Chapter 18: Chapter 18

“I’ve got you!” – repeated that familiar voice, but this time I felt it as if it were inside my head.

I still felt dazed, although my mind was starting to wake up. I was heavy and lying on something soft. It smelled like lavender, a pleasant scent, but I still knew I was in the middle of an atmosphere that was growing increasingly strange as the minutes passed without being able to get up.

Even though my mind was returning to what had happened to me, my arms and legs remained stiff, unresponsive. It seemed that only my senses – smell, touch, hearing – were responding, along with my memory.

I went back to the last moments before I fell. Then I felt my foot again, when I slipped, powerless, and fell. I would have been seriously injured if those arms hadn’t caught me in time.

“I’ve got you!” – repeated that familiar voice, but it wasn’t the first person’s voice, or rather, it wasn’t what he was saying, but something else. It was the same voice, from the same person, it was… Erick’s voice?

Yes, I remembered now.

It was Erick, the guy from Science class. He was talking to someone, another person, on the phone. Then a series of voices repeated in my head. They were my voices, but I didn’t recognize them.

“You must get up, Sussan. You have to do it.”

“What? Who? Who’s speaking to me?”

“Just get up, I’m telling you! Now is not the time for questions. Just get up!”

I managed to regain control of my body, although it still felt heavy, as if I had gained a hundred kilograms in just a few minutes.

“Damn!” I heard Erick say, lying next to me. “You have to come now. She’s waking up.”

I opened my eyes, and I know I could see, although it was dark. I couldn’t keep my eyelids open for long. My eyes hurt, just like my head. It was a constant, sharp throbbing that ran through my entire back, but I managed to open them again. Whatever was keeping me lying down was passing, I knew it, it would pass, although it would still take some time.

Then I heard a door opening.

I lifted my head and saw.

It was Chloe.

“Chloe?” I managed to exclaim, with great difficulty. My mouth hurt almost as much as my fractured foot.

“But how is this possible? I told you to give her the correct amount,” Chloe said, annoyed.

I couldn’t see her anymore, my eyes had given up again, although I knew that if I tried again…

“I gave her exactly what you gave me, not a drop less,” Erick said.

“Then I don’t understand. She should still be unconscious,” Chloe protested.

Her perfume, damn it, her perfume reached the edges of my nose, and I feared that the same thing could happen to me again as last time, but even though it was the same scent, this time it didn’t turn my stomach.

I opened my eyes as I heard Erick protesting. It didn’t take long for me to recognize another voice, familiar.

I lifted my head and recognized Amelia, Liam’s girlfriend. She was there, standing beside Chloe. Despite the room being dark, I recognized her, I don’t know how, but I did.

“It doesn’t matter, I still need her,” Chloe said as I felt her approaching my face. She grabbed my hair tightly and lifted me up. “Here you are, raggedy.”

“What’s going on?”

“Are you sure her little friend won’t come?” Chloe asked, not letting go of me and turning her gaze towards someone behind her.

I recognized her before she responded.

It was Vera.

“I’m sure, don’t worry. I told her the party was canceled.”

“Anyway, check outside. Erick told me he read her phone and contacted her.”

“Damn it!” Vera protested before running out of the room.

“I think she understood now,” Amelia said. “We should leave it like this, don’t you think, Chloe?”

“What? Are you crazy? I haven’t even told her what she has to do.”

“Understand? What’s happening?” I said, making a great effort. The headache and the numbness in my body persisted, although they were now slightly milder.

“You see?” Chloe said, gripping my hair tighter. “Listen carefully, b***h. You have to leave, do you understand? It’s not enough for you to stay away from them, no, you have to go, go back where you came from.”

“Stay away from them? From the twins?” I asked. My mind was sluggish, and I couldn’t even determine if I was having a nightmare or if that was really happening.

“Who else would it be, dummy?” Chloe screeched. “And I already told you, it’s not enough for you to reject them because they won’t accept that. You have to go, leave this town, get out.”

Chloe was anticipating my intentions, which were no other than to leave that place. I just had to finish that last semester of classes, and I would go far away, to any other place that wasn’t the town where Lia and Dub lived.

“Yes, yes, I’ll leave. Anywhere, but I’ll go.”

“There, Chloe, you see? She understood,” Amelia said, and from her voice, she seemed to be even more distressed than I was.

“It’s still not enough,” Chloe said, still not letting go of my hair. She pulled her fist back and swung it, hitting my face.

I felt everything vibrating around me, and I thought I would lose consciousness again, but that didn’t happen. I think the pain in my face, where I had just received Chloe’s blow, kept me awake, along with the surprise of receiving such a devastating blow from a young woman who seemingly shouldn’t have had that much strength.

“If you don’t leave, I’ll hurt you even more, do you understand?”

I nodded while feeling my eye burn, and a metallic taste took over my lips, which must now be battered.

Chloe let go of me and stood up. Through the eye that hadn’t been hit, I managed to see her moving away. Amelia had already left, but Erick was still there, in front of whom Chloe had stopped.

“Now he’s all yours. Have fun,” Chloe said, and I heard her perfectly despite her whispering into Erick’s ear, who then smiled maliciously.

The door to the room closed, and we were once again left in complete darkness.

Erick’s gaze, now directed at me, was the only thing that glowed.

“You’d better stay still and not make it any harder for yourself,” Erick said as he climbed onto the bed where I was lying.

I struggled, but then I realized that my hands were tied to the railing, as were my feet to the bottom of the bed.

“I already told you that you can make everything easier by just staying still.”

I felt Erick’s hand on the zipper of my pants.

“Free yourself, Sussan!” that strange voice in my head said. “You know you can do it. You just have to truly want it.”

“No, no, no, no. You have to stay where you are!” I responded, not being myself. I didn’t understand anything, and I was only distressed to see Erick’s hands about to unzip my pants.

“Do it, Sussan, just do it!”

One of my legs broke free from the restraints, and I managed to bend my knee enough to deliver a kick to Erick’s stomach, causing him to double over.

I don’t know how strong my blow was, but I was worried that it hadn’t been enough and that he would now retaliate. However, for some reason, I noticed that he continued to be in pain, hunched over his abdomen, unable to even breathe properly.

I didn’t waste any time and, with the same strength I had used to free my leg, I untied the ropes around my wrists. The other leg almost freed itself, and I quickly got up without even stopping to check on Erick, who remained doubled over in pain.

The dizziness was still there, as was the headache, but now they were bearable. And by some strange circumstance, my fractured foot no longer hurt, or maybe it did, but the shock of the moment numbed it, which could be more serious.

I didn’t stop to think about it and I ran. I opened the door to the room and in three steps, I was already on the second floor, crossing the same hallway where I had fallen. I noticed several confused looks, observing me without knowing what to think. I didn’t pay attention to them either; I was solely focused on getting back home.

At an unusual speed, I reached the vestibule and caught a glimpse of Vera’s surprised face. Then I felt the cool night air and jumped onto the street while my mind recalled the path I had taken to get there.

I knew it wouldn’t be difficult for me to find my bearings, so I kept running. Soon, I lost sight of the house and the noise of the party, which continued as if nothing had happened. That’s when the dizziness returned, forcefully, and without knowing at what moment, I stumbled and found myself pressed against someone’s chest.

Their arms enveloped me tightly.