Everything else stilled under the enormity of the pain that lanced through Reyona.
"Now it's time to shut you up forever, bitch" Susan sneered nastily as she rushed towards Reyona with the jagged end of the mop raised.
Shock borne off unexpected betrayal paralysed Reyona.
Then her survival instinct kicked in as she saw the maniac aiming for her eyes with the pointy stake.
She dodged at the last minute and had Susan stumbling past her.
Susan smashed her face into the wall, howled and turned in rage to finish what she had started.
She yowled in pain when Reyona viciously yanked her hair and slammed her head against the wall again.
"You are going to kill me, you bitch! Let go!" Susan cried pitifully as her head started bleeding.
"Oh, am I? I am sorry"
Reyona said as she easily dislodged the crudely fashioned stake from Susan's weakened hand.
She turned her around and threw her hard to the floor as she said, "Pardon me for giving you a taste of your own medicine."
She dragged Susan back as the latter tried to crawl away from her.
Pinned her legs with her weight as she methodically and ruthlessly dealt punch after punch in her face.
Susan clawed at her hand, tried to bite her and tried to buck her off, but she just continued hitting her again and again on her face, neck, and wherever her fist could land.
At the moment, Reyona was not just seeing a bony, nasty face in front of her.
In her cold rage, she saw three faces in one.
Betrayal, pain, and self-blame all rolled into one to fuel her anger.
The bites, the bucking and not even the screech in between each punch stopped her.
Soon enough, she felt Susan slackening under her.
She forcefully stopped her hands, which seemed to have developed a mind of their own.
She looked down dispassionately at the unconscious woman and laid two fingers on her neck to be certain she was still breathing.
"Seriously? Now what? I have to get home before I can pee? Fancy nothing" she heard a woman complain outside the door as the woman tried to open the locked door, kicked at it when it wouldn't open before she turned away.
The management would be getting an earful from that one.
She got off the prone body and dragged her into the same stall she had used.
A key fell from Susan's jacket and Reyona picked it up, figuring it must be the key to the lock.
She left her right there on the floor.
Then she opened the main door and ripped off the notice pasted on it.
She pasted the notice on the stall where she kept Susan and locked the stall.
She hurried out of the restroom and had to quickly hold the wall as her vision greyed again.
The pain and weakness that had retreated from her numbing rage started trickling back.
"Please, not now" she mumbled as she swallowed hard to steady herself.
She heard a rush of feet and a familiar voice complaining to someone.
She straightened as the woman she heard her voice earlier came around the corner with one of the restaurant staff who looked harried.
The lady saw the unlocked door behind Reyona and said in exasperation "I thought you said this door was locked."
"I ah… I swear it was… Uhm…"
"I need to get back to work, ma'am," the lady said.
"I … can you believe her?" The offended woman asked Reyona as she passed.
Reyona shrugged with a smile.
The next moment, the woman was marching past her towards the restaurant while mumbling in annoyance.
Reyona had intended to signal to Samantha to get her phone since their seating arrangement had them facing the direction of the restroom while Mr Rakir and his assistant backed it.
But when she got there, Mr Rakir was no longer in his seat.
She sucked her breath in at the wave of pain that rolled over her again and came forward with a smile.
"Where is …?"
"Oh my God, what happened to you? You are bleeding," Samantha said in worry as she came around to where Reyona was standing.
Reyona noticed that she had some blood on her knuckles, truly.
"Not mine" she muttered, just as Samantha peered into her face and said "You look pale too. Here, have your seat. I was wondering what took so long. Mr Rakir left as soon as you came in. He got a call. What do you mean it is not yours?"
"Samantha?" Reyona called to calm her employee's increasingly anxious look and demeanour.
At this rate, she was going to attract unwanted attention to them.
"What? We need to go to a hospital. My God, your pulse is racing."
"I am fine. Hand me my phone"
Samantha automatically reached for the phone as she said, "Of course, you are not fine. We need to let the doctors help by looking at that hand and whatever might be wrong. What even happened in there?"
The word "help" spiked Reyona's anger again as a certain voice rang in her mind.
Let me help you.
Why wouldn't you let me help you?
Would it kill you to accept help from your husband?
Bastard! Fucking Asshole!
"You want to help?" she snapped at Samantha, who looked at her in surprise and nodded slowly.
"Good. Come with me"
She found the number she was looking for and dialled it as she tried not to wince at the pain in her stomach that seemed to increase with every step she took.
It was picked on the second ring.
"Good evening. You are on to Kayooma D***s Law Enforcement Agency. How can I help you today?"
"I have information about someone."
As Reyona walked as briskly as she could towards the restroom followed by a confused Samantha, she waited while she was transferred to those in charge of the case she mentioned.
The man had just come on the phone when Reyona got to the restroom.
The widely opened door was the first to tell that something was wrong.
"Hello? Ma'am? Can you hear me? I heard you have something for me. I am Agent…"
"Hold on," Reyona said as she disconnected the call and rushed forward.
The stall door was wide open as well.
And empty.
Even the broken mop was nowhere to be seen.
Damn it!