Limerence Turns Ugly

Chapter 11

SNAKE'S POINT OF VIEW

        One of Joey's birthday wishes this year is to travel in Paris, so I decided to give her a surprise.

         I lied to her that I was going to watch an international basketball competition in USA, but in fact, I was going to Paris to surprise her. She doesn't know about basketball well, so it's okay to use it as my excuse. At first, she cried and asked me to bring her along, I cheered her up by having a picnic with her at the city's park where we first had our date back when we first met in uni.

         Before the day I went to Paris (my flight took off in the midnight), I booked a flight ticket to Paris for her and sealed it in an envelop with a sticky note on top of it saying, "OPEN IT AFTER 2 DAYS." I added another sticky note inside the envelope along with the plane ticket telling her not to tell Rabbit and Squirrel, because, I'm scared that they will not allow Joey to travel at a place so far away.
        

        I arrived Paris in the afternoon. The afternoon Sun over here isn't as hot as the afternoon Sun back in Malaysia and I was relief as I was planing to walk to the little house I rented so that I could look around the city and be familiar with it. On the first day, I spent my time decorating the small house I rented in Paris with purple theme since it's Joey's favourite colour. At night, I was tired from all the decorating and decided to head to a nearby pub to have a drink.

        "Excuse me, can I have something like strawberry champagne cocktails?" I asked the bartender. This is my third time going to a pub.
        "Fraise de champagne," He then pour some vanilla and strawberry juice into a tall champagne glass. "Where are you from? You don't look local,"
        "Malaysia," I answered.
        "It must be a beautiful tropical country," He put the glass of cocktails in front of me, said, "Jouir,"

        After I had finish my drink and made the payment , I had a urge to relieve my bladder. I was seeking for a sign with a boy and a girl or anything that indicates where's the toilet, and finally found a staircase towards leading downwards, "Such a romantic toilet," Even there had no sign saying it's the toilet, I instinctively think that's toilet anyway, I don't know why, maybe I was a little drunk and didn't noticed. Anyway, when I reach the last step of the stairs, there were some well-decorated basins and many rooms, 'What a weird washroom," I thought as I made my way across the room. I pushed the door of each room gently to find an unlocked room. Finally, I came to a room where the door was slightly opened. When I walked inside, instead of a toilet bowl, I saw some flasks that were connected by tubes, the room is quite big unlike the normal washroom. "Gosh, this is not the washroom at all!" I realized and panic raised inside me. I look around to make sure no one was here and quickly observe the room a little more although every instinct in me is telling me to run away from there now. I quickly took a few pictures of the flasks as I was pretty sure there's something fishy going on here and left the place instantly.

         Just when I reached the final step of the staircase, I heard someone said, "Is he one of us? Why is he coming from the underground?". The panic in me rises again and I tried to keep calm. Forgetting about my full bladder, I walked hastily out of the pub and looked briefly back to the pub's window. I saw three men looking back at me through the glass and a cold shiver ran down my spine.

        I picked up my pace and left the pub whilst trying to shake off that last image in my head. No, they can't see my face properly in there, the lights there are so dimly lit. Plus, they don't even know me, they can't find me if they ever wanted to silence me.

THE SECOND NIGHT IN PARIS
        I got real early today, and got ready. The worrying scene last night long gone and was replaced by the excitement of meeting Joey.

        I got to the airport before the arrival time, so I decided to grab a local English newspaper at the kiosk when I had an uneasy feeling about someone watching me. Flashbacks of last night's encounter haunted me again, but I tried to shrugged it off and walked over to the arrival lounge to wait for Joey.

         Just like all the other people around me waiting for their love ones to arrive, I couldn't wait for Joey's arrival too. I was in the airport and holding a card with her name on it with the newspaper I just got behind it.
        "Joey! " I walked to her when I saw her turning her head left and right nervously looking for me.
        "My dear!" She hugged me tightly as we close to each other, "I was so scared,"
        "What's happen?" I brushed my fingers through her hair and looked into her eyes gently.
        "This is my first time flying alone, " She gave me an innocent look and I laughed.

        We chatted non stop on the way back from a Michelin starred restaurant, "Okay, we'll get off at here," I paid the taxi driver and got off earlier because we decided to have a romantic walk in a nearby park. We were walking side by side each other romantically under the starlit sky when a van neared us.
        "Are you sure he's the guy?" The man asked his friends who were jumping out from a black-painted van just as it slowed to a stop beside us. While he knocked my down with a strong punch, he pinned my hands behind my back and knelt on my facing down body. Joey looked at us in shock and started to back away from the other men who were surrounding us.
        I struggled to stand up and punched the man in the face hard. I punched his friends too when they were trying to approach Joey and me. However, we were outnumbered. They used a gunny bag to cover me and tied me up. I could feel that we were dragged on to the van, while I heard Joey shouting loudly with her high pitch scream to gain passer-by's attention. This is probably the only time I thanked Joey for the ear piercing scream she possess, but I guess no one was there at this time of the night. I didn't gave up resisting their grip on me while swearing at the men for kidnapping us. Suddenly,  a cloth with a weird smell covered my mouth and I had no clue about what was going on after that.

        I woke up feeling dizzy and realized I was tied on a chair in a room with three men eyeing on me and walking around me.
        A man pour his glass of water on my head and said, "You must pay for what you did,"
        "What did I do?" I questioned them calmly while shaking my head to get the excess water from dripping on me.
        "For breaking into our place,"
        "When did I do that?" I played dumb although I know exactly what they were talking about to buy some time to clear my mind from the dizziness.
        "We found these in your phone," He showed me my phone and I looked at the screen, flasks with connecting tubes. He continued, "What else do you know about that place and us? What did you do with them?"
        "I just took some pictures and nothing more," I claimed. I really did nothing more than snapping those photos! "I just left it in my phone and watched some random drama at home" I protested.
        The man took out his phone and dialed something on it, "Hello? Can you slap Joey a bit, we need a little encouragement for this guy we're dealing here"
        I started to panic when I heard that and started to stop him from so, "Hey! What do you think you're doing? Don't touch her!"
        The man looked over at me while telling the person on the like to hold on, "So tell us everything you know"
        "I swear, I don't know anything anymore!" I insisted. The man smirked and told the person on the line to go ahead and 'have fun' with Joey, that's when I finally gave up and told him that I have more pictures on my laptop.
        "Well, well, well, look at him now. I knew he love her too much to see her suffer." The man said with satisfaction and ask the person on the line go leave Joey alone.
        "By the way, who are you?"
        "I'm Snake,"
        "Pshh, what kind of name is that? You're trying to be funny, secret agent?"
        "What? I'm not a secret agent or whatsoever, I'm just a tourist here trying to enjoy my vacation when you guys kidnapped me and my girlfriend! And for your information, a name is not weird even if you never heard it before!" Anger was starting to build up in me when the man insulted my name.

        "Okay, whatever Snakeman, we wouldn't hurt you, but if you keep insisting on your own..." Then a man who was standing behind the man who was talking me walked over and kicked my stomach hard. I let out a cry of pain as pain shot through my body preventing me from catching my breath for a second. When I calmed myself down again, I was facing the ceiling. The chair probably fell over when the force of the kick hit me. I ignored the pain and sworn at the men again and warned them not to hurt Joey as they walked out of the room laughing, leaving me facing the ceiling.