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1387 Words
"What meat is this?" Mavis asks in between bites. Josh threw together some leftovers and heated it in the microwave, which made Mavis fantasies over.
"Pork." Josh says, scratching his neck. Mavis eyes widen and nausea starts to build up in her stomach. She spits the chewed pork back into the plate and runs towards the bathroom. She hovers above the toilet, awaiting all the food that she just ate to escape her mouth.
"Let me help you here." Josh says behind her and softly takes hold of her long hair. Mavis feels embarrassed and wants him to go away, but keeps quiet.
"Are you okay." he asks, concerned when she walks to the basin and rinses her mouth. She nods, reassuringly.
She looks at his dark curls matted to his forehead and how his eyes seemed brighter in the lighting of the bathroom. She frowns, not knowing how to place him, like she usually does with other people. She knows the group of girls, who desperately wants to marry after school and the type of guys who want a wife to love and other's to use. She knows the girl's who want more out life and she can see the determination in their faces. She knows the guys who work hard and fiercely and other guys who depend on their parents. She sees people who're sad, a tragic story displayed in their eyes and people who's a little bit crazy, but not enough to be sent to an asylum. But Josh, she couldn't place him anywhere. All she knows is that he's enchanting.
She remembers what she just ate and almost puked again.
"You eat pork?" she asks unbelievably.
"Yeah." Josh answers, an unsure expression on his face.
Mavis plays with her lips, her eyes in screws.
"But it's forbidden?"
"Forbidden?" Josh says, almost jokingly.
Everyone in her town is afraid of pigs, saying one pig has a thousand demons in them. Mavis shrugs it off and walks out of the bathroom, Josh following behind.
"Well didn't you wonder what meat you were eating." he continues.
"No, I didn't think, I was hungry." Mavis replies briefly.
Her eyes wander towards the wall with all the photos of different people and she wonders who those people are.
She bites her tongue trying not to ask her mind full of questions, as her mom learned her that questions are for the weak.
She turns around to see Josh, once again staring at her.
She sighs and he quickly drifts his attention off her.
For a while, Mavis's pain was forgotten but now it's slowly creeping back. She closes her eyes, feeling alarmed that the pain will be worse than the day before.
"You're probably tired." Josh asks and Mavis enthusiastically nods her head.
He gestures at the bed in front of her, showing an obvious face before leaving the room.
She flops on the bed, relaxing her tense and sore muscles.
Tiredness comes hard and she lay down, almost immediately falling asleep, when her thoughts run wild.
She remembers the time when a sixteen year old girl was held captive for two years by an old man.
She jerks upright, her breath heavy. How is she going to go back to her hometown, she questions herself. And where is she? She plays with her lips, deep in thought until she decides to pull herself up. She doesn't know where Josh is and what he's doing, but she knows that he is certainly not in the room with the chest. She waits a few moments, in awe of the switch against the wall, turning a light up in the ceiling on and off. She inspects the water tanks and the cabinets below it, only coming up with jars she is unknown with.
She goes to the bathroom, checking every possible corner and every possible bottle, which might lead her to something but she finds nothing, except for plastic bottles of soap and hair wash, which they call shampoo. She washed with it when she showered and she noticed how her head felt lighter than when she washes it with the usual leaves and smears it with oils.
She sighs and puts her hand against her forehead, feeling beat. She just wants to sleep but she quietly makes her way to the dark hallway, inhaling dust. She almost screams when she feels something walking against her legs, but relaxes when she sees outlines of Bobo's body.
"Hey Bobo." she whispers, smiling softly.
She enters the dimly lit room, seeing the chest in the middle, hoping that it's still open. She looks around trying to find where the light is coming from, to see a ball of fire, inside an antique metal candle holder. The only thing is, the light is not coming from a candle and it's just blazing fire.
"Wow." she says to herself, witnessing something amazing. Tears appear at the brim of her eyes as she keeps staring.
Finally she shakes her head and wipes her eyes, taking her eyes off the fire, and on the chest, seeing darker than usual.
She squeezes her eyes shut a few times until the lighting is normal again.
She knees in front of the chest, sweat forming on her body and she opens it.
"Yes." she gasps, letting the lid fall backwards. She looks around, only to see Bobo sitting against the wall, looking at her with big eyes.
She takes a deep breath and looks down at the items, the chest contains.
She claps a vile, cold in her hands and inspects the dark thick liquid.
She gulps in disgust, knowing that it looks like blood and gently puts it back in the chest. She inspects three other viles, them all having different shades of red.
She bites her lip, taking out an old and heavy book, putting it on the floor next to her.
The front of the book is brown, made out of a leathery material. She opens it lightly revealing yellowish papers on the inside. She thinks of how she's missing school days and how her mother's probably wondering where I am. Mavis's breath hitches and she turns the page, seeing words from another language written on. She madly clenches her teeth, feeling hopeless as her thoughts keep wandering back to her mother and school.
She turns another page and she nibbles her fingernails.
The page consists of a perfectly drawn snake and the outline of a man's body.
The next page she could clearly see it written in methods and she could make out how snake blood is given to the human through its veins and how normal human eyes turn into snake eyes.
Deep in focus she goes through the best pages, seeing the same concept with other animals.
Some with wolves and some with ugly groups of bats.
She feels nervousness push through her body and she wonders why a photo of her father is in the chest. She keeps looking at the viles and back at the book, feeling another turn of nausea spreading in her stomach. She quickly places the book back into the chest, closes it and runs towards the bathroom, Bobo following behind. She tries to calm herself down, but she breaks down and starts to cry. She feels helpless and weak.
Bobo starts to lick her hand, trying to comfort her and Mavis looks at him before kneeling and wrapping her thin arms around his body. She immediately calms down, feeling as if something that was lost for a long time, is placed back.
As if he is here only for Mavis.
She holds him long and tight and he rests his head on her shoulder.
After a while she feels better and walks towards the place she came from.
She looks around, seeing no way or place to escape and lays herself down right in the middle of the floor.
She admires the waterdwergs moving around the water.
"What are you doing?" Mavis looks at Josh, who's looking at her with concern.
"I was missing the stars." she replies.
He stays quiet, and Mavis sits up.
"Who are you?" she asks sternly, "Why aren't you making any plan of getting me out of here."
Josh smirks but immediately frowns with seriousness afterwards.
"There is no way out, Mavis."
- Writer
