Bound Beyond Death

Chapter 2

Mia was shocked beyond words.

She stood facing the door, her hand frozen halfway to knocking on it. Her mouth was hanging open, but she did not know it.

May of all people! And Mark!

The words just kept repeating over and over in her head.

She wondered what to do.

In a sudden surge of emotions, Mia banged on the door. The groans and moans stopped.

"Don't worry baby, I will get the door."

It was May's voice.

She opened the door a sliver and squeezed herself through it. Seeing Mia, she stuck her head back inside and called to Mark.

"I may not be back quick. But that d**k is mine, alright? Keep it hard for me, baby."

Then she turned to face Mia, stark naked. Her face was impassive.

"Not here." May put a finger over Mia's lips to keep her from talking.

She dragged Mia away from the door. Mia was too shocked to protest.

"How could you?" Mia wailed once they were in the sitting room.

"Keep your voice down." May's face was still impassive. "I told you he's no good for you." May said without any emotions.

"That's a lie!" Mia said flatly. "And if it isn't, this is your way of telling me? But I know my Mark. He can't do this to me. You must be blackmailing him to make him do this."

May smiled. "You're right." She said. Her face turned impassive again. "To be honest with you, I've got my eyes on him for a long time now. But you're the one who gave me an opening."

Mia just looked on.

"You see, Mark is very desperate about money. If only you had told him about the grant, he wouldn't have been tempted when I told him the amount of money that just dropped into my account."

May laughed. Mia felt sick to her stomach. She still did not believe May. She knew May was not telling the whole truth.

But she was not willing to listen to any version of the story, true or not. To her, Mark had absolutely no reason to cheat on her with her best friend on their anniversary.

May was looking at her with scorning eyes.

"Go on, say it. Say it's over between you and I will be sure to pass on your message to Mark." May told her.

"Are you not feeling even remotely sorry for this? You, my best friend?"

"Oh, please! Who's your friend?"

Mia felt tears sting her eyes.

She ran out of the room.

It seemed her whole world was crumbling under a single day.

No job. No friend. No boyfriend.

She felt totally lost.

And all these just when she thought everything was getting better. Just when she thought she was finally ready to go into forever with Mark.

Tears rolled down Mia's cheek as she drove. She had no directions. She just drove round and round the city.

Mia felt too tired to do anything. She didn't even want to live anymore. But she knew better than to kill herself because of some stupid bunch of humans.

Mia decided she was done with humans, at least, for the time being. She just wanted to be alone, away from life's daily struggles.

Mia decided she would never allow herself fall in love again. All it ever brought her was heartbreak and ruins.

Mia picked her phone and called a hideaway resort. Luckily, they were not fully booked for the summer. She booked a reservation for an indefinite duration.

She would stay there, just living a simple life and feeding from the grant money.

When she finds her peace, she will find somewhere else to start afresh.

After making this decision, Mia felt a little more peaceful. The tears continued flowing. But at least, they didn't come with lung-racking sobs now.

Mia parked her car by the roadside and contemplated her next plan of action.

A while later, she started her car again and headed towards the bank.

She had given Mark access to withdraw money from her account anytime he wishes like it.

The next thing she had to do was make sure Mark didn't take even a penny from the grant money, in case May told him.

Withdrawing Mark's access would be too much hassle, and take too much time. So, Mia simply created a new account and transferred all the money in her old account into that one.

Then she drove to her apartment and picked out a few things she might be needing for her long self imposed recluse.

Five hours later from when Mia gave up on love, she was driving to the hideaway.

It was a large resort located in the thick of a forest. She had never even heard about it, till she looked up places one could disappear to on the net.

This fact made her feel good about it. No one would ever find her there.

By the time Mia turned off the highway into the road that would lead her to the forest, she was almost completely calm.

Her heart was steeled.

She was a human, but at that moment, she crossed humans off from her list of God's good creations.

She concentrated in admiring the scenery unfolding before her as she drove deeper into the road that went off the highway.

The road was getting smaller. More bushes than she had ever seen in her life raced past her on either side of her windows.

If her car did not have a GPS system Mia would have been scared of losing her way. There were so many roads branching off every few hundred meters. She would have never remembered which was which by herself.

As it turned out, Mia gave thanks too soon. She was now driving in a path in the forest proper. On either side of her windows were bushes.

Her car's GPS system suddenly stopped working.

"Oh no." Mia muttered, staring at the screen of her GPS system.

It was showing so much static the map on it was barely visible.

"Maybe there's a nearby structure that's disturbing the signal." She thought.

But after she drove some distance, the screen was displaying a big no signal text.

Mia got out her phone to call the resort, in case they were somewhere nearby. To her consternation, there was no signal in that too.

"s**t!" Mia muttered, dismayed.

She tried to find her way back to the tarred road. There were many paths and they all looked the same. She picked one and started on it.

After some time, she knew she was lost.

The sun was getting low in the sky. And Mia didn't know how safe the forest was.

However, she knew there was no way she was getting out of it before sunset. And she didn't feel comfortable wandering around with the sun going down.

Only that, when she tried walking back to her car, she didn't find it.

She had lost her car too.

Mia felt like breaking down once more. She could feel the panic rising, but she tried to keep calm.

Spending the nights on tree branches seemed like a good idea for her safety. She remembered reading somewhere that most cats can't climb trees.

But a quick inspection showed that all the trees were too high to climb.

Mia lost it.

She leaned against a tree trunk and broke down in sobs.

Gradually, she dozed off.

Barely an hour later, she startled awake. She thought she had heard a roar.

She was right.

The tiger roared again, prowling towards the helpless lady leaning against a tree trunk.