When Bluebirds Fly | ✔

Part Two : Chapter Eleven

The harsh lights were hurting my sore eyes and I couldn't stand being in that room so I rushed out in that short, purple frock. I was bumping into numerous doors in the passageway which seemed endless like walking in a circle. I was heavily perspiring by the time I reached the reception area. I expected the lady receptionist to be present there so she could help me with my confusion, but she wasn't there. 

I followed in a daze the same path that had brought me here, the small corridor, the clean elevator, the decent lobby. The second I arrived in the lobby area, my legs gave away and I collapsed on the tiled floor. I heard hurried footsteps and Abel's spoke angrily, "You cannot walk away like this. Come back with me."

He roughly grabbed my limp arm, pulling my jelly like body up. I moaned and feebly tried to pry his fingers from my arm, unable to see clearly with each passing second. Suddenly, he let go of me and I opened my eyes with some difficulty. A man in a blue uniform hovered over me.

The exhaustion of that effort made me shut my eyes, letting myself drift to a soundless sleep.

*

I woke up with water droplets on my face and my hair damp with cold sweat. A man with skin as dark as the night sky and no apparent wrinkles peered at me. He was wearing the guard's blue uniform. I blinked in perplexity, wiping the water from my face and opening and closing my mouth, testing if I could move them. There was concern mingled with disgust in the way the man looked at me and the familiar shame evilly took hold of my slender throat.

I had been passed out on a white monoblock chair and I slowly sat up straight, checking myself. I was in an appalling purple frock, the fabric cheap and glittery. It reached above my mid-thigh, threatening to reveal my underwear with one wrong movement. The neckline was horrendously deep with my left breast completely exposed and I abashedly stretched the flimsy material over it. The nipple of my other breast protruded through the material and I didn't know what to do about it. My bra along with my earlier clothes were missing.

Something stung in my eyes, they were hopeless tears unable to form from the exhaustion.

"Where am I?" I asked in a small, scratchy voice that weirdly belonged to me. My gaze flickered from one car to another, we were in a corner of some parking lot. With me being dressed sparsely like this in the company of a total stranger. I should have been scared, but the fear never came. So deeply was I disoriented.

"In the parking lot of the building you got wasted," he said in a voice that made him appear more older than he was. Someone in his late forties. "Look, you need to be more responsible and take care of yourself. A grown up girl like you. You could have ended up in the wrong hands and things would have gone much worse."

I nodded mutely, still trying to comprehend how the fuck I let myself in this pathetic situation?

"You need to go back home fast. A man like me can't be seen with a girl like you- with all of this." He gestured vaguely at my body. "I can't get into trouble you know, I got this one job and it was hard to get."

Clutching the plastic chair, I lifted myself up.

"Wait, take this," he said almost pitifully. It was his black, synthetic jacket. "If you remember this night, return it back, okay?"

"Thank you," I said in a more steady voice, putting my hands with strenuous attempts into the arm holes. I didn't know what else I could tell him, so I started teetering on my way to the apartment. I zipped the jacket tightly to the collar that I could feel the metal coldly pressing in between my clavicles.

I didn't have my phone with me or my rational thoughts either as I moved unguardedly through the streets. I should have been afraid, but I wasn't. Whenever there was a flash of bright lights from the speeding cars, I would flinch and unfathomable panic would seize me for a miniscule amount of time. I would stop, swallow my spit, then continue laboriously towards the apartment. When I reflected on this hazy night later, I realised how fortunate I had been to not encounter any malevolent deviants.

I miraculously arrived at the apartment and the fear thundered on me like a heavy cloud finally bursting. I frantically dashed through the compound and the stairwell like a madwoman, my wobbly legs twisting and aching at each effort exerted. After roaming on the streets at unsafe hours, all I wanted was to pull the blanket of oblivion over me.

I didn't know what time it was and although I was miserably late, I wanted my father to be home and let me in since I had no keys. In my muddled mind, I was aware of the creature next to my house, aware of those two calloused hands that could snatch the blanket of oblivion from me. I banged on the door urgently because of the fear of that creature, a human, I was always afraid of a human, a deceiving demon.

The door tantalizingly opened, but I couldn't let out a breath of relief. I couldn't reach out for the blanket that I yearned for. I couldn't because the two calloused hands stretched their arms towards me, welcoming me home.

"Abel," His name escaped my chapped lips in disbelief and he smirked, pleased with himself.