Chapter Five

At the sound of the man’s voice directing orders to his men, two of them immediately rushed to pick Brenda up roughly from the couch they had placed her on and where she had just woken up from. They dragged her to a smaller room where a chair was placed right in the center of it. The room was dim and empty except for the chair and a few broken items. She was dragged and dumped hard on the chair and the men began to pace around the room, she glanced around and soon realize that she had been brought to a place where enemies or offenders where tortured till they talked, just as they were about to do with her that moment, taking her for a spy.

“Please! I am not a spy!” she let out again trying to convince both men who walked round the room and occasionally around the chair she sat on.

“Shut your mouth bitch!” one of the men screamed at her as he slowly brought out a penknife from his pocket before walking towards her and landing her a painful blow on her mouth.

She screamed painfully when the man’s hard hand came against her face, tasting blood in her mouth. The other man who seemed to be looking for something suddenly found it. From a box of items, he brought out a rope then approached Brenda with both his hands gripping the ends of the rope and as soon as Brenda saw this, she started to plead but the first man was standing over her and he gestured to hit her again, so she remained silent sobbing, holding her bleeding mouth.

They bounded her firmly to the chair and the one with the knife stood in front of her with cold eyes piercing hers. He reached out to brush off strands of hair from her face and lifted her head to meet his gaze properly. He pressed the sharp edge of the knife to her cheek while roughly gripping her jaw.

“Now tell me sweetheart, who sent you to spy on us?”

“I have told you before, I am not a spy, I was only…” she paused for a second stopping herself before she could say why she really got into the trunk of their car, which she knew they would not even believe.

“Lies!” the other man shouted filling the room with his voice.

“You see, this is the situation. My friend here,” he said pointing to the fellow standing just behind him with the knife, “is a very impatient person and feels we should just take you apart limb by limb until you tell us everything we want to know. But I am more diplomatic you see…well, to an extent at least.

“I feel you can tell me all I want to know without me ruining this pretty face of yours huh?” he said smiling while directing the knife back to Brenda’s face.

“Please, don’t hurt me. I swear I am not a spy.” She uttered tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Then why were you sneaking in the trunk of our car huh?”

“Just let me go please, I won’t say anything to anyone I promise, I didn’t see anything, no one sent me!” she screamed as he pressed harder on her cheeks revealing a cut just below her right eye.

“This could get really bad if you don’t speak up.”

“I don’t know anything I swear!” Brenda continued to cry out.

“Okay then, have it your way.” The man with the knife stood up from bending over her and sighed in frustration. “I guess you prefer the methods of my friend here then.”

***

For days, Brenda was constantly beaten in attempts to get her to talk but they simply got nothing from her except her constant pleas. She was moved and locked up in another room where she spent the night and ate what little they gave her as food. The room looked more like a cell than an actual room. They tortured and mistreated her, let her gather strength and continued with the beating, asked the same questions she was asked every day which she had no answer to.

At some point she confessed about sneaking into the car trunk but only to get a ride the night she was stranded. Of course they did not believe her and only kept trying to beat the truth out of her. Sometimes the man who gave the impression of being the mafia boss came into the room she was kept in, sometimes even tied – to threaten her more if she did not speak. Eventually it began to seem to the mafia lord that she might just be clueless about his suspicions of her being a spy but was reluctant to let her go.

“I find it difficult to think that you happen to be found in one of my men’s car trunk and are not some spy sent to watch me.” The mafia boss said to Brenda when he walked into the room where she laid weak on the bare floor.

Asleep, she had not heard him come in and even approach her. She shrieked at the sound of his voice and scurried back to a corner in the room.

“Relax, I am not here to hurt you.” He told her. “Having tortured you for days I feel you might just not know about what I have been asking you for days after all, yet I am reluctant to let you go because I feel there is something strange about you and I’m not the one to believe in the coincidence of you ending up in my man’s trunk.”

Brenda just stared at him from the corner with surprise and fear washed over her face. She could not understand what he was saying, at least why he was saying it. He had tortured her for days and now he was here telling her that he feels she was innocent? After a while, he just walked away without saying anything else. Brenda then began to rethink her decision of leaving. She had tried to escape from trouble but had found herself right in another one. Maybe it was a bad idea after all leaving her sister behind, she worried about Ralia's well-being and felt bad about leaving her, but part of her was glad that she had not led her into this mess she was in now.

The next day which was the fifth day she had been locked up and tortured, the leader of the house had her removed from the cell-like room and put into a more comfortable one. He also had her cleaned up and given fresh clothes. He even invited her to have dinner with him as he was eager to get to know her so he could figure out what she was doing there. He was somehow convinced now that she was not a spy but still had an odd feeling about her which he intended to decipher soon.

“I’m sure you feel better now after cleaning yourself up.” The mafia lord said to Brenda when they sat on the dining table during dinner.

Brenda said nothing but just stared at the empty plate placed in front of her. She was scared of the man and could not be convinced he meant well for her by inviting her to dine with him. She wasn’t sure what his intentions with her was but she was ready to make him understand that she had not snuck into his house to spy on him and that her intentions are not foal, that it was all a silly mistake. She contemplated for some seconds about her safety if she tried to speak freely to him. She wasn’t completely sure of what sort of man he was but she was well aware now of his status.

“Look I’m not sure who you think I am but I am definitely not that. Like I have said countless times while your men beat me, it was just a silly mistake. I needed a ride that night and I only thought I could sneak in unseen to catch a ride with your men okay?”

“I understand that, and that is why I am giving you a chance now. I want to treat you as my guest and not my prisoner anymore. I would like to introduce myself officially to you, my name is Damien.”

Brenda stared at him for a moment and seeing that he expected a reply of her name too, she reluctantly told him her name.

“That is a beautiful name.” Damien commented before dragging his attention back to his plate of meal.

“So tell me, what were you running from that if I may ask?”

“Who said I was running from anything?” Brenda asked him.

“Come on, a young girl of perhaps not older than twenty out on the road and found curled up in a car trunk with her backpack at that time of the night? That just spells that you must be running away from something or someone honey.”

“Well you can deny it all you want but I would have to let you know that I don’t like women, especially runaway ones. They reek of trouble, just as you do to me now which is why I am not willing to let you go just yet.” He said to Brenda.