hard hearted.

“Wake him up! Wake that bastard up! Tell him he can keep me here, but he has to leave my child out of this!” my mom said angrily and I could only hear her from a place that seemed distant. Very distant. My head was spinning faster than a cycle and I could hear numerous voices floating in the air.

In the midst of the spinning voices, I could hear my mom cry and scream. She was begging that they let me go lest I die, but soon, her words felt like big inflated balloons in my head. They made my head swell and seem heavy, and somehow, I felt like I was bursting. She was asking them to take her instead of me and her voice seemed like she was speaking from under a big enclosed drum of water and it swelled my head even more.

She seemed to be a thousand miles away from me, but Roland Bones seemed to have found his way into my head, laughing loudly, cursing and talking about sweet power naps. I felt all the blood drain from my body as I sat still, wondering if this will ever end, waiting for what might be.

I could hear Brandon continually say; “you have forgotten your place.” His voice was ever icy and lethal. What could I do? He was walking towards me in those ominous footsteps of his with an icy look on his face. He kept showing me his scar, making me feel so guilty.

As the world around me drifted slowly to a standstill and the voices around me fizzled out, I heard a loud thud followed by a stern voice screaming; “untie her!”, and that was how my world blacked out.