s*x And Gambit

6: Who killed Him?

Growing up and refusing to eat at night, my mom used to tell me something. She would tell me to eat and never go to bed with a hungry stomach because 'the night is longer than the day when you are hungry”. I never believed that until now.

Sleeping, cold, Alex didn’t send the clothes as he said and there was no duvet. I coiled all through the night, trying to warm myself with my body but it was working. I felt so miserable, cold, lost, sad and scared. It wasn’t until I tried to imagine being happy that I finally closed my eyes for a while.

Bang!

Bang!!

I sprint off the bed, clumsily bumping my toe on the falling, falling, getting up and falling again.

My body hurts, my head hurts, my neck hurts, and my stomach hurts.

Disoriented, I looked around, trying to get where the noise had come from before the loud knock at the door interrupted me.

“Who is it?’ I asked scared.

Wait a min. why do I feel so scared. I wasn’t like this yesterday, not even as scared as this when Marcel held me hostage in his house.

The knock at the door interrupted me again, making me rush to the corner of the room and wait. After the fourth knock and nothing happened, I thought the person must have gone till the door opened. Damnnnn! It was never locked! I should have ran or something…maybe steal food in the middle of the night.

A lady, probably in her early 20s walked in. she was dressed in an old style maid. Her long black hair was packed high in a ponytail and the sweet smile on her face never left for a second at all. She had the kind of smile that would calm the raging sea and mend the broken heart.

“I am Alitalia” she said as she walked to the bed and dropped an outfit “you need to get washed, dressed and join us immediately”

Looking at the dress, I realized that it was the same as hers, a servant's clothes.

Confused, I laughed, looked from her to the clothes before slowly walking to her.

“Don’t you think you are making a mistake…?” I asked it as I tried to remember her name.

She didn’t say anything. She was still, mute, her signature smile on her face as she walked to the door and returned with a bottle of water.

“You look like you need it. Although I was told not to let you have nothing but it would be our secret”

While I still stared at her in shock, she gently pushed me to the small bathroom I didn’t notice at the corner and process to remove my clothes. Embarrassed, I gently pushed her and did my thing myself. I bathed, wore my previous cloth and came to see her looking around like the room suddenly went strange. On seeing me, she flashed me a big smile and looked at the clothes on the bed.

“I am a girl, feel free. I am not Trans and I won’t look at your body” she grinned.

Confused, I began to get dressed while covering my body the way I could. As she promised, she didn’t look, she just kept looking around, and like there was something she missed in the room.

“Was this your old room?” I asked.

She shook her head as she walked to the door. I followed immediately, feeling like I would get lost if she left my sight, I followed tightly. Getting out, I looked around well, more than I did yesterday and I won’t lie, and this place looked like heaven.

We got past rooms, used the elevator to the 6th floor and got to an open hall. The place had other girls and boys in uniform, good thing they all looked happy and above 20 so it wasn’t like an underage or slavery kind of thing. I joined her, stayed in line and waited. I didn’t know what we were waiting for but I did the same thing they did, stood still with a smile on my face.

After what took like a minute, we went off, with me following closely to the girl. I still couldn’t remember her name and I was so embarrassed to ask. We didn’t say anything until we got to the kitchen and she gave me something to slice, probably vegetables. It was at that moment I lost it.

“I am not gonna do s**t!” I snapped.

She looked at her, still smiling like a manic and looked at what she was giving to me again. She was urging me to take it and her hands looked impatient already but her face still had that stupid smile.

“Sorry….”

“Alita” she reminded me still with that smile.

“Yeah... Sorry Alita but I can’t do s**t. I am supposed to be on campus now, in class, and not in the kitchen after a psychopath tends to almost kill me yesterday,” I rant.

That wasn’t me talking. I knew it.

I was just so hungry, scared, and confused about what modern kind of mafia slavery I had gotten myself into.

While I waited for her to say something rather than smile, someone walked in. she carried herself so familiarly that it didn’t take long for me to know who she was.

“The meeting is starting soon, all of you. Spostalo!” Vera snapped.

It was her, the woman from the party marcel took me too.

She walked around, looking at what they were doing, got to my side and stared.

“Get to work. You are paid for it” she said and walked away.

She didn’t recognize me, or maybe she was pretending. Alita gently pulled me, handed the vegetables and glared at me for a few seconds before smiling.

“You are lucky boss’s cousin isn’t in one of her episodes. We have been planning for this for months … please, I don’t want today to be a bad day for you”

Not sure what to do, I took it and began to work.

I was supposed to be in class, but here I was, doing this.

The day went fast enough, but all I could remember was washing so many dishes, slicing vegetables till my hands hurt. Soon, some people stopped working and began to eat. Happy, I stopped, only to find Alita by my side with her horrible smile.

“Vera asked you to make a smoothie for her” she said.

I grinned. I had no idea about what to make so I just stood still. All I wanted was a way to turn off this mess and maybe see Alex. Seeing I wasn’t moving, Alita went to work, blending, mixing, and making small talks with me and all I said was…

“Do you all get to smile all day?” I asked.

She shrugged, handed me the drink, and pointed at the door.

“First room at your left” she said.

I went to the first room by my left and as soon as I got there; the door opened as if she was waiting for me. Who I was kidding? She asked for me.

“Good girl,” Vera said as I placed the cup on the table and walked away.

Getting to the door, she called my name. I pretended not to hear it, but she called me again.

“You think I would not recognize you, Zora?” she asked.

I stopped and turned back at her. She didn’t touch the drink. She was sitting the same way she was when I walked in. Her ankles crossed on the bed while she smoked a stick of cigarette.

“Come here” she ordered.

Not knowing what to do, I stood still.

She cussed, raised her dresses to show me her thighs…no...She brought out a gun.

“Should I come get you?” she asked.

I walked to her. If there was anything I remembered and learned from Marcel was to be careful of this lady.

Close enough, she got off the bed got close to me and pointed the gun at my face. Despite the fact that I have had guns pointed at me before, I was still scared.

“Will you talk this time?” she asked.

I was confused, worried and hoping she wasn’t just one of Alex’s maniac family so I remain silent.

“What happened to Didi?” she asked.

The dead boy? I didn’t do anything to him. I hoped Alex didn’t try to make her believe I killed the boy or something, so I remain silent.

“I know you didn’t kill my brother”

I gulped.

Goose pimples appeared all over my body as I tried not to give anybody language information. Alex might be a bad guy but this Vera does look good.

“Tell me who killed him, Zora… tell me and I would…”

We diverted our attention to the door as we watched Alex walk in. he didn’t look happy, maybe because he doesn’t deserve to look happy or because he saw Vera still holding her gun to my head.

“I see you have met Zora” he said as she got closer.

There was this look on Vera’s face as she lowered her gun and walked away. She didn’t spare me or Alex any glance as she walked out.

“I see you met Dante’s sister” Alex said casually.

The way he looked so calm irked and annoyed me at the same time. I felt I should have yelled, to ask him what I really did to him but yesterday didn’t go well. Adjusting away from him as he stepped closer, my stomach grumbled.

“You are hungry” he said.

I nodded.

If he almost broke my neck yesterday, what would stop him from doing so today?

“Good” he replied as he walked close enough and stopped “you don’t get to eat tomorrow, and next, and the next till you break. With that, you will understand to keep your hand to yourself”.

He must be joking.

This face doesn’t look like he was joking but he looked like he must be.

“Vera thinks you killed his brother so…I think you are half dead already” he moved my hair off my face and stared at me.

If I didn’t know better, I would say he looked a bit not himself as he stared at my…neck? He was staring at my neck.

“Such a shame” he said as he placed both hands around my neck.

He wrapped his fingers around my neck, soft at first then tight. While he slowly shook life out of me, he had this smile on his face, the same smile his servant had.

“So breakable” he whispered.

I gasped for air, tears filled my eyes as I held his wrist with both hands and stared deep into his eyes. If he was a psychopath, there might be an atom of sympathy in him. Wrong! The more I looked, the more empty it looked. His eyes, two empty pools of pain.

“Al…” I tried to call him.

My vision slowly began to fade and my heart raced. If I die here, no one would find my body but the more I fight, the more I feel the darkness consumes me.

Dear God!

I closed my eyes and tried to have some good thoughts but all I could see was Dante’s bloody body with his neck open. Why would he haunt me to the time of my death even when I did nothing to him?