Thelma’s POV
“Ouch,” I mumbled to myself. I yawned and looked around wearily. I was still trying to wrap my senses together. The room smelt cold and my body reacted feverishly in return. I frowned and looked out the window and it appeared the summer sun was slowly rising. Strange. I thought it was evening a few minutes ago? I reached for my phone, which I kept carelessly on the tiny bed, and powered it back on. Damn! Couldn’t be true. It was Saturday morning, 7:56 am precise.
“What could have happened?” I said to myself. It appeared the heavy cleaning and arrangement I had done the previous day made my body so weak that I had to sleep off. Grrhh! My body even ached in places that almost gave me shivers.
I fought against the weakness and managed to stand on my feet. I put the blanket in order and spread it on the bed. I reached out for my toothbrush and wanted to do the needful. I looked around, there was no sink whatsoever I could brush my teeth into. I looked at the telephone kept on the desk. I remembered that Simon had asked me to call him when I needed anything.
“Fuck that.” I cursed. “And fuck you too, Simon.” I felt like I had just told him that right in his face because I smiled after saying it. I reached for the door and grabbed the handle, it felt cold to my touch. But the door was closed. I forced it again and twisted the handle, hard but the door still didn’t open. It was as though it had been locked from the outside or something like that.
“Jeez.” I giggled. This was funny, I thought. Was I being held a prisoner or what? I looked back at the Telephone again. It appeared that I didn’t have a choice. I reached for it and pressed one like I had been instructed to do. It rang more than my patience could withstand but nobody seemed to be picking up. I didn’t feel like dialling the number again but Hell, I had my toothbrush with me and toothpaste on it already. The dead rat I had found the previous night was still inside an old basket I had found useful for a dustbin. And it was still smelling right inside it. So I needed to dispose of it as soon as possible.
I didn’t know what I was slowly turning into. I didn’t use to be this patient. I kept my left hand on my hair and glided it backward. I dialled the number again. Luckily, someone picked. “Hi to whoever is on the call,” I said frustratingly. “It would be a thing of joy if you can rush into my room and help me get this FUCKING door open.” I put on a smug face as though I was satisfied with the way I had passed my message across. Then I had expected answers but they never came.
“Hello!” I said. “Hello, are you still there. . . eh. . . receiver or who the Hell you are?” I asked. No answer came. I frowned. My smug face turned stern. I tried to kick my foot on the floor but I hit it on the bed foot accidentally. It was a hard kick and painful too.
“Ouch!” I bemoaned. I hit my free hand on the bed, frustrated. I tried not to allow the brush to fall. The door’s handle twisted and I looked. The door opened. It was Simon, as tall as a stranger, looking at me. “And where the hell have you been?” I tried to suppress the shock that came with his presence.
He raised his brow. “Busy.” He looked around the whole room and inclined his head in a deliberate and approving nod. I didn’t understand what that meant. I ignored it.
The pain in my leg was still fresh and I just wish I could just kick him, right in between his legs. Maybe I would pass my frustration to him that way, I thought. “Okay, busy man. I want to brush my teeth.”
“Follow me then,” he said softly. “I will show you where.”
I grabbed the basket and followed him. He turned and regarded me with a wary look. “What’s that?” he asked.
“You wish to know?”
“Definitely.”
I smiled. “Then why don’t you check it out yourself.” I handed over the basket to him.
He looked inside and closed his nose immediately. He handed me back the basket. “I’m not going to take that.”
“Hmm?”
I nodded. “Yes. It becomes your property now. You wanted to see what’s inside right? You also need to dispose of it yourself.” I smiled satisfyingly at him.
His facial expression remained placid, unchanging. He led the way while I followed him. We entered the bathroom and he gestured with his hand so I would go in. I wanted to go in but he grabbed my shoulder. “You better do what you need to do now. We might not be coming back here anytime soon.”
I ignored him and went inside. He waited for me outside. This was ridiculous. I had never felt this disturbed in my entire life. In fact, apart from Mr. Rudolph’s rains of abuse, he hadn’t come close to irritating me like this. I had only been here for just a day but I was already feeling and fuming like it had been a month. I didn’t just end up brushing only my teeth but I also took my bath.
“We might not be coming back here anytime soon.” I didn’t take those words lightly. Simon had proven to me with actions that he meant every word he says. Since he had revealed the hint to me, I didn’t have any plans to sleep on it. I came out and saw him leaning against the wall.
“Follow me.” He began to move, presumably back to the room. I trailed behind him slowly. I came back to my room and there was food already kept on the same desk with the phone. I didn’t know which food it was because it was covered. It was obvious that someone else had entered the room while I was away.
I wanted to ask Simon if he was responsible for keeping the food on the desk but he beat me to it. “That’s your food,” he said. “You should eat it while you can.”
2 weeks later
It’s been a whole lot of work the past two weeks. I had stopped school and was forced to start learning inside the packhouse. Simon had been my tutor. I had even learnt how to make some special cuisines, wash plates and do different house choirs. I wasn’t able to learn this while I was still with my father. At first, I had hated it. Because it was so stressful, and time-demanding but I had to adapt. The only thing that I didn’t understand was why I was made to learn all these skills but yet haven’t been able to meet my alleged mate. In these two weeks, I had learned that there was no way Simon would be the mate my father talked about.
It was Monday night. I had worked all day and I needed to sleep. My eyes were so heavy but yet I was too tired to put myself to sleep. I decided to close my eyes and then lay my head on the bed. But then, something happened. While resting, I noticed someone’s presence. There was a scent so familiar and so close. The scent dominated my nose and worked so hard in making me lose concentration. It was his scent. It was the same scent I had perceived the night Stephanie died. I jerked up and looked around me, but didn’t see anyone in my room. I heard a noise and it came from outside. I looked out through my window, though it was dark outside but I heard distant running footsteps. Someone had been watching me from outside, I reasoned in between thoughts. I was being watched. But why? And whom? Why didn’t he want to show himself? Why would he need to steal a glance when I needed to see him as well? Why do I so desire his presence even when I had never seen him before? Or does it mean that he. . . ? Maybe he had come because I was on my heat period. But why was he finding it difficult to approach me and make me see him?
I stood up from the bed. I knew it would be useless to give opening the door a try. I looked back at the window frame. I remembered the bars were weak. I had never thought of escaping from the room let alone through the window. It never occurred to me. But today, it did- I was more than willing to try it. I had this strong desire to meet him. At least to see him. I walked up to the window and then began to shake the iron bars. The constant vibration began to soften the cement chalked on the wall that held the bars in place. Boom! It worked. I pulled out more bars than I thought would be possible. I wriggled away through the little space I had created and then followed that strong scent that always made me feel possessed. Possessed with something beyond my control. The scent was still fresh in the air and I wasn’t willing to waste a second. I didn’t know the bungalow was such a big house because I walked more than I thought I would walk around it to find what I was looking for. I found a door where the scent I had perceived smelt strong. I came very close to it and stopped. I inhaled. I had planned to knock at the door but found it to be open instead. I pushed at it and went inside. The room looked grand and spacious. The tiles, the blanket, and the mattress, all had the colour red with a little mixture of other colours- pink being the next dominant colour. I didn’t believe such a room could be in the same packhouse I had been made to stay in. I never liked the colour red but seeing how this room was decorated with it made me change my perception of it. I walked in more closely, I couldn’t tell exactly where the scent was coming from because it was everywhere. This must be his room, I thought. Upon the walls were pictures of people of different ages. Most of them, smiling. I looked at them and I almost ended up forgetting the reason why I had come.
“Have you come to find me?” asked an alluring male voice. The voice almost startled me to death. “Mate!”
I turned, and I saw a figure hiding in the dark. I was scared to a certain extent. “Would hiding in the dark make this conversation interesting?” I asked.
The man hiding laughed. He was behind a shade so I couldn’t see his face nor could I exactly tell what or who he looked like. “You are smart,” he said, his voice so fucking smooth- something I never expected.
“And you are inaccessible.” I threw back.
He laughed again, his hypnotizing voice mesmerizing my brain. “I like you.”
“You like me?” I scoffed. “Why don’t you come out and show me what you are made of?”
“Would that satisfy you?”
“We will know soon enough.”
He obeyed me. He began to walk out slowly from the shadow. “Jeez.” I breathed. I didn’t know when my lips parted in surprise as I watched him slowly making a move out to the open. A man with, an inverted sweet-looking face, and sexy eyes like orbs, emerged. He was mightily built- and almost seemed like a giant at close distance. I would be more like a baby to him- and he had a killer and sexy body physique single young ladies would be happy to slay for. He looked heavy-chested too, evident from the tight denim brown T-shirt he wore. His biceps looked as though they would reap his clothes into shreds. I swallowed. Did he just tell me he liked me before? He might want to say that again.
“What?” he asked, flashing his green eyes at me. Goodness! “You don’t like who you see?”
“What?” I asked him, my voice swallowed by his presence. It should be more of, don’t I like what I see? Of course, I was in love with what I was seeing already. I knocked myself in the head- a move I thought would make me regain my senses. “That’s a ridiculous question.” I tried to look away, pretending. His eyes were too endearing to maintain a long gaze. It made me start imagining things, things too bizarre to think for a stranger. I might just kiss him if I didn’t make the decision, I thought.
He continued to walk closely. I almost lost my breath as I watched him from the corners of my eyes. Can’t he just stop? “Whe. . . ere are you going?” I asked, my voice shaking.
“You asked me to come closer, didn’t you?”
Can someone open the window? It is too hot in here.