They dropped me naked on the bed and the woman dropped my clothes on the table a steaming plate of food and a bottle of water. They left and everything returned back to normal, silence.
I wore my clothes, one was a loose fitting cotton top and the next price was a loose food and water.. I ate the left over the next day.
By the thirteenth day I was sure I was hallucainti he and I knew that that I needed to get out of this place. My hands were so thin, I was so frail and weak. I used the table to break the window, the metal barricades wouldn’t move, there was nothing to saw it off.
I couldn’t pass through the space either. Later that evening the woman brought food as water, took the old plate away and stared at the window long and hard. I wanted her to say something, I dared her to say something but she left.
On the fourteenth day, I wanted to end my life. I broke the plate and without thinking, I used the sharp edge to slice open my wrist. Blood escaped, it was too fast and too sudden that I had to take off my clothes and wrap it around my hand. I wasn’t ready for death, not yet.
I cried and coiled into a fetal position, I couldn’t do it, I didn’t even know what came over me, maybe it was the insanity. By midnight, the woman came back and found me naked, but I was scared of her because she never visited me twice in day.
I stood up and ran to the corner of the room, pulling her away from the open door. Her eyes scanned me and then she saw my bloody top wrapped around my wrist.
She came for me and I hit her in her eye, she bent and groaned.
I picked up the chair and brought it hard against her head. She fell to the floor and I unwrapped my top from the wound. I didn’t care if it was covered in blood, it was dirty and I wore it.
I ran outside the door after swiping the keys out of the woman’s and I sneaked my way through the hall. I saw a staircase leading down but I didn’t know where it would lead, would it lead back to the belly of Julio’s den?
Once I searched and realised that there were no other way downstairs, I took the stairs, ran through the living room and dashed outside. It felt too unreal, my easy escape. My toes were digging in the grass as I ran across the lawn. I didn’t even look back, I kept on running.
“Hey!” Someone shouted behind me. The voice was deep and unmistakeable. My heart jumped into my mouth and my blood froze, stil my legs kept moving, I wasn’t even in control anymore, all I thought about was getting far away from these people, it didn’t matter if I was in a strange city.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Strong arms latched onto my clothes, I ran so fast that part the man grabbed tore of out the entire piece. He chose wisely the next time and grabbed my arm.
I latched onto him and took enough flesh from his cheek with my teeth, before he could push me away, I closed my teeth and pulled. The man yelled, I tasted metal in my tongue as his blood pooled into my mouth.
He hit me with his large hands and I saw stars. I fell on the ground and he brought his hand to my cheek.
He raised his hand in the air and I felt it was the last seconds of my life.
“Don’t!” A voice said, I turned to see the Mexican man… My back fell against the concrete as I tried to gather my breath.
“Were you going to hit her?”
“She bit me sir, I’m sorry”
The Mexican man glared at him and he bent down and lifted me from the ground, he carried me back to the house.
Elisa was in nothing but a robe while Julio was in his boxers. Their hair was ruffled, their skins pink and they smelled like sex.
“You…” Elisa said stomping towards me, the Mexican brought his hand forward and stopped her
“No one touches her” he said and he turned to me.
“She’s thinner than the first time I saw her, isn’t she being fed?”
I turned my eyes away from him as he checked and saw there was blood on my clothes, his possessiveness could only mean one thing, I was a product and he was willing to buy.
“Who hurt her?” He asked.
The man had some kind of power, I could feel it, even Julio was under him.. I wondered who is his boss was and why he would want me.
“Nobody, I ordered __”
“Then explain the blood, Julio…. the boss would not be happy with her present state, she’s to thin and she’s been injured ”
He raised my wrist and observed it.
“You did this to yourself?”
“And I’ll do it again ” I said through gritted teeth. “After finishing each and everyone of you off”
His eyes crinkled at the sides but he wasn’t smiling, amusement swam behind his dark eyes.
“Get her food and water, we’re leaving tonight”
My mother stepped forward.
“But we haven’t discussed the price yet, we were going to take out the baby tonight before she… Escaped”
“Didn’t I say no one touches the baby?”
“Well, we didn’t hear from you… It’s been two weeks so we thought you weren’t interested.
He eyed Elisa.
“Get her food and water, now ” he was angry.
“Come on! Hurry!!” Julio yelled at the middle aged woman who had been badly hurt by me. She limped as she left the living room.
“State your price. The boss would take her with the baby” he said flatly.
Elisa rolled her fingers on the hem of her robe.
“Forty million ” she said.
Julio’s brows crinkled and he turned to me.
“She’s beautiful but she’s not made of diamonds ” he heated but nobody laughed, I wanted to stab each and everyone of them.
I wanted to make them bleed.