I was about to hug him, when his cold voice rang through the calm air. “STOP” and Just like that my motion ceased and my feet obeyed his command.
My hand were still stretched out to hug him and I retracted my hand to its normal position.
His deep blue eyes were looking at something behind me. Without meeting my gaze, he lifted his right hand and with the index and middle finger he made a horizontal motion. I was supposed to understand what that meant, but I couldn’t comprehend what he was trying to say, as my focus had shifted to his shirt’s first three buttons which were unbuttoned and there were dust patches on his grey sleeves. I tried to search my memory- Was his shirt like this earlier. But came up blank and I didn’t get much time to ponder as my eyes shifted to his chest and I could see beads of sweat running down his chest. The sweat was running at a rate that if I wanted I could have counted the sweat generated around his neck and running through his neck and chest.
It was fascinating to watch.
I gulped. Something was happening to me. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
I shifted most of my weight to my right foot and turned my head to the other side.
Whirling my neck didn’t help at all. As the mental image of the sweat was ingrained deeply in my mind. I could still imagine it rolling slowly down his chest, some of it colliding with his shirt, while rest of it going down..…..In fact I didn't even notice when he brought his hand towards me and touched the junction between my neck and shoulder.
But that was when a searing pain erupted in my shoulder. I screamed as the searing fire of pain travelled through my body.
hYBrID VII
“What is it?” he asked in a bored tone.
My vision went blurry as tears flooded my eyes.
The pain was so intense .... so unbearable. It was like somebody was repeatedly plunging a few searing hot daggers at the base of my neck. But the blistering pain was not restricted to that area. It was everywhere. This was nothing compared to what I felt in the morning. This was thousand times worse.
Even with so much pain I was aware that Zach had lifted me up and settled me on top of the hood.
His hand went to my shoulder and he slipped the right side of my top down. “Let me see.”
I nodded. It was hurting so much, that I just wanted it to stop.
Even though I was in so much pain, I could still notice how his eyes had darkened and the gold rim around the pupil had brightened.
“Don’t worry. You will be fine.” He said satisfactorily.
I whimpered with pain “It hurts.” I closed my eyes.
He rubbed that area gently and the pain stopped. Just like that.
I opened my eyes, found him watching me intently and the world outside grew still. There was something about his eyes. There were blank, lifeless, but still they had the ability to captivate me. I felt drawn to his cold eyes, as if a rope had been bound to my head and he was slowly inexorably pulling it towards him.
The moment broke when he lifted me up and took me to the shotgun. Dumped me there and closed my door shut. Then, he went to his side, twisted the key, pressed two buttons, the hood of the car and the tailgate popped open.
After six minutes or so he was done and then he carried the jerry can to the backside and dumped it there.
He returned and then we were on the road, like nothing happened. One thing was clear that he didn’t like to talk while driving. Even my body supported his silence. I was still too weak from the earlier sickness and the serious pain that had erupted out of the blue.
I turned my head towards the window.
I must have fallen asleep as when I woke up I could hear Zach talking with someone on the phone. His voice was friendly, unlike what I had heard till now. I don’t know why I thought about faking, call it a premonition or intuition, I continued my act of sleeping.
“She sleeps a lot.” he was saying.
Pause
“I saw it myself with my own eyes.”
The person on the other end said something and Zach let out an annoyed sigh “You will see in the evening. I never lie to people I work for.”
Pause
“When your dad will come to know, he will not be pleased with your decision.” Zach growled.
Zach muttered a word called cocksucker. It sounded like a curse. I immediately added that word to my limited vocabulary. I might have to use it someday.
He hung up the phone.
I continued my sleeping act for ten more seconds. Then I felt a hand on my forehead. I jumped out of my seat.
His right hand was on the steering wheel and left was kept lazily on the window. He eyes were straight ahead “You know, you shouldn’t act in front of me. I will always know. Ask me, How?”
“What do you mean?” I replied innocently. Hoping that he would buy that.
But I should have known, as the upper corner of his lip that was visible to me tugged up wickedly “You know exactly what I mean. Now I want you to ask me that question.”
“H-How?” I repeated what he wanted me to say.
He turned towards me and our gazes met. “Because, baby your face, palm and one more area that I wouldn’t want to mention as you are little naive right now, gets all sweaty whenever you are paying attention to me.”
My eyes widened. I scooted closer to the window seat.
How could someone notice my palms and face were sweaty when I was not even facing him. He definitely had great eye sight. Which third area he was talking about? I will think about that later, but why am I getting sweaty? Why did my parents kept me away from people, if I am going to act like this in front of the strangers. All sweaty.
It’s so gross.
Simon was also a boy but I never had this kind of reaction in front of him. The inner voice reasoned- It might be because you have known him for eleven years.
“You don’t have to think so much.” He smirked casually. Again my eyes were fixated on his.
“W-What?”I asked distractedly.
“It is ok if I turn you on.” he responded nonchalantly and his eyes went back to road.
“You have not turned me. Simon has turned me many times.” I laughed as I thought about that incident in which Simon was not getting two third of the bed. I usually need 1/8th of the bed and my position is fixed. But on one particular day, I somehow shifted to the middle of the bed. So Simon had to turn me on my side of the bed several times so that he could have some space for sleeping.
“No one can turn you on apart from one person.” He growled and I flinched when he twisted his face in my direction. He was getting angry.
But, he was wrong and I had to correct him. “I do not think so. I told you that one night Simon had to turn me on many times.”
"That is fucking impossible.” He gnarled and the gold rim in his eyes brightened ten times of what I had seen earlier.
“Your eyes.” I said in a daze.
He blinked once and it was gone and so had his temper.
“I promise you someday I am going to turn you so fucking on that whatever you and your little Simon had done, you won’t even remember it at that moment.” He paused and added “And I always keep my promises.”
The oncoming car horn pulled us out of this staring contest and I immediately looked at the road because I didn't want to die before seeing Sammy one last time.
Thinking of Sammy brought me out of all of this. Who was Zach talking to on the phone? He was clearly talking about me.
I looked at him and asked the question that was still nagging me from the morning “How do you know my Parents, Zach?”
He gave me a look which said not now.
But I asked again. “You have to tell me.”
“What makes you think that I am going to tell you.” he replied haughtily.
He was not going to tell me so I said “I will ask my dad, if you are not going to tell me.”
His reply was curt and short “Do whatever you want.” and this was clearly the end of our conversat
ion.
I should have asked him a different question. Who was he talking to?
Stupid, Ashley. Why do you have to ask wrong question at wrong time?
**********
Someone was nudging me gently on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and saw Sammy’s warm brown eyes in front of me.
The first thing that came to my mind had nothing to do with Sammy. It was a different thought that dawned upon me.
Zach had been talking to someone here.
hYBrID VIII
“Why did you call all of us here on such short notice?” Someone asked
A low and beguiling voice of a girl asked “Is she here?”
“Is she the one?” Someone else asked.
“Does she have the mark?” The person who had raised this question sounded like an old man.
“If he comes to know what will happen?” Another person enquired
“How will we protect our people?” An old lady questioned
Question after question were being raised and no one was answering anything. In evening when I arrived Sammy brought me to this room and told me to freshen up and left. After half an hour he came into my room and told me that he will send someone with dinner. Then he said to take rest and he will talk about few important things in the morning.
“Why did your dad took this decision 14 years ago if he was going to free her one day?”
“We should have kept her locked for some more time, till we unanimously arrive at the same solution.”
“Keep your voices down. She can hear us.” A familiar voice said harshly.
How does he know? I immediately checked if my body was conveying some secret information to Zach, without me knowing.
Okay, so there was little sweat on my palms. But we were not even in the same room. How can he know that?
Sammy’s voice reached my ears for the very first time .“I don't think so. Her senses are not that strong.” Sammy stated with conviction.
Someone laughed and suggested “We should have conducted in your room then, Zach. It is sound proof after all.”
The girl from earlier responded “I dare you to enter his room. I am certain you will find couple of girls sitting naked on his bed. Since, these girls have been waiting for him from yesterday night, by now they must have resorted to some other means to relieve themselves.”
“Shut up Kaitley. We are not here to discuss about Zach’s personal life.” Sammy tried to hush her.
The same person from earlier said “I accept the challenge. I have no problem in watching girls doing some nasty stuff. Infact it is a huge turn on. My wife won’t have to do any special thing for my member.”
“I have pretty high level stuff. Let me know if you need it for your thing.” It sounded like a young guy's voice who was kind of mocking him.
Whatever they were saying was beyond me? No matter how hard I try I was not able to follow them.
The member man laughed. “Don’t call it a thing man. Visual media ain’t working for me anymore. If you have anything apart from that, I am all game for it.”
Kaitley snorted “You sure are going to become good role models for these boys..”
“How did we shift from the main topic?” Someone asked seriously
The membrane man said “I want to say one last thing. Let Zach do, whatever he wants. I remember when I was 18, I wanted to try everything from trekking to screwing multiple girls at the same time. Infact I also once thought of having a threesome with a guy and a virg-”
“We are not here to discuss about your escapades.” Zach yelled while emphasizing on each word. I could imagine him trying to control his anger. Scary guy.
The member man coolly replied “We included your escapades also, Zach. Don’t get angry, man.”
“Didn’t you listen to what I just said” Zach sounded way off his normal tone. It was like if they do not get back to the main topic, he would resort to physical violence.
Pin drop Silence. Magic of Zach.
Ten seconds later
Kaitley breaks the silence “Sam why didn’t you shift her to the farthest room in this house when you knew we are going to assemble here today.”
Sammy mumbled “I decided in the morning itself about this meeting. Only that room was free as you all will be staying with us today.”
Even though I have not spent much time with Sammy, I knew him like the back of my hand. So I was sure that there was more to it. He was not telling the truth.
Sam added “Dad will come next week. We will give our solution to the problem and everything will be fine.”
A very serious voice spoke for the first time “It is very easy to say, but your dad will never approve of what we decide. You of all people are aware of the situation that arose 14 years ago even if you were not physically present with us. We all in unison agreed upon two things. Either kill the girl or lock her away in a dungeon. Your dad didn’t give his approval on any of these two points. In fact we all got a big lecture on how we have lost our humanity.”
Sam regained his normal voice and responded “That is why I called all of you, so that we could think of something as we have a week in our hand.”
My mind was no longer on what was going on in the next room.
They wanted to kill me. My heartbeat and head were hammering with the same thought again and again.
One thing was certain that they had formed this opinion about me a long time back. They didn’t even know me. How can they kill someone when a person is merely few months old. It’s such a cruel thing to do. Were these people the reason why my parents kept me locked away for so long?
What did I do? What happened forteen years ago for them to hate me so much? Furthermore even Sammy knows about it. He never once mentioned anything. I do not expect any information from my dad, but Sammy was in a different league. He should have told me all this a long time back. That’s what siblings do. They share the secrets, happiness and even the anguish.
One thought that lessened the pain was my dad had saved me from all these barbaric people.
A knock on the door startled me and posed a stop on my thoughts. A young girl of about 10 knocked at the door and entered with dinner. She placed it on the table and looked at me.
“Miss Ashley, Please have your dinner. If you need anything else, press the switch on the right hand side of your table with my name Lily written on top of it.”
She was about to turn when I said “Lily, come here. I want to talk to you.”
There was a slight hesitation in her steps. She walked towards me and stood next to the bedpost.
“Sit here.”I patted the place next to me.
She came and sat there relunctantly.
“Last time, you were not here when I had come to this place. When were you hired?” I asked little gratingly.
She flinched at my tone and replied softly “Miss Ashley, I got appointed in January.”
Without wasting any time, I got straight to the point.
“What is the frequency of such meetings?”I enquired
“Miss Ashley, I do not know.”she responded cautiously.
“First of all you are going to call me Ash from now on and secondly do not lie to me.”I said trying my best to keep my voice calm.
The problem was I didn’t want people to lie to me, which was somehow getting very difficult task to achieve. It seemed everybody was trying to keep me away from the truth.
Lily mumbled “Miss Ashley, I am not lying. This is the first meeting since January.”
Thank god she added one extra sentence out of her own free will.
But miss Ashley, seriously. As if I am some queen of this place.
“Please don’t call me Miss Ashley.” I appealed to her
Lily jumped from the bed. “Miss, Someone is calling me. I ha-have to go.”
I gave her the permission and she rushed out from the room as fast as her feet could take her.
The weird thing was I didn’t even hear any one calling her.
hYBrID IX
I was in my lala land with Simon. He was showing me some of his new dance moves. His arms, legs and protruding abdomen were moving in the different direction. There was no coordination whatsoever. The scene was so hilarious that tears were coming out of my eyes. I was laughing so hard that my whole body was shaking violently. But even this didn’t deter him fro-
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