CHAPTER 31: INJURED STRANGER.
“My back.” Kira yelped as she gently placed the victim on her bed. She stood straight and rubbed her back as she felt it ached more than she imagined. Where did she even have the strength to lift such a man in the first place? Speaking of him, her eyes landed on his facial features, and damn, even when his face was in the pool of a bloody-stained era, his classic features couldn’t be hidden. His pointed nose had it all embedded with Kira’s admiration until she snapped out of her thinking. Someone needed medical attention and here she was drooling about how good-looking he was, so terrible of her!
She quickly brought out her box of first aid and waited a while for her water to get boiled before she started tending to his injuries. Thank goodness she definitely learned some medical tips from mum if not she would have been staring at the poor man in a dumb manner.
She sat beside him and started unbuttoning his clothes, it was already getting dried. She inspected his injury and heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that it wasn’t deep to create any desperate medical attention but what could he have been involved in?
Was he a criminal? Was he just attacked for the sake of attacking? What could probably be wrong?
“I just hope that I am not going to regret helping this stranger.” She whispered as she brought her hand down to his waist and her eyes darted towards his lower part, she took her eyes off it quickly and blew out the air before continuing with the cleaning.
After that, she bandaged him up and left to pour the water away. She came back again and picked up the blood-soaked shirt, she was lost for a minute in her thoughts. What was she supposed to do now? His pants had blood stained too as well so it would be more appropriate to wash the pants alongside the shirt too, right?
“Damn Kira, what have you gotten yourself into?” She asked no one in particular and took further steps toward the sleeping guy. She cleared her throat awkwardly and pulled down the zipper while trying not to think of anything bad. But she couldn’t help it, her eyes needed to focus on what she was doing to make sure she wouldn’t touch any other wounds she wasn’t aware of yet.
While pulling down the pants, her eyes landed on his…cough…and her eyes widened slightly so that she couldn’t help glancing at the man. He was wearing tight-fitted underwear so it literally brought out the ‘goodness’. She hurriedly pulled down the pants and took them to the washing machine to be washed. She leaned against the wall as she watched the machine roll and wash the clothes.
“When will you stop thinking dirty?” She scolded herself. Well, whenever she saw any body part in a handsome manner that managed to catch her attention, she was in for a whole rollercoaster of imaginative thoughts.
A few minutes earlier, after Kira helped the stranger, at the exact spot.
A group man rushed past the place a little and stopped with their torchlights as their breathing got heavier. A husky man who seemed to be their leader groaned as he grabbed his head in frustration.
“Argh! Where did he go? He couldn’t have gone that far. He is injured so find him!” He ordered.
“Boss, over here.” A man called and the leader went to him, he pointed the torch to the ground and saw a trail of blood. He gritted his teeth and looked around once more.
“That’s good, this means that he is around here somewhere, not that far. Let’s move it.” He encouraged and the men took their feet, searching for their victim.
____________
Kira came back with the clothes, she made sure that it was well dried and arranged them beside him in case he woke up and was too shy to see himself naked or got seen by the opposite sex. She then sat in front of her drawing board,
Her source of inspiration was already fading off as she just had a staring contest with the drawing board, both depicting a state of blankness.
“My, my.” She sighed and her eyes darted toward the sleeping man again. Her eyes widened and she smiled.
“Kira, where exactly is your brain located tonight? How can you be thinking so hard when you have a piece of Greek sculpture in front of you, lying unconscious? You have art material for free!” She praised and within a minute, her tools were ready and she began drawing after pulling her chair a bit closer to his side.
She drew him perfectly and even added some coloring to make it perfect. She giggled at her work and felt happy, she felt completely satisfied.
Kira yawned and dropped her drawing tools, she stood up and checked up on him again before exiting the room. She laid down on the couch and in a moment fell asleep on the couch.
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It was already getting late in the night, around 11 pm. Evelyn was already preparing to sleep as she wiped her wet hair. She just finished taking her shower.
Evelyn got on top of her bed and turned on her data, Ralph’s ghost message notification popped in and her heart skipped a bit because she had no idea what his response would be. It seemed like he just got less busy.
‘Well, do you feel the same for him?’ He asked.
Evelyn thought about the question, well, did she? Of course, she admired him and everything, goodness, she was just confused!
‘Judging from the story, you initiated the kiss right?’
‘Yeah.’ – Evelyn.
‘Then why did you kiss him?’
‘I don’t know, I just felt that push from within to do it…in fact, I am so confused right now. He confessed… as f*cking confessed! I don’t know how I am supposed to feel around him as of Monday.’
‘Wow, I never knew you use the ‘cuss’ word.’
‘It just pops out when I am frustrated or something like that.’
‘Hmm, well since you are still confused then you have two options. One, you can either tell him you like him back or just deny his feelings for you because you don’t feel that way then two, try to take everything slow to get your feelings and understand him better. That’s all I can give, you are a woman and you have a right over your decision. As long as your decision makes you and your Cutie pie happy then you are good to go.’
Her Cutie pie, how could she forget?
‘Hey, I need to go offline now. I am really busy at the moment, do you have somewhere you might be going tomorrow?’ – Ralph’s ghost.
‘Yeah, Victorian bridge. I will be going with my son and my friend, do you mind coming along?’
‘Yes, I do mind. I have a lot of work to catch up to if not I will be scolded so here I dismiss myself, goodnight.’
‘Goodnight.’
It was nice having someone to talk with and her mind calmed down a bit. She was already given the options to pick from so she could pick from any, but she opted for the last one. She could just tell Raphael that she needed some time and so as not to make things get awkward for the moment, they should just return to their previous ways of dealing with each other while she sorts out her messed up feelings for him.
Yes, this was certainly a good decision for her. She switched off her bright light, closed her eyes, and slowly drifted off to sleep.
********
In Shaft’s room, he was standing shirtless in front of his mirror checking his biceps and other parts of his body when the door was knocked upon. He glanced at him before turning to the other side of his body.
“Come in.”
Vincent opened the door and stepped in, he closed the door softly from behind him and moved closer to his father.
“Where have you gone to? I have been waiting for five minutes.” Shaft whined.
Vincent sat on the bed and patted it twice.
“You only called for me a minute ago and I am here but you consider it five minutes already? Dad, your calculations are bad.”
“Tell that to your mother.” Shaft glared at him while his son smiled.
“So why am I here?”
“I need you to organize a meeting on my behalf with Vegas Theophilus.”
Vincent scowled as he asked “This late? Do you think the meet-up will be possible?”
“Why don’t you try it? We don’t have much time anyway, your silly cousin needs our assistance.”
“Stop calling her my cousin.”
“Why?”
“Because she ain’t one.”
“I know and that’s why she is silly. Just send the message and try to tell him that it is just a casual meet-up at my place tomorrow. The faster we do it, the shorter my time is for the profits to be mine. It’s a win-win for us.” Shaft laughed dryly and went ahead to put on a light top.
“I just hope that this works or we can just focus on our regular business,” Vincent said worriedly as he looked at his father. Shaft’s playful face turned serious after seeing the look on Vincent’s.
“What are you worried about?”
“You know how shrewd Erica can be, dad. What if she goes against you?”
“She wouldn’t dare or else…! She wouldn’t. Don’t think too much about it, just do as I say, okay?”
“Hmmm.”
“That’s my boy. If there is nothing else then you may leave.”
Vincent nodded and hugged his father before leaving the room. He ran his hand through his grey hair before walking away to his room while Shaft took a brief look at his drawer and bit his lips.
“She wouldn’t dare.” He muttered.
TBC…