The Devil I Called My Husband

“You have five seconds to speak with him.” “And Your time starts now!” “Mariya” “They are going to kill me” “These people are torturing me, please don't abandon me. Mariya please save me” Lucas cried in the video before Marshall forcefully turned off the video call. “Time up!” He said glaring into Mariya's face. “You bastard!” Mariya spat. “What did you do to my brother!” “Where did you take my brother to?” she yelled at Marshall. But instead of getting an answer, a hot tingling slap landed on her face for the umpteenth time and she fell down to her face. There was a metallic taste of blood in her lower lips and She had bitten her lips due to the heavy slap and her nose was running as the impact of the slap let loose the catarrh that had clogged in her nose. “No noise is allowed in the Bahamas, you of all people should know better than anyone else” Marshall whispered in her ear, before spitting on her face. Seven years ago in the dark streets of Westclay, under the heavy splatter of rain. Marshall was the person that picked Mariya and her younger brother Lucas from the street after they were thrown out by their landlord. The two kids used to be the children of very notorious and stubborn lawyers, not until one day, when their parents left the house and never returned. They waited days, weeks and months and there were still no signs of their parents. On that night that Marshall had picked them up, they had sat in the scarcely lit room in their father's rented apartment. Their electricity had been cut off in the neighbourhood because they had not paid electricity bills for the past nine months after their parents disappeared. Mariya clutched her younger brother, Lucas trembling hand as they huddled together inside the old dishevelled wardrobe. There were heavy droplets of rain pelting against the windows. And the doors and windows bangs under the pressure of the wind as if the house was going to explode. But amidst that was the landlord's incessant knocking on the door. It was as if he wanted to break down the whole building if Mariya and Lucas refused to open the door. The landlord's relentless knocking vibrated throughout the small two bedroom apartment. Lucas was scared as he let out a small whimpering sound. "Shh,” Mariya hushed him. “Lucas, stop whimpering, they'll hear you” Mariya whispered, trying to calm her brother's frightened sobs. "Just stay quiet, so that they won't hear you. they'll go away soon." “Okay?”she asked. Lucas nodded, tears streaming down his dirt-streaked cheeks. He buried his face into Mariya's shoulder, as if it would make the heart wrenching poundings in the door go away. The two siblings clung to each other, their hearts beating as fast as possible. They had no guardian and that was because they didn't want to lose each other, Mariya who was thirteen years old at that time knew that if they were to be taken to an orphanage, that means that they were to be separated. Her brother would be taken to boys home while she would be taken to girls home. And they might be adopted by different families and so they might lose the chance to ever see each other again. So the two kids chose to just stay by each other and live alone in their parents old rented apartment. They went to school by the day and on their way home, they steal food items from unsuspecting store owners just trying to stay alive. Sometimes they are lucky to pick pockets and get a few bucks. They were finally dismissed by the school management because they couldn't keep up with their school fees. So they just resorted full time to picking pockets but the money they got were only barely enough for feeding. Now the rent has expired too and they landlord has served them a quit notice for the past three months. Since they weren't able to pay up, the landlord is here to forcefully send them packing. As soon as the pounding on the door subsided. They thought the landlord and his crew had gone as usual, but their hopes were shattered when the pounding were replaced by the sound of heavy thumps of footsteps approaching. Mariya's eyes widened in terror as the front door was forcefully kicked open at once, she watched as the wooden door splint into pieces. The wardrobe door quietly creaked open, revealing the terrified pair of thirteen years old Mariya clutching onto her eight years old younger brother slowly crept out of the wardrobe. "Well, well, what do we have here?" sneered the landlord, a cruel smile etched across his face. He was accompanied by two angry looking men, their imposing figures casting long shadows across the room. Mariya's voice trembled as she mustered the courage to speak. "Please, sir, we have nowhere else to go. We'll find a way to pay the rent, just give us a little more time." She pleaded. By now Lucas was already crying uncontrollably. The landlord's laughter filled the room, as he watched the helpless duo of orphaned children. His voice was scrapped of any remaining emotions. "Time? You've had enough time. I have no use for charity cases like you. Now get out!" he bellowed at them. Tears streamed down Mariya's face as she pleaded, her voice cracking with desperation. "But it's raining outside, and my little brother is sick. Please have mercy." She couldn't imagine going out with Lucas under the rain. The last time they stayed out late and Lucas caught cold, she was terrified and thought he would die. The men grabbed Mariya and Lucas roughly with a tight grip while Mariya struggled against their hold. her heart pounding with a mix of fear and anger. "Let us go! You can't do this to us!" She kept yelling. The landlord's eyes narrowed, his face contorted with contempt. "Oh, I can do whatever I please. This is my house and You are nothing but a burden, a nuisance. You and your deadbeat parents. They couldn't pay their debts, and now it's your turn to suffer the consequences." The landlord kept on ranting. The siblings were dragged outside into the unforgiving rain, their belongings scattered and discarded like debris. Mariya shielded Lucas with her body, shielding him from the bitter cold as they sat under a little shade provided by the shootout of a closed store outside. "Where will we go, Mariya?" Lucas whimpered, his lips clapping together out of cold. His hands were wrinkled and blue and Mariya felt bad because there was absolutely nothing he could do. "We'll figure something out, Luca's. We'll find a place to stay," Mariya replied. "We'll survive this, I promise." He whispered to him. As they stood drenched and shivering on the empty street that dark night, their eyes met with a glimmer of hope when a car came crawling slowly before them. Mariya without thinking twice, without even bothering to know if the car belonged to a kidnapper quickly started flagging it down. The owner of the car was Marshall. He stopped his car and approached the two stray kids with concern etched on his face. "Are you two okay?" Marshall asked. “ what happened?” “ Is there anything I can do to help?" He asked. Mariya glanced at Marshall, her eyes filled with both scepticism and longing. His face looked nothing like his voice. He had a voice as calm as an angel but his face was filled with scares almost as if he fights with wild animals and sharp objects on a daily basis. "We have nowhere to go," she murmured, her voice barely audible over the rain. Marshall's expression softened as he extended a helping hand. "Come with me. I have a spare room in my house. You'll have a roof over your heads for the night." “And if you want, I can take you to an orphanage where I work tomorrow morning.” At the mention of an orphanage Mariya hesitated for a moment, her weary mind overwhelmed by the sudden offer of kindness. “No thanks” “We'll ask another person” she rejected the offer. “Is there a problem? You don't want to go to an orphanage?” Marshall asked. “Yes” Mariya muttered. “I don't want to be separated from my brother” she said naively. “Who said you were going to be separated?” “Our orphanage has a department for boys and girls, you'll see your brother everyday, just that you won't be able to sleep on the same bed.” Marshal whispered in the calmest of voices. Mariya looked down at Sasha, his eyes were silently pleading for respite from their hardships. With a nod, she took Marshall's hand, accepting his offer.