No One Left

The Man's Past Part I

     After The Man left, Jane and I sat there in silence. Silence is now the new normal for us. Most times when we both have nothing to say, we just sat down and let our minds take over wandering from North to South, seeking answers to bizarre questions. Most times, I look at us and I wonder if Jane and I could ever be so silent and at a loss of things to talk about even though we are seated beside each other, with an entire room all to ourselves. It is needless to say what the cause of this is and as I look at Jane, I know it will be better if we figure things out ourselves.

     I believe it was night because I was beginning to feel drowsy and would sleep any time now but the door unexpectedly opened again. This time, it was not The Man who stepped in nor the two men who always accompany him. It was a man who in his hands was a tray of food which he dropped before us in suspicious haste and I when I saw his face clearly, he was not the one who usually brings our food but I was too hungry to even consider who brings our food.

    "That man is serious Mase," Jane said as I was about to dig in "if he changed the person that brings our food, that means he was telling the truth. He wasn't lying about everything either. We need to find a way out Mase". 

    "We should be happy that he is on our side now. That means we have an ally now" I said to Jane even though I only heard the word 'ally' on a TV show once before and I didn't the actual meaning of it, I still used it to make Jane feel better. "With him, our chances of escaping are higher, so let's just trust him for now. He said he will tell us about himself tomorrow, so let's just wait and see how it plays out" I said to Jane and I went back to eating the food in front of me.

     The drowsiness had disappeared when that man entered, and left completely when I saw the meal he brought, but it returned once I gobbled up the food. My feeble eyes could not withstand the forces of nature and I ended up succumbing to them. As soon as my eyes were closed, dreams descended upon the obscureness of my subconscious and I saw in them images of Dad lying in a pool of his own blood. Unmoving. 

     Images from the dream kept resurfacing when I woke up. I was worried for Dad. Even though I was young, I understood what it means to lie in a pool of your own blood. I imagined Dad dying and leaving just me and mom in this world. I wonder how it was going to be and unbeknownst to me, I had begun to cry. A gentle touch on my shoulder jolted me back to reality and I quickly tried to wipe the tears off my face.

     "Sorry Mase, I know we will be fine," Jane said and my mouth moving on its own amidst sobs said, "Dad's going to die". Jane was still trying to comfort me when the door opened again and in stepped The Man, all alone again. He must have told his boys to stay outside again.

     "How are you kids doing," The Man said as he took a chair and sat. We both kept silent and didn't respond. The Man must have sensed our awkward looks and position but he chose to keep silent about it and just do his talk. "I won't be here for long, I'll just tell you about myself as I promised yesterday. I don't want to be suspected as it might be dangerous for all of us" The Man paused in his usual way, maybe to see our expression or whatsoever his reason may be. One thing I've noticed is that The Man has not been speaking in the 'gang-ish' slang that he used when speaking to his boys to talk to us. 

    "My name is Geo" The Man-Geo-started. "I was not always part of this gang and I joined for revenge. Well, I was once a soldier and I resigned for some reasons that I'm going to tell you. I chose to join the military and become a soldier after military school and I invited my siblings to come live with me a few months after I settled down so I could relieve my mother of the stress of raising them. So they came and began to live with me. There are two of them, a boy and a girl. Gray, the boy, was preparing for military school, hoping to follow in my footsteps. Gil on the hand was in high school, so we all have our own things and schedule to face every day. But one day.." Geo paused here again but continued.

     "One day, Gil just went missing and we searched every possible place for her but we could not find her. I along with some of my soldier friends went in search of her in the surrounding towns and everywhere but we could not find her still. It was said that she went to get something and just didn't return. I stopped searching a few weeks after and just hoped for news that never came. A month after Gil went missing, the Commander chose me and 5 other soldiers to escort an upper-class citizen to an event. It was something normal for soldiers to be hired to escort people of high class so I didn't think of much of it and just prepared to do the task."

      "So we escorted this man to this event. When we got there, two soldiers will be allowed in as bodyguards. I was chosen, perhaps due to my muscular body. We got to the place in the evening but the said event didn't start till around 9 pm in the night. I felt something was off about the event that is done in the night and more so a hidden location. My doubts were confirmed when the event started because it was an auction. An auction of humans. That was how I first discovered the auction house. I didn't have the intention to disturb the auction since I was just there as an escort and whatever they do there literally has nothing to do with me. This all changed when Gil was brought in as an auction item, displayed in a glass. My sister looks so weak as if she was on her last breath. I couldn't control my rage. The other soldier noticed this, he asked and I told him my sister was about to be auctioned off. We deliberated on informing our colleagues outside and see if we could obstruct the event and rescue my sister but every other person in the room seemed to bring escorts with them as well, so it'll surely be a tough battle. I wanted to kill everyone in that ha that day and just take my sister away, I wanted to fight them all but the numbers didn't favour us. That was how I watched my sister sold off to a stupid fellow to be used as he wish. I made sure to note the face of the person who bought my sister because I'll surely find and bring her back." He looked into space and said more to himself, "even if I have to go against the whole military, I'll bring her back". Geo didn't say anything for a very long time after that.