“I’m really sorry, I cannot even imagine what it would be like to see your parents lying dead in front of your very own eyes” I sympathized with her.
“I didn’t see their dead bodies. But our pool was filled with ashes, ” Mia said.
“Didn’t your parents have any siblings, why did they have to send you to an orphanage? That’s just unfair” Lakshmi lamented.
” They didn’t send me to an orphanage. I used to stay with my Aunt, my mum’s sister but I ran away from her. She abused me alot and I couldn’t endure any longer, she made me feel so scared whenever I was around her, she even threatened to kill me when she takes my parents money, I was so scared for my own life so I had to run away but they still want me” Mia was talking very slowly which somehow made me
uncomfortable but I just had to patiently listen to her narrating the whole story.
“Who wants you?” I found myself asking.
“The people who killed my parents, they attacked me once when I was being transferred from the orphanage I was staying before but..” Mia took a drastic pause. I could tell that she was contemplating whether to continue the last part of her sentence.
“But then they didn’t succeed. ” she ended the conversation at once before she left Lakshmi and I to be alone in the room.
I really felt guilty for the way I have been acting towards Mia. Here I thought I had my own issues because I didn’t have a mum and then there is Mia who has neither parents alive. She clearly has no one in her life.
“I know what you are thinking about. I also had the same thoughts when I found out she stayed in an orphanage but I never knew that her parents died in such a brutal way. That is just too painful for someone to handle, especially Mia ” Lakshmi placed her hands on mine.
“I don’t even know what to think about the whole issue. Who would ever have thought that Mia had gone through this?” I was amazed.
” And to crown it all I always bullied her, if I was in her place trust me I would have lost my mind by now. I mean she does so well in school, I haven’t been through so much and my report card isn’t that neat” I added.
” Speak for yourself, my grades have improved ever since I started associating myself with Mia. You should try it as well, I am very sure it is going to work wonders for you” Lakshmi suggested.
“Well whatever worked for you I’m sure it’s definitely the miracle I need right now” I teased her.
“Don’t even start with your nonsense Bella, I was better than you and you know that” Lakshmi tried to defend herself.
“Yeah, while I got F’s you had D’s” I rolled my eyes.
“Still better though” Lakshmi was still trying to stand her ground.
We chatted all day and they ended up spending the night at my house.
At the dark room where Catherine was locked up
“Oh no, she isn’t breathing” a middle aged woman was panicking as she checked Catherine who was lying unconscious on the bed.
“Sir you have to come now, there is an emergency that requires your presence” the lady went to tell the man who was master minding Catherine’s kidnap.
“And what could that be?” He raised an eyebrow and dropped the drink he was sipping as he turned to look at her and saw her panicking, he had a mild guess but still kept his hopes up.
He immediately followed her to wherever she was taking him, she refused to tell him anything until they got to where Catherine was.
“What?” He exclaimed, he was about to lose his mind. He picked her up from the bed immediately and threw her into the car before he drove off like a mad person.
“She cannot die now. I cannot lose her now, especially after how hard I have worked to keep her safe. She needs to stay alive if not my plans would be ruined” he kept on driving as he used his left palm to wipe his face while his right hand rested in the driving wheel of his car.
But he wasn’t taking her to the hospital, he was taking her somewhere else. A place that made him drive into the forest, a place far from where people could reach.
Immediately he got to his destination, he stopped the car and came down from the vehicle in a haste before dragging her out of the car and carrying her in his arms.
He took her into a very small hut which looked very old and tattered. The hut looked like it could barely contain 2 people but on the inside, the hut looked very big and modern. It wasn’t too big but also wasn’t as small as it looked from the outside.
“Banshee, Banshee” the man kept on yelling and an old lady came out from one of the rooms. Seeing Catherine unconscious she knew exactly what to do.
She wasn’t going to waste her time asking what had happened to her. She began to chant a mantra and murmur some words which only she could hear, then she applied a kind of cream on Catherine’s skin.
She was massaging her feet slowly but when Catherine was about to open her eyes, she blew a kind of powder in her face and she fell asleep again.
“How long are you going to keep her locked up? She isn’t going to survive any longer” Banshee tried to explain to the man who was just using his hand to mess up his hair, he paced back and forth in the room trying to think of a solution to his present situation but unfortunately his mind was completely blank.
“So what are you trying to say? That I should let her go? You want me to ruin my plan, a plan I have been working towards all these years. You want me to ruin everything?” The man kept on asking and answering himself while Banshee just looked at him quietly and let him finish.
“Are you done?. If you are done then you keep quiet and listen to me. I am not asking you to cancel your plans or to set her free, all I am trying to say is that you should maybe change the location you are keeping her. She needs fresh air, this isn’t the first time she is passing out.
You have to be very careful unless you are ready to lose her ” Banshee was quite calm in her words but yet her words sent shivers down his spine. Her words were enough to drive him nuts.