by Neal Goldy
“I’m NOT your sister. Stop slandering the relationship between a brother and a sister. And I don’t know what boyfriend you are talking…” then it hit me. Kevin!!!
He must be talking about Kevin because of the intelligent comment, but he was not close to being my boyfriend. I stared at him, confusion brimming in my mind. “You know about Kevin?”
“You had a huge crush on that wannabe young scientist, right? So I granted your wish and made him ask you out although he wanted some other Barbie doll. This is what a good brother does. You clearly have no appreciation of the good deeds I do for you.” He made a sincere face that I hated at the moment.
Barbie doll. I hated the fact that he had the same sense of humor about people as I do. “Made him? What did you make him do?” What was he talking about?
He was in his own train of speech. “You never know the kind of power you get in the underworld, even hypnotizing a 19 year-old boy. I daresay, it was real fun messing up that guy’s mind.”
I was speechless. “You….. You… hypnotized him…. Why?” I stared in horror. This was no revenge reunion from Storm. It was something big. He had not just abducted me for his amusement to make my life a living hell. He wanted something else from me, something that was not personal, something I had no idea of. Majestic, that was the word both Sam and Neil used.
“What do you want from me, Sam? And what is Majestic?”
“Not what, sis; who. You have no idea what our mother dragged you into, do you? I won’t blame you, but I will specially thank mother for this involuntary favor she did for me.”
I must be drowsy because each word was passing over my head. “Mom!!! What does mom have to do with all this?” I asked, totally bewildered now.
He took my hands. I flinched and pulled away. “All right, you want me to go straight to business.” He traced the hollow of my throat despite my protests. “Where is the pendant mom so lovingly gifted you? I don’t see it here.”
I was more confused now. I didn’t know what he wanted with my turquoise necklace but I was so not going to give it to him. While small inner voice told me to give him my pendant and run away, my conscious mind warned me that I was helpless here. If I gave him what he wanted, then he would inflict all sorts of brutalities on me, I had no doubt of that. And judging from the amount of armed men milling about, I was sure that the words spoken during our little battle in Disneyland had reached here.
“It’s in the cupboard at the Professor Collins’s house.” I replied blandly.
He curled his fist strongly in my hair. An unwanted yelp escaped my lips. “Did that hurt? It will hurt more and you know what I’m capable of doing to you. Stop bitching around and tell me where it is?”
“I told you. It’s in my cupboard.” I whispered, managing to keep myself from whimpering.
He pushed me sideways like some ragged piece of furniture, and unable to control my momentum (according to conservation of momentum theory), I collided with a nearby recliner. It took a few moments before I could steady myself. I rubbed my head where a mild concussion had occurred.
Sam was looking infuriated. “Do you think of me as a fool? Jon trashed the whole place and could not find the pendant. That stupid girl also refused to talk about it.”
It was like I was suddenly on a plane and the air pressure become dangerously low.
“You… you were behind all that. You attacked Nicole.” And she refused to talk about it. She knew I was wearing the pendant that evening and she still didn’t tell the attacker. She took the entire blow and tried her best to keep me away from harm. My love and respect for her just reached x to the power infinity. Thinking about her now made my heart ache.
“Oh lord, I forgot, you are so impertinent. Yes, my dear, I hypnotized your little scientist-in-the-making so that you would be out of the picture during the ransacking. But unfortunately, you attract trouble and so you took the pendant with you and we had to hire Neil to do the honors.”
He cracked his knuckles and his voice grew more raucous, “So, let’s do this again.” He unsheathed his gun and pointed it at my head. “Where is the pendant?”
“You won’t shoot me.”
“Why, sweetheart? You can’t really think I still crave for your attention?”
“You’re despicable. And yeah, I lost your precious pendant.” I spat in pure hatred.
He pulled the trigger and if not for my quick reflexes, there’d have been a hole in my cerebrum. I stared at him, shocked. I knew that he hated my guts, but never in my worst nightmares had I imagined he’d not even give a second thought to murdering me.
He threw the gun in perfect projectile motion with an initial velocity approximately equal to fifty km per hour on the wall beside me that made me flinch instinctively away.
“You lost it!!! You bitch! How could lose it?” He caught my arms so strongly that his nails dug in. I yelped but refused to surrender.
“What’s so special about that pendant? What do you want from it?”
He increased the pressure on my arms and pain flooded past the tolerable barrier. “You dare question me after the catastrophe you caused? You have no idea what you have brought on yourself?”
Channeling all my leftover strength, I pushed his hands away. “If that was so crucial for your big plans, why didn’t you ask for it from Mom? I’m sure she’d have done whatever you said, gladly.”
“Oh, I infiltrated that pendant into her house for safe-keeping, but the stupid crazy bitch gifted it to you.”
“She’s our mother, watch your tongue. At least that much humanity must be intact in you. Or are you beyond any redemption?”
He groaned, “She’s your mother, not mine, she never had been.”
I was dumbfounded. How could he say that when all Mom had ever cared about was his well-being? She resented it, but she had always loved her son, no matter what.
He sighed desperately, and before I could register what was happening, he slapped me so hard that I half crumbled to the ground. My cheek burned and tears finally broke the dam of self-restraint and flowed precipitously.
“You better not be lying, sister dear, or the punishment will be much, much harsher than this.” He grabbed my hair and thrust me towards one of his men. “Take her to the distress room. Do whatever you wanna do, but torture the truth out of her.”
His men looked reluctant. One of them spoke, “But Storm, she’s your ….”
Sam’s animalistic look slapped the man’s mouth shut. “She’s what? Family? Huh! Majestic is my only family. Got it?” The man nodded violently. Two of them grasped me from either side and literally dragged me along. We were almost past a wooden door when Sam’s next instruction blasted the last bit of sanity I had preserved.
“And yeah, change the venue to the pool area. I bet you’ll enjoy torturing her there.”
Chapter 12
I was hung upside down just a few inches above water, my legs all wrapped up in chains, and hands bound behind my back. Occasionally, whenever they wanted some entertainment, they would submerge my head in the water for as long as it would take one drink to gush. And often they would threaten me with a live wire almost making contact with water, but retreating at the last moment.
This was the ideal lackluster torture anyone could inflict on hard-core abductees. But as I always deducted, I was no special someone. Hence, I was just laden with the simplest of tortures. Hands and legs bound, and with a little tip-off from Storm, an occasional dip in the water to blow my nerves away.
And yeah, don’t forget about lame questions, which I had no intention of answering.
After what felt like hours, which were actually minutes only, the mental and physical tormentors decided to take a pause and refresh, which resulted in the ultimate blackout. They apparently decided to take a break and cheerfully darted out of the torture arena.
I lost track of time, but after what I calculated should be four minutes, one of them was back, alone. God! Help me. I chose to act unconsciously. H
e tiptoed towards me and untied my hands and legs. What was he up to? I still played comatose. Was he gonna assault me? Dread infused me. These people were entirely capable of raping a trapped girl.
I concentrated on all of my leftover energy and willed my mind to get ready to incapacitate the culprit. I thought as soon as he touches me any differently, I’ll charge him. But his touch caused comfort instead of disgust. His hands cupped my cheeks and an unusual warmth engulfed me. Something intimate and familiar burst through my veins. “Neil!”
I opened my eyes and found the most beautiful gift of my life: those ocean blue eyes full of concern, and something else, something foreign staring at me. “Angel”
That single word out of his mouth induced the most intimate sensation in my stomach. I blinked back the tears welling up in my eyes and hugged him tight. “You came back. You came back for me, you didn’t abandon me.” Tears of joy burst from my eyes.
He held me like I was the most precious thing in the world. For a few moments, nothing else mattered except being held in Neil’s embrace. I clutched the nape of his neck so tightly that my nails made marks on it. But he didn’t seem to mind. In turn, he strengthened his hold. We remained in each other’s embrace for a while.
Finally, Neil broke the hug. Footsteps were now audible outside the room. “We need to get out of here. It’s about time that someone will notice the dead guards in the back corridor.”
He helped me up and slipped one arm around my waist. “Ready?”
I smiled, “With you, always.”
The sound of footsteps became louder. “Will you be in condition to combat?”
I saluted, “Yes, comrade! They are incommensurate with us together.”
He handed me two fully-loaded guns and two for himself. “Let’s do this.”
“Here goes nothing.”
The first flocks of junior men-in-black were not even a considerable match. We easily decimated them and ninja-jumped from one disruption to another, pausing in between to preserve our precious bullets.
This house must get the award for the most-posh labyrinth; the different corridors and halls all looked just the same. Neil tried his best to retrace the path he came from, but we often were displaced. Finally, after several twists and turns and timely combats, I spotted a door that emanated an orangey light announcing twilight. I tugged Neil along.
Wait! When had any of my eccentric experiments given expected results without a few last minute hiccups? Ditto for my life. Between us and our epic escape stood senior men-in-black looking damn outrageous. Thanks to God, we keep Sam at bay.
I tightened my belt, not that I had a belt, of course, just a manner of speaking. They charged, and when the furies break free, you strike. I dodged one of them and shot the second one behind him straight in the head all the while kicking the first one in the butt. Neil was in his Spartan avatar mode, looking the part in every sense.
For some reason, they were not firing at us. I wondered why that could be. Maybe we were useful only alive. But how sick was the order-giver to say die but do not kill.
Well, Janet, don’t complain to the helpline number “God”. One of them grabbed me from behind; I shot him in his guts without so much as faltering. God! I was good. I mean I excelled in training classes. But this was my first real time battle consisting of so many opponents. Neil must be used to it because in a few moments, he had immobilized quite a few of them.
“We need to run; we can’t keep fighting forever; more must be coming”, shouted Neil in between twisting a foe’s neck. I had been shooting another one, this time missing the target and ran for the epic life-saving door.
We zigzagged through the Rose garden and soon got lost in the woods. After running 500 meters, we slowed down to calm our nerves. I was terribly out of breath.
I had barely caught a few fresh breaths when a bullet almost pierced Neil. We ducked and took temporary shelter behind some thick bushes. “Crap! Can’t we call strategic time out? I’m tired of this cat and bones game.”
Neil smiled amusingly, “This is not a game, Angel. It’s sometimes okay to take situations lightly, but this is gravely serious.”
I grimaced, “Oh yeah, Mr. Wisdom Monster giving Zen life lessons. Got it! Now, what’s next?”
He laughed and shrugged. “They’ll try to ambush us by securing every direction. We need to get going towards the river. It’s our only legit escape route.”
“Oh!! Planning! Leave it to me.”
“The sun’s on our left, so that’s west as it is dusk. When we arrived earlier in the house, the river chime was coming from R.H.S. and the sun was also shining on our right side. So since it was not too late when we arrived, that means the sun was almost in the west, which infers that sun and river are in the same direction. That means we need to go left, maybe slightly southwest.”
Neil shot me an awed look and quirked his lips slightly, “Okay, Sherlock Holmes, we go left as directed.”
I lifted my collar, “See! Told ya! Planning is totally my cup of tea.”
“Yes Ma’am. Shall we?” He gestured forward. “After you.”
So we maneuvered the forest gradually and as silently as a lion hunts his prey. The fatal flaw in our plan was that we had to change our course whenever a few goons decided to appear out of nowhere because we had a scarcity of bullets by now.
With lots of effort and God’s mercy, we reached our destination, i.e., the river bank. “Now what?” I asked, eyeing the river reproachfully.
“Now we cross the river and rejoice in our freedom.”
“What???
I’m not going under water. No way, absolutely not!”
“Angel! It’s not that wide, just a few feet. We can easily swim over it.”
“No.”
Someone was shouting directions far behind us. I was jittery. We’ll have to find some other way. “There must be another way, we’ll walk along the side and we’ll find something, anything.”
“There is no other way, Angel! They’ll spot us. We’ll have to hurry. Once we’re over there, they’ll lose our trail, we’ll be safe. There’s just one check post there and we’ll take care of the guard.”
No, I can’t. I just can’t. Two goons appeared at the edge of the forest, but couldn’t spot us.
“Come now, Janet!”
“NO!! I’ll drown. I’ll die.” My head started spinning and my breathing became heavy. Neil shook my shoulder repulsively. “Janet, I’m with you, I won’t let you die. If we don’t cross over, like now, we’ll be caught. Do you wanna get abducted again?” I couldn’t process a single word he was saying.
“I won’t. I’ll die.” I started running backwards.
Neil clasped my waist and despite my endless protests, we jumped into the river. My whole body was submerged in water. The pressure was pulling me down, the surface was moving away. I was drowning.
I paddled my legs and arms fruitlessly, I was drowning. I tried to cry for help, no one came; no one heard me. I was helpless…Someone save me…Someone save me, please…
I don’t want to die…Please….
“Janet!! Janet!! Open your eyes damn it!” Someone was slapping me hard. I kicked and punched furiously.
“Stop it!” He seized me and pushed me down, using the full weight of his body. I couldn’t overpower him.
“Let go of me. Leave me alone.”
“No!! Snap out of it, Angel!”
That actually snapped me out of my reverie. Neil was all over me, seizing my arms. I hastily pushed him away. “How dare you?? How dare you do this to me? I told you! I don’t swim!” I shouted.
Neil’s temper was also on the edge. “When you come out of your short-term amnesia, then try to recall what I did was essential for our survival. Not everything is about your consent to a plan.”
“I … you don’t know anything.” I said finitely.
He passed me a discredited look. “We need to go up there and neutralize the guard. It’s almost dark; we won’t be making
it out of here tonight.”
I glanced in the direction he was gestured at. A 265 meters climb with an inclination of 135 degrees, a small makeshift cave cum cabin was visible. Great! Rock climbing. Now I’ve done everything. You wanted adventure, right. You got it, Janet. Be careful what you wish for.
Up there, the guard on border watch was snoring deeply. Storm really needs to organize a job fair. Just one push and he’ll be sleeping forever.
Once inside the cave, I realized that I was hot. Well, I was really looking smoking hot in that crimson dress now that Neil’s jacket was half-torn, and it would have been really worth it if the gorgeous guy with me would’ve noticed.
But I didn’t mean that. I was really feeling hot. But why was I hot? It was freezing here and I was drenched.
Crap! I was catching Hypothermia. “Neil….” Oh yeah, my mood was amazingly resilient; I so quickly forgot we just had an argument.
Neil somehow sensed my discomfort. He ransacked the little cabin and found a pair of changing clothes. He tossed me the shirt and kept the trousers for himself.
“Just this! I’ll die of cold.”
“If we don’t get rid of these wet clothes, we’ll die for sure.”
Grim as it was, I got it. About this, he was correct. I ripped the jacket off and was about to rip off the dress, too, when I felt the weight of blue eyes on me. “Um- do you mind?”
He quickly averted his gaze. “Yeah – um – sure”, and he turned around.
Once the fire was blazing, we settled on the makeshift mattress. I was hyperaware of Neil being inches away. Every part of me craved for his embrace right now. I hugged myself, shuddering from the cold, and felt a longing.
Neil scooted a little closer to me and held out his hands in a manner of inviting me into his arms. “Come, you’ll feel better.”
Oh yeah! I’ll feel much, much better. And so I wrapped myself in his embrace. Unusual warmth consumed me, heat blazed through me surpassing the thin layer of clothing.
