by S. E. Amadis
“How did you get loose, Calvin?” I whispered. My words could barely make their way out through my bruised lips. “I thought you were tied up.”
Calvin grimaced and showed me his wrists, cut raw and bleeding.
“I was tied up. But I wriggled free.”
Calvin began to cut through my ropes. It was painstaking work. Calvin was weak, and the cutter, effective though it was against tender flesh, made hardly a dent against the roughened hemp.
“Hurry,” I whispered. “They could be back any minute.”
Calvin nodded and grunted, notched up his efforts. After what seemed like an eternity, I felt the ropes fall away from me. I pushed weakly against them, felt them tumble off me to the ground.
Calvin wrapped his arms around me.
“Can you move, lovey?” he crooned. “Can you get up?”
I tried to nod.
“Of course,” I said. My voice came out softer than I expected. “Why shouldn’t I be able to?”
I tried to pull myself to my feet, but my legs crumbled like rubber. I could barely feel them. I gasped and grabbed onto Calvin.
“What’s happening to me, Calv?” I cried. “Why can’t I move?”
“Yes you can,” he replied grimly. “You can move. You’re stronger than you think, Annasuya. It’s just a little more, and then we’re free.” He glanced me up and down. “He didn’t do anything terrible to you, even though it looks bad. Only cut you up into about a thousand little pieces. But I’m sure they’re only superficial cuts and no broken bones so, c’mon, let’s scram already.” He tugged urgently at me. “I was so proud of you, honey sweets. Pained, but proud.”
“Why?” I asked blankly.
Calvin stared at me.
“You don’t know?”
I shook my head.
“What happened?”
“You don’t remember?”
Calvin grinned again.
“That bastard kept cutting you up. And every time he did something to you, he asked you if you wanted to take a break and for him to give the next one to Romeo. And you know what you did? Each and every time, you said no. Each and every time. It must have hurt like hell. I can’t even imagine what you must’ve been feeling. But each time you said no.”
I couldn’t remember any of it.
“He also said something about how this was just whetting his appetite and how you could expect the next round to be loads less innocuous, before that madwoman burst in on us and interrupted him, fortunately. You sure you don’t remember?”
I shook my head again. It was like he was talking about something from another lifetime.
“I don’t blame you. I’d love to forget everything that’s happened too, if I could.” He rubbed his eyes wearily, smearing blood over his face. “Well, but nuff blathering. Let’s get the hell outta here triple time. Can you get up now?”
I firmed myself, steeled myself up inside and made another attempt. This time I was able to stay on my feet. Calvin dragged me towards the stairs and scrambled upwards. Trying to climb the stairs was another herculean feat. It felt like trying to grapple up Mount Everest. I crumpled onto my knees on the steps, pulling myself upwards with my bloodied hands, one hand after the other. Calvin reached down and tugged at me. Even so, it seemed to take hours to reach the top.
Once at the top, Calvin peered about fearfully.
“The coast looks clear,” he gasped out at last, and inched his way up and through the doorway.
I followed, my heart in my throat.
We could see the gravelled clearing where Sandy had parked her van yesterday. Sandy’s van was there now. We couldn’t see anyone inside.
Calvin pressed his finger to his lips.
“Sshhh. They must still be around,” he said in a barely audible whisper, gesturing at the van.
A little further away, next to a distant line of trees, I glimpsed another car as well, probably Bruno’s.
We began to prowl across the clearing, ready to flee at an instant’s notice. I still felt weak, but adrenaline rushed through me, urging me on, numbing the sensation of pain and the debilitation of indecision.
An anguished cry of agony chilled my blood and made my limbs turn cold and useless. I dropped instinctively to a crouch in time to see Sandy hurl herself across the clearing towards her van from the other side. She was holding something against the pulsing artery on Romeo’s neck. I froze, petrified.
“Don’t hurt him,” I cried in a strangled voice.
Sandy ignored me. Shoving Romeo through the open door in the side of the van, she scrambled in after him and slammed the door shut. A minute later, we saw her appear in the cab of the van. She revved up the engine and started backing away. I wanted to leap for the vehicle but my rubbery nerves refused to respond. Within a minute, Sandy had manoeuvred the van off the grounds and was zooming away down the country road already at the speed of a Rally racer.
I cast Calvin a glance of despair, at a total and complete loss as to what to do now. As we stood there like dunces, I saw Bruno creep out from a nearby bush neither of us had even noticed and tackle Calvin like a pro football player, pounding on him and beating against him without respite. Calvin turned just in time to see something hurtle towards him.
Whatever it was struck Calvin down right where he stood. He didn’t even have time to utter a single cry. There was no expression on his face as he crumpled to the ground and lay spread out there in a senseless heap.
I stood there frozen, like a lump of turd. Calvin didn’t move. I took a tentative step towards him. But then Bruno seemed to recover his second wind and started bearing down on me.
I stepped back, torn between Calvin and my baby. It took me all of one second to make my decision. My heart was pounding in agony for Calvin, and tears were frozen inside me. But my baby won.
I turned on my heels and hightailed it towards Bruno’s car, seizing strength from goodness knew where. The only thing I was aware of was that I had to save my baby.
*
Bruno’s car loomed up before me. Without stopping to think, I leapt into the driver’s seat. The relief I felt at seeing the keys in the ignition, hanging there innocently as if just waiting for me, was indescribable. I twirled the keys with rigid fingers. The car sputtered into life immediately. I almost hugged her. Blessed, glorious Ford Cherokee!
I glimpsed Bruno’s reddened face swollen with rage in the rear-view mirror and floored the accelerator before it even occurred to me to close the door. Bruno jumped towards the car. I switched gears, wrenched at the steering wheel and zapped out of there before Bruno could make a second attempt.
I didn’t know where I was and for a while I was only able to circle about, trying to see something I recognized. Some landmark. A highway. A street sign. Even a poster to indicate what town I was in. But everything was strange and blurry, out of focus. Tears began to cloud my eyes and before I knew what I was doing, I found myself breaking down, shaking like a victim of malaria. I couldn’t control my hands on the steering wheel, my foot slipped off the accelerator. At last I pulled to one side as best as I could and killed the engine.
I could have exploded with frustration. I was nearly there. All I had to do was to discover where I was, and go after Sandy. I didn’t have the faintest idea where she could have taken Romeo, though.
I banged my fists against the dashboard. I was almost there, goddamn it! How could my nerves betray me so, in this most crucial moment?
I glanced down at myself, studied myself thoughtfully, all of a sudden amazed that I was still able to hold it together. Still capable of doing what I had to do, after all I’d been through during the past twenty-four hours and everything Bruno had done to me.
I held my arms up before me, palms up, staring in astonishment at the fifty million cuts zig-zagging across my hands and arms. Superficial cuts, which would hopefully not leave scars. But still, now that I was aware of them, they were starting to hurt like hell. Strange that up till now I hadn’t felt a thing.
I wondered how I’d been able to function in such a state.
I examined myself more thoroughly, still flabbergasted. Dozens of little cuts everywhere, tiny aggressions that I hadn’t even noticed before. Across my shoulders, down my chest, even along my legs. Bruno had done this to me? I couldn’t even remember it.
I nudged gently at what remained of my bloody, tattered clothing, trailed my fingers delicately over the angry welts on my skin, gasping at the sudden fire racing through me. Now that I’d noticed them, every wound seemed to sting excruciatingly. I bit my lips against the sudden pain and felt unexpected whiplashes across my cheeks.
I turned the mirror towards me and gaped in a daze at the gashes across my face. Superficial lashings, fortunately, that would probably heal within a few days. But I could scarcely believe I hadn’t felt them earlier. Tears slipped down my cheeks, making the wounds sting even more intensely.
In other circumstances, I would probably have been barrelling towards a hospital upon finding myself in such a pitiful condition. But now I needed to get to Romeo.
I clenched my fists about the steering wheel and gritted my teeth.
My baby needed me. And I wasn’t about to let him down.
If I lost him, I wouldn’t be able to live with it.
Chapter 28
I started up the engine again, eased myself back into the flow of traffic. At first I only continued wandering about. But then I saw a sign. The name of the town I was in. A set of arrows pointing the way towards the nearest autoroute. I headed towards it.
As I drove along, all of a sudden I knew, as sure as if someone had slipped a letter through my mailbox or sent me an SMS, exactly where Sandy had taken Romeo. I knew it the way I knew the way back to my own home. I knew it as if Sandy were sitting right here next to me in this very instant, confiding her secret to me.
I coasted onto the highway and rushed back to the city. Within a few minutes I was pulling up into Bedford Park.
The house was strangely dark and eerie but I wasn’t in the least bit surprised when I placed my hand on the doorknob, and it turned, swinging open into a muted living-room. I stalked in, furious, felt about for the light switch and threw it on.
I shrieked and nearly leapt out the door at the sight that awaited me.
There before me, spread out on some sort of disgustingly filthy lounger covered with nauseating stains, lay a repugnant, mud-coloured skeleton draped in red satin, its hideous, lidless eyes turned towards me in a species of grotesque greeting. A weird glow emanated from those eyes. It was almost as if it were alive.
Sandy stepped out from the shadows and laid her hand affectionately against the two wisps of discoloured hair sticking to the top of the skull. She stroked the hairs with love.
“Welcome, Annasuya,” she said.
Her wide grin indicated that she had been fully expecting me.
“No, I’m not surprised that you’ve found me,” she said, as if reading my mind. “Us.”
She gestured towards a door in the back, which I instantly took to mean that Romeo was hidden away somewhere over there.
As I gaped at her, wordless, she turned her gaze towards the monstrosity on the sofa. She smiled, baring her teeth.
“Ah, yes. I don’t believe you’ve met Lulu yet,” she said in a simperingly sweet tone of voice. “Lulu was, once upon a time and in a previous incarnation, Bruno’s beloved older sister, Brionna. Before she gave him his very last beating. Before he finally socked it to her and gave her what she deserved.”
She turned towards the ghastly apparition and tickled it underneath the chin, as if it were a cat, or a doll.
“After that we changed her name to Lulu. We felt that Lulu suited her better. It’s more sensuous. Seductive,” she crooned. “Just like her. Isn’t that right, Lulu?”
I stared at her incapable of moving a muscle to save my life. As if springing suddenly into business, stepping into the shoes of the office manager that she’d worn for so long, Sandy turned away and began moving briskly towards the door in the back of the room, motioning towards me.
“Well, Annasuya, it’s time we got to work. Don’t you think? You came here for someone, I do believe?”
Startled, I shook my head and began to follow her towards the door almost like an automaton. At the last minute, mistrust overtook me and I thought better of it.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” I said, edging away from the door. “How do I know Romeo is there?”
Sandy smiled. A creepy smile.
“You don’t know it,” she replied. “But you’re about to find out for yourself that I’m telling the truth.”
I began to cast about frantically for something I could use against Sandy. There was something about her movements... Her gestures... I nearly missed it, but out of the corner of my eye I caught her lunging towards me. Reflexes cultivated in Rudolph Verenich’s classes came to my rescue and urged me to duck instinctively before I was even aware of what I was doing.
Sandy’s groping hands missed me. I dropped to the ground and reached out towards a table, fumbling for the first item I could find. It turned out to be a remote control. Well, I could hardly bash Sandy in the head with that!
I glanced about and saw the television, pressed my finger over the on-off button. Sudden peals of oversized toddler laughter boomed out all around us, catching Sandy off guard. She whirled around, turning her back towards me.
I grasped the first thing I saw, a clunky marble statue of some abstract, unidentifiable artwork, and jumped onto Sandy from behind, riding her like a horse. She bucked about, flailing like a stallion. I clung on for dear life and bashed the statue over Sandy’s head.
She dropped like a lump of lead to the ground. Caught off balance, I tumbled on top of her. For a minute, we both lay there, winded.
At last, I managed to pull myself off of Sandy. She lay still, unmoving. I chucked the statue behind me and retreated out of reach of Sandy’s probing hands, my heart in my mouth, scarcely daring to breathe.
I counted off the seconds: one, two, three... Sandy continued not to move.
My breath whooshed out of me in a tremendous sigh of relief.
I backed towards the door near the end of the living-room, never taking my eyes off of Sandy. She didn’t stir one whit. At last I reached the door and yanked it open.
There was a stairway that led to some sort of basement. Well, it made sense. Of course, wherever they were, they’d want to keep us quiet and shushed up in some basement or cellar. There was a faint light down there. I heard whimpering.
My breath caught in my throat as I edged out tentatively onto the staircase, my hackles bristling. A peaked face stared tentatively up at me. Romeo!
I must have scarpered down the stairs about five at a time. It was a miracle I didn’t fall and break my neck. In two seconds flat I was draping myself over Romeo, leaping into his arms, grabbing him about the shoulders and covering him with a mass of kisses without stopping. When I was finally able to control myself a bit, I began stroking his cheeks and silky hair the way I used to when he was small.
“Are you all right, baby?” I cried. “Did she hurt you?”
Romeo shook his head.
“She didn’t touch a hair on my head,” he declared proudly. “Do you like the new expression I learnt? I learnt it the other day at school.”
I grasped his hair by the handfuls.
“Well, I am definitely going to touch more than just one hair on your head,” I screamed.
Suddenly I realized that this wasn’t exactly the best place for us to linger. I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the staircase.
“Let’s get out of here already as if the house were on fire,” I urged.
As we neared the top, a bloated and almost unrecognizable Sandy reared herself up before us. Her face was red and swollen, her hair sticking out in all directions as if she’d stuck a finger against a live wire, her eyes wild and flashing with rage. Before we could stop ourselves, she jabbed
out a foot and sent us catapulting to the hard dirt floor below.
Chapter 29
Romeo was kneeling next to me, crying. I knew if he’d been at school no one would have ever caught him dead in such a pose. But now he was alone with me. With his mimi. His mami. Who’d known him since his very first cell ever existed. Who’d known him since before he was ever even aware of himself as a living, breathing, pulsating being who existed in this world. Someone who loved him and would give her life for him, if she had to.
I opened my eyes and tried to raise my hand to touch him. My head was throbbing and I could barely see straight.
“Mimi. Mimi, are you okay?” Romeo gasped out between sobs.
I tried to eke out a smile.
“Of course, sweetie pie.”
I pressed my palm against his cheek. Against that soft and tender baby cheek, still almost the cheek of a baby. I wanted to hold myself against him forever.
“What happened?” I whispered.
“Don’t you remember? How that mean, stupid lady pushed us down the stairs?” Romeo cried out, a bit exasperated.
“No. I meant, what happened when she took you away? Did she hurt you?”
Romeo shook his head.
“Naw. She put this thing up against my throat, but it was to scare you. So you’d think she could hurt me, if you didn’t do what she said. But it was only a twig.”
He rubbed his throat where I’d seen that evil woman pressing something against him.
So the medium had told me I’d be up against an evil man. Well, what about that evil woman? Why hadn’t he warned me about that?
“We have to get out of here,” I said.
Romeo hunched down next to me.
“No, Mami. That’s all you ever think about. Fighting. And beating down on the people who try to beat you down. But sometimes you’ve gotta rest, you know. Like now, when you’re hurt.”
I cuddled his cheek in the curve of my hand.
