Invariably, someone did babble. Fortunately, Maria moved faster to quiet gossiping words with a concise, well-written press statement with all the correct phrases. Saw but a single column write-up in the local section of a single newspaper the next day. Of six personnel rushed to a quarantine location for assessment of possible food contamination. Risk was well contained and there was no danger of exposure to others. The other news outlet didn't think it warranted any lines.
Maria took pictures of the article, boxed between an equally brief mention of a 5G technology tie-up planned between local companies and a longer story of the rounding up of stray dogs from the site of a new mixed development project.
****
The sun was setting in the horizon flooding the land with a beautiful cascade of twilight warmth. Syafa leaned closer to Saari as they both sat beneath the shades of a willowy, postcard perfect tree. The sides of her soft breast beneath white cottons brushing against his arms. The accidental touch sending a tingle to the young woman. She stared at him, finding her mentor seemingly content with watching the vista before them, the grass underneath providing a velvety cushion.
To their right, a pair of squirrels shared an acorn. On their left a pair of cats played, the bigger feline coddling the other. Two birds perched on the bough of the tree chirping away, adding to the almost inaudible rendition of the Righteous Brothers' Unchained Melody playing in the air. Syafa remembered the song from one of the many movies she had watched as an awestruck teenager.
"This is so romantic, Ari. How I wish it could be this way forever," she said, her voice echoing in the vast, picturesque landscape.
No reply from the man beside her.
"I know this would end in heartache. I pray it wouldn't, but I don't see any other ending for us."
Laughter. A haughty one from Saari.
"Heartache? My dear, you forgot I'm a doctor. Doctors cure aches and pains. That's what we are here for. Why don't I give you a check?" he said, turning towards Syafa and forcing her to the ground.
She shuddered, thinking this was it. The moment Saari would make her forever his. Bewildered when he instead forced open her mouth, shone a light inside. Saari sat astride her body, his crushing weight on her chest.
"Hmmm… This is very peculiar," she heard him say, his calloused fingers pushing her lower jaws even wider. Prying light burning her throat.
"It seems to me you're quite empty inside, my dear. It could be you are without any heart. I do need a second opinion here."
The softest footsteps arrived besides them. Unable to move, Syafa peered to see a face familiar. Saari's wife. Yani Somebody or another. Smiling. Wearing the white doctor's coat and looking all vibrant. As though the sun was inside of her.
What the hell is happening to me?
Syafa tried screaming, but she needed her tongue free to do so. Saari had her jaw locked down solid with his strong hand.
"Heavy work, love? What do we have here?" said Yani.
Did I hear them chuckle? Are they enjoying this?
"A heartless patient, my dear. But I am only seeing her from my angle. I need your expert opinion, love."
"Oh? Without any care on the feeling of others, is it? Help me push her legs apart, Saari, so I can probe her. Then we'll be certain if she really is an empty shell."
Syafa could no longer suppressed her agony and shock, as the duo began to push her legs apart. She felt the sharpness of nails intruding the masses of soft hair at her labia. Parting them. The same stiff finger, no, fingers touching the upper surface of her vulva. As she felt a blush rising, the same fingers turned into a phalanx, forcing itself into her body. Ripping into her lower abdomen. The pain was more than she could bear and Syafa heard herself scream.
Saari, Yani, and the landscape where they lingered then shattered into shards. The pieces began to simmer and dissolve, leaving only pitch darkness coating Syafa's body. She could feel herself bleeding from the torrid invasion of her genitalia.
A million cuts slicing the skin of her being. She ached over from the torment.
Where the hell am I?
Hell is right my dear.
Startled by the answer, Syafa squinted her eyes in the pitch-black darkness. She spied the smallest of a dot in piercing light to her left. Syafa braced herself, the pain a fleeting experience she no longer felt but still remembered. Rising gingerly, she took a step, then another towards the pinhole shining dot. Her hands groped around trying to latch on to something and found a doorknob.
A gust of warm, rancid breath caressed the nape of her neck. Then came the same chuckles she had heard from her supposed lover and his wife as they tore into her.
Footsteps. Behind me…
Syafa grabbed the doorknob. It was cold in her hand as she twisted it to flung open a wooden door. The chuckles turning to laughter and loud screams around her from a darkness so dense.
She slammed the door shut, her back against its smooth lacquered surface and let a sigh of relief on hearing nothing else behind her. Amazed to see before her an elegantly decorated living room of an English cottage. Plush sofa, fabric, on her right and a dining table on her left. No one there but her.
Her mouth uncontrollably watered when she smelt and then saw a roasted whole lamb, the centerpiece of a lavish dinner setup. Golden brown all over, its shrunken eyes stared at her in agony. Skewered wholly through its body from a half-opened mouth.
Syafa felt so ravenous and started attacking the juicy meat with her bare hands. Slimy, fatty liquids flowing from her slender fingers and onto a silky smooth, white gown donning her lithe frame.
When did I wear this?
Meaty pieces dripped and spilled onto the table. She just could not bite anything. Her lower jaw hung unresponsive. Battered hinges lying somewhere within her cheeks.
There would be no satiation of her hunger. It flared from within her in a burning sensation. Originating from an emptiness she felt inside her very being. Hunger turning into rage as Syafa grabbed the lamb she caught smirking in glee at her. Hoisted it high above her head and then onto the table.
The animal bounced off the solid surface, clattering the finely set glassware into a mess. Landed on the floor cracking it into pieces where it struck. Syafa shuddered as she felt the coat of liquids and fats and God knows what else around her body. No longer was she in a comfortable living room, standing instead at the center of a cocoon of splintered pieces from which unblinking eyes stared at her.
Stop looking at me!
Surrounding her were tall, polished mirrors revealing her personas from the sweet, sanguine, and confident, to the ugly, haggard, and grotesque. Her breath began to shorten, choked by the horrors of seeing herself staring back. Their lips spewing the very word ringing in her ears' moments earlier.
Heartless! Heartless! Heartless!!!
From the carcass came a string of bleats as the lamb's eyes lit up a deep, dank blackness joining the staring contest. The voices stung her, but the hammering of countless voices all shouting at once in her mind.
****
The bleating continued to ring in her mind as Syafa woke up in shock, gasping for breath. Pajamas wet against her naked back. Her throat felt raw and jagged when she tried voicing prayers to calm herself. Her hands trembled as Syafa dared herself to feel her lower jaw. Sighing her relief at finding it intact and still firmly set where it was supposed to be.
Syafa sobbed softly, her body shivering in the cool draft of the air-conditioning of the multiple containers which had been her and her colleagues' home for the last weeks. She wiped her tears away, breathing deep to calm herself. Their bedroom - if you could it as such – was a soft darkened space. Nine units combined in three sets of threes. Safe and secure, Syafa assured herself. She was with people she knew. Including a man she thought a close someone. Friends and colleagues.
Syafa stared into the darkness. The ambient shine from lights switched on before the small group of six retired for the day helped her make out their figures on respective beds. She had chosen one behind Bernice's. Breaking into a smile at the thought of her being mere steps away from her mentor, Saari. Then recalling with horrific clarity details of the nightmare where he had played a major starring role. Hearing again those hurtful words. His harsh, violent treatment against her.
It was just a dream, Syafa, no matter how real it felt. Nothing more. Wasn't it?
Those same words and haunting laughter ricocheted in her mind as Syafa stared at the ceiling counting the passing seconds, the crossing minutes. She dared not close her eyes, fearful of seeing again every detail the nightmarish scenes of her mutilation. Being unable to soothe her troubled self no matter how. Tears rolling freely down Syafa's cheeks as she felt again the deep emptiness re-emerging, mimicking that she had experienced during her sleep.
How could it have felt so real, Syafa? How is that even possible?
Long hours had passed when the morning prayers arrived with the break of dawn signaled by the alarm of Rahman who often slept through the incessant ringing. Syafa dared herself to escape the comforts of her cozy blankets to shower and changed into a fresh set of clothes. For the first time in many years, Syafa prayed, sobbing softly as she did.
One by one they woke up. Bernice was the first, gazing nonchalant at her teammate as she went about freshening herself. Syafa was always curious as to how the tall and slender brunette stayed single. Athletic in her poise, model like in her steps and grace, Bernice almost never failed to draw second and subsequent glances.
At best, Bernice was all cool towards her. Syafa knew however of her senior's unspoken dislike over her being too cozy with Saari. Bernice was after all someone who kept her relationships with teammates at arms-length and strictly professional. She stayed with a younger brother and was a year older than Saari. However, Bernice never once looked like an older member of the team.
So unlike Mohir Balasingham, the half centurion looking decades older. He was together with Saari when the company was set up. A perennial loyalist, Mohir would never fail to tell his juniors Syafa and Bernice he personally knew every speaker and expert at international events and seminars attended. Syafa was fond of him, often sneaking over to his cubicle for a quick chat to perk her spirits up.
That was then, though.
His demeanor had become more erratic of late since they were holed up together at a location undisclosed on orders from the management. The reason? National security, supposedly. Didn't explain the missing minutes from their lives without any indication as to what had happened.
Being the family man, Mohir had it worst from the forced seclusion. Syafa had heard the Radian veteran cursing under his breath on several occasions, something unheard of. Unlike her, and Rahman. She wondered how many heard her curse every time something went wrong for her, and if those who did thought her a miscreant so loose in her tongue.
How about him, Syafa? How about Dr Ari?
She felt a shiver building in her inner self, recalling the nasty version who had starred in her nightmare just hours earlier. Memories compelling her to shrugged away his name from her mind. Telling herself whatever she felt for him wasn't something worth dwelling about anyway. Not now. Not when their freedom was under someone else's whim and control.