Pleasure in Retaliation

CHAPTER I

"DOC, is there something wrong with her? Why isn't she waking up? It's been a month already."

Involuntarily, my brows came to a slight furrow when I heard an unfamiliar voice from nowhere.

I wanted to talk back to the voice that I heard but I could not muster up the courage to do it. So I stayed, motionless, as I tried to listen and familiarize the voices around me.

 "I'm so sorry, Señorito. But all I could say is there might be something that traumatized her, and her body and mind is taking the luxury of time to heal itself."

 I do not have an idea if they are talking about me, or they’re pertaining to someone else. But when thoughts started to flood my brain, the throbbing pain almost made me wince. Amidst the pain, I tried to compose myself as I listen to the conversing voices around me.

There was a slight pause before I heard the voice—the voice owned by a man who was addressed, by whom I assume is a doctor, as Señorito—asked once more. "What could possibly traumatize her that it's taking a month for her to heal?"

 "That I could not answer again, Señorito. We would only know the answer to that, the moment she wakes up."

 As if my body felt that it was the right time, I felt my eyelids start to flutter. A blinding light met my eyes. which I assumed immediately as a good thing.

I remembered something from a dream that I was being carried away to a paradise.

I wanted to smile, but I can't. So I stayed silent, as I let the blinding light take away my ability to see.

"Oh. There she is, Señorito."

A slight commotion was caught by the side of my eye which made me turn my attention to it. The blinding light was almost a faint glow as my eyes landed at the sight of two people wrestling their way to where I was. 

My heartbeat became erratic because of fear and my first impulse was to run and hide, but my body laid still—my arms and legs numb.

First to the race was a middle-aged man with a huge round pair of glasses on his eyes. Almost immediately, as he approached my side, a blinding light pierced my vision, but it was only for a brief moment.

“She’s conscious now, Señorito. But I just want to check if she could respond if I call her,” the middle-aged man said to the person behind him. He then reached to fix the bridge of his eyeglasses resting on his nose, while forming a faint smile on his lips. “Hello, hija. I’m Doctor Perez, can you apprehend what I’m telling you?”

Though I know that I still have the ability to speak, all I did was slightly nod my head as a response. The doctor also bobbed his head at me and turned to the person behind him, talking in a small tone about foreign medical terms that my head could not understand at the time being.

Without paying much attention to the people talking beside the bed where I laid, I tried to look at my surroundings. And the more I see from where I am, the less I feel that I was brought to a paradise.

I am in the confines of a bed, feeling numb and dumb, surrounded by four corners of a room with timber walls and a small teardrop chandelier hanging on the ceiling. Heaving a sigh, I turned to the people as I noticed that their conversation was coming to an end.

The doctor leaned down to give a small bow to the person in front of him and as he depart, his last words were, “I’ll come back when you need me to check on her, Señorito. I’ll be at the hospital to check on Señora’s condition.”

The other man nodded his head at the doctor as he let him exit the room. He took a moment in walking towards the door and closing it shut, before turning towards me. And I could hardly contain my gasp as I was met by a set of deep blue eyes, his stare was so deep that I almost winced.

Sudden chills went up my spine as he took a gracious amount of time in approaching my side—each of the step he took felt like needles poking through my skin and when he finally reached to the side of the bed where I rested, I did not realize that I was holding my breath until he spoke with his deep, commanding tone.

“Breathe. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Immediately, as if under the stranger’s command, I released all the air that I have been holding in my lungs. Instantly, I mumbled out a question even when my lips are still quivering. 

With a soft voice, I asked, “w-where… w-where a-am I?”

The stranger might have noticed the strain that I’m in as I spoke for without hesitation, he crossed more of the space between him and the bed I’m in, and what he did next rendered me speechless as I heard the loud beating of my heart—he leaned in, his face just mere inches away from mine as he helped me straighten my back to make me lean to the headboard.

I could only take in few amounts of air as his deep, masculine smell evaded my nostrils. 

The stranger placed a pillow between my back and the headboard before he took a seat on a stool next to my bed. He stared at me, a stare that is too long for me to bear. Yet I still tried to meet his gaze as I was also trying to compose myself.

A full minute passed of the stranger and I’s staring game before he looked away for a brief moment, landing his oceanic eyes to the bed. Then, with a voice that is softer than what he used a while ago, he called my attention—as if my attention were not caught by him yet. “Miss.”

“Y-yes?” I answered, still stammering.

His blue eyes rested on mine once more, and it took a few seconds before he answered. “Can you recall anything that happened a month ago?”

His question made me confused, but I tried to recall the things that I could remember before the odds carried me to this strange place.

“A-ah, let me see…” I spoke in a soft tone as I reached for my brain and ransacked every memory that I have. But I did not have the chance to do it when I felt the throbbing pain in my head once again.

“Ah,” I grimaced.

“Why?! What’s wrong? Do we need to call the doctor?”

In just a second, I came across with the stranger’s face, his blue eyes seemed bluer with worry. I did not know how to react, with our faces just an inch apart. All I could do was try to meet his gaze when I felt my cheeks turn beet red—as pain has traded places with the feeling of embarrassment and discomfort.

He then seemed to get the outcome of what he did and then shifted to give us more space—the worry look lingered on his face. The stranger looked away for a brief second and cleared his throat before he turned to ask me once more. “Are you in pain, Miss? I’ll call the doctor immediate—”

“N-no, it’s okay,” I cut him off in an instant. “I-I’m okay.”

He did not seem to agree with my answer, but he chose to let go of the topic, and settled down on the stool once more. “Well… do you remember your name, at least?”

“Y-yes.” I nod. “My name is Lynn Dominique A-Aguirre.”

I could not help my voice from faltering as I spoke my last name. It was a title that I do not want myself to be called any longer, but I do not have an idea on how to remove it from me. 

The longer the last name is attached to my name, the more it felt like a leech—sucking out the life out of me.

“Please calm down, Miss Lynn,” the stranger spoke, his voice frantic, his hand coming up to fan my face. “I’m deeply sorry if I have upset you.”

It was a few moments later when I realized that I was grasping for air. I willed myself to calm down, just as more questions began to form inside my head. I press a palm to the side of my head, trying to ease the ache in it, as I let the question slip out of my mouth.

“W-who are you? W-where am I?”

Unlike his actions from before, he seemed to be more cautious this time as he extended a hand on the space between us.

“I am Adrian Niccolo Gentallan. I was the one who saw you the night that you passed out on the street,” he introduced himself using his deep tone. “And right now, you’re staying at my house.”

With the same caution, I reached for his hand and shook it with my trembling and sweaty palm. After a quick shake I pulled my hand back to my side, feeling embarrassed. Almost just as quick as my actions, he pulled his hand back to himself, too.

“Sir—” I was about to speak to him when I remembered the appellation used by the doctor who left awhile ago. “S-Señorito… what is this place?” I asked as I turn to the large sliding windows showing trees, trees, and more trees.

Silence emanated the room for a few moments, and all I could do is meet his oceanic eyes as I await his answer.

Adrian—Señorito Adrian—heaved a sigh then broke the eye contact, looking towards the window that I am facing. When he stared back at me, he was wearing a small smile on his face.

“Welcome, Miss Lynn, to my humble abode—Hacienda Gentallan.”

Hacienda Gentallan?

“A-am I not in Cagayan de Oro anymore?” The question had come out of my mouth without me putting much thought in it.

Señorito Adrian nods as he says, “I’m afraid not, Miss Lynn. Hacienda Gentallan is located at the farthest corner of the Camiguin Island.”

I looked away from the stranger and tried to relive the memories in my brain where I heard that place being tackled and almost immediately, I began to recall the events that Camiguin Island was discussed by the people around me.

It was a place that were highly spoken of my relatives whenever we have a gathering at our house. They would discuss about the island’s captivating beauty, its majestic attractions, and the goods and produces that they could purchase from the island.

But I have never heard them talk about a hacienda like what this Señorito Adrian is talking about.

Maybe this hacienda is something that they have not disclosed to many people, and the thought of being in a strange place surrounded by strange people is slowly creating a ball of fear inside my chest.

“I could feel your discomfort, Miss Lynn, and I’m sorry if you feel that way,” Señorito Adrian said, his voice apologetic. I turned to him and saw his hands cupped on the surface of his lap as he conversed with me. “But given the condition that you are in and the fact that you just woke up from a month-long sleep, I require you to take at least a week before you make the choice.”

The choice?

“C-choice?” I asked, unsure of what he could possibly mean by the last sentence that he uttered. “W-what choice, S-Señorito?”

Señorito Adrian then wore a serious expression when he heard my query. His eyes seemed darker blue that I could almost feel myself drown in his stare, his resoluteness has sharpened the features on his face. 

“Miss Lynn, the maid that I assigned to take care of you when you were still asleep…” He let the silence fill the whole room for a few seconds before he spoke with carefulness. 

“She said that you have been talking in your sleep and from what I heard from the maid, you seemed to be afraid of your own family.”