Reasoning those mind games

Chapter 4

Tracy stood there in front of the bathroom mirror looking at her delicate blue eyes, which now had red vien-maps drawn inside them due to excessive stress and crying. The dark circles around them bared trauma as if someone had brutally hit her. Slowly, she raised her hands and traced her swollen jawline revealing the rashes from the restraints on her wrist were still fresh. Her gaze sifted through her bruised arms up to the shoulder, where there were not one, but multiple injection piercing marks. Taking a deep breath, she splashed cold water over her face, turned off the tap, and walked out.

Sunlight shining through the glazed kitchen window was giving it a cozy effect as Tracy walked in tying her hair into a bun and sat on her chair.. Wendy was already setting up Tracy's breakfast on the counter.

"Good morning sunshine," Wendy said in an ever so soft motherly voice. Tracy just smiled and glanced over to the newspaper to check the headlines.

Tracy Feild Case Update: The Only Heir of Late Gem Daniel Feild was Rescued in a miserable condition after being tortured by her fiancé.

Tracy's lips twitched. She grabbed the newspaper and angrily tossed it into the fireplace.

"Tracy! Burning the newspaper won't help honey, you have to burn him out of your life" Wendy explained, placing a cup of hot coffee beside Tracy, and placing her hand on Tracy's shoulder.

"Mhmm" Tracy nodded and wiped off the droplets of sweat that had formed above her lips. Her mother was right. She had to let go of her past. To start off with, she decided that she would delete Tom's number forever from her phone.

Right after breakfast, she went to her room and picked up her cell phone to find Tom's number, but instead, another missed call from last night popped up. In all the hustle, caller had almost slipped out of her mind. Remembering that she had to inform her mother she shouted for her mother...

" Mama"

She continued scrolling through the contact list waiting for her mother's response but there was no response at all. It was weird because her mother usually responded quickly. Assuming that her mother couldn't hear her from this far, she locked her screen without deleting and walked up to her mom's bedroom.

The room was empty. Tracy shrugged and turned around to walk out when her eyes hit upon the blinking notification on her mother's tablet. Carefully she picked up the tab and unlocked it.

1 missed call from Robert Steve.

Robert Steve?.. She remembered that name. It was mom's ex-bf who tried to ruin her mom's wedding before... Or at least that's what Tracy's father told them.

She unlocked the screen and scrolled through messages and old calls but there wasn't a single call or text from Robert Steve.

Why was he calling mom after all those years? Was he trying to blackmail her mother? But if that was the case then her mother would have reported him.

Raising her eyebrow in suspicion , she placed the tablet back in its place, walked up to the dressing room, and knocked at the bathroom door. But no one was in there either. ' Maybe she has gone for groceries,' Tracy thought to herself and decided to wait for her mother in her room.

Tracy walked up to her room thinking about Robert Steve and the unknown caller. could she be one of Robert Steve's people? Or One of Tom's?

Curious now, it felt like the best idea to search for the details of the caller. She opened her laptop and typed the number in for a search. Taking a deep breath, she leaned back as the tracking site processed the results. The screen had got her so involved that when her cellphone started to ring in the middle of all this, she once again picked up the call without looking at the number.

" Hello... Tracy here"

" Your husband wasn't lying ..." the same old lady spoke again " Talk to him once"

At the same time the results of the search load on the screen ...

" Amelia Robert Steve ."

Before Tracy could even react, the call ended. She looked at the same number in her call log. But upon calling back she was met with another switched-off line.

There seemed to be much more to the story than she knew or was told. Robert Steve was trying to contact her mother and on the other hand, his wife was trying to get Tracy back to her fiancé. Was Robert Steve blacking her mother as well? But why did her mom not tell her anything?

She now doubted her mother as much as she did her fiancé before. Her sixth sense was telling her that even her mother was hiding something. She needed to talk to her mother face to face, but there was something more important first. She had to talk to her fiancé. Although it was illegal and could end up with both in jail but wasn't it worth the lies that would end his fiancé on death sentence? She knew her mother's side of the story. But she needed to know Tom's side of the story as well. Without knowing both sides of the story, it would be impossible to determine Which side was blunt and which one was glazed. Tom's life was in danger because of one-sided stories. She had to get to the other side, not for her satisfaction but for the truth. It would be unfair to punish anyone without knowing their story.

Tears rolled down her eyes as she shut the screen down and rest her head on the table. She began thinking about ways to get to her fiancé.

At the lunch table, Tracy remained quiet while Wendy told her about all the new sales in the mall where she went for groceries.

"..are you even listening gurl? You need to get out Tracy, distract yourself" Wendy snapped at her daughter sarcastically.

"Of course mama!" Tracy replied uninterested at first, but then it hit upon her. A golden chance to get out of the house.

"Actually!" She added quickly " On a second thought, I think I will go check them out after lunch. It might be a good distraction for me."

"I thought so" Wendy grinned, knowing how much her daughter loved shopping.

Tracy tossed her empty plate into the dishwasher and rushed back to her room to get ready.

After a few minutes, she was at the front door staring outside with a questioning gaze as to whether she was doing the right thing or not. There was complete silence, except for a gentle breeze whistling through the trees. The weather was quite nice so she decided to walk instead of taking the car with her. With a deep breath of sigh, she Started treading toward her husband's house.

Around midway, the sound of soft footsteps interrupted the whistling music of the wind. Tracy felt like she was being followed by someone. She turned around but no one was there.

Was that the police? Her husband's men? Or Sam? Or was it Robert Steve's men?

"No " she shook her fears away, It was definitely not safe to go to her husband's at this time. She looked around to find the nearest safe place where she could possibly get help in case she got into trouble.

The closest place she could find was Old Mr. Kennet's Restaurant cafe. Mr. Kennet has been in the neighbourhood for as far as anyone could remember. An old jolly chef, extremely humble and trustworthy, and would never turn down anyone who walked into his cafe with hope. Mr. Kennet was everyone's, go-to man. Both he and his wife were always available for anyone anytime.

Tracy sped into the cafe without pausing to catch a breath. She pushed open the door and dashed in bumping into someone.

" whoa, ease-out girl," said a familiar voice. It was Clara.

What a coincidence though to meet her at this time?

" Clara listen I know I was offensive back at the church but please listen to me .. my life is in danger and so is Tom's"...

To her surprise, Clara didn't seem to resist a bit. Instead, she seemed to believe in her.

" I... I then.. think someone is f..following me..please help me" Tracy stuttered begging. Clara only sighed and turned her gaze to the ground. Time was running out. Tracy was not going to stand there to convince anyone so she turned around to find Mr. Kennet but Clara stopped her by grabbing her arm.

" You believe right?" Clara asked without looking up. Her question sounded serious this time." I think I might help. Come.." Added Clara, and started walking out of the cafe's back door without letting go of Tracy's arm.

" Clara? Do you believe them too? Do you think they are real not just scientific illusions? " Tracy asked as they walked through the woods behind the square, towards somewhere Clara wanted to go.

" I KNOW they exist" Clara just added without concern.

"Huh?" Tracy said completely startled by the 180 degrees turn in Clara's personality.

Clara smiled and stopped.

" Look, Tracy... I was trying to deviate you from all this because once you get in there is no help... you'll have to deal with things the world would never give you explanations of and .. guess what? Medicines DONT HELP" Clara explained more serious than before. " Are you SURE you want to...? Tracy this might expose you to a lot.."

Tracy drenched in fear, could only imagine now what his husband would feel when he would be facing all that for years? THIS was her golden chance. To experience all that .. maybe she could find logical justifications for all those??

" ..I'm IN CLARA" she cut through wiping her tears and inhaling a deep gush of air...

"Alright then " Clara smiled and turned around. Middle of woods way away from humans, she nodded to someone behind Tracy.

A cloud of fear hovered over her mind. Was this a trap? Was it Clara who wanted to kill her and not her husband or mother? A wave of paranoia rushed through her giving her Goosebumps. Tracy pulled her arm out of Clara's grip, But before she could turn around, someone wrapped his arms around her and seized her position.

Clara's smile widened again filling up Tracy with horror. She was dead..! but the struggle was no use. She closed her eyes ready for the man to stab or kill her .. Took a deep breath and leaned back allowing the man to get closer and get a better grip on her.