FINALLY, ABROAD!
The seven-hour journey was exhausting. Three hours had passed, and her back ached. Excusing herself, she went to the toilet. She slapped her cheeks, slightly blushing, over what had happened earlier before she boarded her plane. She could still feel Pete’s tongue on her pussy.
She giggled like a teenage girl as she took her phone from her pocket and touched Pete’s picture on the screen. The photo has been serving as her screen saver for seven years now. She took it when they were twelve years old. She used to sneak into Pete’s room and watch her sleep.
Slowly, her mischief grew into an obsession, and the obsession became a habit. She could do anything to her except watch her sleep. After some time, when she tried to stop herself from doing it, she realized she couldn’t since she was head over heels with Pete.
A year later, when they clocked thirteen, she had mustered up enough courage. She had decided it was time to confess her feelings toward her before it was too late. That night, with sweat beads on her forehead, she raced towards Pete’s mansion. She lifted her cheeks as her lips parted for an uncontrollable smile.
Finally, she was going to make Pate hers. Ascending the stairs in a rush, she barged into her room. She was shocked when she found Pete on her bed with a boy, kissing. Heartbroken, she ran back home, crying. Since that day, she's sworn to keep the feelings to herself. The next day, when Pete wanted to know why she had barged in her room and left almost immediately, she lied, saying it was nothing important and that she had gone for a sleepover.
"But you seemed hurt, why?" Pete asked her that day. Snubbing her, she insulted her, calling her a busybody and an overthinker. That was when the conversation was buried and was never brought up until six years later, when Pete confessed to having a thing for her.
Though they have been together for two weeks, it seems like they have been together for so many years. It was so sad that they wouldn’t be seeing each other for the next two years. Going back to her seat, Heather smiled as she recalled their best moments. In the goodbye sex that kept replaying in her mind, she secretly reached her hands under her blouse and pinched her nipples.
"I miss you, Pete." She whisphered.
Hours later, she was woken up by the co-pilots’ voice, asking them to fold their meal tables and tighten their seat belts because the plane was about to land. She stretched her numb body and fumbled over her purse to take out the address her father had given her.
"Sweetheart, we know that you are an introvert and you wouldn’t want to stay with crowds. This address will take you to the cottage we rented for you. "Don't stay in the hostels." Her father’s voice echoed in her mind, and a wide smile spread across her face. She hailed a cab and asked the driver to take her to the written address.
"The first thing I have to do in the cottage is to call Pete." She made a mental note for herself, smiling.
"What?" Twirling around, she asked the cab driver, who had been giving her awkward looks since she handed the address to him.
Shaking his head, the cabbie asked her to hop in, and they zoomed off. Heather didn’t know how many hours the man had been driving, but she was woken up by a tap on her shoulder.
"Have we reached it?" She yawned lazily and asked. The cabman took out her suitcase and asked her to come out. Heather looked at her surroundings, and she was shocked. The place looked abandoned and dirty. It didn’t seem like a person had ever resided there. Not far from where she was standing, there stood an incomplete, abandoned building. It looked really ugly from outside.
"Are you sure this is the right address?" She twirled around to ask the cabman, but she was shocked when she found him gone. Opening the note on her hand, she read the address and compared it to the one written on the board beside her. "909 Bravelline Street." It read. It was exactly like the one on the board.
"Dad said it was a nice cottage. "What is this house, and with the same address?" She asked herself, taking off her phone from her pocket. When she tried to call the dialed number, a rough hand from behind snatched her phone.
"Hey..that’s mi…" She couldn’t complete her sentence when she saw a heavily built man wearing dirty orange overalls standing behind her, her phone between his cracked, dirty fingers. She looked up at him and gasped. A wide cut mark passed across his face, and fresh maroon-colored, thick blood oozed from it.
"Heather Berritton?" The man asked, smirking
"No..i mean…y..yes." She stammered, with chills running down her spine.
"Follow me." The man was ordered to walk towards the unfinished building.
The flowers in the front garden were long dead. The grass was knee-length. The paint was flaking from the window frames. The man pushed open the front door, and a rotten smell hit her. Covering her nose, she stepped in, looking around. Furniture was carelessly arranged, and the floorboards were uneven and cracky.
There were smears of a red substance, which she couldn't tell if it was blood or red paint, all over the furniture. There were patches of damp mold creeping up the walls. The windows were sealed from inside; the only light in there was from the dirty, cracked bulb on the wall, which illuminated a dim light.
"It’s barely been a minute since you came in here and you are already uncomfortable." "How do you think you are going to survive for the rest of the year before your order is taken?" The man asked her in a mocking tone, gesturing at her hand, which had covered her nose.
"For the rest of the year. I came to school, sir. "Perhaps you got the wrong girl." Hearth explained looking around. The man scoffed, disappearing into the next room.
"The boss called you in." The man told her coming out.
Walking to the other room, she met a familiar man sitting on a folding, red-painted wooden chair, smocking. "You remember me, lassie?" He smirked as he strangled his overgrown white beard.
Heather gasped, stepping backwards. "Where have I seen this man?" She asked herself. She became mute and shocked at the same time when her memories recalled him clearly. He was the teacher her dad had introduced her to. The teacher whom her spirit didn’t sit well with.
"Teacher. Alejendro, is this a ballet academy?" She stammered through her words, trying to form a perfect sentence.
"Silly. You are so naive. Didn’t your father explain everything to you? I thought I asked him to?" Alejendro smirked, puffing some smoke on her nose.
Coughing, Heather held her nose, fresh tears brimming in her eyes. "Maybe Pete was right." She whisphered.
"Come again." Alejendro said, a sinister smile spreading across his face. "Anyway, lass, you better sleep. "Tomorrow I’ll have to explain everything to you since your dad failed to fulfill his duty." Upon saying that, he turned his broad back against her and walked out.
"Where am I to sleep?" She asked, looking around. What she saw were folding chairs, which couldn’t accommodate her.
"Anywhere, lass. It’s none of my business. You can decide to sleep while standing. Nobody is gonna ask you." He rudely answered her and walked away, leaving her world crumbling.
NIGHTMARE COMING TRUE"Heather!" A familiar voice called her name, but she couldn't recall where or when she had heard it.In shock, she looked around, wondering what she should do. She was trapped in the middle of nowhere. A land filled with white sand surrounded her."Heather, come." The voice called again, and a portal opened in front of her.Afraid to step on it, she stepped back and tried to run away. A gush of wind from nowhere waved, passing through the land, and with a thud she fell on the other side of the portal."Hello!" She called when shock evaded her."Hello!" She called again, and her own voice answered her back.Birds sang above her, and she looked around in surprise. She was no longer in the middle of nowhere, but she was lying in the forest. The forest hummed with life around her. She twirled around, gazing up at the canopy, searching for the birds that were singing sweetly.She crimmed her eyes as the sun broke through the cracks, lightening up the dirt path ahead o
FIRST ESCAPE ATTEMPTA week had passed since Heather had learned her fortune. Tears brimmed in her beautiful, brown glass-like eyes and flowed down her high-cheeked bones when she recalled what her dad had said over the phone."I'm sorry, sweatheart. I know I and your mother failed you as parents, but we had no other option. Growing up, you saw how people looked down on us because we were poor. When I heard that there was a man who bought humans in exchange for money, I sold you, dear. I wanted to raise our social class. I'm so sorry." Her dad told him when he called him to inquire if what Alejendro had said was true.She badly wanted to call Pete and tell her how she was fairing. She wanted to tell her she was right since the very first day she doubted her parents, but unluckily, she couldn't do that any more. All her belongings were taken, including her smartphone.She curled up in a foetal position on the dusty ground as more tears streamed down her cheeks.Since she came to learn h
PURPOSE REVEALEDAfter her first escape attempt failed, Heather decided to let go of the thought. Deep down, she knew that even if she succeeded in running away from Ajendro's clutches, he would still find her.Just a day ago, she overheard him talking on the phone with someone. He was assuring that person that none of his packages could slip from his hands easily. After pounding on what he meant, she finally understood; packages were the people who were given to him as gifts after offering help. A few days ago, he explained to her that she was the "package" her dad had sent over after helping him.She also learned that the building she was kept in was not the only building Alejendro used to run his mystery business. She discovered that there were several buildings of that kind—unfinished, abandoned, and ugly—in different parts of the world where these businesses operate.Up until now, Heather had no contractions of fear in her heart. She had decided to accept her fate. She was prepar
DEAL TAKEN"Please, would you tell my dad that he sent over a wrong package? I really do not wish to die at this age. I turned eighteen a month ago, and I wouldn't like to meet my creator right now. When I meet my Grandma in the next world, what will I tell her I have achieved so far? None of my dreams are fulfilled. She made me promise I would go to the next world at the right time. The time when all of my dreams will come true, when I will have all of the world's pleasures to my liking Please, Alejendro, "just do me this one favor and I will forever thank you."Heather had lost count of how many times she had used that sentence to beg Alejendro to free her. She had said it until her brain memorized it. What surprised her is that Alejendro had yet to respond to her plea. The plea was now like a song to him, but he never bothered."Order is taken, lass. When you finally get to meet your Creator, please tell him to forgive your father. He was the one who kept you in this pleading state
DOORSTEP DEATHHeather's unconcious body was surrounded by more than four surgeons, both clad in white gowns and blue surgical masks. In a hurried manner, they used sanitizers to clean their hands together with the surgical instruments, which were arranged on the aluminum tray beside the bed, and started their surgery.The head surgeon took a bottle of jik, which was among the surgical equipment in the tray, and pressed it against Heather's cheeks. Her already pale, dry lips opened, and he shoved the contents down her throat.He then signaled the other surgeons to start the operation. Her eyes were first fished out of their orbes and carefully placed on another clean empty tray. They used a bunch of white cotton to stop the blood from oozing out of the empty orbes. They all moved aside to wait for the blood to settle and the jik in her system to take effect, with disgusted expressions on their faces.The purpose of the jik was to make her skin tender for easy peeling off. When the bl
FINDING THE MURDERERA crowd of people murmured on the roadside. Women cried loudly, patting their heads in anger. Men sighed, pulling their real or imaginary beards, probably thinking about how cruel a human being can become. The sons cursed, patting and heaving their chests like angry bulls. The daughters wailed aloud, wondering why a young girl similar to their age was murdered in such a way.The entire police force of the entire town was there to assure people of their security. They examined the mutilated body that was lying in front of the road to see if they could find any visible evidence apart from the truck that they had taken to the police station.At first, residents pleaded with the police to let the car free, noting that the owner may be among the crowd. When they investigated the truck, they believed it belonged to the killer since it was flooded with fresh blood on the back. Despite an announcement to the crowd, asking the owner to surrender him or herself, no one appe
FUNERALThe Berritton family, all dressed in black expensive gowns with matching black shoes and headscarfs, stood at the front as the mass was carried on. They all had black handkerchiefs in their hands, which they used to wipe their tears as the mass went on.Almost everyone from every corner of the world has attended. Anyway, who wouldn't if the country's president had also attended? Though more than a million people attended the funeral, not all of them were mourners. Some were busybodies who came to take a look at the legendary Berroton's mansion. It was named the biggest and most expensive mansion in the entire world.Its walls were painted with real gold. It was said that when Berritton rose to power, he made his constructors melt real gold into paint. The chairs inside the house were also made from pure gold. Anyone who managed to walk into Berriton's mansion was mesmerized by what they saw.Many had to be dragged outside by force because they never wanted to leave. The golde
CELEBRATION GONE WRONGJames Berritton couldn't control his joy when he received a phone call directing him on how to sign the new deal which was about to be brought into besiness by the government. Though he was a worldwide business tycoon, he was also employed as a government official.The president had called him earlier and told him about his promotion. To take care of the deal properly, he was promoted from a junior government official to a senior government official."It seems like Heather hindered most of our blessings when she was still alive. It is only two weeks after we buried her and blessings have been flowing in non-stop. Your promotion calls for a celebration, my darling husband. " His wife, Rosalis, cooed, resting her bare legs on her husband's laps."Whatever you say, my darling wife," James replied, blowing kisses on her neck."Yuck!" "Can you both stop your nonsense?" Their daughter, Jude, said, walking in. Her high heels clicked on the golden tiled floor as she mov