Make Your Move Katherine

Dianne

Kat’s mother

Diane stared at the man who held the gun in front of her face. It was nothing new, she had been used to it by now, after all, it had been fifteen years. She ignored him as she focused instead on the man lying down on the hospital bed and pressed onto the man's lower stomach area and said calmly, "Abdominal distension, and hmm BP deterioration- so hemoperi-”

“Yea Doc?” the man known as Mark, interrupted her mumbling blinking as he did so. She knew by now he understood half of what she said- which is a lot considering he was hired for brawn and not brain as security. He had been her security almost a year now and when a year is up, he would be replaced with a different one- not for her protection but to ensure she doesn’t try to leave.

It was a safety precaution placed by her kidn*ppers, ‘in case she got too friendly with the guards and persuaded them to risk their lives.’ At least that is what was said to her and Dianne believed they were capable of murder, if need be, so she did not risk it. She had a daughter to protect, after all.

Adjusting her glasses, the doctor replaced the light into the pocket of the long white coat and folded her arms across her chest. "I'll do a celiotomy," she informed the man who stood beside the person holding the gun, who in turn faced the glass behind him while he mumbled on the phone to the woman standing behind the glass. Diane never saw the woman but she knew it had to be female for she caught the scent of the feminine perfume when they entered the operating room earlier. Just as she usually did from time to time.

Either one woman was among the men or the women wore the same scented spray for it never changed in all the years she had been here. Maybe the other females wore nothing on their skin to enhance their smell.

The new white-haired man stuttered with wide eyes but Dianne did not hear words, she had learned long ago to mentally block them out of her brain. Blue eyes that pierced into her soul she felt. She had never seen eyes like his in her entire life- besides in movies. And his skin was so clear and smooth even though he was past middle-aged. His bleached teeth and a gold ring on his index finger coupled with his grey suit and brown shoes screamed money.

He gave her the chills. The creepy kind.

The man on the bed would be dead in less than thirty minutes for he was bleeding. "Then take him away. He'll be dead in a few minutes," she informed the blue-eyed man.

Dianne didn't care if the man on the bed died or not. They were all evil people. She was forced to do these illegal operations after being kidn*pped and blackmailed with her daughter's safety for almost fifteen years now. She was quite sick of it really. But it was on her conscious if she did not caution them first. She had done her duty already.

Less than five minutes later she was sinking her knife into his fleshy abdomen to do the hemoperitoneum and not celiotomy as stated before- which meant she was surrounded by a bunch of nincompoops behind the heavy glass of the theatre or worst. She was still being monitored in silence by a far more intelligent team, of most likely hired staff, of the King of Demkas.

 She was sure they were being paid handsomely for her successful operation now as was the case all the times previously. The customers would pay half before and then the remaining half after if it was a success. Diane felt sick to her stomach sometimes and even tried to kill herself once about five years ago. Her daughter was an adult, she had convinced herself that she would be better off not knowing about a mother who did these atrocious things.

But they had saved her life.

Dianne didn’t know when she would be able to see her daughter again- if ever. She should have just done her time in jail for her husband’s murder instead of being blackmailed by the woman she called her best friend since she was a toddler.

It felt so far away yet she remembered the betrayal, for it had shocked her to the core.

“Macy- I- did it- I killed him-” she had cried into the phone almost eighteen years ago.

“What? Killed who? Are you okay Di?” her best friend had returned with a raised tone in her voice but still calm. It was her next words that had her in a different frame of mind.

“Jake- I killed him.”

Dianne looked at her husband’s limp body on the floor as the blood pooled around him. Hardly a mess to clean up she had thought for there wasn’t much splatter on the floor. When she had stabbed him minutes before the call, Jake had grabbed the knife as if holding it would save his life. His eyes opened wide as he stared at her in the kitchen as she backed away from him. He didn’t even ask her anything for he knew why.

His brown shirt was stained with the pouring blood; his navy-blue jacket probably was the reason why no blood squirted out anywhere for Jake had been in the process of removing it and so it was open when she plunged the knife into him. The lapel then covered the wound somewhat when his hands dropped from it.

Dianne remembered when he took a step forward and the extra fear she felt as his face distorted but he dropped to his knees instead, his nostrils flaring. No words came out of his mouth as he still stared at her. Her back pressed onto the counter behind her as she looked at the stain as it spread across his belly and onto his trouser pants.

She did not regret the murder.

Tears misted her eyes as she remembered her daughter’s scared little voice the month before. The police refused to help her. His husband’s influence was strong. She had even requested a visit to the King but he refused to see her.

She regretted the phone call after.

“What? Di- are you crazy? Are you home?” her friend had responded.

“Yes- kitchen.”

She should have cleaned the mess by herself. Now here she was- stuck in this hell because she trusted too much. She trusted her husband and she trusted her best friend.

Mark, the bulky security, stood by the door as she stepped out leaving the rest of the team behind. She didn’t know if the men who had been guarding her and the others, were in a similar situation like her and were told to lie to her or them. Just as she did not know if her team were here by force or not too. Or if they were really staff members of this ‘hospital’ but she knew that in the years she had been here, she had never seen a staff looking scared.

They weren’t allowed to speak to each other much which Dianne knew was weird. She felt that if they had been part of a willing staff here, they would have been smiling or friendly to each other- even to a certain extent.

They were the opposite.

They were all heavily guarded and allowed only to the outside of the hospital grounds which were heavily guarded and highly fenced. Since no outside noise was heard but trees in abundance, Dianne figured they must have been isolated from society.

Her only solace now was the payment she received after each operation. Mark escorted her to her room as he handed her an envelope. Dianne changed out of her clothing and took a bath for she did not want to taint her daughter with her dirty deeds. She sat on her bed as she opened the seal. Her daughter was walking into a building- safely.

She looked exactly like Dianne had when she was of that age- except she had been pregnant. Dianne placed her hand on her stomach unconsciously as she looked at the glass doors of her daughter’s workplace. She had memorized it. Katherine was a reporter now and had even covered the news one morning- they had taken a picture of it to show her. She had been so proud that night when she saw it and had begged them to allow her that one photo.

But they refused.

Dianne would beg again in the morning for this one as well but for now, she had the entire night to spend with Katherine before they took the photo away as they usually did each morning at breakfast.

Dianne smiled as the happy tears rolled down her cheeks as she stroked her daughter’s face with her finger. She hugged the picture to her chest grateful to see her face for sometimes they took the photo and her face was not visible.

Her daughter was safe and, on her way, to work- that was all that mattered.