Time and Again

[6] A Damsel in Distress

When I woke up the next day, I freaked out when I saw a man sleeping beside me. My scream woke him up.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?”

I jumped out from bed. I tried to grope something to use as a weapon in case the despicable man would try to touch me. 

“Am I not the one who should ask you what you’re doing in my house?”

“Are you sure this is your house? It’s standing within our dominion so this house is mine.”

“I don’t care if you are the daughter of Don Esteban or the richest man in the world. I was the one who built this house so it’s mine whether you like it or not and you don’t have any right to claim it as yours.”

Technically, he’s right. My stay there was only temporary. I didn’t want to argue with him any further. In as much as I loved to thank him but my pride was too big for me to swallow. So I got up.

“Why do you keep on coming back to my house? Do you have a crush on me?”

The false accusation struck a chord in my veins. 

“Excuse me. For your information I am the one and only daughter of the rich businessman, Don Esteban. I will never marry an uneducated farmer like you; not even in my wildest dream.”

I uttered those words out without thinking twice. I was unaware that it would choke me back someday.

“If you’re going to trespass in my house again, I’m going to rape you. So if you don’t have any feelings for me, do not come back in my house again.”

“Yeah right. Over my dead body!”

I turned my back to him and went out without another word. I swore to myself that I would never come back in his house ever again and he would never have a chance to ravish me because I would be running away. I would go to a place where nobody knows me and start a new life. 

I went down. When I was already on the ground, someone grabbed my arms. 

“There she is.”

A familiar voice called out to signal his colleague that they had found me.

In an instant, two men held both my arms. I was hurt by the way they held my arms so tightly to make sure that I wouldn’t escape within their grasp.

“Where have you been? Your father almost tear the whole hacienda looking for you.” Edgardo said, one of my father’s bodyguards.

“Please let me go.” I begged for mercy.

“I’m sorry, Señorita. Your father ordered us to bring you back to the manor. We wanted to help you escape but our family will starve to death if we will fail to do our job.” Juan said.

I pitied them both because they are compelled to do this despicable job to feed their families. I could tell it in their eyes that they didn’t intend to hurt me. I loved to cooperate with them but I needed to help myself first before I’d think about their family. My future was at stake. They left me with no choice but to shout.

“Help! Two men wanted to rape me!”

“Senorita, there’s no use of your shouting. You’re just wasting your energy. You better go with us willingly or else we might be force to hurt you.”

I didn’t take heed to what they told me. I continued screaming hoping someone would hear me and would come to rescue me.

“Rape! Rape! Rape!”

“If you will not cease from screaming, we will be forced to gag you.”

I never stopped screaming until I heard a clashing of fists. I didn’t expect that the man who owned the tree house heard my scream and rescued me.