The Truth Berries

XXXVIII

       She had no idea how long she’s been sleeping. Worse, she had no clue when did their car stopped because she certainly could not feel any motion from the vehicle. Tears started flowing from her eyes once again as a different kind of fear struck her. Did the stranger decide to leave his car somewhere remote in fear of being caught? The police surely would be already looking for the black Civic with several bullet holes by now. And with a car like that, anyone would be sticking out anywhere like a sore thumb. Helen thought the stranger might have realized that fact a few moments ago when she was still sleeping inside that dark compartment. Had she been awake, she would have kicked and screamed furiously inside just to get the man open the door for her. But she was still out that time and the man might have forgotten she was still locked inside that trunk when he ran away. Helen began to breathe rapid short breaths again as panic was starting to attack her once more. She closed her eyes and forced herself to calm down. She remembered something from the past, something that her mother told her when she was still younger. Every time she encountered some impossible tasks, where she was on the verge of giving up, her mother always pushed her forward ant told her two things.

       “Think hard. Everything has a solution. And if you see none, ask for help.”, she repeated her mom’s advice to remind herself.

       Helen searched blindly with her hands through the darkness that enveloped her. There was some kind of a mat but it was of no use to her. Then there were several plastic containers inside and she assumed they were either reserved water for the old car’s radiator or spare engine oils. Those, too, were useless to her. Helen searched the area behind her head and she found something that felt like a toolbox so she shifted her body towards it. She started feeling the box and she almost wailed when she felt a tiny lock that held its cover. But she discovered that the lock was just there to discourage anyone from knowing its contents. It gave out in just a single pull that she made. With her hands, she made a mental inventory of every tool inside. There were a lot of wrenches, a set of pliers, some bolts and nuts and then she found a small steel crowbar. Helen has never considered a toolbox like a treasure chest before, but she looked at it like it was one that very moment.

       She shifted her body so that she was facing the door again. Then, she sought for the door’s locks and she tried to insert the tip of the crowbar to it so that she can force it to c***k open. Unfortunately, the crowbar was a lot bigger than she had expected and it did not fit the small opening on the mechanism. Still, she tried and tried. She even tried to wreck the whole thing but she was too weak to do any damage to it. After five minutes of continuous fruitless effort, she gave up. Time for the second part of the advice, she thought. Helen pulled out her phone from her pocket and unlocked it with her thumb. Then she scanned all her contacts to find anybody that could help in finding her. She saw the name of Nadia’s mother and Helen dialed her number without any hesitation. A few seconds after, it rang. But not long after that, as the line kept on ringing, Helen’s phone signaled something that sent chills to her body. Her phone’s battery was about to run out.

       “Oh come on! Can’t you pick a better time to do that? Please, just a little longer.” Helen begged to her phone.

       The line went unanswered after a few more rings. Helen tried to call her again.

      “Please, Tita, answer the phone. Please . . . please . . . please.”

       Helen closed her eyes as it kept on ringing. A few more ones and the line would have been dropped unanswered once again. But she opened her eyes and a great wave of relief fell on her when she heard a familiar voice.

       “Helen, darling, what got you up at this early hour of the day?” Nadia’s mother asked in a sleepy voice.

      “Tita, I’m in danger and I need your help! Please help me. A man came into my house last night and kidn*pped me. I’m inside his car’s trunk right now and I think he already left some time ago. I can’t get out of here and I don’t know what to do. Tita, please help me!”

       “Whoah, whoah! Calm down, sweetie. Take your time. Speak slowly, honey.”

       “I don’t have time, Tita! My phone’s about to go dead!”, she said as her phone warned her again.

       “Okay, Helen. Where are you now?”

       “I don’t know, Tita. All I know is that it was a black Civic. An old one. I haven’t seen the outside since he threw me here. I don’t wanna die yet, Tita. Please help me!” she cried as she pictured herself rotting inside an abandoned car.

       “Okay, okay! I’ll call the police right now. Don’t worry, honey. They will come and find you – “, her phone died.

       She was still crying when her phone’s battery eventually ran out. Helen could not help herself thinking about Nadia’s mother’s unfinished sentence. And she was thinking about a pair of words that could do it, but she was afraid that it might probably happen. They will come and find me . . . already dead, she feared. Helen started to see hallucinations while lying inside the compartment crying. She could see herself waiting endlessly for help to finally come. But the heat and lack of water weakened her so much that she could not even say a single word. She could no longer cry for help and she couldn’t even lift the tip of her finger for she was out of water and food. And then, when she was about to close her eyes to finally go away after a long suffering, she would finally hear the crunch of gravel as they come to rescue her. She would wait for them to open the door but she knew that it would be too late already. She heard a car’s door slammed nearby and the sound of footsteps approaching. When the door was finally lifted after a seemingly long, long time, Helen opened her eyes to see a cloudless early morning sky that promised a glorious day to come. She closed her eyes once more to accept the inevitable fate she had.

       “Hey, wake up! We need to move now.”

       Helen opened her eyes to see that she was not hallucinating anymore. The skies were true, so was the man standing before her. He was the man who entered her house last night and he was the same man who threw her into that hell hours before. Helen wanted to kill him for that but all she could do at the moment was throw a single curse to him.

       “Bastard!”

       The man ignored her greeting and he helped her get out of the trunk instead. When she was finally out, Helen could not stand on her own because her legs lacked the circulation of blood it needed. She has been lying inside for so long with her legs bended that when she finally stood up, she felt like she was standing on rubber legs. To her surprise, the man who took her carried her in his arms and walked towards a black Range Rover. The man looked to be in pain with every step that he took. Then, he put her back on her feet when they were in front of the passenger door. He opened it for her and urged her inside with a hot meal of fastfood breakfast waiting for her. If she hadn’t seen that same man kidnap her, she swore she would have been touch by his latest actions. She hopped in and stared at the food.

       “I figured you might be starving now.”

       “And thirsty . . . as hell.” She said hoarsely.

       The man laughed lightly.

       “Go on. We still have a long way to go.”

       The man went back to their first car with a gallon of liquid in hand. She saw him pour the liquid inside the car and all over it. Then he took out its plate numbers and he threw it at the cliff across them. Finally, the man took out his lighter and flipped it towards the car which lit up into the biggest fire she has ever seen. Then, the man returned to his seat behind the wheel of his newly acquired ride. Helen wanted to ask him where they were headed, but the food beside her was so tempting so she set her questions aside for a while. He bought two pieces of cheesy egg sandwiches, two orders of hotcakes with syrup on top, a cup of hot coffee and three medium-sized bottles of cold water. Helen asked him if he had his breakfast already but he just asked her to leave him a bottle of cold water. So she left the lone bottle of water and she devoured her breakfast. Helen downed one and a half bottle of water after her full meal. She hated coffee at that time of the day, but she opened it nonetheless and sipped the hot liquid little by little. She threw the plastic lid out of the window and the wind carried it a hundred meters away.

       “Why did you come back for me?” she asked him as she was looking out of the window. Helen was quietly admiring the green mountains they were passing by while enjoying her coffee.

       “I told you I need to ask you a few questions.”

       “And then you can finally kill me. Is that right? Why bother travelling so far when you can do that last night?” there was poison in her voice.

       “I told you I’m not going to hurt you, didn’t I?”

       “Then why the hell did you slam the door shut after throwing me inside that dark stinky place you got there?!”

       Her sudden outburst shocked the man and he was speechless for a long time. Helen thought he was not going to answer her so she just looked out of her window again. After some time, she forgot about the question so it was a little confusing for her when he finally answered back.

       “You left me with no choice. You were fighting back like a bull while a mad man was shooting at us. What am I supposed to do?”

       “He was not a mad man. He’s a policeman.”

       “He was nowhere near a policeman”, he said with great conviction.

       Helen scoffed at his reply.

       “Who are you to say that?”

       “Because I, myself, am a police man.”

       Helen looked at him and wondered if he was telling her the truth. The man avoided her eyes and just kept on driving.

       “Well, was would be a better word.”

       “What happened? You just stopped being a policeman?”

       The man might have found her words funny for he laughed so hard after hearing her.

       “What’s so funny?”

       “Nothing. I just . . . well . . . to answer your question, no. I did not just stop being one. Something terrible happened and it made me ran away from my fellow policemen.”

       “Well, I guess I have no business asking you about that one. But I guess you know that what you are doing here right now is not a policeman thing.”

       “I know.”

       They were silent for a long time after that. Helen kept on watching the majestic view outside the window and the man just kept his focus on driving fast. Then, out of a sudden, Helen faced him again and asked him the question she was itching to ask ever since she saw him in her room.

       “Who the hell are you, by the way?”

       The man looked at her through the glass. Then, he parked the car at the deserted side of the road and turned his head to face her. Helen found herself mesmerized by his big brown eyes once more. But she almost dropped dead when she heard what the man had to say to her.

     “My name is Sergeant Miguel Romero. And it’s nice to finally meet you, Miss Helen Sandoval.”

      Helen’s jaw was left hanging.