Reborn as a RUFFIAN (Complete)

REBORN

My vision gets blur rapidly when I try to open my eyes. A strange yellow light hanging above, blinds me. I grunt when someone touched my wounds and the pain intensifies. I hear voices, but they all dissonances and I can’t figure them out. My skull will get explode if I try to focus on the voices one more time. Left with no strength to move a finger, I lay back on the hard surface. I exhale deeply and slowly as my chest burns. I expectorate cough and blood which stinks with a coppery pungent smell. They put a mask over my mouth and soon I drifted into the darkness.

Three men, their picture is imprinted in my head. Isabelle, my mother’s cousin. Their faces flash in front of my eyes and I feel something burning in my insides. The blood rushes in the veins when they injected a warm liquid in me. I feel sedated and the consumed in the darkness.

Not sure of how long I have been sleeping, but soon, I hear a voice. I figured it was the sound coming from an electronic ECG machine. I open my eyes slowly and close it immediately as they have become sensitive to the light. I assumed they beat me to the pulp in the last night’s fight with other prisoners. Every memory of my wounds is fresh and haunting. I will never forget them. I flicker my eyelids to adjust my vision according to the lights.

I notice a nurse working on the operators. I try to speak, but words won’t come out. My throat dries and I cry in thirst. The nurse notices my cries and rushes to check my pulses.

“Doctor!!!” she runs to the door to call a doctor. I guess she is new here, I did not recognize her earlier.

A team of doctors enter with the stethoscopes hanging from their neck. They all look dumbfounded while observing me. I am feeling sedated and everything moves when I try to sit.

“Ma’am! Please relax. Sister, help the patient sit and offer water drink.” The doctor orders the nurse.

“How are you feeling?” the doctor asks me.

“How badly I was injured this time?” I ask straight forwardly.

The doctor furrows his brow and orders his subordinate to check my vitals.

“Everything is completely fine. Your injuries are almost healed, but you need few sessions of physiotherapy to get back on your feet. I will recommend you the best physiotherapist of the city.” The doctor informs.

I frown and turn to ask, “Physiotherapy? For what?” surprised me to the core, “I have been injured badly many times? It won’t be that worse.”

The doctor presses his lips in a flat thin line.

“I am sorry to say but you have been in comatose from past 6 months.” He just blurts out like a random thing.

I scrunch my brows and look at him clueless, “what?” my word comes out inaudible.

“A man brought you here one night. You were covered in all dirt and blood, barely breathing. We admitted you immediately, but there was no hope at that time. The surgery was successful, but you went in comatose. And now, you have just wake up from after 6 months” the doctor explains.

“Who was the man?” I ask curiously.

The doctor looks shocked to the core but changes his expression quickly, “you are not related to him? He claimed himself as your father and even paid for your treatments.”

I stay speechless on his statement. I ask for the further details and he shows me my medical file. I noted the name of the person and his addresses. I request the doctor to prepare my discharge papers. I have wasted 6 months already.

After my discharge, I went to see the physiotherapist and his sessions helped me to walk again. I had multiple ligaments fracture and 7 bone fractures. But, I made a rapid recovery and soon after I take martial art lessons in a Chinese academy. My training followed another 6 months and then I decide to go back to Tirana city. I packed my bags and left. I had nothing to take with me, so moving out was not a much of hassle. All this time, I was figuring out a way to meet the man who claimed himself as my father. As long as I remember, I have never seen my father.

My mother rarely talked about him whenever I bring the topic up. I feel bad when I think about my mother. I didn’t get a chance to meet at her last time. This thing had haunted me for all the 5 years in jail and now I am back again, after 1 year.

The coach passes near from the prison hospital road and I shut my eyes forcefully. I let it pass. To be honest, this place still terrifies me. Many prisoners inside are innocent or accused of something they never did, but they don’t have a voice to speak up for themselves. I try to hold and calm my demeanor till the road takes a turn. I had this feeling that they will come and take me back. I violence had ruined my naïve mind.

My stop arrives and I jump out from the coach. Walking in the old streets of the city I used to live, strike a wave of nostalgia in my mind. I imagine my little version of mine in small kids playing around the street.

I avert my gaze and walk in the destination's road. Things have changed in past 6 years, new buildings are constructed and air is thicker than it was before. I reach at the address I noted from the hospital’s file. The place seems to be abandoned from years, but I have learned that things are never same from the inside.

I walk up to the end of the paved pathway and knock softly on the door. After knocking for 3 more times, I decide to enter illegally. I look for a way to get in and found the back door open. The door cracks while opening and it's dark inside. My pulses speed up and I lit the flashlight from my cell phone. I find the switch on turn the lights on and it covers the room in dust. I cover my mouth and went inside further. The kitchen is dirty as hell and the sink is full with unwashed plates. The smell of fungus made my stomach churn.

The place is empty beside few spiders. I found nothing, not a single photograph of that person. I run up to the stairs and found a locked room. I search for the keys but hear the sound of the main door getting unlocked. The panic rushes over my face and I hide behind the door. I peep through the dark corridor to check on the person. It is difficult to see in the shadows and I realized that I left the lights on in the kitchen.

I hear no sounds of footsteps, not even breathing. My senses get alert when someone attacked me with a knife. I move back from the place in time and grab a lamp from the table to defend. I swing the lamp and hit on the person’s head, followed by a kick in his private area. He grunts in pain and I move out to attack him. I clutch my fist and blow a punch on his stomach, repeatedly. My fingers get covered in his blood.

“stop!!” he yells and I kick him hard enough that he landed on the couch. I quickly turn the lights on and my eyes widen to see an old man. He is build fine and looks healthy but I felt bad to raid his house like a thief.

“What the f**k are you doing in my house?” he yells while holding his stomach.

“Are you Albert Charles Russo?” I ask in a serious voice. I can sense the tension of the person in front of me. He is hesitated to say anything. I need answers from him and I don’t care if he is going to like my methods. I took the knife in my hand and dig it deep in his thighs.

“i***t woman!! The f**k is wrong with you?” he screams.

“answer me!” I ask in a threatening voice.

“Who the f**k are you? Huh? Get lost, I don’t have any answers for you.” he yells and I twist the knife in his thigh.

“I am not playing games here. Next time you try to shoo me away, I am going for your head.” I whisper dangerously at him. “Who are you and why did you claimed to be my father in hospital?”

The pupil of his eyes constricts and sweat forms over his face, “I don’t know what are you talking about?” he stammers.

I deepen the wound while pressuring the knife and he screams deadly in pain. “okay!!! I will tell you!! He offered me a huge amount of money to prove myself as your father in the hospital.”

“Who?” I ask dangerously.

“I don’t know him personally. We have met twice for a meeting in a different restaurant. He asked me to do simple jobs for money.” He cries.

“How can meet him?” I ask.

“You can’t! He finds us and contacts us.” He states.

“What are his reasons to save me?” I ask.

“I swear, I don’t know!” he cries and all of a sudden, someone pulls a trigger and shoots a bullet in the person's head sitting on the couch.

I scream and cover my ears, and hides behind the wall. I watch how horrifically that person died, but the question arise, who killed him and why?