Building My Life

Chapter 36 - Damsel in Distress

Josias returned to his room with a heavy heart. He doubted the girl Jeremiah had dragged upstairs was fully aware of what was happening. She would likely wake up the next day disoriented, not knowing where she was or how she had ended up in a stranger’s bed. She probably didn’t even know his name.

After brooding for a moment, he grabbed his toothbrush, toothpaste, towel, and soap and headed down to the bathroom. After showering and brushing his teeth, Josias went back up to his room. However, as he reached the second-floor landing, something caught his ear.

Faint noises echoed down the corridor. During the day, Josias wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But it was almost ten at night; most of the tenants were already in their rooms, likely asleep. Even Teodoro was nowhere to be seen, as he usually turned in early when possible. Is someone having a party? Josias wondered.

Then, the noise sharpened into a muffled “no.” Josias decided to stay on the second floor and crept down the hallway.

The voice was unmistakably female.

As he approached the room where the sound originated, the situation became clear. He heard the scuffle of furniture and the sounds of a woman struggling to break free from someone’s grip.

“Let go of me! I want to leave!” the woman cried out, her voice now terrified and audible.

“Didn’t you say you were in the mood?”

The second voice belonged to a man: specifically, Jeremiah.

Josias didn’t hesitate. He took two steps back, lunged forward, and kicked the door in with a deafening crash, just like in a police movie.

Josias wasn’t a giant, but he wasn’t weak either; his daily labor at the construction site had hardened his frame. Even so, a stunned Jeremiah couldn’t understand how a thinner guy like Josias had managed to burst the door open with a single kick. In reality, Jeremiah was drunk enough to have forgotten to lock the deadbolt, which had made the task much easier.

Josias scowled as he took in the scene. He noticed that Jeremiah’s room was far more furnished than his own: a better-quality bed, curtains on the balcony door, a bookshelf with a TV and radio, and even a small four-burner stove.

The bed was a mess of tangled sheets. Jeremiah was down to his underwear, and the girl who had come up with him was crying and trembling with fright, trying to pull away while clutching her rumpled clothes. Jeremiah was gripping her wrist tightly, clearly determined to have his way regardless of her protests.

A bitter taste rose in Josias’s throat. He bellowed at the top of his lungs, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“You again? With the same damn question?” Jeremiah snapped, his eyes burning with drunken rage.

“Let go of that girl! Can’t you see she wants to leave?” Josias looked at the girl and saw the raw terror in her eyes.

“We came here of our own free will! Now I’m going to finish what we started!” Jeremiah roared savagely, yanking the girl closer.

“What free will? She’s under the influence of alcohol! Let her go, or I’ll call Seu Teodoro!” Josias screamed back.

The shouting caused the neighboring doors to fly open. Tenants emerged, annoyed and confused.

“Hey! What’s all the screaming about?”

“Can’t a person sleep in peace here?”

“Would someone do me a favor and call Seu Teodoro? Where is his room?” Josias glared at his neighbors with equal parts anger and disgust. A girl is about to be assaulted, and all they care about is their sleep?

“Nobody’s calling anybody!” Jeremiah yelled. “Don’t mess with me, kid, or you’ll regret it later!”

Josias stepped further into the room, closing the distance between him and Jeremiah. “I think you still don’t understand, comrade: I’m not afraid of you!”

“Look, Jerê, it’s better not to cause trouble with Seu Teodoro,” the first neighbor warned. “We heard the noises. Teodoro must have heard them too.”

“I just want to get out of here! I drank too much!” the girl finally sobbed in her own defense. “I just wanted to have fun, drink, and talk, but this p*****t started putting his hands on me and taking off his clothes!”

“Ah, shut up!” Jeremiah snarled.

“Enough, Jeremiah!” Josias ordered imperiously. “Let the girl go now while Teodoro is still asleep, and we won’t say a word to him. Do you all agree?”

He directed the question to the neighbors, who nodded in unison. They knew Teodoro would likely evict Jeremiah if he found out.

Sensing he had lost, Jeremiah released the girl’s wrist. She bolted instantly, brushing past the neighbors and sobbing as she stumbled down the stairs.

As the adrenaline faded, Jeremiah began to feel the sting of embarrassment. He knew that from now on, everyone in the building would judge him as a predator. In his mind, it was all Josias’s fault. Why had the kid stuck his nose where it didn’t belong? Why had he woken the entire floor?

“Now, let’s go to sleep.” Josias turned his back on Jeremiah. As if he were the one in charge of the building, he gestured for the neighbors to disperse. He closed the door on his way out, not offering a single word of apology to the room’s owner.

Jeremiah remained standing in the center of his room, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists with a lethal, silent wrath.