Wife and Girlfriend

Chapter 12

Otanyi

He'd been quiet and kind when I'd been losing myself inside some very noisy thoughts.

I don't remember how long we were driving, but when I looked out my window and focused on the surroundings, I didn't recognize anything.

Okay, stupid, you got in a vehicle with the hot stranger, and now you'd pay for your lack of self-awareness with your life.

Although, it was still pretty doubtful that Tiger Davis would turn out to be a serial killer. But then again, isn't that always the way it starts? With the person you never thought could be capable of something horrible, being that exact guy, after all.

But as we pulled closer to the buildings he was slowing down in front of, I recognized the signs with my alma mater's logo, the University of North Carolina. I knew we couldn't be anywhere near my old campus because we were nearly two hours away from Chapel Hill, and we hadn't been driving anywhere near that long.

Yet, and still, we were in a development associated with the university.

"Where are we?"

"She speaks. Sorry, but you were deep in thought, and I didn't want to disturb you," he offered.

Another few moments of silence passed, and he still hadn't answered the question about where we were.

As if sensing my increasing unease, he finally responded.

"I want to take you somewhere, but first, I wanted to make sure that you'd start trusting me," he said, not at all the confident, cocky soccer primadonna I'd been expecting to make an appearance at any moment.

"And so we're here. And whatever is inside of this place is supposed to make me trust you?" a healthy dose of skepticism was always warranted, according to my father, especially when something or someone seemed too good to be true.

I didn't know anything about this man beside me other than he'd sort of been at the right place at the right time and helped me escape a situation that I just wasn't ready to deal with yet. I felt like I was using him almost. But I didn't want to pay for my little selfishness with my life.

But when he pulled around the back of the nondescript building, I took the hand he'd offered, hopped down from the vehicle, and walked beside him inside.

The inside of the building was no better than the outside as I still couldn't tell if I was in an office building or some residence. I couldn't remember any satellite programs this far from campus. But at least it gave my mind something else to focus on as I parsed through my recollections as to whether some UNC program could be housed this close to Charlotte. But still, nothing was coming to my mind.

There was also a lack of signage in the hallway and absolutely no one milling about any of the rooms or other hallways that we'd passed by.

This was getting eerily close to the start of any horror flick where the bimbo gets her head taken off first.

"Here, come in," he said as I almost missed that he'd pulled up a little ahead of me and stopped beside a slightly ajar door.

Going inside first was not an option, so instead of passing in front of him, I mirrored his hand movement and waved him inside, indicating that I'd follow after.

"Ona, I want you to meet Otanyi," he said as he turned the corner and was momentarily out of my line of sight. It would also be because I'd slowed down substantially to prepare myself for whatever might jump out at me from around that corner.

But it wasn't a masked man wielding an ax. It was an older-looking lady with two big black and grey plaits on either side of her head reclined in what was probably supposed to be a hospital bed but was nearly double the size.