Dinnertime Tension

Dinnertime Tension
OPAL

The past week has been the worst of my entire life for many reasons. 

The first one I have to name is the fear I'm living with. As the days pass, the feeling gets worse, and I constantly ask myself what the hell they're going to do to me. 

I haven't seen the rogue leader since the day he almost made Edna force-feed me. Ever since, I've been receiving food, but it's contaminated. 

Spit. Piss in the water. Shit smeared all over the bowl. 

It's disgusting, and I haven't had a bite of food since. 

I don't understand him at all. I try and fail each and every time. Why does he act like a gentleman, then send his people to do this? Is it to remind me of what he's capable of? 

I don't know. In any case, he's wasting his time because I don't know anything. He isn't aware of this, but I'm a pawn myself. I was never given accurate information about this war. 

I have no clue who's lying, and who's telling the truth. 

I never would have believed that I'd be able to spend a week without eating. It seems like something so impossible to do. 

Now that I'm going through it, I know that it isn't. After going through the initial hunger pangs that were so bad I felt I was going to die, I feel nothing. Just...a strangely peaceful feeling. 

I could die like this and I wouldn't even mind it. 

I drift in and out of sleep. It's easy for me to sleep in this state, and it's the only thing that helps with the pain. I lose complete track of time in this way, as every time I open my eyes, the sky is a different shade. 

But my little peaceful moment is interrupted by the door opening, and when I crack an eye open, I see the rogue leader glaring at me. 

"So, you're refusing food, are you?" he begins slowly, in a low voice. I can hear the anger in his words, though. "What do you think you'll gain from being so difficult?"

I don't have the energy to speak at this point. I close my eyes, ignoring him completely, and when I reopen them, someone is forcing a spoon between my lips. 

I turn my head to the side and spit it out. There's no way I'm eating shit. If anything, it'll make me feel worse. Someone fists my hair hard enough to make me cry out, and more soup is spooned into my mouth. 

"Make sure you give her everything, Edna," the rogue leader commands. He's watching us from a few feet away, stroking his goatee with a look that could kill. "She won't be dying under my watch."

It's not long before my stomach starts to get really full. I feel sick. Edna stops and steps aside. I have soup running down my chin and I don't bother wiping it. 

The rogue leader steps closer to me. "You're not going to get what you want. I'm not going to let you die. Refuse food again, and you'll get yourself in unnecessary trouble."

"I'll...always refuse it," I claim, injecting as much hatred into my words as possible before meeting his gaze. "I won't...eat shit. Or piss. Ever."

He looks at me for a long time as if trying to make sense of what I'm saying. I turn away from him and hug my knees to my chest. The bedroom door is wide open, but I have zero energy. How can I pick up and run when I can't even look up properly?

Plus, my stomach is way too full. If I move, I'll throw up. 

Several hours later, the sound of the door wakes me once again. I look up, feeling stronger than I did before, and I’m once more dragged out of the room. I find myself in the living room once more. I see their leader sitting at the head of the table, and this time, he’s not alone. 

A woman with dark, long hair is seated on his right. When she looks up and we make eye contact, her expression hardens and she looks away immediately. 

Is she also a prisoner here? As soon as this question crosses my mind, I decide that she isn’t. She certainly doesn’t look like it. 

I’m shoved down hard on the wooden chair, and the rogue gives me a hard stare. I meet it and refuse to look away. Fuck him. 

I’m not afraid of him.  

I’ve lost the ability to feel fear, I think. I’m empty on the inside. 

Slowly, the dining room fills with more people. They come from all directions—rooms I can’t see, the front door. They form a circle all around us. Meanwhile, the rogue leader just smokes and hardly pays attention to them. 

I can’t stop myself from wondering what’s going on. 

After their leader speaks, I understand. 

“From now on, this woman will eat with us,” he declares. “This wasn’t part of the plan, but you have forced my hand.”

He crushes the butt of his cigarette on an ashtray and exhales the rest of the smoke. He looks straight ahead as he says, “Whoever served the contaminated food should come to me after dinner. I won’t ask again. The rest of you, remember this: I’m your leader. I don’t care if you disagree with my decisions or not. As long as this woman is under my roof, she won’t be harmed. Are we understood? If you piss on her food, you’ll have to piss on mine, too.”

Nobody answers him. Then again, I don’t think they could answer such a thing. One thing is certain, though: He didn’t order the food to be contaminated. His people were doing it because they wanted to. 

Not that this changes anything. 

I’m still here, and he’ll still use me however he sees fit. 

Dinner is served and I’d be a damn liar if I said that my stomach doesn’t grumble. I’m starving at this point, and I have this wild urge to eat everything. 

I look up and find the leader watching me. He gestures at the food. “Don’t bother starving yourself. The food’s clean. If it isn’t, they’re all dead.”

I make no move to grab a plate, so he impatiently fills one up for me before sliding it in front of me. I grab a fork and dig in, trying not to shove food inside my mouth like a barbarian. 

It’s the most delicious meal I’ve ever had. 

The dark-haired woman doesn’t touch her food as I eat, and just about when I’m finished, she stands up and walks away. The leader glances at her and says her name. “Cassie.”

She doesn’t answer him, and he glances at me. 

I don’t know what the hell is going on, and I genuinely don’t care, either. 

He’s fuming, that much is obvious.

But he doesn’t go after her.