I woke up. Two men stood in front of me.
"Good morning." One of them said and my tired eyes shot to the white cracked clock on the wall.
12:40.
My head began pounding as anxiety led my heart to speed up.
"Oh my god, two hours" I thought.
I was so hungry, the men were talking but I couldn't hear a word, all I could think about was food and water.
I felt absolutely ravenous. The hunger was so loud it took me a second to process the feeling that my left hand was in so much pain I felt lightheaded.
Honestly, that day took the prize as the most painful (physically) day of my life.
Snap! I snapped out of it and could hear them again.
"Girl!" One of them said waving his hands.
"Fo-food." I managed.
"We know you need food. And we are prepared to give it to you. But we are in need of your assistance." One of them said. He was dressed in raggedy old clothes and covered in dust. His accent was Louisiana redneck. It was painful to listen to. I named him Red.
The other was quite the opposite, He dressed rather nicely. He looked like a plantation owner. His accent was Aristocratic Louisiana, which honestly was quite pleasing to the ear. I named him Yellow.
Honestly I have no clue why I named them after colors, but my head couldn't manage anything else. I guess I figured if I named them I would be able to focus on them. It didn't work. It was beyond twenty four hours since I ate anything and it felt as if I was dying.
Red got a bottle of whiskey and yellow poured some into my mouth.
"That should loosen her up." Red said as he placed the bottle back on the bar.
"We need you to show us on the map where the rest of your party is staying." Yellow said.
My mind couldn't understand why. I was too jumbled and broken. Now it doesn't take two seconds for me to understand that they wanted the bounty on my mom's head.
"Why?" I managed in a voice that implied I was either drunk or incredibly weak.
I was not drunk. It was only about a shot, so I reckon I was just a little loose.
"Because you need food." Red said
"Also because if you don't we won't give you food and Gerald might have to come back in here." Yellow threatened.
My pain grew so strong I felt like bursting into to tears.
"Okay" I said in a shaky voice for fear of the consequences if I did not.
Yellow held up a map. "Where?" He asked
"Above the outskirts of town. Near the Faisal plantation. East of the tobacco fields."
"Okay then." Red said marking the place with a grey pencil.
"Pleasure doing business with you" Red remarked as he left the room.
"Wait!" I mumbled assuming they had forgotten the food.
Phillis and two maids entered the room and crouched in front of me.
The maids fed me some food water and Phillis dressed my wound again.
Eating was so amazing it was almost painful.
I simply cannot describe the feeling so I won't try.
Around 2pm some different maids and two different men came in.
The men carried guns and the maids carried a pink southern Belle style dress. They had to lift my own head up because I was so weak.
They bathed me and cleaned me. Specifically my legs because they had not supplied me with a bathroom.
"Why so nice?" I managed in a tired voice. As the ladies put my hair up in a braided bun.
"Mr. Ledbetter says he respects your honesty and resilience. He thought you deserved something nice on your..." she paused feeling awkward. "Today." She managed.
They put me back down and tied me up.
My head flopped over the side.
Before she left I stopped the maid.
"When will it happen?" I pleaded her to answer with my eyes.
"Oh sweetie, it'll happen round 3:30pm." She said kindly.
I sat in my chair crying
One of the men stood at the door watching over me.
"Are you okay?" I heard a woman with a thick British accent say.
"I'm gonna die today" I muttered through grinding my teeth out of pain.
"Guess you and I have something in common then." She said sadly.
"What'd you do?" I asked
"I courted Renaldo Ledbetter" she said.
"Courted?" I asked out of curiosity.
"I fell for him and we dated for a little while. His head of security framed me for stealing a lot of money from him. Which, by the way, does not make sense because I'm a duchess back in England. And now I'm here. Rotting in a goddamned basement."
"I'm so sorry" I said hopelessly.
"Duchess? That must be nice."
"It was, I was gonna bring him to be of higher rank than I in England. It's all out the window now."
"That's wretched" I said.
"E-k" I heard the guy say as he lost his breath. I was sitting facing the wall so I couldn't see what was happening. The clock struck 3:00pm and my neck was splashed with a thick liquid, it dripped down my shoulder.
Hope bursted through the floodgates of my mind as Whitey, Naomi, And Georgia emerged from behind me. They untied me.
"Hey honey!" Naomi said and she hugged me while I sat in my chair.
"Naomi!" I squealed.
"Shh We have to go unnoticed" she said.
A smile spread across my face.
I tried to stand but fell back in my chair. I was to weak.
"What did they do to you?!" Whitey said concerned as he noticed my indented hand covered in bandages.
"They hurt me." I managed.
Whitey clenched his jaw.
"And even worse than that, they put you in a pink dress, you look like a debutante." Georgia laughed.
I chuckled.
"Get her up." Naomi told Whitey.
Whitey grabbed my back from under my shoulders and hoisted me up. My legs failed me and started shaking, threatening to fail.
"Okay, Whitey you grab one side I got the other, let's get her out the door and to Louis." Naomi said.
"Louis?!" I said confused.
"We have a whole-ass-plan! All you gotta do is keep quiet and follow our directions exactly" Georgia said.
"Wait! There's a woman there! We need to help her too!" I said.
"I can walk!" She said.
"Okay" Naomi said
She went behind this large room divider and untied her.
Naomi and Whitey began walking me out of the door.
There was a large staircase and we managed to get up it without too much noise.
After that the was a large hallway with sunlight pouring through the windows.
Sunlight. I had almost forgotten what that was like.
A guy with a large knife spotted us.
"Get him!" Georgia said to Naomi.
I guess both Whitey and Naomi thought they were talking to them because they both let go of me and started sprinting dropping me to the ground.
I face planted and my nose began bleeding. I didn't really care because I couldn't help but laugh a bit.
"What the-" Georgia said as she grabbed me and helped me up. My legs felt a little better.
The guy got knocked out before he could do anything and Georgia began walking me toward a courtyard.
Louis emerged from a separate hallway and said: "we don't have a lot of time."
He took my arms and led me through a gate.
"Where are you guys going!" I asked as Naomi, Georgia and Whitey as they began running in the opposite direction.
"To get in was different from getting out. Our horses are on the other side. Also, we have one more matter to settle." Whitey said.
I managed to limp to Whitey and I hugged him.
"Thank you" I said.
"Don't mention it" Whitey said with a smile and he handed me over to Louis. Louis and the British lady helped me out of the courtyard where two horses stood.
"Take mine." I urged the lady.
"Thank you!" She said nodding her head.
Louis lifted me up on the white horse and he got on behind me. We rode for a long time.
Two or three hours at least.
"Hold on!" The British lady said. During our grueling ride.
We stopped riding at a large wooden tree trunk and the lady stopped and sat down taking a break.
"What's you name?" She said out of breath.
"Sophie."
"Louis"
We both said.
"Lady Lilia, but I go by Lily" she said.
Her hair was blonde and messy. Her dress was torn at the sleeve, she looked to be maybe 35-39 and she was obviously not used to riding on horseback.
"I'm afraid I only rode in carriages in the past." She said
"Tailbone?" Louis asked.
"Yes, it's killing me. Are you from England boy?"
"Yes ma'm" Louis said.
"Your accent is quite friendly." She said.
"How much longer Louis?" I asked
"Not long. Maybe, half an hour." He said.
"Thanks." I said
I kept forgetting that our heart to heart was all a symptom of my horrible hallucinations.
"Let us return." Lily said.
Louis hoisted me up again and we were off.
When arrived at our home we took Lily in and allowed her to sleep in one of our many guest rooms.
Louis had to take me to clinic for my hand and I also had to spend thirty minutes in the bath just cleaning my horribly distressed body.
My hand got an obnoxious skin colored cast and the doctor said two of my fingers were broken as well as I had severe bruising.
I knew I needed to talk to Louis, I was scared though. He was so kind and perfect just the thought of hurting him, well, it hurt me.
Whitey kept acting really weird. He kept trying to tell me something and then failing. Even though I was beaten and scared, I knew I was better off than before, I finally had closure. I guess coming to terms with Cora, even through hallucinations, helped me.
I walked into the kitchen before I was going to bed that night.
Whitey and Louis stood there playing cards. I wanted to ask them how they cleared things up, But I had something more important to say.
"Guys, I need your help with a project."
"What is it?" Louis asked.
"I need to find my father."