5. Aurora Roosevelt
*TWO MONTHS LATER, NEW PLAZA*
Finally god finally!
Took me two hard months of beatings, blood, near death moments, screams and cries to finally see this daylight.
It had become an alternate day ordeal where.. where HE would come, beat me to death, would wreck my body beyond its limit and then would suddenly flip into a gentleman which terrified me even more.
Somehow Christina became a great help through all these sufferings. She was one of his trusted girls.
And thanks to all her advice (even though I didn't like any one of them), today I was set free for the first time.
HE had sent me and Christina for grocery shopping! Although more than ten of his men were all nearby scattered in the plaza and even in this store, waiting for one wrong move from my side, though I wasn't planning to do anything that they anticipated.
I already had my aim fixed now. I had tried begging to my customers, none of them being kind enough to help me out. Instead they found me silly, some getting turned on by it, some frustrated and cancelling on me.
No matter whatever happened, the end result was always the same - HE.
So the only thing I had learnt the hard way was there was no escaping unless I paid all my debt. And that was what I would be doing now. I would pay him off soon so that at least Evan could set free and live a better life unlike mine.
"Ro, look, do you want one!?" Christina called out, showing me a cute unicorn pendant chain.
Yes you are right, the overly friendly Christina already had a nickname for me, Ro, and guess we were on talking terms now.
"No." I said, firmly shaking my head.
No matter how much I loved unicorns, something that even Christina knew, but not from his money.
"Oh come on Ro, I know how obsessed you are with these colorful creatures. Let me buy you one." Christina said, already taking one with her.
"Christina, please don't waste your money on me. And I genuinely don't want this one." I answered politely.
But Christina could be headstrong at times. And now it was one of those rare moments.
"Christina." I tried one last time but yes you guessed right, I was ignored.
Okay, so now I am left on my own, standing in the middle of rows of various food items that would once make me excited.
I turn to my left, those colorful candies glaring back at me. Maybe resenting me for whatever I did to my parents. Or maybe mocking me for being poor enough to not even touch them again. Or maybe just looking down upon me for my state?
'Oh what are you doing Aurora? Stop being stupid. Just don't cause any trouble and you will be alright within a year. Do you get that?' I told myself.
I had been practicing this for quite some time now. Telling myself, or repeating to myself that I was going to finish all this off and wipe out this bad chapter out of my life forever.
Me and Evan would leave this country and I would give him the best life possible. He would grow up into whatever he felt right. As far as I remember, he wanted to be a pilot last time.
"Ro?" Christina called out, interrupting my endless chain of thoughts.
"Hmmm?" I answered, managing to find her three rows away.
"Could you get some frozen vegetables from the chillers behind you? I will start with all this billing by then." Christina asked politely.
"Okay." I nodded before turning backward, locating the huge freezers exactly at the end of my row.
I walked ahead, opening the freezer door and started collecting the packed vegetables.
'Should I get two packets of these or three? Maybe two would-'
"Aurora?" Someone called out and even before I turned towards the source of this voice, I was already shivering, dropping the vegetable packets in the process.
'Take a deep breath. Take a deep-'
"Aurora Roosevelt! I can not believe my eyes!!" Another menacing voice, failing all my attempts at trying to compose myself.
I turned sideways, a little too slowly, trying to avoid this encounter as much as possible but no.. there they were… standing and looking at me like some clown they were ready to mock - MY BATCHMATES.
"I heard your parents were found dead in your house. I thought you would have died as well." Sam spoke up first.
"Oh who are you kidding? Just look at her state. No guilt or grief at all." Nicole did hate me, I knew this from the beginning.
"Found yourself a sugar daddy or what?" Clara said and immediately everyone started laughing out loud, too loud for me to process everything.
"You have always been such a slut Aurie! But I never knew you would resort to such a cheap trick of killing your own parents!" Nicole spat out, and I was already hyperventilating.
'No.. no.. don't listen to them.. you didn't do.. didn't do any such thing.. you didn't-'
"Go away bitch! We can't be breathing the same air!" Sam pushed me hard, those frozen vegetables scattered all over the floor, though it didn't hurt me physically, I was already numb enough.
But it was my chest, my heart that hurted as if a thousand needles had pricked it, ripping it apart.
'Please let them go away.. please god.. I can't.. I can't fight them.. please.. please.. send them away.. I.. I didn't do-'
"Speak up whore!" Nicole tugged at my hair, making me look her in the eye, enjoying my tear stained face as I was hyperventilating, a smirk appearing on her face.
"I-"
And before I could speak, somebody pulled me back, doing something totally surprising and foreign to me - wrapping a hand around me that didn't feel vulgar or made me feel cheap at all. If anything it only carried warmth.
"Are you alright?" It was the scent I recognized first, a familiar scent, before his warm, deep voice registered in my head.
'Was someone actually helping me? No.. I wasn't meant for the role of damsel in distress. It was too good to be true. I would never have someone..'
And before I could know, I was already crying.
It was all a little too much. No matter how strong I pretended to be. But deep down I know it was all my fault. And I would never be able to run away from this truth ever.
I didn't even look at the man before struggling to stand up and run away, my tears blurring my vision.
But I only had one thought in my mind - DIE.