Saving Eliana

Working late hours is a common occurrence for a job like theirs. Eliana, Stella, and Gina were returning home from their food delivery job late at night. They were near the alley which was half-way to their house. In normal circumstances, the eerily quietness of the place was always an issue let alone when one of the girls had recently experienced a near to death assault. The jarring sound of a phone pierced through the night, sending a wave of panic through the girls. Ever since the burglar incident, Eliana had been on edge. Things she enjoyed most like taking a stroll in the evening became an object of fear. Nightfall became her mortal enemy. Just like this same evening when they were returning home from work.

They were near the alley when Stella’s phone broke the silence and jolted them, but Eliana seemed to be the only one among the three girlfriends who felt the fear most. Her body tensed and she couldn’t get passed her nervousness. Gina, who held her hand, could feel how tense her body had become, and she began to worry again.

“I have told you to change that nasty ringing tone of yours, I hope you won’t send me to an early grave,” Eliana remarked.

“If my ringing tone unsettles you, I wonder what you will do when you hear a gunshot.” Stella retorted.

“Don’t be an insensitive person with your careless talk. Do you want to add to the problem? I can feel her body tense up. I mean you should be mindful of your words.” Gina chided Stella, before commenting further. “Of all time and place, who would choose this hour to call you?" Gina’s change of conversation seemed to relax her companion better and her body eased.

“I promise myself that I won’t get distracted with a call at night. Whoever was calling would have to wait until we reached home. Girls, I don’t know about you, but as soon as our income increase, we had better makes a plan to start searching for accommodation in a secured area.” Stella remarked.

“I agreed,” Eliana replied. The three girls were holding hands, to give each other the needed support as they made their way home.

A fortnight ago, Eliana was alone at home, it was her off day. She planned to work on her second comic book as she was trying to debut. It was on one of the rare occasions when she had a brilliant inspiration and decided to draw and write. By the time she left her table to attend to other things, it was already late in the afternoon. The rest of the two girls were out and Eliana knew none of them would take it lightly with her if she didn’t do the grocery and cook their meal before they arrived home. It was her turn to cook, she couldn’t take it lightly, so off she went to the grocery stores and got what was needed for their meals. She returned home shortly after and started preparing dinner. The meal was almost ready when she heard a click at the door, and thought it was one of the girls. That was why she failed to react, by the time she knew she wasn’t alone in the house, that there was an intruder in the house, it was already too late. Because the individual had overpowered and hauled her down. She was hit in the head, and her face was covered with a bag before the intruder tied her down. All her initial struggle was futile, her voice became muffled and when finally got hit in the head, she simply lost consciousness. The intruder ransacked the entire house one-bedroom apartment of the three girls and made away with whatever he looted.

The room became eerily quiet, while Eliana remained in her semi-unconscious state, The smoke detector in the house began to make noise to the annoyance of other co-tenants and they had to get the caretaker informed. With a stroke of luck, she was rescued and taken to the hospital in an ambulance. She remained at the hospital for a week and was referred to a therapist to overcome her anxiety. Her two companions had all been supportive, helping her to overcome the problem and move on, but it had not been easy because apart from the physical and mental trauma brought as a result of the ordeal, her lifetime work was stolen. It was something she had been working on since her university days.

The three girls graduated from the same college and went to town in search of a job. The money each brought was nearly depleted before one of them, Gina, got a food delivery job offer at a medium-scale restaurant downtown. It was not much, but something to keep body and soul together. However, she hadn’t been working there for more than six weeks when the manager announced the expansion of the business and needed more hands. It was what brought the other two girls to work there. The manager introduced Andrew, one of the co-workers, to walk the two newly hired girls through the job routine of the Foodco Restaurant. Although each of the girls had her aspirations and often used their free days to scout for the job of their dreams, nothing had been forthcoming which made them stuck with their present job at Foodco. They had been working as delivery girls for the past six months, to pay the bills and had little savings. Eliana studied performing art and had the hope of quitting the delivery job after a year to start her comic company. Gina studied journalism while Stella studied psychology but was still unable to turn the tables in the labour market. Due to each roomie’s different life goals, their desire to save was in stark contrast. When Eliana would stay back to work on her comic books, the rest of the girls would go out searching for jobs on their free days. It was the same on the day she was attacked in their apartment.

The most shocking detail was that there was no forced entry which made the whole thing a little difficult to comprehend. The police concluded that whoever attacked Eliana was someone who knew them. The girls insisted that they never brought a stranger home. Even when the police seemed to have got the lead, it amounted to nothing as the intruder avoided cameras in the vicinity and the oversized dressing made it difficult to confirm his bodily physique.

Ever since the attack, Eliana became jumpy, and could hardly stay alone nor walk out unaccompanied. Any little incident made her apprehensive and sent her on an emotional rollercoaster. She couldn’t sleep alone and always had to depend on her friends to fall asleep. Life became hard for the girl to the extent that she was contemplating returning to her hometown.

It was six months before the police finally had a breakthrough in the case. Since Eliana accounted for the loss of her comic works, the Police department had been working tirelessly with the comic industry to get a hint when the book finally made it to the market. However, things got a bit complicated because the attacker was no other person than Eliana's new boyfriend. Andrew, their co-worker, who got involved with Eliana after the attack, had been up and doing to get the girl back on her feet. He would accompany them halfway home before going back to his house. It was the same thing the night Stella's phone rang close to the alley. He was the same guy who called and later sent a message, stating that he wanted to know if the girl had reached home.

It was his devotion and care toward her that made Eliana open her mind to Andrew when he expressed his feelings towards her. However, with the latest revelation, the girls lost it completely. The most shocking part was his confession about how he got hold of Gina’s key. He stole her key from the girl’s locker while the latter was on a delivery errand. He made a copy of it, then returned the original copy. It was that same copy that he used to gain an entrance into the girl’s apartment. His venturing into their house was premeditated; he came solely for Eliana’s work because he already got lucrative offer to sell the comic works. However, he wasn’t anticipating meeting any of the girls since they all told him that they would be out scouting for a job the previous night. Since he couldn’t afford to be discovered; he acted on the spur of the moment.

Eliana was in shock and had another episodic attack on her emotions which brought her back to the hospital. She had remained in the hospital since then; they were told the recovery would be a very long one. The girls were there with her all through the way. They were like a ray of sunlight at her darkest hour; they would hug and pat her back to give her the needed support.