Chapter 4

CONNOR SHELBY

Her footsteps brought me hope.

Lying on this cold hard ground, my mind tethering between consciousness and sub consciousness, the sound of a distant footstep somehow gave me the strength to call for help.

I couldn’t see much, the trail of blood seeping from my forehead down to my eyes was almost completely obscuring my vision.

The adrenaline rush during the assault was beginning to wear off and the pain of every hit and blow I took started to hurt like hell. It felt as though, every inch of my body was aching so much, I couldn’t lift a muscle or even tried to go after them.

They weren’t after the box of money in the truck of my car, neither were they after my phone or any information or any material thing whatsoever.

Thinking about what their motive could be or whose orders they were carrying out was not the priority at the moment.

My priority was staying alive. Or at the very least, clinging long enough to consciousness till I can get help for myself and my driver. He was badly beaten. I hoped with all my heart, he hangs in there.

At first I was skeptical if maybe our assaulters were back, but the figure that approached me from the other side of the road didn’t seem like one of the people who did this to me and Rivera, my driver.

But to my relief, it was not them, instead, the unidentified figure that approached the scene looked like that of a woman.

I had no idea what she was trying to do as I was still incoherent but it looked like she was carrying an object like a phone and was trying to make a call, so I instinctively reached out, ignoring the throbbing pain on my arms to grab her by the ankle.

I mumbled some jumbled and weak sound, telling her ‘No ambulance’ but it seemed like she didn’t understand what I was saying or couldn’t hear me properly

I felt sorry, but I was glad I did because the sudden contact startled her into jerking back so impulsively, aggravating the sharp ache on my arms and the phone she was holding fell from her hands noisily close to my head.

However, to look on the brighter side, the act made her notice I was lying right there.

She quickly squatted close to me and started yelling if I could hear or see her, then talked about calling 911 to come take us to the hospital.

No! I exclaimed in my head.

That was going to make things more complicated. I wouldn’t think about it now, nevertheless, I had to stop her from calling the ambulance till I get out of here.

Of course it sounded foolish and irrational to her, I couldn’t let her, no, I would never let her call an ambulance, even though I didn’t give her a good reason not to.

I felt safe with her and I had no idea why. I never trusted anyone in my entire life but I felt safe with someone whose face I couldn’t recognize. Whose name I didn’t even know.

So I played the pity card.

First, I tried sitting with her rushing to help despite the wrenching pains crushing every part of my senses to convince her that it wasn’t as bad as she was thinking.

Convincing people, especially strangers was my strongest skill. So I ignored the numbing sensation in my head and tried making the situation sound more dangerous than it actually was.

Her come back startled me. She sounded fierce and strong-willed. I had no idea who she was, but it felt good to see someone for the first time standing up to me.

Only that she had no idea who I was, and I would really love to keep it that way.

I pressed harder, telling her that going to the hospital would be more dangerous for me and she needed to take me out of here to save my driver.

It wasn’t really a lie, after all.

My driver got more beaten and honestly I was terrified for his life, but, they were going to attend to me faster than him when they realized who I was. I had to leave so he could get a better treatment.

After convincing and persuading her for a while, she muttered something inaudible under her breathe and surprised me once again;

“I live in a tiny flat and you have to manage, because, well… we have no choice.” she stated confidently.

I would have smiled at her decision if I wasn’t losing my fragile grip on consciousness. The last thing I saw was her making a call but it wasn’t for an ambulance.

Seemed like she was talking to someone, not really a stranger with the way her lips were moving, it must be someone she knew.

~

My eyes fluttered open as the last thing I saw came flooding into my blank mind.

That blurry face I couldn’t catch. The woman with a phone.

I cringed at the hammering headache that was about to drive me nuts before letting my eyes walk around my unaccustomed surrounding.

It was probably night.

I was in an unfamiliar room, lying on an unfamiliar bed and it felt as though it was all a dream. But I knew it wasn’t a dream or imagination of some sort, at least I could feel the proof from the throbbing pain on my neck and forehead.

Was this the tiny flat the blurry faced woman was talking about? I wondered with confusion as I couldn’t hear a sound coming from anywhere.

It was really tiny, with every part of the walls painted white, making the room look bigger than it actually was. It was extremely tidied, for a small apartment, and smelled nice. A tall closet equally painted white was facing the bed I was lying on with a well-organized shoe rack standing close to it.

I couldn’t help been extremely observant whenever I was in a new environment.

Did she really bring me to her home? How on earth did she do that?

That means, she risked her life to save mine. She might not understand what she did but I do.

And what about Rivera my driver? I clutched my eyes tightly, praying to whomever was listening for him to be safe and alive.

I couldn’t just sit here and keep asking questions no one could actually answer.

With that resolve, I forced my body up, with my hands leaning into the fluffy bed, so soft that my body sank inside, making it difficult for me to get up.

The bed creaked noisily protesting at my weight. I finally sat down on my butt, tentatively testing my limbs to check if anywhere was broken, then raised my right hand to my head to see if there was any injury sustained there.

My hand met a heavy plaster at the left side of my forehead, earning a frustrated groan from me. My limps were doing fine, however, I could still feel a severe discomfort at my ribs. It ached like hell. My head wasn’t an exception. It felt as though it would fall off. I couldn’t see my face but I was sure there were countless bruises plastered on it.

Those assaulters had a field day on me.

The door of the room open unexpectedly, jostling me out of my hazy self-examination.

“Hey there” came a serious voice from behind me, and the memory of the last time I heard the voice came flooding into my mind. “How are you feeling?” the voice asked approaching me.

My body tensed suddenly, as the person moved closer till she came into view. She stood in front of me, a pair of stunning china-blue eyes peering down at me with worried lines creased on her forehead.

It was the blurry faced woman. The person who came to my rescue. She was standing before me and I could finally see her face.

I was correct after all, she had a dark hair. A dark wavy hair that exposed her striking features. She was on a simple house wear- an extra-large round neck polo and shorts, but that didn’t debunk her attractive body and even her bare toes that clung to the rug on the floor was beautiful.

“How are you feeling now?” she asked raising her voice a few decibels, dragging me out of my awe-stricken daze.

I couldn’t let out any words. My thoughts faltered, my throat refused to corporate, then it dawned on me that I wasn’t supposed to be here. I wasn’t supposed to be seen by this beautiful stranger whose agenda was unknown.

I meant no insults, but if she really lived here, it simply meant she was poor and poor people could be unrepentantly greedy and I had no idea what she would do if she already recognized me, or what she has even done.

She looked genuinely concerned, and somehow, I felt safe in her presence. I couldn’t explain it, I had never experienced such energy around me before.

However, I couldn’t let such sentimental thoughts put me into trouble again.

Before she could ask any more questions, I brushed past her ignoring all her previous questions, ran towards the door which led to another door without stopping to look back or paying attention to the excruciating throb in my ribs.

Another woman was in the next room who was startled by my sudden appearance. She stood up as though she wanted to stop me but I brushed past her the same way I brushed past The Blurry Faced Woman.

I got safely outside the house and took the flight of stairs that led outside the building. I was running on bare foot at this time of the day like a patient who escaped from an asylum, wondering if I was doing the right thing.

If I wasn’t, how many pictures had they taken? Did they recognize me?

Well if I was wrong, I just became the biggest jerk of the century, I allowed myself to admit, hailing a taxi coming from down the road. I rushed into the car, reciting the address of my house in my pack’s city to him.

He zoomed of, noticing the urgency at which I needed him to move,

Hoping desperately that Rivera was fine and that no article of the recent occurrence was released.

“Let’s get home first,” I muttered breathlessly to myself, wincing at the masquerades running rampant in my head.