Suitcase in hand, you head to the station..

15^th May

It was now or never. You plunge at him with all the strength that you are left with. You could say that he wasn’t expecting it, the bag falls from his hand to the force of the tug and screams at you to stop. Punching the exact same spot he kicked you earlier today, you grab his phone by force and make a run for it. With the device in your hand you never felt this powerful. You run as fast as you could and doesn’t look back to check if he’s following. Feeling the agony in your lungs, the focus was only about getting far on foot. Putting the phone down on the pavement you trod down on it with your foot and waits for it to break.

As you hurry home, you knew what to do. You pack all your things, suitcase in hand, you head to the station, for your life would never be the same here.

………………..

12^th of May

These days are exasperating. Coming home from at 9 pm gets you nowhere. You have no friends or social life and when you do get the chance to do so, you just plan to stay indoors and watch the neighborhood instead. At fist you would say this sound like the usual adult things that everyone goes through. Except your life became a misery one night. The sort of misery where you ache and ache till you cant ache no more, because if you did, you’d die from the hollowness inside. It consumes you without you noticing. When you do notice, its too late.

Looking at the pile of boxes next to your apartment door, you hurry and remove your jacket and locks the door. Was someone new moving next to me? you think. Shrugging the thought off, you get cozy in your own skin and put on the TV. It must have not been more than an hour because you wake up in jolt to hear the doorbell scream. Squinting and rubbing your eyes you check for the time – 11.54 pm. ‘Really?’ you shake your head thinking who the guest at this hour could possibly be. But when you open the door, there was no one, the hallways were dark and empty with only a light breeze brushing against your skin to say hello. Peeking with hesitation you turn heads to brush this off as a joke someone played. Unless I didn’t hear a doorbell at all?

13^th May

“Good morning” you are greeted by jess. She is a full-time journalist and you rarely see her. ‘Hi Jess’ you say while getting up. Now that your head is much clearer you walk outside the apartment and check outside. The boxes were gone. ‘Hey Jess, did you see any boxes lying around when you came?’

“What boxes?’ She asks you

“Um’ you pause. ‘Nothing really, I just thought I saw some boxes here”

“You should take a break Chris; all these night shifts are really bad for you” she says to you in a maternal voice.

‘Honestly, it’s what keeps me going’ you say, and she nods in acceptance, as if she understood what you’re going through. But no one didn’t. Losing your mom 2 years ago became the hardest thing you ever dealt with. Along with stage 4 cancer, having no money made you feel helpless in the face of an incurable illness. Scraping off 3 jobs, not a day passed by where you wished that you could trade your life to save moms. But as all things end, so did her life.

You moved to Milan the next summer, became distant with everyone you had contacts with, because you don’t need people in your life that sticks with you when the life is all about sunshine and lottery-winning-luck. Everything became different. Its simply as if you disappeared from the face of earth. It was all worth for a new start.

 ‘I feel like I should apply for a holiday and take you out tomorrow’ Jess puts on her thinking face. ‘You seem flustered and in need of a really good day’

‘I would love to, but I have to stay at the nursing home tomorrow, lot of new patients due to the flu that’s going around’ you apologize, but truly you don’t have the right mindset to have fun. You’re still hoping that your social skills haven’t been worn out.

Jess sighs. ‘okay then’

That was the end of the dialogue. She leaves soon as she came, once again abandoning you to the four walls of the apartment. You eat ice cream for breakfast because the energy within your body failed you. How am I possibly going to work? You think before setting out around 5 pm. The skies were dull, and the roads were muddy with rainwater. You keep brushing your feet against the pavement to take off the leaves that keeps sticking to your shoe sole. The whole experience was annoying.

After helping Cathy, other nurse who works with you, you impatiently counting down minutes till 8 pm so you could leave for home. When it does strike 8 pm on your clock, you trod down the same road now less muddy and the leaves have been cleaned out. The city lights were blinding yet beautiful. You wish you worked full time like Jess too, because at least keeping busy will get your mind to be distracted. When you get to the apartment complex it was even frustrating to see a ‘out of order’ sign at the elevator. You take a detour and start climbing the stairs.

Climbing the very last floor with a relief, you stop abruptly to see a man standing near your doorway. Clearing your throat, you signal him to move. But he doesn’t.

‘Excuse me’ you say a bit louder.

He turns his head real slow that if you didn’t know better, you’d say the moment lasted for like five minutes.

You force a smile. ‘this is my door, are you lost?’

14^th May

You look at him with disgust, the thought of spitting at him crossed your mind myriad times, but the consequence of the spitting could end your life. So you grit your teeth and wait for his signal to pick the phone up.

The phone was just 2 feet away on the cabinet, if you could just distract him, you’d get out of the mess and call the police. Drifting off with the train of thoughts, he must have seen your face. He cringes when our eyes meet and says ‘don’t even think about it’ he takes his gun and pretends to clean it with his palm, even though we both know that it doesn’t need any cleaning. The smug expression is just plain grim.

Few hours later..

You stiffen at the ring tone of the phone, even Paulo looked doubtful, as if you would run away the second he diverts his attention to the phone call. He was right, all you needed was the opportunity. Unfortunately, he wasn’t that dumb as you expected him to be. He motions you to pick the phone up. With a dint of hesitancy, you place your hand on the buzzing phone and answers it.

‘Put it on speaker’ he gives crystal clear directions so there was no room for playing games.

You do as you were told. Both of you listen to the instructions that the man on the phone has to give, but he addresses Paulo. He doesn’t sound so friendly.

‘The man will come to the hospital with the sample drugs tomorrow’ the voice says. ‘send your man to the reception and we can finish the deal there, don’t forget the money’

‘Have I ever?’ Paulo bursts into a laughing fit and so does the man on the other end. You think to your self helplessly what sort of sense of humor the underworld mafia possess. These men were the type to hide a dead body on the April fool’s day and call it a prank. After declining the call, he drags me by the hand and corners you. Drawing his pistol barrel on to your forehead, he smiles and says, ‘no funny business alright? Because if you do anything that we haven’t already discussed..’ he clicks the gun to get it ready ‘I will have your friend killed as well, who was that, uh, Jess?’ he laughs ‘so long Jess’

You gulp with so much fear that you forgot you were nodding to everything he said.

‘Alright!’ he claps his hands.

That evening was a nightmare. Within 2 days your life became a living hell. You didn’t know what was worse, being crouched in a corner while your eyes are all wide and open, so you stay vigilant about every moment or not being able to call Jess and warn her about this psychopath drug dealer on the loose. He suddenly kicked the side of your stomach, making you cringe with pain. You wanted- NEEDED, to tear at his hair, just run your nails over his pale face. All of that seems like a fantasy looking at your tied, helpless self.

‘We have a deal to close, let me make your nurse job more interesting for ya’ he laughs again and kicks at your side again.

13^th May – flashback

He smiles at you, not exactly trying to truly greet you back. This man had thick, black hair with elegant brown eyes. You would have said he was around 40 years except his teeth were half crooked  and yellowish from the bottom. You try to hide your judgements underneath your smile.

In a thick Italian accent he says, ‘yes I just moved here, name is Paulo’ and points at the next apartment door. You nod with relief and think, so there were  boxes after all.

‘Right! Yes I saw them too’ you shake the uneasiness off your shoulders. ‘I am really sorry, how rude of me, I’m Chris nice to meet you..’ you extend your hand expecting the same greeting. But something went terribly wrong. By terribly wrong, I mean very wrong.

He pulls you in by the hand and stifles your neck. You felt something at your temple – a gun. You are too surprised to get a word out nor cry for help.

‘Stay still and come with me’ keeping his hand on your throat, he backs off along with you into his apartment. After tying you up, he decides to greet. ‘So I hope you’re comfortable’ he says with sarcasm. ‘You scream, I shoot’ he threatens.

 ‘Let me cut to the chase’ he adjusts himself on a chair next to me. ‘You see those boxes over there?’ he looks at them. There were a few boxes laid up near the patio. Those were the boxes you saw the day before! You look at him with confusion.

‘If you didn’t pry at my things in the first place, you wouldn’t be in this’ he shakes his head with what seems to be disappointment.

‘I wasn’t prying’ you say ‘I barely saw the stupid boxes’

‘Stupid?’ since when did drugs become stupid to you?’

Your eyes widen. ‘drugs?’

He grunts. ‘My previous delivery man was an imbecile, leaving the parcels like that’ he explains as if he owes you one. You listen because there is no other choice left. ‘Well’ he takes a stand as if to make it clear that he is done talking. ‘Killing him was a bit tacky, almost thought you heard the doorbell he rang’

‘What’ you felt so dizzy at the moment but at the same time couldn’t help but remember that sudden doorbell you heard the day before. A shiver passed down your spine like a wet spider crawling a slippery surface. ‘no…’ you say out loud and drift away into the night where you heard the doorbell. That man was trying to escape from Paulo..

‘The bastard hit my eye’ he says squinting his right eye. I was just a second late before he bashed out and managed to ring your doorbell hoping someone would let him in’ he mocks. ‘Funny’

‘How the hell is that funny?’ you ask.

‘Because I dragged him back to kill him of course, all because you couldn’t open the door on time’ he says. ‘Well you would have died too’ he finishes quickly.

You contemplate about the fact that you were so lucky that night, but it wouldn’t make a difference because you’re going to die now anyway.

‘So I’m not here to rock you into your sleep, I need some sample drugs smuggled’ he points the gun at your leg.

‘And you’re going to do it for me’

15^th may

You haven’t slept for more than a day. Not like you’re not used to it anyway, but you knew you didn’t want to smuggle drugs even if it was the last option you had to make a living.

This time you don’t imagine the doorbell ringing. It actually rings and you jolt with a dint of hope. Paulo motions be to be quiet and stuffs the piece of cloth tight against your mouth so you couldn’t even make an audible muffle. Your heart begins to accelerate when you hear a familiar voice – Jess!

‘Mmmh’ you collect your energy to make the voice come out of your trachea, but the effort is in vain. You hear Paulo introducing himself and bid goodbye before Jess saying, ‘have you by any chance noticed a middle-aged woman around here in this apartment?’

‘Afraid not’ he says. Liar. ‘Is everything okay?’

‘Right, no it’s about my friend, she didn’t come home yesterday so I’m just asking everyone if anyone saw her’

‘I’ll let you know if I see her’ he lies with his accent that echoes in the hallway.

You try again to let jess know you’re still here and starts moving vigorously on the chair and as expected you fall to the ground with a huge ‘thud’ noise

‘Is anyone else with you Mr. Paulo?’ You hear Jess interrogating. YES that’s her inner journalist questioning the integrity of this man.

‘Not a soul’

You hear the door closing and Paulo pacing up toward you. He grabs you by your hair and yanks at you to set you upright back on the chair. ‘do you have a death wish?’ he asks. ‘if your friend comes to my apartment again, I’ll kill her’ he dabs at your hair and leaves you.

‘You’re going to get my drugs now’

Later that evening..

You had planned the perfect plan. When Paulo instructs you to go to the hospital to get the drugs, you are going to make a run for it. what he forgot was that you know every corner of the hospital. And when you run, you are going to be one step ahead of Paulo. You revise this plan for about half an hour but your heart sinks when he appears with an object in his hands.

‘So Chris’ he smiles. ‘This is a bomb’

You felt the hotness of the tears that were on the brink of falling.

He forcefully wraps the ticking bomb around your waist, and you wait till he guides you out. He wears a thick robe-like clothing and covers his head, clearly giving off the feeling that he doesn’t want to be figured out by anyone. ‘walk straight’ he grips the back of your elbow and you almost wince in pain, the spot that he kicked your stomach ached really bad.

What he didn’t know what that you noticed his nervousness. When he kept checking his phone it displayed 5.00.00 minutes to blow off the bomb. So, that’s how he plans to blow this off, his phone was the defuse of the bomb on your waist…

‘I’m going to wait here. You will get the samples and return here immediately. If not….’ He points at his phone ‘one click, and you’ll be remembered as a suicide mission’

With your heart beating out of your chest, you enter the hospital, sit down near the reception and wait..

‘Oh my goodness Chris!’ you hear a familiar voice – Cathy. ‘Jess has been worried sick!, where on earth were you? Let me call Jess’ She does so before you could say anything.

You didn’t know whether to answer or not. I’m sure Paulo inserted a wire in the bomb somewhere. ‘Cathy please go’ you say with tears in your eyes.

‘What’s wrong?’ she sounded worried. And then you get the most brilliant idea. You mimic for her to give you a paper.

Making a bewildered facial-expression she hands you a paper and a pen. ‘There is a bomb on my waist’ and you show it to her.

She almost laughs but stops when she realizes that you were serious.

‘lift it and see for yourself’ you write.

When she lifts your shirt, she immediately drops it and covers her mouth. You mimic her not to make any sudden noises and to call the police, and she does. Now we wait.

A few moments later, two men sat next to me and flips open a newspaper. You look at their side and they nod. Since you don’t have anything to do, you nod too.

‘Money?’ the man on your right asks me.

You pull a parcel from the handbag and offer the money Paulo instructed me to give then man.

As soon as he laid his hands on the money parcel he instructed the man on the left to hand you the drugs. As soon as that was done, they got up and left in a hurry. you force the small package into your bag and hurry outside to see Paulo waiting for you.

He snatched the bag away from me and pushed me a bit further. Now that he was holding the parcel in his hand, he was holding his phone on his left. It was now or never.