The confinement room smelled of disinfectant and spoiled cabbage, but it was just like Naomi had described it-not as bad as a dungeon.
There was a bed right in the middle of the room with a white bed sheet; comfortable at first sight. The room had double windows and there was a bathroom, small but neat.
It was okay, just like a holding cell. I could survive here till the investigation result came out. I had faith in Adam that he wouldn’t let me rot in the cell.
Sitting on the bed after the little tour of about twenty minutes; after the intake of a cup of water which a guard had given me out of the blues, I felt dizzy. I was also tired of waiting for Adam who had promised to see me soon.
So, I decided to sleep. I was sure that the time was around 10pm, even though my phone had been confiscated by the guard, including my jewelleries.
Taking a deep breath, and muttering a prayer for the investigation to go in my favor, I shut my eyes and slept off.
I didn’t know how long I must have slept, but then I was drawn into a dream state.
——-
A woman’s despairing cry echoed in my soul, tearing at me, reprimanding me, drawing me back from the edge of a great precipice. And I was starving.
Every cell in my body craved food and something else, something I couldn’t lay my finger on. I was somewhere underground.
Desperate, I scanned the area above my resting place for the presence of enemies and, finding none, burst through the rich layers of soil, into the air, my heart thundering in my ears, my mind screaming.
I landed in a crouch in the midst of dense shrubbery and thick vegetation, and took a slow, careful look around me, not in the least concerned about how I could jump out from the ground.
For a moment, everything was wrong-monkeys shrieking, birds calling out a warning, the cough of a larger predator, even the brush of lizards through vegetation. I wasn’t supposed to be here. The rainforest.
I shook my head, trying to clear my fragmented mind. The last thing I remembered clearly was sleeping in the holding cell. How did I get here?
Waves of weakness rocked me. I found myself on my hands and knees, my belly in hard knots and my insides heaving.
Fire burned through my system like molten poison. Disease didn’t plague me often. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t remember if I had ever gotten really ill.
“I couldn’t have become ill with a human disease. This was manufactured by an enemy.” I heard myself mutter, and furrowed my eyebrows wondering what my dream self was talking about.
Human disease? I was almost human. It wouldn’t be a surprise.
Another jolt of blinding pain lashed at my temples, blackening the edges of my vision.
I covered my eyes, trying to block out the shooting stars coming at me like missiles. But closing my eyes worsened the effect.
“I am Maya,” I murmured aloud, trying to force my brain to work… to remember… pushing the words through teeth clenched tightly together in a grimace.
“I have a boyfriend, Adam, and he would not leave me if he knew I had need of him.”
I pushed past the pain to try to uncover the truth.
Why was I in the rain forest when I should have been in the holding cell? Why had I been abandoned by Adam?
I shook my head in denial, although it cost me dearly, as the pain increased, spikes seeming to stab through my skull.
I shivered as the shadows crept closer, ringing me, taking shapes. Leaves rustled and the bushes shifted, as if touched by unseen hands. Lizards darted out from under the rotting vegetation and raced away as if frightened.
I pulled back and once again looked warily around me, this time scanning above and below ground, quartering the region thoroughly.
There were shadows only, nothing flesh and blood to indicate an enemy close.
I had to get a hold of myself and figure out what was happening before the trap was sprung-and I was certain there was a trap and I was close to being truly caught.
Throughout my time with bullies, I had been wounded on many occasions, but still I had survived because I had always used my brain.
If I was hallucinating, I had to find a way out of the spell to protect myself.
Suddenly, out of the bushes, handsome men and beautiful women emerged, species reserved for the front pages of porn magazines, and they were naked.
They began to crowd around me, arms reaching, mouths open wide as they bent toward me, showing their wares. They smiled and beckoned, eyes wide, blood running down the sides of their necks-tempting-tempting.
Hunger burned. Raged. Grew into a monster. I couldn’t believe that I thirsted for blood.
As I watched, the women called to me seductively, moaning and writhing as if in sexual ecstasy, their hands touching themselves suggestively.
“Take me, Maya,” one cried. “I’m yours,” another called and reached out to me.
Hunger forced me to my feet. I could already taste the rich, hot blood, and was desperate to regain my equilibrium. I needed, and they would provide.
I smiled at them, my slow, seductive smile that always foreshadowed the taking of prey.