Not made for each other - 14. Swan

Chapter 14: Swan

Kev was right in front of my eyes, sitting on the porch of his house. His shoulders were slumped down. His elbows were resting on his knees. He was tapping his right foot on the ground rapidly in agitation while his eyes were glued to the road ahead. There was a twinkling hope in his extreme blue orbs. Probably he was waiting for someone, for me. I was right before him but he was not looking at me. I screamed his name again and again but he didn’t spare me a glance. He stood up inhaling a long breath. He stared at the road for another long moment then turned around and went inside his house. He stared back once again in hopes to see me coming but shut the door disappointedly with a deep sigh.

“Kev,” I shouted his name at the top of my lungs and my eyes snapped open as something very cold made contact with my face. It was water.

“So finally you are out of your wonderland, huh?” Tattoo Guy teased me, raising his brows in amusement. I looked around at my surroundings, breathing heavily. I was in a very small, filthy and semi-dark room, tied to a wooden, uncomfortable chair. There was no tape on my mouth right now. Reality dawned on me and I remembered what Daryl did. Tears began to form in my eyes.

“Wh…what have I done to you? Where am I? Please let me go,” I begged him. “My parents…they’re, they’re about to get married. They would be waiting for me. My friends would be worried about me. Please let me go, please I beg you, please…they’ll be waiting for me,” I rambled in between my sobs. I was crying and he was smiling. This whole situation was amusing to him. It made me cry harder.

“The only one who is waiting for you right now is Ma’am so stop all this crap. I don’t want you to upset her with your pathetic behavior. Got it?” he growled but instead of answering him I kept crying, closing my eyes. All of a sudden he grabbed my face with his right hand and made me look at him. I felt a deep fear surging through my body and I shivered. “Got-it?” he drawled menacingly and I nodded slightly in terror as a tear escaped from my left eye. He smiled crookedly and muttered ‘good’.

Two well-built men came inside, untied me and began dragging me, each holding me by my arms, as I was not able to even stand properly. Tattoo Guy was walking behind us. It was very difficult for me to keep my eyes open. We passed by several rooms as we walked down a short, dark corridor. The air was stale and heavy. I could smell cheap beer, choking smoke and I could hear lots of laughing around me. When my vision cleared more I saw that the place was in a bad state of disrepair. There were many women in lacy lingerie lounging around the lobby and men… When I thought about it and put two and two together, reality hit me like a ton of bricks.

It was…it was a brothel. I was in a brothel. I started panicking and unsuccessfully began trying to free myself from the death grip of those two giants. They were dragging me ahead and I was pushing myself back. I was crying and screaming three words again and again, let me go…let me go. They all just laughed and turned a deaf ear to me.

Soon I found myself in front of a closed door. An orange bulb which was flickering continuously was hanging right over my head.

“Please. Please. No. Please.” I never stopped begging. They ruthlessly threw me towards the door. It opened in a flash with my sudden force. I couldn’t hold myself up and fell down on my elbows. I cringed in pain and slowly raised my moist eyes.

A woman around fifty was sitting elegantly on a comfortable chair in front of me, with one leg over another and her left hand resting casually on the armrest. There was a lit cigar in her other hand. She had her silver hair cut to her shoulders. Her eyes were piercing black. She was in a blue evening gown. She had numerous necklaces of different colored beads around her thick and wrinkled neck. And yes, she had a face of a witch.

She stood up and gracefully walked towards me. She was definitely taller than me. “Come on guys, you can’t be that rude to the newest member of our family.” I could hear a heavy dose of sarcasm in her sharp voice. She eyed the two guys who dragged me here and they immediately left the room, closing the door behind them. Now there were only three of us in that room. It was a simple, well-illuminated room decorated with plush velvet-covered furniture but there was something about it which hastened my heartbeat dangerously.

That strange woman bent down and helped me to stand up properly. I was still struggling to plant my feet on the floor.

“So he’s the one you were talking about?” she asked Tattoo Guy, while still staring at me with a mysterious smile.

“Yes, Ma’am. He’s the one. I hope I was right when I said this gorgeous boy is made for this place.”

“Oh Mitch, your words didn’t do him justice with his actual appearance,” she responded still gazing at me with admiration.

“He’s all yours now, Ma’am,” Mitchell mentioned, gesturing towards me.

“No. No, please. I don’t belong in this place. Please ma’am, please I beg you. Let me go. I…I beg you, please.” I bent down on my knees and pleaded with her, clasping my hands together. She ignored my pleas and looked at Mitchell.

“Mitch, I think it’s your time to leave now. Polly will give you your money outside,” she stated. He nodded and turned around to leave. I was on my feet in no time and leapt towards Mitchell, grabbing his shoulder.

“Please don’t leave me here. Please take me to my home. Please take me to my mom. Please, please don’t leave me here.” My tears, my sobs, and my pleadings did nothing to him. He jerked my hand away.

“Now THIS-IS your home and THIS-IS your family,” he concluded and left, leaving me there dumbstruck with his stabbing words.

Ma’am came around and stood before me. She pulled my face up, holding my chin gently with her index finger. There was still that cigar in her other hand.

“I have never seen such crystal clear eyes before. They are so enigmatically deep green. And your face is so beautiful, sweet, scared and…and vulnerable, exactly the way many of our clients like it.” She stroked my face with the back of her hand and I winced in disgust and stepped back.

“Please. Let me go!” I shrieked this time.

“What’s your name?” she asked calmly.

“I said please…”

“What’s your name?” she asked again in the same calm but stern tone. This time there was a warning, a threat in her voice.

“Z…Zune,” I whispered lowering my eyes.

“No,” she muttered looking directly in my eyes.

“W,what do you mean? M,my name is Zune. I am Zune…Zune Williams. I…” I objected but she cut me off again.

“No. You are not Zune and from now on you don’t even know any Zune. I am giving you a new life and a new name. Your name will be…Swan,” she divulged proudly.

“No. I don’t need this new life. I don’t want any new name. I just want to go back…to my old life, to my friends, to my, my mom. Please let me…” before I could complete my sentence she pressed the burning side of her cigar against the crook of my neck. I screamed in anguish and unbearable pain. I desperately tried to move away but she grabbed a fistful of my hair at the back of my head to hold me in place.

“Either you will do as I say or I will make your life a living hell. Believe me, you will pray for death every second of your life and I’ll make you live through it. The decision is all yours.” She said sharply, dragging each word, gritting her teeth with the same devious smile on her ugly face. “So now, what’s your name?” she asked still holding that burning cigar on my neck. I was wailing. I was sobbing. I was begging for mercy but she dug that burning cigar further against my skin and finally my patience answered and I gave up and whined in a quivering tone around my hiccups, “S…Sw, Swaaan. Swan.”

Her smile grew wider and she took the cigar off my neck and threw it in the ashtray. “That’s a good boy. I knew you wouldn’t be a stupid, stubborn, spoiled brat and I’m sure you will love your new home.” She spoke enthusiastically with false cheerfulness in her voice, clapping her hands together like a five-year-old. My neck was still on fire. I wasn’t even able to touch it. I looked at her in defeat, with hatred and tear-filled eyes. I was done begging for mercy.

“Eighteen!” she shouted looking back at the closed door. A well-built, muscular guy around twenty-five came in.

“Yes, Ma’am,” he acknowledged bowing his head a little.

“This is the newest member of our family. His name is Swan. He will share a room with Angel. Take him there. He surely needs some rest,” she ordered with fake concern for me in her vicious voice and then turned to me. “Angel will tell you everything else about this place. Right now, just go and get some rest, okay?” she uttered in a motherly way. I couldn’t believe she was the same woman who burned me unmercifully seconds before. When I didn’t answer, she asked again in a threatening voice, “Okay, Swan?” I nodded hesitantly, batting my lashes to restrain my tears; averting my eyes to the guy she called ‘Eighteen’.

Eighteen took hold of my arm and guided me towards the door. We were about to exit when Ma’am called me. “Swan?” I stopped abruptly and turned to face her.

She gave me a gratified smile because of my immediate reaction to my ‘new’ name. Soon that smile disappeared from her face and she became dead serious.

“Swan, never even think of running away from this place, otherwise the consequences will be far more severe than you could ever imagine. This-is-your-home-now,” She warned me caustically. I never responded and looked ahead despairingly. Eighteen began leading me towards my room. I was not crying anymore but tears were welling up in my eyes again. I was not shouting or protesting anymore. I was feeling perplexed, tired, and defeated.

Twenty-four hours ago, I was about to get back together with Kev, my parents were finally about to get married; my life was about to be perfect for once but now I was thrown into a brothel and all my dreams were dashed down to hell.

Minutes later, I was standing before a closed door dismayed and confounded. Eighteen knocked on the door twice, quite hard, and seconds later a girl with a slender body, and pixie-like hair opened the door grumbling. “What the hell do you fucktard want at this fucking hour of this fucking night with this fucking chicken?” she yelled irritably, eyeing Eighteen and then me. She had light blue eyes and was much shorter than me in height. I don’t know about her age. She might be around twenty. She was in a short skirt and plain white t-shirt. Was she a prostitute? I guess the way she was looking and the way she was talking she surely was.

“This is your new roommate. His name is Swan. Ma’am told me to tell you to take good care of him and make him comfortable, so…” she cut him off waving her hand in front of his face.

“I know the drill so cut the crap. Just leave this ‘shit’ here and get lost,” she chided gruffly with a scowl. Eighteen muttered ‘whore’ under his breath and turned around to leave. The annoyed girl heard that and shouted behind him, “Fucking cocksmoker. Don’t talk like you’re a saint here, you son-of-a-fucking cunt. Suck my ass with a straw that all I care what you say. You cum-guzzling-gutter-slut, pigfucker-sewage-worm, puke of a swine, shit of a cockroach, bloody eunuch; show me your minge-like face again and I’ll squeeze the pulp out of your motherfucking head which is lost somewhere in the middle of your shit and fart,” she cursed him in merely one breath and I was looking at her in awe. Eighteen never turned around. Then her head snapped in my direction.

“Are you coming in or what?” she practically hollered, rolling her eyes, shaking her head in exasperation. I hesitantly went in. That girl banged the door shut behind her.

I looked around. The room was pretty small for two people but it was relatively cleaner than the outside. It definitely could use some repair. There were two beds on the opposite side of the room adjacent to a wardrobe on each side. There was a small night table between the beds. An old fan and a white bulb made up the rest of the décor.

“Left side is mine,” the weird girl informed me nonchalantly, and flopped down on her bed landing on her stomach.

I ran my eyes around once again and then the feeling of losing everything came back like a flame being lit.

‘Kev, he will be waiting for me.’

I began stepping back.

‘My mom, my friends will be terribly worried for me.’

I sucked in the biggest gulp of air I could manage, swallowing it down with the lump that had been lodged in my throat, threatening to choke me.

‘They will be searching for me.’

A familiar stinging pain in the back of my eyes made me realize that I was all alone and in a brothel and soon I’d, I’d be a…prostitute; I’d be one of them.

‘I will never be able to see my mom again.’

My eyes were brimmed with tears. My vision was blurred once again. My back was now pressed against the closed door. I emitted a long tremulous sigh and couldn’t hold back my tears. I began crying profusely and soon I was snivelling haplessly. I crumbled to the floor with a thud. My mom’s face swam before my eyes which made me cry harder. Everything ended for me now. My life was finished.

Swan…this name was my fate now.

TBC.

Please let me know what do you think about this chapter. It would definitely help me to improve my writing.
A very BIG thanks to Lisa, Ozymandias, GulabJamun, Silentdreamer, Connor, Terry P, Lilansui, Ninecila, Gregg and all my readers for reading, reviewing and liking my story. It really means a lot. Love you all
  LISA.