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 of her, decorated with outgrown roots, wildflowers, and fallen leaves that crunched beneath her bare feet.
"Heather!"
The voice called again, this time louder and closer.
"Look behind you."
The person shouted, laughing. Not far from where she was sitting, her big sister was swimming in a cosmic-blue river that burbled. Her long ginger-brown hair stuck on her back. She giggled loudly at each stroke she took.
"Dad wants to see you." She shouted, "He is in that cave." She pointed out at a cave that stood at the end of forest almost covered by painpass grass.
When she took a step toward the cave, a voice inside her head screamed.
"Don't, Heather. You will regret it!"
She tried to ignore it by humming her favorite song. She had learned the song from the grandmother years ago, when she was still a toddler. Her mother had a tendency to lock her in the basement whenever she did something wrong. What amazed her was that she never made mistakes alone. She and her siblings were always in trouble, but she was the only one who was punished.
Her grandmother had promised her that the song would make her courageous. She will never fear whenever she hums that song in a scary situation. Unfortunately, the humming proved difficult. No matter how loud she hummed, the voice shouted louder.
Blocking the voice in her head, she tried to concentrate on what she was hearing: the crunching of her feet on the dry-leafed ground. The clattering sounds in the cold winds of the brittle leaves and branches of the low-lying bushes were made when she passed by, and finally, she managed to completely shut the voice away.
Heaving a sigh of relief, she dashed into the dark cave.
"Dad."
She called upon arrival, trying to adjust to the darkness. Her whole body felt numb as the hairs on the back of her head stood.
"Dad!"
She called and stopped almost immediately when crunching noises hit her ears from behind.
Turning around, she gasped in fear when she met pure darkness. She tried to walk out of the cave, but she couldn’t find her way out. The entrance had disappeared. She heard footsteps creeping behind her, and they made the whole situation scarier.
"Who are you?" She asked, using the last bit of courage she had.
A sinister laughter rose, shaking the cave. A tapping sound echoed as bright lights illuminated the whole dark place. Adjusting her eyes to the bright lights, she looked around. The cave contained nothing but a small wooden bed in the middle. A white mattress soaked in blood was placed on top of it.
"Climb on the bed, Heather." A domineering, deep voice demanded
And like a puppet, she found herself obeying the voice. Sitting, she sank on the wet, bloody mattress. A man with long white beards appeared beside her, ripped her dress apart, and lifted the threat on his left arm.
"It’s time to say your last prayers, lass." The man said this while smirking evilly.
The sharp dagger, which shimmered under the bright lights, ascended onto her belly with a whoosh sound. Before she could scream for help, she felt the dagger piercing through her heart, and slowly it was dragged down towards her toned, flat abdomen.
"I am Alejendro, an organ dealer. Rest well, lass."
That was the last thing she heard before closing her eyes.
A kick on the ribs woke Heather from her uncomfortable sleep, which was full of nightmares. She crimmed her eyes as she looked at her surroundings. When her mind settled, she heaved a sigh of relief when she realized she was only having a bad dream.
"What were you dreaming about? You are sweating all over." A deep voice questioned her.
Standing quickly, she looked at Alejendro, shaking in fear. The dream played vividly in her mind.
"I am Alejendro, an organ dealer." His voice rang in her ears again and again. She tried to ask him if what he had said in her dream was true, but her mouth couldn’t form any words.
"Who are you and why am I here?" She inquired, her mouth spitting out words other than what she intended to say.
"I promised you yesterday that I'd tell you everything today. I haven’t forgotten Heather. " "And... the question of who I am... I thought we had already met... not once, but twice, with today being our third meeting." Alejendro counted with his fingers, a smirk plastered across his wrinkled pale face.
"Many people are surprised by your family's wealth, Heather Berriton, right?" He started by asking, and she nodded.
"Well, you are the reason behind that wealth, and I bet you don't know either, right?" He asked again, pacing in the room.
"Yes, with the fact that I have never done anything for my family." "How can I be the reason behind my family's wealth?" Heather asked, surprised.
"This is it, lass. Your dad asked for help from me. He wanted me to make him the richest person in the world. Luckily or unluckily, I managed to raise him up to the second richest person in the world. I know you would want to know if he were to return my help. Of course, yes, he was. He told me he would send a package to me; that would be his payment. I gave him the address, and here is the package." He explained, took a cigar from his pocket, and lighted it.
"Where is the package?" Heather was confused.
"Silly. You are the package, of course." He said this while sitting on a rocking chair, his legs supported by a red-painted folding wooden chair.
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
TROUBLES"Sir, we found the truck that carried your daughter the night she was murdered. We would like you to fly down a soon as possible." The conversation he had with the police earlier kept rringing in his head. Earlier, when Berritton received the call, he boarded his private jet as soon as he could. Thank goodness, his pilot resided not far from his mansion. A sigh of relief escaped his lips when the plane landed. A person could think he was glad because he had landed safely or because there was a good sign her daughter's murderer would be brought to light soon, but that was not the case. Ever since he read the letter, he had never been at peace. He felt like there was a person somewhere who knew all his evil deeds. He was sure the letter wasn't read by a single being, but the fact that it passed through the hands of many made him restless. When Berritton left, his wife ran back into the room, determined to find whatever letter had been brought to her husband and get a glimps