A scream. Not of pain, but of sorrow. Bones crunching under heavy footsteps. Not mine. Someone else's feet. I don't remember a time when I've walked on bones. And yet that memory follows me in every waking moment. My head feels heavy, and my body feels like dead weight. I'm being dragged by my feet, my head bounces when there is a bump on the uneven floor. We landed, but never made it off the aeroplane.
My eyelids are heavy, they won't seem to obey my command to open, so I can get a glimpse of my surroundings. My mind strays, rummaging through its depths trying to make some sense of what is happening. I had many enemies. Which one? Which one had gone through so much trouble to get to me?
I had always been cautious about my dealings. I left them disgruntled but never unsatisfied with my services.
The man that dragged my sorry ass, dropped my legs and kicked me in the ribs. Fucker.
I was still unable to move, but the wheels didn't stop turning. They never did.
The creaking sound of metal and the clanging that bounced off the walls of my new residence filled the air with a rusty tang.
The waiting game has begun. Not uncommon in my line of work. If they wanted me dead. I would have been dead. No, they wanted something from me. Money? No. Information.
Sounds about right. Knowledge is power. That's what they teach you at the academy. Those who hold knowledge, have the leverage. The way you choose to use it is a whole different matter. Enid and Lily were safe, for now. Emmeline, the letter I wrote and placed with the other documents to be posted when the flight lands back in the District. If it ever goes back. My mind was a dark pit, where I grappled for any piece that might help me remember what happened. Nothing.
Valdyk came into mind for some godawful reason. He was dead. I made sure that bastard never saw the light of another day. I had to wait and find what they wanted.
Her languorous gaze trickled through the darkness, carving a path for all that had come to pass between us. Those deep blue abyss-like eyes...I drowned in them so many times. And I would do it all over, just to feel again.
Something awoke within me each time I was near her. My beautiful Lily. My flower. She is safe.
I kept telling myself. To keep me sane and anchored to the reality.
I never wanted her in my life. She was right that day, but I would never admit to it. Not to her, not to anyone.
I owed Hector a debt but I never thought that was the way he would choose to claim that debt.
Those nights spent with her were my only relief from the deep shit I was in.
The first time stuck with me, even after all those times I claimed her body as my own. I had never engaged in second rounds with a woman in bed. But her, I wanted to smile at that thought but I knew my lips wouldn't obey me.
It felt different. Wildly different. I could not nor wanted to stop having her in my arms. My mind still reeling from the effects of our last night together.
She couldn't go through with my plan. Remain hidden. Our little secret. It would have been perfect. No one else needed to know about our existence.
I didn't care if I had to put up with other women for a few hours once in a while as long as I could go back to her, to our little world. To our perfect little world. Her playfulness, that roguish smile that screamed defiance had won me over. She'd crept up on me, and I didn't even notice it happened. I fell for her truly, madly, deeply. An elating feeling, shrouded in something darker, and heavier than anything I've felt towards anyone. Undoubtedly, she was my one true love. I realise that now. Now that is too late. I'll be dead once they get what want from me. My thoughts were giving me a run for my money.
The sound of footsteps drags me back to the squalid, and forsaken place I had been locked up in.
I tried to push myself up, but my body didn't feel my own. Whatever they dosed me with was powerful. Nevermind.
" How long?" A voice that I have never heard before in my entire existence asks. A thick, heavy Eastern accent. At that moment, something else caught my attention. The humid heat clung to my throat and lungs. Finally, the effects were wearing off.
" In forty minutes," The other one answers. Clear, without a trace of his ancestry in his accent.
" Let Asha know when he is up and ready to chat," Of course, Asha. That son of a bitch.
A man with no loyalty, other than the kemmar. A mercenary of some sort. A relic hunter. Assassin. He would do anything for the right price. Regardless of who it was as long as he got paid.
The question remained, who hired him to kidnap me? I held valuable information but nothing worth kidnapping for. Nothing that wouldn't willingly exchange for the right amount of money or trade deal. I guess, I was no better than Asha.
I was coming to, painfully slow. My eyes hurt, and my body felt on fire for some reason. Whether it was the skin blistering heat or the effects of the drugs. Hard to tell.
Forty minutes, passed slowly. Felt more like a lifetime. And the sound of footsteps echoed around me once more. I didn't dare to open my eyes. There was no need to. I knew the man. Even hired him once. I was no saint. I never claimed to be one.
After all, I went to bed with the daughter of the man who saved my life and later on made the awful mistake of putting her under my care. Little did he know, I would end up between her legs. And I enjoyed every second of it. My mind kept going to her in spite of the shit I was in.