Milanda’s room
As I knew, it was a dream. I woke up again with puffy eyes. I had to be crying in my sleep. Milanda was sitting on the far end of the bed, watching me like a hawk.
“Hmm, hmm. So very interesting.”
I cowered, pulling the soft duvet closer around me.
“What are you talking about?”
“I meant your little love story. Thought you are an innocent victim that Lenard Lee just brought back to satisfy his cravings. It turns out you aren’t too pure yourself, being the other woman in a relationship.”
She uttered her words so confidently as if she had just bore her X-ray vision of me and seen the memories I kept in my heart.
“My story? How do you know?” I asked, quivering under the blanket.
“Didn’t you just have a dream just now?” She laughed hysterically. “Was it a good one? What would you rate it? A? B?”
The woman didn’t seem right in the head. But for someone to break into my dreams and tell what I just saw made little sense to me.
“What dream?”
She laughed again. “Piper, the love of my life, will you marry me?”
Was she serious? How did she even know what I just dreamed? Could she read my mind? Nothing was making sense right now.
“What are you talking about, Sis Landa? I don’t know what is going on right now.”
It was then that I realised the absence of the excruciating pain in me earlier. Wait, how long had I been sleeping?
Suddenly, I realised the woman was just next to me. From sitting away at the end of the enormous bed, in a blink, she was at my side. Without asking, she lifted the blanket and pulled out my wrist. Then, our palms connected. I felt the power of her energy surge through me.
“You…you’re a witch.”
I couldn’t explain all the images that took over my mind. If she wasn’t a witch, then what was she? The images scared me out of my wits. But if she was indeed a witch, then what was she doing in the Master’s den?
“You can say that.”
“But why are you here, and why are you helping me?”
“I have no reason to help you, as I mentioned. As for why I’m here, you need to ask Lenard Lee. He took me here, and he won’t let me leave, either. So the best we can do is become each other’s companion.”
“Then why did you give me a dream like that?” I assumed she had created my dream earlier. “What do you want from me?”
She just smiled sweetly. “I want a companion.”
Why did the overbearing woman earlier now seem so immature? I glanced at her awkwardly, trying to find the answer.
She suddenly hardened, taking on the arrogance of the woman earlier.
“If you do as I ask you to, I can ensure your survival. Mind you, it may be your only hope,” Sis Landa hissed at me.
“So, you are Sis Landa now. Who was that earlier?”
“You don’t need to know,” she glared. “Now, go back to your cell until I summon you again.”
What did she mean?
With a ferocious push from the lady, I fell off the bed and strangely reappeared back in my cell. Feeling an icy blast hit me, I immediately checked what I was wearing, and to my surprise, I was only in underwear.
I had just encountered a witch. She gave me a dream and healed me. What did she want me to do next?
The key turned in the metal door and a guard’s face came into view through the small window of the door.
Tossing me a dress, the guard uttered promptly, “The Master is back, and he demands your presence now.”
I pulled the dress over my head. The garment fit nicely, ending just after my knees. The guard immediately rushed me to a room where the Master was waiting.
My head whirred at the familiar scent of sandalwood, which was supposedly pure, but after how many times the Master had forcefully taken me while having sandalwood in the room made me dread that scent.
“Kneel,” I heard the Master’s cruel voice.
Recalling his torturous ways, I fell to the floor in prostration. He could do what he wanted to me, but I would cling to my life dearly.
“Very good,” he said.
“Where is Jacques?” I asked. “What have you done to him?”
It had been twenty over days that I hadn’t seen Jacques. After they imprisoned me, they had taken Jacques as well and made him do things for them, as well as to enjoy me. He couldn’t deny what they ordered him to do. But after two weeks, he stopped coming, and they threw me to other lackeys of the Master. Had they done something to Jacques?
Whenever I asked that question, the guards whipped me mercilessly. I stopped asking the guards since I learned the Master would come back and decided I would ask the Master at all costs.
From my last conversation with Jacques, I knew he was alright because they had wanted him to do a few things with him. Perhaps my intuition was right, and he was safe but away from his tasks.
“The man is safe. Once he gathers all the information my friend needs and I get my share, he will come to claim you as his prize,” the man called the Master said in a dark voice. He lifted my chin, forcing me to look at him.
He tore my hair tie, letting my hair run free down my back. There were no words I could use to describe how I feared this man. My knees were shaking as he ran his coarse fingers through my hair. Image clouded my mind with fear, him pounding inside me while I begged him to stop, tearing me apart with each stroke…
A stream of tears gushed down my cheek as his words repeated themselves in my memory.
“I’ll break you until you gain some strength in yourself, you weakling.”
The pain of his powerful hand grasping a handful of my hair stopped me in my thoughts.
“Thinking of someone else, were you? I’ll see to your punishment.”
I quickly tried to think of some words, but he then promptly released my hair.
“Get on the bed,” he ordered.
I forced myself up, and ignoring the pain in my knees, clambered up the nearby bed. In my mind, it concerned me he was going to tear me apart again. Ever since I stopped seeing Jacques come for me, he had likely departed on his trip as well. I heard from the guards’ chattering that he had left to conquer some territories and only today I had known that he had left for his impending marriage. Not that it would help me. The only way I could stay alive was to not die. After waking up from the dream with my injuries somewhat healed, I felt calmer and thought more rationally. Even though I had no explanation for it, I suspected it was the childish version of Milanda- the witch. What she had done to me had helped me. After I successfully left this place, I would plot my revenge, I swore silently. Closing my eyes, I wis
I was so mistaken when I thought he would have allowed me to spend the night in his bed. Instead, he had kicked me off his bed in the middle of the night. He ordered me to sleep on the icy floor. It was even worse than being in prison. Humiliated and used me to satisfy his desires for Milanda. I persevered, all for the bigger picture. Three days later, Milanda summoned me. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Milanda’s first question was how the Master had been. It was a hard question for me to answer. Thinking of how he was careful with me while I was the ‘Milanda substitute’ but going all cruel with me when he grumbled about how Jacques was taking a long time made me weak with pain.
It was a cold rainy morning when a scruffy guard awoke me. Knowing everything in my enslaved life had been laid out for me, I wasn’t interested in paying much attention to what he was talking about. The torment by the Master had gone on for over a week, and I wasn’t keen to think about what games would wait for me today, or his volatile attitude. All I just wanted to do was survive. Where was Jacques, and when would I finally be free from my cage? “Hurry. The Master is waiting,” the guard muttered impatiently, throwing the dress they expected me to wear on the ground. I took a quick glimpse, barely making out a purple silk-like dress with bows on one side in the dimly lit room. Had I been the Piper I was before, it would have been beautiful to me. But all these material things didn’t matter to me anymore. I was as used and broken as they made me to be.
I awoke to find myself in total darkness, with no remembrance of where I was. My first impression upon feeling my surroundings was that I was in a jungle. How did I even arrive to be here? I didn’t know the answer. But then, I heard him. “I will break you,” his words echoed in my mind. Immediately, I didn’t think of where I was or how he got there. My instinct was to run. And I ran as fast as I could, but the next thing was that the Master was right before me. I saw his face as clear as day. His venomous laughter instilled fear in me. I was like the little pig running from the Big Bad Wolf in the stories I heard as a child. Scared out of my wits, but unable to run from him. “What do you want from me?” I trembled so hard that my teeth chattered and took a few steps backwards. I sought the courage
When I saw Sherry outside in the living room, I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or to be upset.First this woman was the cause of my demise, I wouldn’t be damaged or even held in confinement if not for her.But in the past, she was the most important person in my life. I had sworn to protect her, just because she was my friend.Back when we worked in Lin Corporation, we were each other’s own shoulder to rely on. But everything changed after Lee Jung came in. He was the true villain, not Sherry.“Remember what we spoke about earlier.”Jacques’ kind voice bounced off in my mind. We had to be cautious and make every step with care.And that involve
- Two weeks later -“May, wake up.”This was the beginning of my new life. I would be living in Bangkok with Jacques and Sherry, who now went by the name Everleigh. According to Sherry, Lee Jung had provided us with a new identity each, and Jacques changed his last name as well, from Jacques Jones to Jacques Jensen.My new identity was Maybel Wright, May for short.I didn’t know how the last two weeks passed, but out of my cage, everything seemed to get better as Jacques promised. While I no longer felt my body was disgusting as before, it was only that fear of darkness in me that struck at night.He was always there for me.His voice always calmed me, and
“What did the specialist say today?” Sherry was lying on the couch with her bump pointed upwards.I giggled, staring towards Jacques.Jacques adopted a serious expression on his face, looking glum. “Erm, she needs a long series of therapy sessions to recover. That’s for occupational therapy.”“For psychiatry, it will depend on herself. We won’t know for sure.”She immediately pushed her bankbook towards him. I widened my eyes curiously at the massive number of zeros in her account.“Hey, you’ve got a lot of money!” I chuckled, bouncing on the nearby recliner. She instantly cupped her hands protectively over her bump.
When I got back to the house, I found the door was left wide open. Immediately, I rushed into Sherry’s bedroom, but the door, too, was open. A few of Sherry’s belongings lay strewn over the carpeted floor, including her phone and a few toiletries. But she was nowhere to be found.A pool of liquid, most of which had dried up by now, left a mark on the black carpet.My intuition told me it must have happened minutes while I was unconscious earlier. Emotions rushed inside me.What do I do now?“Piper.”I heaved a sigh to hear Jacques’ voice.As he came towards me, I flung myself into his arms, still panicking, “Sher…Sherry… she&hellip