Caesar and Safiya were talking inside his bedroom. It was two days after the werewolf attack. Caesar had just told Safiya about his plan to leave Fur Rivers but she was not having any of it.
“You don’t have to run away like a scaredy-cat,” Safiya said seriously. “Fine, the Blood River pack has occupied the town. Fine! The town belongs to them now and they are calling the shots. Fine! It’s depressing and disturbing to lose a fight after so many have died. But really you don’t have to go. I can assure you one thing. The Blood River pack dare not come to this place. They can’t come anywhere here. Not with your Fur Hunters around. You are very safe here ands you know it,”
“I’m leaving this town for a while, Safiya and it’s not because of the Blood River Pack,” Caesar replied. “I need to stay away for my sanity. No one can change my mind about it. Once Dvorak kills Victor, I’m leaving the next day. I’ve started preparing,”
Safiya looked at him sharply.
“I thought you were joking. So you really mean to go?”
“Unquestionably,”
Safiya regarded him for a long moment, then she said;
“You never really told me what you did with Selena?”
“Don’t ever mention that whore name to me. I’ve moved past her and I don’t want to talk about her,” he said coldly.
“Why don’t you want to talk about her?” She went on stubbornly. “Do you still care about her? Are you still in love with her?”
“You are always suspecting something, that’s why you are such a bore,” he said impatiently.
“It’s because you are always so secretive,” Safiya's eyes snapped. “You don’t tell me things unless I screw it out of you,”
Caesar lit a cigarette.
“You don’t have to worry about Selena. Right now, she’s probably dead or she’s turned into a werewolf or something. She can’t escape either. I made sure of that”
Selena became suddenly cautious. What does he mean by turning into a werewolf? Why couldn’t he just open his damn mouth and tell her what he did to the girl? Must she rely on her ingenuity every time just to get words from him?
“Are you saying there’s a chance Selena has been captured by the pack and they’ve either killed her or turned her into a wolf?”
Caesar gave a sly grin.
“Don’t worry about your little pretty head, Safiya. You ain’t getting nothing more from me,”
“The problem with you Caesar is that you are too smart for yourself,” Safiya said, reaching for a cigarette pack on the bedside table. She lit the cigarette, drew smoke into her lungs and then blew a long stream into the ceilings. “You don’t share ideas. You don’t talk. You always believe in your own thinking. And that’s the one problem about you,”
Caesar smiled, but it never reached his eyes.
“Keep your ideas to yourself. The less you know, the better for everyone. And if you keep on yapping, I will do something to you that you wouldn’t like,”
Safiya stared at him, noticing the tightness of his mouth, and his green eyes glittering like a jade and she realized it wouldn’t be wise to say anything further.
“Alright, Caesar. We don’t have to talk about it no more,”
“Now, that’s what I want to hear,” Caesar said and he took out his cellphone. He dialed Dvorak’s number. It rang for some time, then Dvorak’s voice.
“Hello sir,”
“Hello Dvorak. Just wanna check up on you. How's it going over there?”
“It’s pretty good out here, sir,” Dvorak replied excitedly.
“How’s the wolf man? Are you having a good time with him?
“The best, sir. Seriously, I’ve never had any fun so good with anyone like this before in my life. It’s so crazy,”
Caesar gave a hard, barking laugh.
“I told you, Dvorak. I told you. When you get hold of someone like Victor, you don’t let go of them easily. You play with them for a while, kick them around a bit, then you fix them. It’s no brainer,”
“It’s terrific, sir.
“Yeah, yeah. So when are you killing him?”
“Tomorrow night, sir.”
“Good! That’s good. Well alright, Dvorak. So long and give Victor my love,” he was still grinning as he ended the call.
“Why can’t you just kill him?” Safiya said, noticing how handsome and relaxed his face was with the smile on his face.
“Nah, won’t do!” Caesar returned. “That man cost me a lot,” He crushed the cigarette in an ashtray and scratched his head. “A little pain here and there won’t be too much for him,” She caught a hint of amusement in his voice and frowned.
“If I were you I would kill him when I still got the chance,” she said coldly.
“Well, that’s why I’m not you,” Caesar grinned. “Dvorak will handle him. Don’t worry about it,”
“You always confuse me, Caesar. I can’t really get you.” She lamented with a flash of temper, “sometimes when I expect you to move fast, you move slow. And when I expect you to move slowly, you do the opposite. It’s overwhelming,”
“You can’t understand me, Safiya. No one can’t.”
Safiya smiled at him. It was now time to play out the plan she’s been cooking in her mind for some time now.
“Well maybe I can’t understand. But you will agree with me that I have an unmatched gift of seeing things differently.”
Caesar narrowed his eyes.
“What the hell do you mean by that?
Safiya’s smile remained fixed.
“You remember how I warned you that Victor would come for Selena and he’s coming with the whole pack?”
“Yeah, you did warn me,” Caesar acknowledged grudgingly.
“Of course, I warned you. And you never listen. If you did, may be, just maybe, the town will still be controlled by you,”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. So where’s this going?” Caesar said impatiently.
“I’m having a feeling about this whole situation with Victor. You’ve got to be careful, Caesar.”
The seriousness in her eyes told him she meant what she was saying.
“Careful of what?”
“I’m having a feeling Victor could get away from Dvorak with the help of someone of course,”
Caesar ’s face tightened.
“That can’t happen. No one knows where Victor is right now. No one Expect Dvorak and I. More so, it’s not easy to find the torture house. My father made sure of that when building it. It’s covered by trees and shrubs. You will be staring at trees and shrubs without even knowing what you are looking at is a smokescreen for a house. Also, the house is sound proofed. Any sounds from the inside can’t get to the outside.”
“What about Selena? Does she know this place?”
“I told you to stop worrying your head about her. Selena is dead as far as I’m concerned. Leave her out of our talk. And anyways, with what she went through that night, there’s no way in hell she could remember the directions to get to the torture house. It was pretty dark that night. No way she could figure this out,”
Safiya listened, a brooding expression on her face.
“What about Marianna? Does she know about this place?”
Caesar stiffened, an alarm bell ringing in his head.
“Yeah, she knows about the house. Our father took us there when we were kids. Sometimes, we played there too. But why are you bringing my sister into this?”
“Let’s say I’m just trying to figure out some loopholes you’ve overlooked about this game of yours,” she paused and went on. “Also, the reason why I mentioned Marianna is because we had a little chitchat on the night of the attack,” she replied simply.
Caesar was astounded.
“Stop playing around with me, Safiya,” he grunted.
“I’m not playing, Caesar. Look, maybe it’s time you know about this,” and she went on to tell about how she had sneaked out from the bedroom and gone into Marianna’s room and how they had a girl to girl conversation.
Caesar came over to the bed and seized her by her arms. He dragged her up and stared down into her face.
“What the hell do you and Marianna talked about?”
“Nothing……nothing. We only talked about girls' personal stuff. It’s nothing really serious, Caesar . I mean right now, I can’t even barely remember what we talked about that day,” she lied easily.
“Blast you to hell! I don’t believe you,”
“Well, you don’t have to believe me. But it’s simply the truth,”
Caesar regarded, his eyes cold and expressionless.
“You are too slick for my liking, wolf girl. Maybe that’s why I don’t like you. Maybe that’s why I would never like you.” He sneered.
“I don’t care about how you feel about me, Caesar . I’m past that already,” she said coolly.
“I warned you to stay away from Marianna and you dare defiled me,”
“With all that was going on that day I was scared of staying here alone. The sounds of gunshots and the noises all frightened me. I needed someone with me. That’s why I went to her. And I told you we didn’t talk about anything serious,”
Caesar didn’t believe her. He knew she was lying and yet the explanation she had given him sounded plausible even to him. He let go of her.
“I don’t want you with my sister. I don’t want to see you both together. I’ll make sure of that. Once I’m leaving, I’ll take her with me. You can stay here for all I care or go away. I don’t give a damn,”
“I would like to come with you, Caesar. It would be a nice change of scene for me,”
“You can’t, I’m only taking Marianna along. Dvorak will take care of you while I’m gone,” And with that, he moved away from her and crossed to the room door. He opened it and went out Safiya watched him leave, her blue eyes gleaming with mischief. Secretly, she nursed a belief that Victor would be rescued. Her gut told her he couldn't simply die like that. Past experiences with him reinforced this notion; there was a resilience about him that defied killing him off easily. Trusting her instincts, she had devised a plan to teach Caesar a lesson for hurting her. The first plan was talking to Marianna and planting a suspicion in Caesar’s mind about her. Now, the second plan awaited. Oh, Caesar, she thought. I’m gonna hurt you pretty bad. She was still smiling to herself and she walked into the bathroom.