Wet Touch

  Kevin placed his hand on his forehead and closed his eye as if trying to remember.

  “All I remember was that, there was this note and it had a name on it, but I don’t remember what had been written.”

  It was 9:45am, and the sun was up already. Kern and Kevin sat in the park under an ark tree which shaded them from the scourging heat of the sun. The trees around beautified the park and made it comfortable to sit and have a conversation. Kern loved the cool breeze blowing in his direction. He looked around to observe his environment.

  “There are a lot of people in the park today.” he said

  “Of course there are. Its weekend! …a day to let loose.” Kevin answered him

  “they sure look like they’ all having fun …all of them, except us” kern added

  “These are all kids you see around having fun. Do you see any adult?” Kevin scoffed

  “Well there’s one.” Kern said pointing out a man around the children swing.

  “Jesus Christ!” Kevin yelled out “…that’s a dad helping his daughter push the swing”

  Kevin laughed “please don’t let me stop you if you want to have fun with the kids. Go ahead!” he mocked him

  They suddenly noticed a little girl walking towards them. They became quite until she got to where they sat.

  “Kind sire please help me.” the little girl called out in her innocent little voice. “My mom and I are hungry and we have no food to fill our stomach.”

  Kern bent down to her “where is your mom, little one?”

  The young girl turned around and gestured at a middle age woman sitting alone at the far end of the park. She looked pale and sad.

  The lady looked in their direction.

  The little girl then turned and gave kern a long sorrowful look that melted his heart and almost made him wept.

  “…that’s your mum?”

  The little girl nodded.

  “No one in the park is willing to help us… kind sire please help me or else my mum and I will starve to death.”

  Kevin was touched by her plea. He leaned in close to her and asked, “What’s your name?”

  The little girl diverted her attention to Kevin “Mirabel…. It’s Mirabel, kind sire.”

  “Mirabel…” Kevin called out, “how old are you?”

  “Thirteen, I’m thirteen sire”

  Kevin slips his hands into his pocket and then brought out a bag full of silver and then hands it her.

  “Mirabel… this is the little I have on me right now, but I promise I will bring something better when I come back here.”

  Her face was immediately lit with smiles. “Thank you so much, kind sire.” Mirabel said joyously while taking the bag from him. “…this would be enough to handle our meals for the rest of today.” said the grateful little girl as she left them in a hurry to meet her mum waiting across.

  “…their meal for the rest of today. Unbelievable!” Kevin sounded shocked as he watched the girl ran to go meet her mum. “I’d kept that money to buy snacks on my way home before having lunch.”

  “I guess you have a lot to learn about managing your available resources.” Kern smirked

  Mirabel got to her mum. Mirabel then whispered something into her ear and handed the bag over to her. The lady waved at them in gratitude.

  Kevin nodded his head with a smile.

  The satisfactory feeling Kevin got watching the smiles on both Mirabel and her mum’s face made him feel glad he didn’t buy that snack.

  Kevin suddenly noticed Dreda and Madelia in the park sitting at a distance. They were both talking and laughing to each other’s jokes.

  They looked in his direction as though they were spying on him. When Kevin suddenly turned to look at them, they quickly pretended to be looking somewhere else.

  Kern noticed how frequently Kevin kept looking in their direction, then he said “You look like you’re expecting someone.”

  “There is this girl, I bump into her yesterday at school. I was being unfairly rude to her so I’d like to apologize to her for what I said to her on the pitch.”

  “Dude, since when did you start to care…”

  “I wonder why she isn’t with her friends today.” Kevin said totally ignoring him. “Let me go find out from her friends”

  “What!” kern sounded surprised looking up at him “Dude, are you being serious right now?”

  “I’d be right back…” Kevin ignored his question, then he left in a hurry. Kern just sat back with his mouth opened in shock as he watched Kevin walk towards the girls.

  Madelia almost established an eye contact with Kevin when she turned to look at him but then she quickly turn away.

  “Is he still looking?” she asked Dreda

  “Oh my God.” Madelia exclaimed in a low voice.

  Dreda quickly read the shocked expression on her face. “what’s that?” she asked in a whispering voice.

  “He is walking in this direction, try to act normal”

  Madelia started rubbing her palm across her face and quickly adjusted her dress.

  “Hey ladies…” Kevin greeted them with a tinted smile.

  They were both taken by surprise at how quick he was to get to them. They didn’t notice when he stood there. They immediately beam a flirty smile at him.

  “Hey there” Madelia answered with a fake laugh. She stretched her arms at him for a handshake. “…you must be Kevin?”

  Kevin received her handshake also with an obvious fake smile across his face.

  “Am Madelia” she said, then looking over at Dreda she said “…and this is my friend here, her name’s Dreda.”

  Dreda waved at him also with a smile.

  “Nice to meet you girls… but I was hoping I could talk to your friend for a moment to apologies for what had happened yesterday”

  “ohh, you mean Natasha…” Madelia said. Her face started to gloom “…you really did made her look like a fool in front of everyone yesterday.”

  “I know…” Kevin said with a tone of regrets in his voice. “That is why I came to apologies.”

  The smiles on their faces disappeared completely. Kevin immediately sensed something was wrong.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “She’s at De Laurel hospital right now. She was raped by some thugs on the street yester night” Dreda explained sounding equally sad.

  Kevin became tensed “is she alright?”

  “Is she alright?” Madelia said mimicking him. ”How can she possibly be alright after being raped? She was raped by six thugs… They all took turns to rape her.”

  “She is in critical condition right now…” Dreda added.

  …Six of them? Kevin thought.

  A feeling of anger rushed over him. He folded his hands into a tight fist. They just sat there observing his reaction.

  “De Laurel Hospital…. “His voice sounded dangerously low “Can you take me there?”

  “We were just about to go see her… if you want, you can join us.” Madelia reached for her bag and pull out her phone “let me call Derik to come carry us there.”

  “Don’t bother…“ Kevin said. He gestured towards the McLaren Senna car parked outside the park “I’ve got a ride already.”

  They both stood up and started parking their things…

  “---just give me a moment” Kevin left to go talk to kern.

  Kern had been watching them the whole time, he saw the girls stood up like they were going somewhere and then Kevin started walking towards him.

  “Can I borrow your ride?” Kevin asked politely.

  Kern looked at the girls waiting behind him, then he returned his gaze to Kevin. “…going to pay this girl a visit, I presume?”

  “Natasha- that’s her name, and don’t worry I won’t take too long.” Kevin assured him

  Kern took a moment to reply. He just gaze at him then he exhaled loudly. “…want to hear an advice?”

  “No!” Kevin immediately answered.

  Kern raised th
e car keys at him and Kevin took it from him. Kevin prodded his head signally at the girls to come.

  “Bring my car back to me in one piece. “ kern chuckled “ I don’t fuck'n care if you die or get hurt while driving. Just bring back my car the way you see it right now.”

  Kevin smile and turn the car engine on. “You’re not an asshole. You are just trying really hard to be one.”

  Then he drove away.

  Kevin chose to stay outside the room where Tasha was admitted when he arrived at the hospital while Dreda and Madelia went in to go see Natasha.

  Even when they had insisted that he should come in with them, he had refused. He told them both to go ahead, he’ll just wait out there.

  He stood there by the large transparent window outside the hospital room watching Natasha sleep. She seemed to be in a critical condition.

  She had a bruise all over her face and on her lip like she’d been punched really hard by the gang that’d raped her. The bruises on her lips brought back painful memories of his past.

  Kevin looked over at T-Rex with a puzzled look on his face wondering how he had managed to kidnap Loretta, his fiancée who had been missing for about two days now.

  Loretta was fast asleep as she stood there tied up to the pole. T-Rex quickly thrust a blow to her face breaking her nose.

  Loretta woke up with an awful groan. Her mouth was bruised, blood flow from her broken nose.

  Kevin looked at T-Rex with a disdain look on his face. As he forced his arms to relax, he felt the belt go slack.

  Loretta sobbed from the pains she felt from her broken nose. T-Rex quickly cupped his hands around her chin, forcing her to look at his face. “No no-“ he spoke into her face, “we wouldn’t want that sobbing once we have begun.”

  He moved over the table which was barely a feet from where she stood. On it there were several medical tools; a scalpel, a syringe, some long needle, a knife, a bowl containing oil in it and several transparent little bottles. Some of them contained white colorless liquid and the rest held some kind of dark fluid in it.

  Kevin watched him pick a glove from the table and then put them on. He picked up one of the bottles containing the colorless liquid, then he turned his gaze at Kevin “ever heard of hydroflorous acid?” he asked turning a little of its content into a spoon. A faint vapor rose from the bottles as he poured the content into the spoon.

  “…an acid listed as a weak acid, yet it has the capacity to melt a glass bottle to ashes.” He dropped the bottle gently on the table “now imagine what this will do to a human skin…”

  T-Rex smirked at Kevin as he carefully carried the spoon to where Loretta stood.

  Kevin’s eye bulge, he was starting to sweat. All he could do was groan horribly as he watched T-Rex struggled to get Loretta to open her mouth. Holding her jaw firmly, he cupped his hands around her cheek and then squeezed her mouth to open. He then emptied the spoonful of acid into her mouth forcing it down her throat.

  She let out a loud painful cry as her throat burn. Then her cries faded out. She coughed out blood which was then followed by a chocking sound. Her eyes widened in pains. She gasped loudly struggling hard to breathe.

  He then turned to look at Kevin. T-Rex had that steady smirk wide across his face “first it will burn out her tongue then the acid will flow down into her throat and severe her wind pipe and her voice box. At his point she would feel intense amount of pains down her esophagus. She’s going to have a little difficulty breathing and she would lose her ability to speak permanently."

  T-Rex slowly turned to look at Natasha in pleasure and excitement. He watched her breathing loudly. Her chest was heaving rapidly. The expression on T-Rex’s face indicated that he was enjoying every bit of it. Her eyes were wide open while she kept looking down at the floor in silence. Tears spilled over her check.

  T-Rex turned to looked at Kevin with a wide smile across his face. ”imagine feeling this much pain and yet, you have no real way of expressing it. All she do right now is to spill tears until she have no tears left in her eyes to cry. Good thing I didn’t give her too much of it else it would have killed her right away” he came too close to Kevin and spoke in his face “…and we wouldn’t want that, right?”

  Kevin just looked at him with tears in his eyes. His face was covered with sweat mixed in his tears. He had never felt this helpless in his entire life.

  Kevin could still feel her immerse pains from that day even though it’s been almost a year since it had happened. He then realized he had tears in his eyes standing there in the passage-way looking at Natasha through the large transparent window.

  He took out a handkerchief and gently wiped his tears off. He still couldn’t understand how T-Rex had gained pleasure from torturing Loretta.

  The cops haven’t been able to find T-Rex yet. It was even harder to find the man on mask who had kidnapped him since no one could identify him.

  He noticed that Tasha was now awake and having a conversation with both her friends. Tasha looked really hurt, she couldn’t even sit up straight. She just laid there on the bed talking to them weakly.

  Madelia and Dreda looked in his direction more frequently, while they spoke to Tasha. He knew they were talking about him.

  Natasha slowly turned to gaze at him after they said something to her. He stood outside the window with both his has dipped in his pocket. Both their eyes met. He felt so awkward just standing there and staring into her eyes. She gave him a soft smile and then waved at him. Kevin raised an arm from his pocket and waved back at her awkwardly with a tilted smile.

  “You should have seen the worries on his face when we had told him what had happened to you.”

  Madelia raised her eye to look at him again “maybe he’s not a total dick after all.”

  “He even drove us down here to come see you.” Dreda added

  Tasha looked at Kevin again then she asked “why is he just standing out there? Why wouldn’t he come in?”

  “We insisted that he should come in with us.” Dreda rolled her eyes “he bluntly refused. He said he felt more comfortable standing out there… crazy huh!”

  “He’s shy maybe.” Madelia said trying to study the look on Kevin’s face.

  Tasha chuckled “…say hy to him for me on your way out.”

  Tasha placed her hand on theirs “am so glad you two visited. It’s so boring here.”

  “Where is your phone? I tried calling earlier and…” Madelia froze.

  “Wait a minute…Did they take your phone from you?”

  “They took it from me along with the wrist watch my mum gave to me before she left…” Natasha was now sulking, “That watch is the only thing that connects me to my mum until she gets back.”

  Madelia tried to comfort her as she fondles her hair gently. “Your Dad is doing everything he can right now to catch does guys. Am sure soon enough he would get them.”

  “I know right… he was here earlier to see me. He told me the doctor said if everything should go as planned, I’d be discharged tomorrow so I can finally go home. He scolded me a little for staying out late at night.”

  “…a little?” Madelia chuckled. She knew when Tasha was lying.

  “You had another fight with your dad, didn’t you?”

  Tasha rolled her eyes. “It felt like he visited me just to scold me. Can you believe dad blamed it all on me saying if I hadn’t stay out so late this would have happened to me. He kept on reminding me about how often he had warned me about staying out late… That was literally the only thing we talked about when dad was here.”

  They both laughed at her. Dreda looked at Kevin again and he was still standing there just looking at Tasha.

  “We better get going now” she said “I think we’re keeping him.”

  “Yeah… we should get going now.” Madelia added. She hugged Tasha tightly. “Get better, ok…”

  Dreda also hugged her “Don’t worry, we will come visit tomorrow as soon as we get the chance.”

 
“Thanks… both of you.” Natasha kept smiling and as she watched them leave.

  They met Kevin still looking through the glass window at Tasha. Madelia smiled as she stood close beside him and also stared at Natasha through the transparent window.

  “She would really be happy if you had come in to see her.” Turning to look at him, she asked, “Is there a beef between you two?”

  Kevin finally turned to look at her. “No! I just feel comfortable standing out here than in there with her.”

  “…just wondering why you came all the way here but refuse to come in to see her.” Madelia said.

  “I thought maybe she would be agitated by my presence since things didn’t go so well between us the last time we spoke.” Kevin answered.

  “…and by the way, she said hy.” …” Dreda spoke from behind them. Then she left abruptly leaving him with Madelia who was still staring into the transparent window.

  Kevin took one last look at Tasha. The bruise on her lips was all he noticed each time he turned to look at her. He felt a sudden surge of anger growing within him.

  “Do you know where the guys who did this to her might be?”

  Madelia replied “they usually hang around the bar late at night –waiting for an unsuspecting victim to pass by. If it’s a guy, they’d beat him up and rob him of his possession… and If he is lucky, they’d let him live. If it’s a girl… she’d be raped just as they raped her.”

  Kevin was quite for a moment then Madelia said “…her dad is doing everything he can to catch does guys. He works with the cops.”

  “Let’s go, we’ve stayed out here for too long.” That was all Kevin said to her.

  Taking one last look at Natasha, his face was anguish.

  Tonight, I will make those bastards who did this to you pay.

  He clutched his fist tightly.

  CHAPTER FOUR: INTRODUCING DERIK

  Kevin just sat outside the store which was opposite the bar Natasha and her friends partied last night. He sat there waiting with the intent of catching the thugs that had raped Natasha the previous night.

  It was already dark and the streets were lonely. He looked at the big clock that hung inside the shop.