Chapter 50: CHAPTER FIFTY

Xana stood at the edge of the mirror tidying the hem of her gown properly before the maid called her to retouch her makeup, she imagined walking down with Adam with her arms wrapped around him, she had watched a video the night before about a wedding entrance that seemed to be the talk of the town and that was exactly what she wanted, she was delighted to finally have Adams in her arms after the many struggles it took her to get him to marry her. Her friend Ann was calling and needed to do a video call with her, as her face comes into full screen, Ann screamed, “You look so beautiful, Xana,” Ann replied, grinning with pride at her friend's beautiful face.

“What can I say, it's my wedding day? Thank you anyways” Xana replied with pride written all over her face, there was no amount of joy that would describe the one she was going to feel today going into the big hall the Sam way she had imagined, she hadn't thought of a bridal song yet but something was going to pop up in her head and she was hoped it would pop in soon enough before she reached the stage, the loved how her face was she stood over the mirror watching her reflection in the mirror before her, her view was absolutely graciously and she wondered if Adam would complement her gown or just look away.

“Xana, I am sorry, I won't be able to make it for the wedding,” Ann said, leaving Xana in total shock but Ann promised she was going to be there with her, she felt a pang of pain on her chest as she struggled to fake a smile to Ann so it would look fine that she wasn’t coming.

She didn’t like the fact that Ann wasn’t attending her wedding on it but there was nothing she could do that would allow it to slide afterwards the others were coming.

“Its fine,” she said to Ann totally dismissing the fact that she wouldn’t be in attendance for her grand wedding. She wanted her wedding to be the talk of the town too, as she gently placed a smile over her face as Ann stared at her.

“Have you seen your groom, your man?” Xana giggled at the sound of your man, Adam was my man and we would be my husband in some hours and that totally made her want to fly up to the sky. She had dreamt of the day she would walk down the aisle with her overflowing gown except that she wasn’t into overflowing gowns anymore, she hoped that her maids would throw petals as she walked by and that was what she was going to have.

“Not yet, I think he is still trying to round off,” Xana said with a grin on her face.

“I wish you happy married life, Xana. I wish you all the best, I wish you a happy home,” Anna spoke in a happy tone

“Thank you, Ann," Sarah said before Ann kissed her and hung up. She thought of the very first night after Sarah’s disappearance, Adam was totally worried very upset that he locked himself up in his chamber while his maid got his office to his chamber every day till one morning he came out, his hair looking ruffled, let’s put a smile to me and said “ let’s get married''

She didn’t know if he said it out of frustration or utter anger that Sarah left and by the time she would be back he would have been married but she was graciously happy, she had wrapped her arms around him and engulfed him in a hug that to her seemed to last a while before they gradually pulled out of each other’s embrace.

She remembered running into Alicia, telling her about the wedding and running off to inform Alisha about the wedding too. Both of them were greatly glad that he was back to his senses; the whole mansion had been glad to hear about the wedding. So that night, as they had dinner, Adam announced the wedding date. Excitement killed her deeply as she was glad that he was going further with the plans. She had thought that since he was able to declare a wedding it would take another time to fix a date but Adam proved himself a man and went ahead with his plan and here she was fully set and ready to say yes to the love of her life and to spend eternity with him. The sound of footsteps were getting closer and closer till the door to her room was flung open by her maids. She felt it was time till the maids all had a funny look on their faces, it must be the pre wedding jitters, she thought because she also felt the same thing as she stood to gather her gown together. Smiling happily, she noticed they were wearing a frown, as she noticed their faces she becomes worried and ask,

“What’s wrong?” she asked into their eyes and she could feel fear roaming down her eyes. Something was obviously wrong. Did the cake fall off? Were the interiors badly designed? Was the hall not illuminated enough? What was happening? She thought as she gathered herself out of the room, as she opened her door, she saw a crowd of people standing at the hall muttering in pairs, the crowd was large enough and I was glad they made it exactly how I wanted it.

That was the advantage of being a queen, you ask for something and it gets done in the most perfect way, she hoped no one had fainted on her wedding day, because the look her maids gave her meant something was obviously wrong, she didn’t hope for any casualties as she gently walked to the other room, entering it, she found Alicia on a chair with tears in her eyes, the minute she came she managed to rub off some degree of tears away from her eyes and she was delighted that she was okay.

As she approached Alicia, she talked at her back and asked her what was happening, Alicia made no move to reply as she turned round and faced the walk in anger. Xana wanted to find out why everyone was sullen, as she left the room that Alicia stayed, as she was about to open the room to move out, she met Alisha who also had an attitude but her face wasn’t displaying so much like the others,

“Alisha, what’s happening?" Xana asked with utmost sincerity.

Alisha hesitated before she finally spoke. "Adam left."

She wasn’t sure she heard properly, Adam, her Adam left. Left to where? Left to get supplies on his wedding day? She thought.

“Left to where?” she had to ask Alisha because she also couldn’t understand what it meant by “Adam left”; the more the words entered her head, the more she tried to process what it meant, the side of her ears were obviously playing tricks with her.

“I don’t know, he didn’t say but he didn’t sound like he was coming back today,” Alisha replied.

“Adam left. He might not be back soon” rang in her head, it was getting really difficult understanding anything Alisha said to her.

Everything became blurry and foggy, she felt her life losing balance as she left Alisha standing there to search for Adam, as she jumped into his chambers, she could not find him there, as she searched harder, she found nothing, as she was about to leave the room, her eyes found the box of ring, it was her ring. He had left the ring and ran off, he left the ring to humiliate her, she screamed at the top of her voice,

“Adam! “She yelled, her voice was loud enough to be heard by the crowd that was gathered in the hall. “Adam, you wicked soul!” she screamed again, flaring at you and breaking some items in his room. She broke his full length mirror and smashed some items into the walls yelling, scratching her gown, tearing it before Alicia, Alisha rushed inside the chambers with some maids. Xana was still tearing up her wedding dress while Alisha and Alicia helped her stand to her feet but she couldn’t with tears in her eyes, she screamed, shouting, cursing and dragging the hem of her dress.

***

The men had already gathered around Sarah while she slept deep. It was getting really intense with the search before they finally caught sight of her. She was in the same clothes from the last time, the same clothes that had appeared with her on the television and all the media channels.

All the men were looking at her, they had already pressed the red button signaling the others, after they joined them, they looked terribly scared considering her looks and her dirty clothes, the next thing they was to draw out a formation, the strong set took the lead in the front while the less stronger ones stood at the back while they all formed a large circle around her.

This time, there was no way out the leader thought as he arranged the neck of his garment, and proceeded to reach close to her, he couldn’t deny he was undeniably scared but he had to do what he was been paid for, how was he going to sustain his family if he allowed fear rule him, he thought as he reached close to her and tape her mouth, immediately, he had commanded that immediately he taped her mouth, they should tie her up, some of the men for that duty were ready with the ropes ready to do the work given to them by their superior.

As he tried to tape her mouth, she yawned out of sleep and they quickly try to tie her up, with all of her might, she stood to her feet overpowering them, she had just woke up from her slumber because of the attack, they thought she was totally asleep, she was asleep but now that they have found her there’s was no way she would allow them take her along with them, the leader struggled to tie the rope together with her body but she was stop strong for hair hold. With all her might, she pushed him away from her hold, he landed on his back and the others followed suit, the strong men were attacking one after the other after the fall of their leader.

As she struggled to beat them off, she bit some of them with her fangs and pushed them to the ground, as each of them came close. She repeated the act until all of them were groaning on the ground. The other ones that had regained strength after falling to the ground rushed after her and she used her fists to push the men away. They kept on coming in groups.

She ran deep into the jungle, as leaves and trees brushed against her soft body. The main thing she wanted was to defeat them.

The ends of her trousers had torn from one of the branches pulling her back. She removed the branch from her body in a haste, and continued running through the leaves and branches, another twig had dragged her shirts, it was beginning to piss her off, if not for the fact that she was been chased, she would have totally removed the things she referred to as clothes. the jungle was very big because she was hoping to get to the end of it and maybe reach a road that led to another but her thoughts were aborted as she got close to the edge of the jungle, the waterfall faced her there was no going back or diverting. They were behind her now, shooting at her. One of the shots fired straight to her shoulders before she jumped into the waterfall, not caring where water led her.

She had not thought of jumping when she jumped, she had no thought of the distance or height when she jumped. After landing, she felt the impact of it on her head, a huge stone that was below the waterline. The color of the water suddenly changed from sparkling white to almost totally red because of her blood, which gushed out from her head and from her shoulder that was shot. She was whimpering at the pain she felt in almost all areas of her body.

There was no way she would totally dodge it because the shot was quick almost like they used a different type of gun to aim at her and she was in severe pains, she laid low underwater while they fired shots into the water, she noticed they had stopped shooting, they must have thought she was dead because there no bubbles at the top of the water, she was glad she had been able to severely injure most of the men before they fired the shot at her.

Tit for tat, she thought before bringing out her head from underwater to survey her environment before she started swimming deep into the other end of the waterfall.