“Mom, I’m home!” I kicked the door open and locked it behind me, fixing my gaze on the key which twisted and turned in my fingers.
Totally enveloped by excitement, I marched to the living room, carefully swinging my arms beside me.
“Mom, I’m…”
In case you’re wondering why my words got stuck in my throat, here’s why.
Mom was sprawled on the floor, tangled in the arms of a very familiar man, their eyes were transfixed on the television before them. They were so engrossed in gazing at the Television that my presence was just as normal as the air around them. I was a few feet away from them yet they didn’t acknowledge my presence.
I took a brief moment to observe them; their position on the furry rug spoke of so much love, tenderness, passion and comfort. They lost sense of time itself as they gently interlocked their fingers, whispering words to each other. As the man raised mom’s hand to his lips and placed a soft kiss at the top, she smiled and the wrinkles at the sides of her lips vanished momentarily. He kissed the top of her head and she shifted further into his protective arms, her eyes travelled back to the movie playing in the television.
Feeling like a mischievous four-year-old, I grinned slyly and retreated to the kitchen where I poured myself a glass of water, ensuring that I made sufficient noise to drag the ‘lovebirds’ out of their romantic euphoria, but it wasn’t enough.
I flung the cupboard at my eye level open and searched for nothing in particular. Throwing another cupboard open, allowing the tiny door bang against the previously opened door, I pulled out a plastic white bowl that we hadn’t used in a while. After examining it, I set it back in its original position and moved to the cupboard below my waist.
Throats cleared behind me and I smirked, internally congratulating myself for a job perfectly accomplished. I raised my hands in the air and slowly twirled around to meet mom’s and Mr Adam’s eyes, Mr Adam’s eyes bore some sort of confusion while mom’s shot pins and needles at me.
“Good evening people, I’m sorry about that, I was trying to prepare some mouth-watering pancakes.” And I call myself a vegetarian, what a traitor I am.
Mom snorted in disbelief and Mr Adam’s laughed awkwardly but he avoided my gaze. I so much wanted to silently torture him but he narrowly escaped from my claws.
“You’re so immature, do you know that?” Mom questioned, releasing her hands from Mr. Adam’s.
“Oh yes, you tell me that everyday, how can I ever forget?” I strolled to the silver sink and washed my hands underneath the tap with a bar of soap. I heard a snort from behind me and swirled around to see mom shaking her head and Mr. Adam struggling to force back a laughter.
“So this is what goes on in the Steel’s household huh?” He finally spoke up, giving me the opportunity to launch a verbal attack on him.
“Glad you could join us, Mr. eh… Adam?” I smirked. Mom shaking her head in amusement raised her hand in exasperation and let it fall to her side again.
I wiped my hands with a napkin and folded it neatly on the counter behind me. Mom let out a sigh, probably thinking she was free. Mom glanced at Mr. Adam who shrugged and turned to leave. Mom was about following him when I protested.
“No mom, you’re staying back.”
She rolled her eyes and signalled Mr Adam to leave without her.
“Can we do this some other time?” She begged but I shook my head in disagreement, shutting my eyes for emphasis.
“That time is now, spill.” I snapped my fingers, our official finger sign for ‘spill’.
Finally, the succulent gossip that I’ve been waiting for poured out and I received it with open arms.
Mom said she fell in love with Mr. Adam a year ago, when she newly employed him as her assistant, although, he didn’t notice, her tiny love for him hatched into something big. On a rather fortunate day or night as she put it, her car tire acquired a puncture and she was stranded miles away from a car repair shop in an isolated town, Mr Adam was the first person she called, and he jumped in like a Knight in Shining Armour and rescued her. He didn’t literally jump in, over-exaggeration runs through the family.
Back to my narration.
Mom caught a cold from her exposure to the chill evening breeze so he offered to take her out for a hot cup of coffee and according to her, ‘that’s where it all started’.
No wonder she had acted like she was caught stealing lollipops when I found her musing over her clothes a few days back. Sneakiness also runs in our family.
Mr. Adam, mom and I ended up having a perfectly prepared dinner together. Irrespective of the fact that my sister was stowed away in some smelly, rotting old building, the warmth of the good old days crept underneath my skin alongside the feeling of being complete. Even my being asked out on a date faded away from my mind.
Edana
Time: Same night.
“Wake up!.” A rough voice rang out from above my head. I pretended not to hear and flipped over to the other side of my narrow bed. With a groan, I yawned and lazily stretched out my hands above my head like a cat.
My eyes opened fully but I couldn’t see anything, I sleepily wiped my eyes till my vision was transformed from blurred to acute. My resurrected sight captured a set of blue eyes gazing at me. The eyes held much more kind emotions than Crook’s and it comforted me to know that there was a friendly person in the hell hole after all.
My eyes darted from his and examined the rest of his bodily features. A large scar ran down one side of his face, probably inflicted by a ruthless knife, but it wasn’t visible enough except to an observant observer. The scar wasn’t effective in concealing his handsomeness, it even promoted it. A quote from my mom dove into my head, there’s so much beauty in our scars.
He was dressed like any other gangster would, only excluding the skull necklaces and prominent tattoos.
“I have a camera just in case.”
I sneered and lifted my hand to show him my engagement ring. His eyes dilated and constricted before I could bat an eyelid.
Slipping away from the blanket, I placed my bare feet on the warm wooden floor and subconsciously searched for my flip-flops. When I remembered that they were lost during my frantic struggle with the kidnappers, I abandoned the search.
“The boss will be seeing you tonight, get ready, I’ll lead you to the bathroom when you’re ready.”
I sniffed my underarms and scrunched my nose up in disgust as I deemed my body worthy of a thorough scrub.
“I hope I’ll have a clean towel to myself, a new bar of soap, a pair of flip-flops or some sort of footwear because my feet itch, how about a new change of clothing because I smell like a garbage dump,how… ”
Scar, no I’ll cook up a more suitable name, left his mouth open slightly at my long-windedness.
“Are you always such a wind-bag?”
“You haven’t seen anything yet.” i loosened my hair from the bun I secured it into and shook my head lightly to make my fair strands fall to my shoulder.
” Smith was really ticked off, said you’re a blabbermouth and I find myself completely agreeing with him.” Scar replied and gave me an odd look.
He marched towards the door which was ajar and I grudgingly trailed behind him, wishing I could wedge his head in between the little space there and suffocate him to death.
I stared up,down, left and right the large hall way we entered. Doors bordered each side of the hallway and my brain stressed itself out in wondering what was behind the doors. The light bulbs fixed to the ceiling dimly illuminated the hallway, making it a little bit spooky.
When we arrived at the right door, Scar stepped to the side and allowed me to step forward. I was about pushing the door open when he grabbed my arm.
“Don’t try anything stupid.” He warned, his expression indicating that he meant his words.
I nodded half-heartedly, trust me to disobey instructions, the stubborn lady I am.
After entering the bathroom and locking the door despite Scar’s protest, I stripped off my clothes and looked around the large bathroom which surprisingly was clean. A cabinet stood at the left corner, holding a towel and a bag of toiletries on it.
I hastily strode to the cabinet and scrutinized every object in the cabinet, aside from the objects sitting on top, it was virtually empty. The glass window above the bathtub provided me with no opportunity to escape, but I could at least take a sneak peek of the world around this prison.
Standing on the edge of the bathtub and properly balancing my body, I stretched my neck upwards and glimpsed out of the window. We were surrounded by isolated and abandoned buildings, there wasn’t a single soul in sight that I could alert to rescue me.
Sighing, I could only wish that my sister made the right decision. I wouldn’t want either mom or her to give up the empire we had worked so hard to build up to its current peak just became of me. I’d rather be tormented by the evil men that took me than watch everything we’ve toiled for go into the hands of an idiot. I would fight for all of us, I would fight for the memories we’ve had together as a family and I wish my mom and sister wouldn’t give up easily.
After cleaning my body with soap, sponge and water, I wore a blue, flowing gown that was folded on the cabinet. Even though I felt ridiculous wearing the over-size gown, it was better than being naked.
Scar led me to another door which was approximately fifty feet from the bathroom door and opened it, motioning me to go in.
“What’s going to happen to me?”
“I don’t know, just go in and stop talking!” He yelled and shoved me inside. The severity of his shove made me fall to the ground, with my hands shooting out to prevent a major damage to my face.
Scar locked the door from outside and I swallowed the abusive words my mouth was about spewing out. I lifted my body from the floor and moved my eyes around the narrow room.
The first objects my eyes captured were the big, black table and similarly coloured chairs sitting on the floor opposite me, then I observed the fluorescent light bulb above my head which was the only source of light in the room. A little door to my left attracted my attention and I anxiously marched to it to see where it led to, maybe to my freedom.Before I could reached out to grasp the door handle, the door was flung open and I inched backwards to properly study the figure that stood at the entrance.
Brown hair like mine, honey-coloured irises like mine, narrow lips like my sister, slender fingers like mine…
“Dad?”
“I’ve missed you so much, beauty.”