by Tikiri
Vlad ordered us all inside once we were done. I was cold, hungry and afraid, but all I could think was, At least we’re alive.
The inside of this house had the same peeling paint and musty smell as the previous place. Exposed electric wires hung from the ceiling. Someone had either taken out or stolen the light fixtures. One spot on the kitchen wall looked like someone had gone berserk on it with a carving knife. The dark maroon splatter was ominous. Luc examined it and nodded. “Dried blood,” he said, matter-of-factly.
The only drinking water here trickled out of the kitchen tap. The remaining taps in the house drizzled a disgusting brown liquid that we suspected was water, but couldn’t say for sure.
Vlad ordered Katy, Win and I into a room on the second floor. It held a simple desk and one bed, which occupied most of the space and a bathroom right outside. He pointed Tetyana and Luc to the room next to us, large enough to fit a bunk bed. Zero took the entire third floor of the house, while Vlad took over the first floor where the living room was. He slept on the couch with his gun by his side, to “make sure no one leaves,” he said with an ugly curl of his lips.
We woke up the next morning to a surprise. The police were everywhere, patrolling the streets with sniffer dogs, looking inside every parked car and watching every doorway. Several black police vans were parked on the street right across from the house. Tetyana said they must have raided brothels in the neighborhood, and a sting operation might be happening across the cities in Europe.
Zero and Vlad were all nerves, understandable given they’d left the body of a dead police officer in their former rented home in London. This meant they had us on lockdown. No one was allowed out, no one was allowed in, and no one was allowed to make noise, except for when one of the men decided to go on a rampage. While both men slept most of the first day, worn out from the long drive, we remained fully alert, knowing our lives were at the mercy of their moods.
That first day, while the men were asleep, we spent most of our time trying to figure out how to escape this sick place. We tried all the doors and windows, but nothing would budge open. So we huddled in our room after pushing the heavy desk against the door, so neither man could barge in.
All we’d done was move from a prostitution house in London to another one very much like it in Brussels. It even smelled the same here, that stale, unwashed smell like the old house in South Hill Square. Our most immediate problem was food. I’d hoped the brown boxes in the van contained something edible, but they were loosely packed with cheap clothing, T-shirts, pants, and skirts. That was one reason none of us got badly hurt when the boxes came tumbling down on us in the van. I only learned later that contraband cash and small weapons had been hidden deep inside these boxes, currency at rogue checkpoints.
Luc managed to find four bottles of evil-smelling alcohol of indeterminate type in the glove compartment of the van. He also rustled up a dozen packets of his white stuff. By the end of the first day, Vlad and Zero had drunk up all the booze and sniffed part of Luc’s stuff as well. Whatever it was, it was potent. Sharing a small house with two drugged-out, gun-toting gangsters was not what I’d planned when I fled India, or when Katy and I ran away from Toronto. We were now further off our original track than ever before.
We remained barricaded in our room, and by that evening, Win swore she was prepared to die of starvation, while Katy said she was ready to die of an exploding bladder. Neither wanted to risk going outside. But we had to do something.
Very early the next morning, Tetyana and I decided to get out. We’d find an escape at the most, or food at the least, we thought. And we had to take our chances with Zero and Vlad.
Chapter Twenty-four
Slam!
I ducked just in time, almost tripping on my robe.
I’d been scavenging the kitchen for food and empty water bottles for us to pee in. It was very early in the morning and I’d thought the men were still asleep. But I was wrong. The kitchen door had crashed open and what sounded like a crack-filled raging bull roared in.
The hair on the back of my neck sprang up. I spun around to see Zero’s flushed face, with his bulging red eyes, looking like it was about to explode. He stomped unsteadily toward me with his gun in one hand. I watched in alarm as he pushed his face three inches from mine and snarled.
“You useless piece of nothing!”
I turned my face away, but the stench of stale saliva marinated in drugs and alcohol was too strong. I tried not to gag. Zero didn’t believe in selling the stuff Luc sold, but he made a regular habit of snorting it. I was learning quickly what an unstable and walking contradiction he was. And when he was high, he became as dangerous as a stampeding rhino I’d seen once on safari.
I peered through the eye slit, my eyes darting across the room, looking for an escape. But I was trapped. Trapped between a hungry, boozed-up, drugged-out thug and the kitchen sink.
“Do your job, you stupid, lazy girl! Why you not make food for me?” His voice was a slur. His spit rocketed out and landed on my veil. I cringed in disgust, thankful for Bibi’s robe.
I’d done a good job being Bibi so far, but there had been close calls. In the van coming over, Tetyana had said I’d be okay as long as I kept my mouth shut. Bibi supposedly didn’t talk to men, any men. She cowered in the presence of males, a mute puppet who bent to their whims. I was glad I was impersonating a woman as voiceless as a street pole. This shouldn’t be difficult to do, or so I’d thought then.
“Answer, you idiot! Are you stupid or deaf?” He swayed unsteadily to one side, then to the next. I wondered if he was going to crash and fall anytime now. My mind raced madly to think of a way out of my corner without giving myself away.
He jabbed a thick brown finger under my nose. “Remember, I own you! I your older brother. Respectable brother!” He drew back and gave me a disgusted look, like I was a pile of rubbish.
Respectable?
“Should have burn you alive.” He glared at me with those angry red eyes. “Or sell you to gang master in London. Maybe I thrash you to death now!” He threw his gun down on the table and raised his hand.
I ducked. He missed and hit the countertop instead.
“Arrrgh!” He drew his hand back in pain.
I shuddered under the robe. There was no place to run. I stood silently, my heart pounding, watching, waiting to duck another incoming fist. I remembered how mercilessly he kicked Win in London, and I couldn’t get the image of that bloodied girl in the yellow blouse out of my mind. Those self-defense classes I took at my international schools were like child’s play now. I was no match against raging fists and deadly weapons.
But I’m gonna fight, I told myself. I’m gonna fight like a tiger, claws, teeth, and all. I’m not gonna lie down and just take it.
The man in front me of me was frothing. “You can’t cook for me, but you can run in night like stupid female goat in heat. You shame me!”
I wondered how much of the white stuff he’d inhaled. I spread my arms innocently, shrugging as visibly as I could. I hoped that was a gesture Bibi did, that it would placate him somehow.
“You talking back to me?” His eyes looked like they were about to spurt blood. “You dare cross me!”
Talk back? He’s mad.
“You whore!” His roar blew back my face veil. “That what! I saw you without niqab.”
My blood froze. Oh my god, he knows I’m not Bibi. I kept my eyes on the ground, but inside, I was shaking like a leaf. What do I do? If I make a run for it, where do I run?
“I saw you talk to dat boy!” Zero’s eyes were glowering. “You ruin my family’s name again? That’s it, ha?”
My mind cleared. I understood now. Win had woken up at three in the morning the night before, sick to her stomach. She’d woken up shaking and gagging and had asked me to take her to the bathroom. Katy, sound asleep, didn’t hear us, and Win was in such a bad state, I didn’t have time to think. I jumped out of bed, moved the desk enough for us to squeeze throug
h, and tiptoed with her to the bathroom across the hallway, leaving Bibi’s robe at the foot of my bed. A stupid and careless move.
I hadn’t thought anyone would have noticed at that time of the night, but as I waited for Win outside the bathroom, I saw Tetyana and Luc’s door crack open. It was Luc coming out to see what was going on. He walked over, we had a quick whispered chat, and he helped me clean the bathroom and take Win back to the bedroom. I didn’t think anyone else had been up at that time.
“You dishonor me and my father!” Zero raised an index finger to the sky, as if commandeering his gods. “My father, may he rest his soul, is turning in grave to have stupid daughter like you!”
Underneath the robe, I was trying to stay sane. How can having an innocent chat with Luc be any worse than dealing drugs, running a brothel, kidnapping, murdering and inciting a man to rape his own sister? And doesn’t he know what his own sister looks like? Or was he too drugged to see clearly?
“If he here now, he twist your neck in half! Maybe it’s time I did Father’s duty and get honor to family.” He loomed over me.
I looked at the table, which was within arm’s distance from me. On it sat Zero’s gun, glinting under the yellow kitchen light. A few inches to the side and I’d be able to touch it. I lifted my arm slowly, so he wouldn’t notice. Bibi’s robe felt heavier than leather sheeting. My whole body had broken into sweat, but I hadn’t forgotten all my self-defense lessons yet.
Zero opened his mouth and started to yell something about his father and god again, when I raised my knee and hit him, aiming right between his legs.
“Aaargh!” He doubled over screeching, more from shock than pain, I was sure. But I didn’t wait to find out. I ducked around him and snagged the gun.
Zero straightened up and tried to grab me. “Get here, you slut!”
I pointed the gun at him with shaking hands.
He gave me a wild look. “What the hell you do? Give dat or I thrash you to pieces!”
I don’t know what overcame me, but I felt a surge of electric strength travel from the hand that held the gun to my spine. I whipped the gun up, so it pointed directly at his face, and took a confident step forward. Through that slit in the veil, I glowered darkly at him. His face went white.
That jelly feeling in my legs had disappeared and had been replaced by anger—no, rage—rage from remembering what he had done to Bibi, from remembering how he had kidnapped Katy, how he had kicked Win, and how he had directed those soul-less men to inflict torture and death on that young girl in the warehouse. All this flashed across my mind like a fast-tracked video. I felt adrenaline course through me. My feet felt solid on the floor, my arm strong and tight. I peered through my slit to give him a penetrating look, and kept the gun steady. I was ready to take blood.
“Are you possessed, woman?” Zero’s eyes bulged, as if they were ready to pop out. “Why you do this? I’m your brother.”
I took another step forward and with a quick flick of my wrist, cracked the gun against his nose. Zero jumped back, cradling his nose, his face ashen. Now, he was the one stuck between an angry woman and the kitchen sink. How ironic. I hadn’t even touched the trigger. I didn’t even know where the trigger was, but that was enough for him. He threw up his arms.
“Aiiiee!” he cried. “Stop! God willing!”
His eyes glistened with water. His chest heaved and he was simpering in fear, unable to hold my gaze. Guess it’s hard to look at people you abuse, right? I held my stance for a few seconds and thrust the gun right into Zero’s pot belly. He whimpered. I jabbed again, this time deeper into his stomach cushion. He wheezed like a sick water buffalo, with sweat streaming down his face. Bullies are the biggest cowards, I thought.
I wanted to yell at him, threaten him, hit him for everything he’d done, but I knew my and everyone else’s continued safety was dependent on him believing I was his possessed sister, taking revenge. So I did the next best thing. I opened my mouth and let out my most blood-curdling ululation, like some women do in Pakistan during funerals. Except mine was infused not with grief, but with unspeakable fury.
In a flash, Zero turned around and fled.
Chapter Twenty-five
“Stop!”
The cry came from upstairs.
“Help!”
Oh my god. That’s Katy.
Lifting up the robe, I rushed out of the kitchen.
A door slammed upstairs.
“Help me!” It was Katy again, and this time her voice was muffled. I ran up to the second landing, holding my gun in front, trying not to trip on the robe.
“Hey!” A shadow sprang aside. “Don’t shoot!”
“Luc?” I said, adjusting the eye slits to see better.
“What are you doing with that thing?” His eyes, wide with terror, were on the gun. I lowered the weapon.
“What’s going on?” I said. “Where’s Katy?”
“Zero took her.”
“What?”
Behind him, the bedroom door opened and Win peeked out, her eyes fearful.
“Win! What happened? Where’s Katy?” I asked.
She stepped out of the room like a frightened deer. “He got her when she came out of toilet. She couldn’t hold any longer,” she whispered. “He pulled her up there.” She pointed to the third floor.
Someone was stomping down the stairs. We all looked up. I lifted the gun and trained it in the direction of the sound, my feet solid, my hands steady.
“Jeezus!” Vlad jumped back when he spotted the gun. “What the hell?”
I took two steps forward and pointed the gun squarely at his chest. He threw his hands up.
“My god, woman. What got to you?”
“Where’s Katy?”
Vlad blinked.
“Bibi?” He leaned in slightly and peered at me, keeping a safe distance, hands still up in the air.
“Where’s Katy?”
“Jeezus.” He stared at me. He inched backwards, toward the stairs, both hands still up. “He’s right. You possessed. Bejeezus fucking Christ!” He slowly moved one hand to his chest and crossed himself, one wary eye still on me.
I took another step closer.
Before I could do anything else, he spun around and ran up the stairs. I was just about to run after him, when I heard someone call out.
“Ash…I mean, Bibi!”
I whirled around. It was Tetyana running up the stairs from the first floor. Her cheeks were pink and she was panting. Her eyes widened when she saw the gun.
“How did you manage to get that?”
“Where were you?” I asked.
She walked toward me. “There’s a basement in the house,” she said, in a low voice. “There’s got to be a doorway out. Probably to a sewer, but maybe an underground tunnel. There’s a maze under Brussels, just like Kiev.” She turned to leave. “Let’s go, everyone. And bring that gun.”
“Tetyana!” I called out.
“We don’t have a lot of time.”
“Zero’s got Katy,” I said, pointing upstairs.
“No!” Her face turned an angry red.
“Help me get her,” I said. Picking up my robe with one hand and brandishing my weapon with my other, I climbed up to the attic. Behind me, I heard the others troupe up the stairs.
Vlad was at the attic door when I came up. He had the look of a cornered animal, searching for an escape. Inside the attic, it sounded like a crazed chimpanzee was running amok.
“Open, you bastard!” Vlad screeched at the door. “Your sis gone stark raving berserk.” He pounded on the door with so much vigor, I was surprised it didn’t crash open. “Oi!” he yelled, giving me a frightened, sidelong glance as I came up. “Let me in, you godamned idiot!”
Suddenly, things went quiet inside the room, and we heard someone speak from the other side of the door. I leaned in. It was Zero’s voice, but I couldn’t make out the words.
“What?” Vlad put his ear to the door to listen. Zero mumbled something.
<
br /> “Your bloody sister. Not mine!”
“Get away—Bibi—gun—” It sounded like Zero was busy with something, his voice fading when he turned away and clearer when he faced the door. I strained to listen. There was not a sound from Katy.
“She possessed, I tell you!” Vlad’s voice had risen several pitches higher. “Spooking me like hell.”
“I told you!” Zero said from behind the door. “Crazy mad like cousin wife!”
Vlad looked at me warily. I stared back at him and he seemed to shrink a little.
He was three times my size and could have easily overpowered me, but I realized then, just like Zero, he was a bully, and bullies don’t do too well when they’re surprised or cornered. Their power lay in the threat of their bullets. And I held that power now.
It was time to raise the stakes. With deliberate movement, I lowered the gun, pointing directly at Vlad’s groin area. He didn’t have to see my face to know I was serious. He went white.
“I tell you this house is haunted.” Vlad crossed himself.
“I come out only if Bibi don’t curse me.” Zero’s voice came clearly, as if he was standing just on the other side of the door now.
“Curse you?” A dark vein on Vlad’s forehead was throbbing like an electric wire gone mad. “You talk about curse? She got bloody gun on my dick, you idiot!”
“Where your gun?” Zero asked.
“With you, baboon. You took it from me, remember?”
Silence. Then, Zero’s voice came plaintively through the door. “But my cousin die like this.”
“Cousin?” Vlad spluttered, looking like he was about to implode. “I don’t give crap about your bloody cousin! Your crazy sister’s gonna riddle me with bullets and you talking about stupid cousin?”
“My cousin wife was possessed. Just like that. All nice and normal one day and he beat her when he want, but one day she turn into a she-devil. Just like that. That night he choke on his blood. It was curse, I tell you. She a witch!”
Vlad looked disgusted. “Your shitty family affair is not my problem. Open goddamn door!”