Chapter Thirteen: My new home
He watched in emptiness roving his eyes around my growing tummy that I hid under the hoodie.
“Fuck!” He slammed the dust off the bed, “What would I do with a pregnant lady?!” He asked rhetorically, “You deceived me, you never told me you were pregnant.”
“I didn’t think it was necessary to. I’m sorry.”
“You tricked me into letting your parents go when you knew fully well that you were with your child. This is so unbelievable. I can’t believe I fell for this. Why didn’t anyone see this?”
“I’m really sorry, I didn’t know what your intentions were towards me. I didn’t know you wanted to use me as your sex slave.”
“What could I possibly want with someone like you if not to satisfy my sexual desires. Well, I can’t let you fool me again.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Without a response, he headed towards the door.
“Wait, hold on,” I said walking towards him but before reaching out, he closed the door behind him in split seconds, I heard the door click in it’s latch, “Open the fucking door!” I yelled hitting the door continuously with my rounded fist until my hands felt sore and I laid in the pool of my own tears behind the door.
After what could be an hour the door swung open and he walked alongside a strange man with a briefcase. Slowly, I crawled out from where I laid.
“She is the one,” he said pointing at me.
“Who is he and what do you want from me?”This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.
“I am a doctor and I’m here to confirm your pregnancy.”
“Oh, you surely didn’t believe me when I said I wasn’t going to be your whore.”
“Well you can’t possibly be my whore when you were someone else’s whore.”
“You are insane.”
“Well you clearly wouldn’t be carrying a child without a make if you weren’t a whore.”
“You don’t get to say that to me, you know absolutely nothing about me.”
“Well, I know enough about you already. You are not different from the others. You aren’t special. You are just like every other slave girl who is going to work for me till your back aches and your feet feel sore and too tired to move.”
The doctor examined my body for a while before returning to his briefcase as he faced him.
“The girl is right. She is with child.”
“I told you but you are too stubborn to listen.”
“Thank you very much doctor,” he said to the doctor turning to me, “Then you can’t be here. Come with me!”
He led me to a room in the yard before one of the farms.
“This is your room. It’s a bit messy, so do well to have it cleaned up for your comfort.” He handed me a sack.
“What’s this for?”
“Your clothing. You would no longer need those dresses anymore. I will hold on to the keys.” He had been kind with his words when he talked about the room. It seemed it had been abandoned for too long. The walls were constructed from stacked logs of wood, which were visibly infested with moulds. The brown rot-decayed wood was relatively dry and powdery, resulting in cubical cracks throughout the structure. The structural components had degraded significantly, with the back of the wood peeling away and its surface appearing much darker than fresh-cut timber.
As I touched the wooden frame door, I felt a rough surface scratch my palms. I ran my palm along the wall to reach its backside where I found a softer spot; it turned out that some parts of the wood had become soft due to decay. I dipped my hand into one such rotten area and saw worms crawling their way out.
“What is this?” I asked incredulously as I watched worms crawling on my hands. “Worms,” He replied calmly, “I think you just disturbed their home.”
“Oh my God! That’s disgusting,” I exclaimed while holding my nose tightly shut. He chuckled, ” Enjoy your new home.”
The air inside the cabin reeked of dust and had an unpleasant musty smell caused by mould and mildew build-up on the carpet – similar to old socks or a stuffy attic not aired for months. Moisture on room walls imparted a cooler sensation reminiscent of earthy scents like dense forests or rotting woods mixed with dampness akin to wet puppy fur or locker rooms that have not been ventilated properly. The musty smell rushed to my nose and I wrinkled my nose bridge in disgust.
It smelled so bad that I began to think that something had died there. I noticed books scattered around amidst half-decayed pages, and leaves strewn across floors alongside an old stool and sofa chair – all contributing to making it look messier than necessary. It was obvious that the place needed to be cleaned badly; as there were too many useless things lying around.
I gathered everything in sight, putting them into boxes so that within an hour or so less time elapsed before it began smelling slightly better than earlier when I first entered this decrepit abode.
I was awoken by the loud banging on the door. It was another day already and the sun was barely out. There was a sickle and basket just in front of the door.
“What are these for?” I asked but there was no one on sight to answer my question. I picked it up and stared at the tool.
“That’s a sickle, we would be harvesting the rice in the rice farm.” A lady who had a more sophisticated appearance said to me,
“Who are you?” She smiled and responded, “I am Ana, I work for Ryan.”
“Ryan?”
“Ryan is the Alpha king.”
“Oh I see, no wonder the arrogance.”
“I was brought here just like you but found favour in his eyes. Here, you should work diligently or you will be punished. We begin immediately.”
Amidst my confusion, I followed the lady. Surprisingly, there were five other ladies. They expertly began to harvest the rice seeds without any further instruction. It was obvious that the process was all strange to me as I did not know how to use the tool nor had she been to a rice farm before. The maids and servants at home usually did all the chores.
“Why are you not working?” Lady Ana asked as she noticed my idleness.
“I cannot work with this.” “That is not an excuse for you not to work. Look around you.” I did just what she asked, “What do you see?” “I see hungry-looking ladies harvesting some rice.”
“Exactly. All these ladies you see were just like you. Most of them did not even know how to buckle their shoes when they first came here. But now look at them. They are doing just good.” With those words, she walked on supervising the rest of the girls.
I went in front of a rice stack and took out the sickle. As I wanted to take the seed out, the edge of the sickle went in through the flesh in my hand. The agonising pain surfaced as I stared at the sight of blood trickling down my hands.