Chapter 5

Since that position was so successful the first time, I was again handcuffed and blindfolded, but this time in a matte black babydoll dress, which was way more uncomfortable than the towel.

I heard the door click open and prayed for my heart to slow down for fear that the guy could hear it racing. I heard him suck his breath.

Yeah! This is your Feisty Treat! Ready to tear into me, you wild scavenger? I thought. I couldn't help but loathe all men for as long as I was trapped and caged in this place.

“Ooh. Seems like someone went shopping.” A voice said. It was a very familiar voice.

The guy who came yesterday. Roy.

Don't know why, but I felt my heart relaxing. But just because he didn't touch me yesterday, didn't mean he wouldn't today.

“Shopping? I am not even allowed to go to the terrace.” I said, as my heart ached for fresh air, for my beloved wind.

“But you do have a balcony.” He suggested as I felt him sitting on the bed beside me. I watched my breaths get shorter.

“It's not the same. The balcony is on the other side of the wind.” I said trying to dismiss the weird feelings in me.

So many times I had peeped out of the balcony in an attempt to learn where the hell I was, but I had found nothing except the hotel garden. But by sneaking around the hotel, I had learned we were in Mumbai, a popular city of Maharashtra, India. The name of the hotel was Magnificent.

“I see.” He said and got up, and then I heard footsteps receding.

I hated not being able to understand what was happening around me. And after hearing so much about him at breakfast, I very much wanted to look at his face. Suddenly my heart bled for blind people.

“Come on.” He said and picked me up from the bed in his arms. The dress was already very short, just long enough to hide my underwear, but as he picked me up, I could feel my dress sliding upwards, giving away too much of my body.

He smoothed the dress on my thigh and it felt as if he had electricity in his fingertips, passing the current into me with his touch. As he started walking, I wondered where we were going. It felt like I was floating in the air as he took me to an unknown destination.

After a lot of walking, standing (in an elevator perhaps?), and passing through a number of doors, I felt as if I had reached the sky. Everything around me was so cool, not that air-conditioned artificial cool, but a natural cool, with peace and serenity creeping over my body. Suddenly my heart was dancing and I didn't think my soul had ever felt as merry as it did now.

Very carefully, Roy tipped me and my bare feet touched the coolest earth.

“You brought me out on the terrace?” I asked.

“Mmhmn.” He agreed.

I turned and moved my hands in the air.

“Where are you?” I asked searching for him in the dark.

“Here.” He said, but he didn't come to me. I turned to my right as I thought his voice had come from that direction. My dress was sticking to my legs as it tried to fly away in the opposite direction, and I felt my hair billow in the wind.

I wanted to take off my blindfold but decided not to. Not because Roy hadn't asked me to and I still didn't have the guts to ask him, but because I never felt the wind the way I had at that time.

They say when one of your senses isn't working, the others are heightened.

I was terribly afraid of the dark, and the dark was brought to me by this blindfold. But the wind was what I loved most, right after my sister and poetry. At that time, on that terrace, I experienced love alongside fear, and I wondered if that was what had made the entire moment ecstatic and forever.

“Thank you.” I whispered loud enough for him to hear to me, but he didn't answer.

The wind was rushing at divine speed,

Eager to meet its destiny.

My eyes searched for its lingering hand To take me with it To a destination unseen.

******

I woke up late the next day and missed my breakfast. As I was about to leave for lunch, Rover barged into the room and slammed me against the wall, pressing his body against me and digging his fingers into my cheek. Again we found ourselves in the exact same position we had been in two days ago when we first got here.

But this time my heart was more afraid than it was that day.

"What are you doing?" He asked with gritted teeth.

I frowned.

"Roy gave you five stars again! And I just learned he took you last night to the terrace. He declared he wanted to have sex with you there and even paid a good amount of money for it."

What?

"Isn't that a good thing?" I asked through my scrunched face. My cheeks were now hurting terribly.

He let go of me and stepped back.

"Good thing? It is actually a very good thing. Too good to be true in fact! What are you doing with him?" He asked again. As his eyes bored into mine and I felt my insides shuddering.

"Nothing." I said collecting my courage.

"Oh, you say you earned five stars from Roy your very first two days in a row by doing nothing?" He asked. Then he went over and slammed the door closed.

He came and stood in front of me and started unlooping his belt.

"I loved you so much, Scarlet—I still do—and not once have you showed me your love." He said.

"What? You loved me? When? Please describe a specific moment when you actually loved me! You fooled me into falling into your trap and dragged me to this hell hole to get raped every day!"

"I brought you here because I saw potential in you. I saw that you were worthy of this place."

His last sentence filled me with disgust.

"But never have I ever seen so much potential. Potential worth five stars! And you don't think I loved you?" He said and snatched me towards him, kissing violently my face and neck.

"Oh, I loved everything about you." He said and grabbed my right butt cheek.

"Get off me." I said.

"I still love you." He snatched my white blouse and tore it away from my center, exposing my bra.

"Get off me." I shrieked, trying to push him away. But he was way too strong.

Oh, Universe, please save me. Please save me.

"I still love you, and now I will show you how much I love you." He said, and picking me up, he dropped me heavily on the bed. Before I could turn to run away, he grabbed me, sandwiched me between himself and the bed, and started taking my top off.

Please, please, please, Universe. Save me, please.

"And you will show me your 'nothing' exactly the same way you show it to Roy." He said, honking my boob so violently it was as if he intended to pluck it away.

"Get off me, Rover! I was asked to cooperate with your customers, not you, you son of a bitc—" he slapped me. He slapped me so hard that for a moment the world went away and it all went dark. I forgot to fight him. I forgot to save myself from that evil. I forgot everything and wished for death.

"You will do whatever I ask you to, you little whore! If you can make a stranger like ROY happy, then you can definitely make the man who loves you very happy."

I felt my bra and my underwear being pulled off and his lips and his teeth and tongue as they toured my entire body. Every curve, every bend, every bulge burned with his touch.

And then I felt him. Inside me again and again and again. It hurt so much. All I remember was crying and yelling and hurting.

What had I gotten myself into? Rover was never this harsh with me. But that afternoon he showed no mercy. He was the darkest evil I had met in this universe, and that evil was feeding on my body, slicing my soul a thousand times.

This time the universe didn't save me. It didn't save me. Was it because I wasn't pure anymore? Was it because I too had turned into a whore and was too detested to be helped by the powers above?

I thought God was impartial, that the universe helped anyone in need. But I also thought Rover was a good guy. I also thought this world was not as bad as they said it was.

No, it wasn't that bad. It was worse. So much worse. And perhaps the universe also wasn't as loving and divine as I had thought it was.

Never trust. Never believe. I repeated the words as a mantra in my head as Rover fucked me harder with every thrust.

Never trust. Never believe.