XII

And regret it, I did.

It's been a week since my little escape attempt and Demon has had me locked up ever since. The guy actually handcuffed me to the towel rail in the bathroom for the last week. I know right?! Of all the places that he could have handcuffed me, he chooses the fuckin bathroom.

I sit with my back against the cold tile wall, with my left hand suspended above my head, locked onto the railing. This is definitely the most uncomfortable position I have been in, by far. I literally have to slide my wrist across the railing to reach the toilet and do my business. And let me tell you that it is piss hard to unroll the tissue paper and then wipe your butt when one hand is occupied elsewhere.

Demon only releases me when it is time to eat or take a shower, and then I'm right back to being locked up. And what's worse is that he is rarely at the apartment, which means I spend hours on end by myself with no way to feed myself or entertain myself, and a girl needs to eat! You can take many things away from me, but don't take my food...that's just cruel.

Being alone in this tiny bathroom has given me some time to think about many things. Things like: what idiot decided to introduce the alphabet to mathematics, why no one has put biltong on a pizza and why Michael B. Jordan is so hot? I’ve also had time to think about how I could have gone differently with my ‘escape plan’, maybe I could have taken less time in his room or I could have just gone out the very second he left the apartment.  A chuckle escapes my lips, as the memory of the night I tried to escape relives itself in my mind . . .

"You're going to regret that." He gruffly spits at me before recklessly yanking me off the ground.

Holding my forearm in an iron grip, he violently drags me towards the entrance of the apartment building. I hear him mumbling incoherent stuff under his breath, whatever he saying under his breath sounds very dangerous, so I'm low-key glad that I can't hear the exact words.

I know that I have messed up real bad; this man could actually kill me for trying to run away. I mean, he did say that he was a so called assassin. He might flay me alive like Ramsey Bolton from Game of Thrones or he could bash my head in like the people from The Purge.

Man, I watch way too much television!

My hand quickly goes numb as Demon’s iron grip on my arm restricts the blood flow to my hand. I try to wriggle my hand out of his hand, without any success, he just ends up gripping on even tighter (if that’s even possible)

Demon drags me under the flickering florescent light of the apartment building’s entrance. Shoving the door open with his other free hand, he angrily hails me behind him. His violent attitude toward me continues until we are up the flight of stairs leading to his apartment.

His angry stomps make the creaky floor boards of the building vibrate. I wisely keep my trap shut because the man is acting as if he is about to lose his mind if I even breath wrong. The door to his apartment is wide open and there are two boxes of pizza and a six pack of beer on the floor. My stomach growls loudly at the sight of the mouthwatering food that I am practically eye raping. I haven’t eaten since the McDonalds meal with Alex and them, which was a couple hours ago.

My eye contact with the delectable goods is broken when I am brutally shoved into the apartment. The force of the push is so great that I end up tripping over my own feet, but before I can fall on my ass (which would have been really embarrassing) I catch my balance and right myself.

I turn around and look at Demon bending down to pick up the food on the floor. His back is to me, and I have the perfect view of his ass. And let me tell you… the man not only has a beautiful front but also a beautiful behind. My act of admiring his ass is brought to a sad ending when he straightened himself out and what toward the kitchen.

I am left alone in front of the door and I feel so awkward. I just tried to escape which means I can’t just swagger to the kitchen and fetch a slice of pizza and sprawl myself across his couch. Feeling as if I look like an idiot just standing by the door, I decide to follow Demon into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Demon is leaning against the counter with an open bottle of beer hanging from his fingers. Next to him is the open box of pizza with one slice missing. As quietly as possible, which is not that quiet, I sneak closer to the box of pizza.

The aroma of the heavenly cheesy goodness wafts into my nose and overcomes all my senses, and my mouth instantly begins to water. Rubbing my hands together in excitement, I reach out to get a slice for myself, but my hand stops abruptly when I discover something shocking… there is no meat on any of the slices of heaven!!!

With eyes as big as saucers, stare aghast at the margarita pizza. Queue the gagging.

“Where the hell is the meat?” I spew out, before I can even stop myself. I screw my eyes shut tightly and open them again, sort of hoping that the despicable sight in front of me would disappear. When I open my eyes, the pizza is still meat-free, much to my disappointment.

Before I can continue to stare at the horror fest disguised as a pizza, the lid of the box is quickly shut, and Demon’s large hand rests on the top, “What does it matter if it has meat or not, you’re not having any either way.” He states in a chilly voice, followed by a long sip from the beer bottle in his other hand.”You think you can try and escape and then eat my food that I bought with my hard earned money, I think not”

He is clearly not over the whole escape thing. “Come on Demon, buddy, you can’t still be hung up on the whole escaping thing, I mean you caught me so let’s move onto a blank page, yes?” I pout lightly at him, with my best puppy dog face.

“I am not your buddy, I fucking hate you, and I am not over the’ whole escaping thing’, so no blank page for you” he growls with a mean scowl on his face, “Ever.”

There is such finality in his voice that I almost just give up, but luckily I’m not that type of person that throws in the towel when things get rough. So, I boost my cuteness level to one thousand and try again. “well buddy,” I start off in a sickly sweet voice, “In the Bible , it say that we should ‘forgive to be forgiven’, so why don’t you forgive me for trying to escape and then God can forgive you for your past transgressions.” I preach out.

“God can never forgive me for the things I’ve done.” A haunted look passes over his face. Whatever he is remembering is definitely not good. Feeling that the mood is getting to dark for my liking, I quickly interject.

“But in the Bible, it also says that ‘God is a forgiving god’, so I’m sure if you repent you’ll be fine.” I say with a rare seriousness in my voice. As crazy as I am, I’m actually a committed believer in God, so I take it as my duty to spread His word where I can. “And besides, what kind of prisoner would I be if I never tried to escape at least once?” I ask, lightening the atmosphere.

I see the corners of Demon’s mouth begin to twitch into an almost smile at my latter question. I’m finally breaking through his cold, hard exterior! Nobody can resist the Amandla Vibes as I like to call it. Demon lifts his hand off of the pizza box, and I take it as a sign that I can help myself to the contents inside. Okay, I might have made a big deal about the food being meat-free, but food is food at the end of the day. And growing up in Africa, made me appreciate whatever came my way, and the fact that my ass got lit the hell up when I was picky with my food.

Opening the cardboard box, I slowly pull out a triangle of melted cheesy goodness. I delicately place the tip into my mouth and gently bite down on it. The acid from the tomatoes along with the slight saltiness of the cheese beautifully attack my senses. My eyes roll to the back of my head, and I moan out loudly as my taste buds begin to jump with joy. I do a little happy dance to express my happiness. I love food so much!

I can hear Demon clearing his throat uncomfortably, but I am too preoccupied with chewing and savoring each and every bite. “I’m going to my room, don’t try anything stupid or you will regret it.” Demon informs me. I give him a thumbs up, and grab my second slice as I watch his broad back retreat into the direction of his bedroom.

Just before I can enjoy my second slice, I am interrupted by a loud bang followed by a long silence. Shit! My eyes widen as I realise that  Demon said that he was going to his room, the room that I was strictly banned from entering, the room whose door I accidently pushed off its hinges. Double Shit!

“Amandla, I’m going to kill you!” Triple shit. Demon angrily clambers towards me with a murderous look on his face. Whatever break through I had made with his cold, hard exterior was instantly reversed.

*End of Flashback*

After the discovery, Demon had grabbed me by the arm and forcefully shoved me in the bathroom and had locked me up.

So far today, I had woken up to a breakfast burrito at my feet on the off-white tiled bathroom floor. After eating my breakfast, I was left to my thoughts, like I have been doing for the past few days. Sometimes, Demon comes in during the day when he is not busy, and he gives me lunch and watches sports on the TV for the rest of the day, but most of the time he leaves early in the morning and only comes back in the evening.

Though my living conditions at the moment can easily be compared to that of a dog, I have to admit that Demon feeds me well. Which I am truly grateful for, ‘cause you know your girl adores her yum yums. I’m starting to think that mans is a vegetarian because all the foods he brings me contain no meat, which is really frustrating and disappointing.

As my mind wanders to all the plant based foods I’ve been eating, I hear the front door unlocking. Looking out the small window above the tub, I can clearly see that nighttime has already befallen the streets. I wait patiently, as I know that Demon will come into the bathroom any second now to drop off my food without even giving me a glance or sparing a word for me.

Like expected the bathroom door swings open and Demon steps in. unlike other times before, he is not carrying a food package and rather in his hand is a key. I watch as he steps further into the bathroom, and leans down to my hand that is hanging above my head and is handcuffed to the towel rail. With wide eyes, I watch as he releases my hand from it bondage. I bring my wrist to my chest and massage the bruise that formed due to the handcuffs being a little too tight.

Without a word, Demon walks out the bathroom once more. Standing up on my shaky legs that haven’t been used properly for a while, I unsteadily follow Demon. He leads me to the small kitchenette, where I can see some paper bags with some red Chinese writings on them. There is also a mouthwatering smell lingering in the air. Demon walks on over to the kitchen counter and pushes one of the paper bags in my direction. Walking to the bag, I reach my hand in and pull out a warm carton of Chinese food.

Within the carton is some egg fried rice with chicken. I close my eyes, and recite a quick prayer. Grabbing the plastic fork that came with the food, I begin to eat. The kitchen is filled with a pregnant silence between me and Demon, and all that can be heard is chewing and the sound of our cutlery scraping against the food cartons.

However, I cannot properly enjoy my food because of a disgusting stench that keeps on attacking my nostrils. I slowly put my fork down and begin to sniff the air lightly to find out where the smell is coming from.

“What’s wrong?” Demon asks, obviously seeing me distracted from my food, which I never do.

“No, man” I say, “it’s nothing” I say while I continue to sniff the air. It smells as if the stench is somewhere really close, as f it is one me or something. At that thought, my eyes widen. I’m the one that fucking stinks! I literally haven’t taken a bath in a week, and I really smell bad.

Suddenly feeling extremely uncomfortable, I begin so shift away from Demon so that he can’t smell the stench radiating off of me. At my actions, Demon lifts one eyebrow inquisitively, almost as if asking ‘what are you doing?’ Deciding to tackle the awkward situation in one go, take a deep breath in and spew words out.

“Doyoumindifiuseyourshowerrealquickbecauseireallystink” I say in one go.

“What?”

Taking another deep breath in, I repeat what I said at a slower pace, “Do you mind if I use your shower real quick because I really stink?”

“Oh, so that funky smell is coming from you?” he asks with an amused glint in his eyes, pointing his finger at me.

“Fuck you Demon” I glare at him, not finding his joke (if you can call it that) funny at all.

“Let me get this straight, you want to use my shower but then you want to cuss me out?”

“Oh my gosh, can you please let me use your shower” I exasperate, “I fucking smell like a sewer.” A silence befalls us, and Demon has a look of fake thought decorating his face.

“You can use the shower” he says after a while, “the smell is making my nose burn.”

I send a flabbergasted glare at Demon. How dare he say that to someone? I can literally feel the embarrassment oozing out of my pores. Thank God for my dark complexion, otherwise my face would have been as red as a ripe tomato. With my mouth shut tightly, I stand up rigidly off the stool I was sitting on and head for the bathroom.

In the bathroom, I’m standing in front of a mirror analyzing my features while I wait for the running water in the shower to get hot; this is some old as fuck plumbing. Anyways, my hair is standing up in all directions, and the thought of putting a comb through it has my eyes watering a bit. From my hairline, I look at my slightly bigger than normal forehead, that leads to my thick, shapely eyebrows. I’ve got basic brown eyes and a medium to small nose and thick lips. All of my features are perched upon an oval shaped, chocolate colored face. I’m not what one would call, ‘stunningly beautiful’ but I like to think that I wouldn’t be considered ugly. Either way, I wouldn’t change how I look for anything or anyone in the world.

My staring contest with my face is disrupted when a cloud of steam covers the surface of the mirror, indicating to me that the water is finally hot. Stripping out of my clothes, I gingerly step into the shower and under the running water. As soon as I step into the shower, I instantly hop back out.

“Hot, hot, hot!” I screech out, the heat from the water stinging my back. With a pained scowl on my face, I return to the shower and open the cold water. When the water is at the perfect temperature, I step back into the shower and immediately begin my hygienic process.

When I feel that I am clean enough, I turn off the shower and step out. I grab the towel that I put on the toilet seat earlier and wrap it around my body. Now to deal with my next dilemma…clothes to wear.

Opening the bathroom door slightly, I stick my head out the door. “Hey Demon.” I holler out and wait for a reply. As expected, I don’t get a single reply from the douche. With a roll of my eyes, I call out again. “Demon!”

“Whaaatt?!” I hear back from the direction of the sitting room.

“Can you please come!” I yell out sheepishly. My request is met by silence, and for I second I really think that he is not going to come. But to my amazement, I hear a loud ad exaggerated sigh, followed by footsteps coming in my direction. After a few seconds, Demon appears within my vision with a bored and slightly irritated expression on his face.

“What do you want?” he asks, not even affected a little bit by my semi naked state.

“Ummm…” I begin, “I was wondering if I could borrow a set of clothes to wear, since mine kinda smell.” My request is met by silence; it doesn’t even look as if he heard me. “Demon, did you hear me?”

“Wait here.” He says, turning his back to me and walks into his now doorless bedroom. An awkward minute or two passes before Demon makes a reappearance. In his hand is a pair of warm looking sweat pants and a white tee, he hands the clothes over with a gruff , “here” and begins to walk back to the sitting room.

As I watch him walk away I remember to ask for one more thing, “Yo Demon, can I please have some lotion too?”

“I ain’t got none.” He replies, still walking to the sitting room.

“What you mean ‘you ain’t got none’?”I exclaim out, “Do you know how ashy Black people get? I can’t be seen in these streets looking as dry as fuck!” I exasperate.

“Who said anything about you being in the ‘streets’?” demon yells back at me.

Touché.

With a huff, I close the bathroom door once more and get dressed into Demon’s clothes. The sweat pants are humungous on me, which causes me to pull the poor strings to the furthest they can go and tying them tightly around my waist. I look down and notice that a little pouch of air has formed in the pants, making me look as if I got a whole ‘nother stomach. I try to flatten it down with my hands but it stubbornly reforms. After a couple of failed attempts, I give up and throw on the plain white tee.

Sliding on my dirt stained airforce one’s, I hastily rake my fingers through my unruly hair and retie the ponytail. Feeling that I’m presentable enough, I swing the bathroom door open and step out.

I walk back into the kitchen, with only one mission in mind: To go and finish my pizza. If you know me, there is one thing you will realise about me, and that is that I never ever waste food or reuse it. You can call me gluttonous but I really don’t care cause I don’t eat to live, but rather live to eat.

Once in the kitchen, I unconsciously smile as I set my eyes upon the closed carton of Chinese food. Rubbing my hands together, without hesitation I open the carton and … my smile instantly drops.

In the box, is not the delectable egg fried rice and chicken that I left but rather three lonely grains of rice at the bottom and a chicken bone. The fuck!!??

Blinking my eyes unbelievable a couple of times. I spin on my heels and head to the sitting room so that I can hold out my investigation for the disappearance of my delectable goods.

“Demon?” I start off in a sickly sweet voice, “Where my food at?” I end off my question with a broad smile and a crazed look in my eyes.

“I ate it.” he nonchalantly replies without taking his eyes off of the basketball game occurring on the television screen. He even has the audacity to shrug his shoulders, as if he ain’t tearing my world apart.

A small chuckle escapes my lips and my eyes begin to twitch uncontrollably. “Why would you do that, Demon.” I ask with a creepy smile now gracing my lips, “Why would you do that?” I repeat again, but the smile is now long gone.

At this point, Demon is looking at me and has a look of apprehension in his eyes.”Cause I was hungry” he replies. While looking at my stomach, where due to the pants it looks as if I’m two months pregnant. “Are you still hungry?” he asks, staring.

“It’s the pants!” I scream out, while patting the air bubble down violently. “What you did was inhumane and unf-“

“Keep quiet!” Demon interrupts my speech.

My eyes widen at the nerve of this man to interrupt me while I’m giving my oh so important speech. I’m about to give him a piece of my mind.

“Excuse you-“

“I said shut up!” he interrupts me again. This nigga!

Demon gets off the couch rigidly and turns to look out of the apartment’s window. “Duck” he whispers to me.

“What?” I ask, feeling hella confused at the moment.

Demon doesn’t answer me but just turns around and comes racing towards me and tackles me to the ground. Before I can complain about the immense pain that I am in, a bullet shatters the widow and goes flying to where my head would have been if I were still standing.

What the fuck is going on?