~ Flashback ~
* * * Months Ago, Planora * * *
When Anika kicked Morticia out, she could barely take her luggages along with her. Wills and Anika bought her a whole wardrobe filled with different designers when she lived with them.
Anika was well, 'kind' enough to let her take a luggage or two. So she wandered on the streets with it for several hours.
Along the way, she stopped to rest a little. She was famished!
As she sat on a street seat looking at her fingers, trying hard not to break into a sob, again, since she had been doing that for hours, someone tapped on her shoulder.
Raising her head, she saw a young man who seemed to be in his late 20's. He looked haggard. But that was asides the point, right? Anyways, he was of average height and was slender in figure.
" Is everything okay?" The man asked.
" Yeah, I'm fine." She replied and bent her head down. But his chuckle caused her to raise her head again.
Then he sat next to her, by her right precisely. He smelt like he was in need of a shower but she didn't say a word anyway.
" I asked if everything is okay, not if you're okay." the stranger said. But Morticia wasn't in the frame of mind to make him realize he wasn't making sense.
" It's obvious you've been crying. Even if you weren't, your luggage tells it all. You were chased out the house by your boyfriend, correct?" the stranger asked.
But Morticia didn't want to be rude so she simply shook her head. She didn't feel like talking anyways.
" So, are you waiting for someone?'' he asked again.
" No." Morticia replied.
" Then that means you don't have anywhere to go from here isn't it?'' he asked again.
'' I do Mr. Please I just want to sit in silence, if you don't mind." Morticia said to the man who started laughing almost immediately.
" Funny girl. Listen, I can help you if you want. Where do you think you'd go from here?" he asked Morticia who was looking at him with displeasure.
'' Somewhere. Excuse me." She said, attempting to get to her feet. Abruptly, he held her hand roughly, causing her to fall back to the seat.
'' I said I can help you!" he yelled.
" And I said I don't need your help!" She exclaimed. At this point, she was trying to mask the freight in her face.
'' Listen to me, you can see this is a street, a quiet one I must add. So I can do anything I want to you." he said almost in a whisper as he coiled a couple strands of her hair on his finger.
" What do you want?'' Morticia asked, with undisguised fright.
" I want to help you, young lady. Or did your mama tell you to reject offers from strangers? Hmm?'' He asked with a smirk.
" I don't want your help. Please leave me alone." Morticia pleaded.
" What if I say no, huh?'' He asked with a sinister smile.
" Listen beautiful, I can make you happy. I can wipe your tears away.'' he said with a sinister smile. Moving even closer, he said
" Or not." Laughing like the psycho he was, he then adjusted backwards and raised his shirt, exposing the sharpened and seemingly new knife tucked in his pants.
She couldn't say she was surprised, but she was definitely scared. So she decided to play along.
" Okay. Fine, I need your help. So what now? Will you take me to your house?'' Morticia asked, with a faked smile.
" Smart girl! Bravo!" the stranger replied with a wide grin. " You know I love your type! We shouldn't waste time anymore, should we?" He said before he stood to his feet and held her luggage before she could reach for it.
'' No you don't have to worry about..."
'' Uh uhh. I will worry, cause I don't like tricks. You should know better senorita." The psycho said.
" Okay then. But I didn't expect you to think I'd be able to run with a luggage like that you know." Morticia said, before she stood up.
" Oooh, that's right. Regardless, just take this as a gentleman's gesture." he said.
" Remember, no tricks. " he added before tilting his head towards a narrow road.
When Morticia looked at him, he smiled.
'' I'll be behind you."
" Fine." She replied smiling back. She followed the stranger to wherever he led. She didn't have a choice, she either complied or suffer through unimaginable torture. But she hoped and prayed for an opportunity to escape whenever they took a turn.
It felt crazy what was happening to her at that point in time. Just the previous day, she was all smiles and like a dream, she was walking with a stranger, taking whatever route he signaled her to, even as each turn felt like prolonged agony.
Every street competed for the title of 'most eerie'.
But after the sixth turn, she saw several groups of young students who were seemingly returning from school, on foot. As Morticia and the psycho approached them, she slowed her steps and tried her best to mouth 'help distract him' to them. They were about 6 groups with about 8 - 12 students in each group.
In order to communicate with them, she stood right in front of the psycho, who was surprisingly quiet since they left the first Street.
Two boys noticed the awkwardness between them and the face she made, a girl behind them who was a good lip reader, understood Morticia, or she tried to, atleast.
"Guys, that lady approaching us, I think she's asking us to distract him?..." she said to her friends not completely sure of what Morticia was saying. Thankfully, since they were all chatting, they were also slow with their steps.
" Yeah I think so too. Wait, Isn't that jinjin?" another student asked.
Jinjin was known as a psycho in the trenches. He could be really dangerous, especially when he was a little drunk, such that the police could not tame him.
" Guys let's mix up, come closer.'' The girl who read Morticia's lips announced to her friends as they were closing in on the distance between themselves and Morticia.
" Why?" Another student from the back asked.
" Let's distract jinjin, I'm pretty sure he's with a knife, so..."
" Which is the more reason we shouldn't go close to them'' another student butted in with fright evident in his voice.
" It doesn't have to seem so obvious guys. " the courageous girl said. By this time, they had already stopped walking, because her group was in front and the others had no choice but to stand behind them.
Jinjin had beaten up her crush in her presence before, so she couldn't help but try to aid the poor lady out of her predicament.
" Just don't give way easily when he tries to run past us. They're almost here." The young girl said, encouraging her mates to keep a neutral expression.
When they reached where the students were Morticia who thought they didn't notice her, noticed the way the girl looked her in eye.
Taking that as a sign, she turned like a shot and kicked jin's jewels before taking to her heels as the students gave way.
The athlete in her led her to run tirelessly, till she eventually stopped at in Oliver's abandoned carpentry and saw him there with two of his friends. Apparently they were there for a smoke.
The rest was pretty much history except for the fact that he never allowed her to leave the house, so she would not be independent. He had a purpose for letting her 'live'under his roof. He was a gambler, and planned to offset the debts he incurred from gambling, by using Morticia as 'security interest'.
By the fifth month, Morgan stopped bullying and torturing Morticia because he wanted her to look presentable to the womanizing drug lords.
He'd usually chain her up, whenever she planned to escape. She never succeeded because he had his goons in the entire community. So nothing went in or came out of his house, without their knowledge.
One of the few liberties Morticia had was calling her mom. Only Melinda! And he was always present whenever she did that. She knew no one else to call, literally. She only had acquaintances at school when she lived with the Prescotts and she lost her phone during her encounter with jinjin.
But one evening, Morgan bought a dress for her. He apologized to her for making her suffer the way she did, because of him.
He spent a whole week convincing her he had changed. Infact, he even promised to connect her with some prominent people he knew in the oil sector who were customers at the bar where he worked.
Morticia was so elated. She even called her mom to inform her because of how happy she felt. She thought it was about time she became the woman she's always dreamt of.
Unbeknownst to her, they'd already bought her 'services' via Morgan. So when she got there, it was no where near what she imagined. She was almost taken advantage of, so she had to play along, yet again.
She endured through the filthy touches of an old hag, not until she managed to dash a bottle on his head before she ran as fast as she could.
Hence, Morgan was made to face the consequences. [Chapter Six]
When she ran, and yet again, she had no where to run to. Oh, how she blamed herself for being unable to live like an independent adult. She compared herself to ladies like her, who were living on their own whose life was better than hers which was mainly suffer, play along and run!
Talk about being an athlete and an actress. The professions fate taught her!