Chapter 39: Chapter Thirty-eight

LUNA

The situation was so bizarre and a lot of things were going through my head, mostly how to escape. But with that chain on my leg. I wasn’t going anywhere. In conclusion, I looked like a mess. And I was in a much bigger mess.

I took a deep breath, tried to calm my racing heart, and tried to force my brain to work. Just then I heard a key turn in the lock, and a man and a lady came in. The lady was holding some clothes in her hand and was dressed in a maid’s uniform, while the scary-looking man behind her looked at me with nothing but disdain. I tried thinking if I had perhaps met him before, and then I remembered that the devil doesn’t need an excuse to be the devil.

“Hello, miss. I need you to come with me so I can bathe you and change you.” The woman looked relatively harmless, but I took several steps back and shook my head. The only thing that would make me leave this room was to run away.

“Ma’am. Please.” Her eyes pleaded with me. I shook my head again. the woman turned around and looked at the man behind her, shrugged, and shook her head as though asking him if he could see the situation.

The guard looked from her to me, and then he smiled. Surprisingly, he had all his teeth intact, and even despite myself, I had to admit that he looked attractive when he smiled. It made all the disdain and hatred vanish from his face.

“What’s wrong?” he started in a very calm voice. “You don’t like her?” He nodded his head towards the woman. I thought that maybe if I said I didn’t like her, he wouldn’t make me do anything, and they would both leave. I mean, he looked sincere.

I somberly nodded my head, and he smiled. I barely had time to register the panicked shaking of the head, and the sinister smile that spread across the man’s face. It all happened in a matter of seconds—he pulled out a gun, and suddenly the maid was lying on the floor with a hole in her head.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I will fetch a maid that is more to your liking. We are here to serve you.” He threw back his head and laughed hysterically while tears ran down my cheeks.

“Let me go bring another one.” He left the room and locked me in with the dead body, and in about ten minutes returned with yet another maid.

The new maid eyed the body on the floor, and then looked at me. I could see the tears running down her eyes when she lifted her eyes to me.

“I’m sorry…” I muttered. Her eyes were pleading with me not to have the same thing happen to her.

“Ma’am…I need…I need you…to…come with me…to uh…”

“I can’t.” Her eyes widened with panic, and I could see the man reach for his gun again. “My leg is chained. I can only go so far.” His eyes dropped to the chain, and he sighed.

He walked over to me and yanked my leg roughly, unearthed a key from his pocket, and unlocked the chain. The offending piece of metal fell to the ground with a clang.

“Do not even think of having any ideas. If you try anything funny, you’re both dead. Do you understand?” I nodded.

The maid escorted me to the bathroom and helped me take off my clothes. She got the bath running and poured wonderful smelling soap into the water. He gestured to the warm water, and I carefully stepped in; even despite my situation, I couldn’t help but moan.

The warm water felt good on my skin, stung a little on my wounds, but felt great on my sore muscles and swollen skin. She washed me down and shampooed my hair, giving me a bomb head massage as she did so.

By the time we were done, I looked much better than I did before and much better than I felt. She handed me a towel and walked us to the closet adjoined to the bathroom. She sat me on a high stool facing a huge mirror and pulled out some ointments and band-aids from a cabinet. I held back my groan as she got to work on my face, rubbing the ointment into some wounds, and then the band-aids.

“You would be needing ice for your eye. This one’s quite swollen.” I nodded.

“I’m sorry.” She paused her actions and then resumed.

“It’s okay. We’re used to it at this point.”

“Why won’t you guys just leave?”

“We’re either indebted to him, or members of our family are. So, he would hunt us down if we left. And he would kill us.”

“Do you know why I’m here?”

“Nope. But if your mother is the woman in the dining hall, I have a feeling you will be here for a very long time.”

When she was done with my face, she did my hair next and put it into two loose French braids. She handed me a pair of jeans and a crop top to wear that looked like it was from the year 2000. I looked askance at her, and she simply shrugged.

“The boss insists that you wear that.” I nodded and wore them. They were a perfect fit, and that somewhat bothered me. I looked in the mirror and attempted a smile. At least I looked better now. She spritzed perfume over me, and I sneezed once the smell hit my nose.

“The boss wants to see you for lunch.”

“Who is your boss?”

“We’re not at liberty to say.” I nodded.

“What’s your name?”

“Ophelia. My name is Ophelia.”

“I’m Luna. Thank you, Ophelia.” She smiled and nodded, and we both walked out of the closet. The guard was still there, sitting at the table and reading one of the books.

“Ah. You guys are finally out. Was about to come in there and see for myself what the holdup was.” His eyes landed on me and trailed the length of my person, and then he laughed.

“You look like shit.”

“She needs to put ice on her face.”

“Oh.” He nodded “Well, then go get it!!!” Ophelia didn’t need to be told twice. She ran out of the room while I returned to my bed. My eyes never left the guard.

Soon, she returned, handed me the ice, and with a look of sympathy, left again. The guard got out of the chair and chained my leg again as I was on the bed with the ice pressed to my eye.

“I thought I was to have lunch with your ‘boss’ today.”

“Yes, but plans have changed. You will have dinner with him.” He laughed. “My boss has a sick sense of humor.”

And with one final laugh, he left the room.

I wondered if Giovanni was looking for me. I wondered how long it was going to take him to find me. I wondered who this boss was.