Danger! Do Not Trust Your Gut
“Breathe deeply. Relax. Breathe out. Yes that’s it.”
The man’s hand rubbed circles on her back in slow strokes. Breathe in. The air flowed into her body. Breathe out. She tried but found that somehow it had gotten stuck. His hand pressed on a spot in her back. She shook at her bindings, for the first time she realized how much danger she had brought upon herself coming to this man like this. 15…20seconds she was finally feeling like she had lost control. She turned her head widely to the side in the hope that she could dislodge whatever was blocking her air passage.
30…40seconds he stared into her face with that same inquisitive look she had found interesting when she entered his house. It quickly flashed through her mind where she had seen a face like that. The movie she watched last week where a young man killed twenty people in the most horrific way. Her gut told her she was in danger. She tried to speak out but it became a strangled gasp.
“Don’t waste your breath,” he said. His eyes flashed as he pressed harder on her back. She blacked out.
***
Three weeks earlier
“Good Morning Sir” Nora greeted as she entered into the coffee shop she worked in.
“Good morning dearie” Mr Campbell answered. He was a tall and thin white man that referred to all black women as “dearie” no matter their age or social standing. He was a big sweetie though. Cheerful and open in his dealings with his staff. Rumor had it that he had no family so Nora secretly dreamt that someday he would leave the coffee shop to her.
The dream went like this; Nora working diligently at the coffee shop and earning Mr Campbell’s trust. Nora being called for the reading of Mr Cambells will. Nora fainting with happiness. Nora getting married and having children who loved sponge cakes and loved to brew coffee, even though they would certainly not drink of it until they were grown.
Putting on her apron everyday helped her get her head settled. It was a jarring reminder of her continued status as an employee. More annoying was the fact that Mr Campbell seemed to be getting younger instead of older. His face was smoothing out and when Nora asked him he said he was no longer drinking coffee and he laughed out loud.
She could still remember how he had laughed in her face when he saw the expression of wonder on it. Later he gave her an extra sponge cake at lunch as an apology. Nora idly wondered if he knew his laughter hadn’t angered her, it just shocked her how young he looked as he laughed. The mirth that made her ask herself “when exactly is Mr Campbell planning to die?
Yet the coffee shop was fetched her more money than it should have. Partly because her boss pitied her and partly because she was a damn hard worker. Three years she had been at the coffee shop and since then it has witnessed a steady rise in sales due to her dedication and tenacity. Yes, that was the word the protagonist in that movie used to describe his ability to kiss the sense out of ladies minds.
“When will you stop dreaming?” A voice asked, startling her from her daydreaming.
“What do you want Roland?” she retorted with hostility when she saw who it was.
“Just a little heart to heart talk with you,” he said. As he said heart to heart, his eyes moved from one of her breasts to the other. Nora almost spat on him but she refrained for hygiene purposes. It was bad business for a staff to be seen spitting phlegm on another staff.
“Disgusting!” she said with vehemence. Roland blew her a kiss.
***
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“I heard you want to speak to me.” Nora said as she stood in front of her boss. Mr Campbell beckoned for her to sit down in front of him.
“I want to talk to you about where you live, Nora” he said. His hand found his beard and he dragged as he usually did anytime he was nervous.
“What about it?, Sir” Nora asked playing dumb.
“That neighborhood is too notorious. If not that I employed you before it all went to shit over there, you wouldn’t have gotten the job” he said.
“Oh” Nora said dumbfounded.
“I want you to move out of there. I could help you in renting a new place somewhere calmer. Give you some of your salary upfront so you lay up later?” He asked.
“No!” Nora protested. She leaned over the table. “Please sir, just give me a month to move out of there”
Mr Campbell stared at her for a moment then he shook his head. “Ok” he replied.
***
Police siren tore through the silence of the night as Nora sped through the streets on her bike. These same streets that smelled like fresh blood these days with all the raping and killings. Last year at this time, four young women had been found dead at the four ends of town. The authorities had been unable to find the killers because of the skills used in the killings.
Nora had one more week to move out of the place and so far there had been little luck in finding money. Most of her savings were spent paying off the debt her parents left as her inheritance. The rest were spent for rent and feeding. When she rolled her bike to a stop she saw that there was light in her one room appointment. Only one person had the key to her apartment and that person was supposed to be dead.
“What are you doing here? I told you not to come.” She said when she got into the house and saw him sitting there with his filthy feet on her pricey mahogany table.
“Get your feet off my table” she said through gritted teeth, trying hard not to inhale the smoke slowly filling the room. “The least you could do was open the windows”
“I’m hurt” He said. His voice sounded just as sweet as it used to sound before he died. “No welcome, nothing. Just you yelling at me nonstop”
“I don’t want you here” Nora said.
“Oh I get it. You really meant that little note you sent to me. “Stay away. You’re dead to me” what unspeakable trash!”
“Unspeakable trash!? That’s you! And yes, you’re dead! Imagine me coming home and meeting a ghost in my living room!” Nora spat.
“You didn’t change the keys” he said quietly
“I had no money to do that!!” She cried. Her Ex boyfriend turned to face her.
“I told you I can help you with the debt” he said walking towards Nora.
“Don’t tell me anything Pete. Get out of my house!”
***
“You told me he had gone. That he wasn’t ever going to come back again. You sent him a note and…” the young woman in a red dress said.
“Okay! Okay” Nora groaned with her hand firmly sealing her friend’s mouth shut. “I know. Don’t freak out. I did send him away”
“Why does it look like you have forgotten what he did?”
“I didn’t forget anything, May” Nora replied.
“Oh no. Do you remember he used to steal your money to buy hard drugs? Your hard earned money for hard drugs! Even I can see the relationship. He also used to knock you around you know? Not too hard but enough to cause a bruise or two. Look at me baby, I don’t know anything but I think loneliness is messing with you and I also think you should get that fixed.” May retorted.
“I will try” Nora said and looked away from May to the bar. The red fluorescent lights gave the bar a smoky feel that was very similar to how her bedroom had felt yesterday. There was also a guy staring at her from the other end of the bar in the same way Pete had started before advancing on her. Nora threw her drink down her throat and choked.
***
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“What do you mean someone’s threatening you?” May’s voice rang so loud that Nora had to cover her mouth again.
“Shh!! Yes, I have received three letters already.” Nora cried.
“Why do I suspect Pete is behind this?” May asked. Her eyes glittered with anger. Nora knew May wasn’t the best person to come up with a rational idea because of her hatred for Pete for what he did to her.
“Any ideas on what I can do?” Nora asked.
“Call the cops?”
“No! I have been told to not try to call the police.” Nora replied.
“There must be something else. Tell me. Would you go to a self defense class?” May asked.
“I’ll do anything”
“Great. Finish your drink, we’re leaving now and I am driving” May said. Both women continued sipping their drinks.
“Let’s go” May said after a while.
They drove through the town. Nora put her head out of the window so the wind would touch her. She thought about the letters that had been lying on the table when she got home from work. Her first thought was how the post man had gotten into her house. There was no footprint and no sign of the house being trashed.
She picked up one of the letters and opened it. It was written in red ink and Nora looked at it for a little while. The first one reads: How fast can you run Little girl? Nora shivered as she read all three messages. What she knew for sure was that someone was coming for her and there was nothing she could do about it. The car pulled up in front of a small house and both women got out. The walkway to the door was littered with flowers and the whole place smelled of them.
Just before Nora’s knuckles reached the door, it fell open. An Asian man stood inside the house. His face was half covered with a cloth and his hand beckoned them to enter. Nora stood there staring at his eyes that were so dark. Darker than hers and she was a Black girl. May pinched her and she remembered she was to enter the house.
“Good evening,” she greeted stepping into the place. The Asian man bent his head and did not answer. May bowed to him and Nora could see they knew each other very well by the amusement dancing in his eyes.
“I’ll leave you two” May said and hugged Nora, for a moment it felt like it was her mother hugging her again.
***
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“Nice dojo you have here” Nora said, they were walking through a kind of walkway with both walls lined with murals.
“Thank you” The man said. Nora’s head whipped to the side, he was no longer wearing the cloth over his face and when he smiled at her he looked so young.
“My name is Min” he said.
“Nora”
“Let us go in there so you can tell me why you need me and I can try to help,” he said. He was pointing to a small room. The rooms only furniture was a wide padded bench and the four stakes at the sides. She sat down gingerly and when nothing jumped out at her she relaxed.
“Tell me” Min said. Nora watched him as he tended to the incense bowl at a corner of the room. The sweet smell filled the room and she began to talk about her parents, the car accident that claimed their lives, how it felt to drop out of school and take care of oneself. Her Ex boyfriend Pete and the letters she met when she got home. During her talk he came to sit in front of her.
“I know who sent those letters” he said.
“What?”
He grabbed her hands that were shaking and squeezed. “Do not fear. You came here to learn how to fight for your life but I am going to teach you how to die”.
Then he smiled at her.
***
“Good morning Mr Campbell.” Nora greeted in a cheery voice. Mr Campbell waved to her from his spot behind the counter but he didn’t look happy.
“What do you think is wrong with him?” Fredman asked when he and Nora were in the washing room together. Nora gave him a reproachful look and he shut his mouth. She was not one to gossip about her beloved boss with a colleague. After lunch break her boss sent for all of them.
“We’ll be working extra hours today because of traffic. It appears everyone wants to drink coffee today” he looked at all their faces and smiled. “Any objections?” He asked, staring particularly at Nora as if to say “how would you get back to that horrible neighborhood?”
Nora smiled back and nodded and Mr Campbell clapped gleefully and shouted. “Let’s coffee!”
The night was alive by the time she left the shop. Fredman behaved like a gentleman and took her in his car to her house. During the drive they talked about their lives and their dreams. Nora told him she hoped to be a business tycoon in the future and he admitted he’d always wanted to own a bakery. When he smiled, she wondered why she had never noticed how handsome he was as he moved about in that coffee shop.
They spent almost an hour sitting in the parked car talking before she invited him in for a drink. Sadly, he refused saying he really needed to get some sleep but he promised to take her to the movies next week if she wanted. Nora said she didn’t mind and they parted ways. When she got in the house, she went straight to the kitchen for her dinner. Few minutes later she was having toast bread and a large glass of milk.
The bathroom door opened and she waited with the glass of milk suspended close to her mouth. It closed slowly and she dropped the glass of milk. Her gut was telling her everything was not alright. She heard footsteps, someone was walking towards her direction. Nora dropped the glass of milk gently and got up quietly from her seat. Was it Pete? She had a gut feeling it was him. Why was he trying to scare her?
The person put off the bathroom light and that part of the house was plunged into darkness. Nora walked slowly backwards until she was in the living room, then she sprinted to the table for her keys. The front door came open easily and soon she was out in fresh air. She heard male laughter behind her and she quickly ran towards her bike and put it on. With a loud screech of tires she tore into the road. Behind her a car engine started in front of her house. He was planning to follow her, sweat trickled down her spine.
She drove at high speed towards the abandoned industrial center at the edge of her neighborhood, there would be plenty of places to hide. She swerved sharply and tires screeched behind her. When she neared the fallen wire mesh fence she flew over it and made a sharp turn to the left. She kept driving into the large expanse of waste land for miles but the car kept following closely no matter how many turns she took.
She was about to take another turn when it occurred to her that perhaps there was a tracking device on her bike. No one knew this place better than she as this had been her playground when her parents died. She has never once brought Pete here so there was no reason why an uptown boy like him would be so familiar with the place. When she turned around the corner, she ditched her hike and started to run deeper into the site.
The roads slowly became filled with old abandoned equipment, some small, others big enough to hide behind. But she was running towards the safest place to disappear into. Running steps sounded behind her, then high peals of laughter. They were right behind her! Nora froze in surprise, she stared at the cliff in front of her knowing she had to think fast. She tore towards the cliff.
***
“Take me to the party Honey!” Nora’s mom whined. She pulled her hair from her face with one hand. Her brown skin was soft and well oiled. Her dress was a bright red color. Nora as a child was lying on the rug staring up at her mother. She was painting her in her color book, red color for the dress, black for her mother’s full head of hair and brown for the rest of her.
Her father came out of their bedroom already dressed and her mother squealed in excitement bringing a wide smile to the big man’s face. Before they left her mother showed her the cereal she would have for dinner, her father threw her on his shoulder and put her down as a laughing mess. She was still painting her mother when the police came and she was put in foster care.
Nora lay there, blood gushing from the wound on her head. Her eyes were unfocused and there was so much pain. She heard footsteps and then laughter. “She’s down!” A woman squealed. Nora recognized that voice but she didn’t want to believe. Where was Pete? The people came into focus, May with the same pink hoodie she had won the last time they saw.
“Aww. Look at her” she crooned.
Nora remembered what the Sensie had told her. “Those letters are from a gang of monsters that come looking for young girls like you who are hopeless and distressed. They derive pleasure from watching you suffer before you fall to your death as they would not kill you with their own bare hands. Instead they would lead you to your death and laugh over your corpse.” She wondered if he knew May was one of them.
A tear dropped from Nora’s eye. She stared at her friend as her vision slowly blurred. May stepped forward and Nora increased the pressure of the hand behind her back. The last thing she saw was May’s shiny black sneakers before she blacked out.
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