THIRTY-THREE

 

THE DAYS ARE PASSING BY. Anij and Samantha are having a good time. The boys are always happy as usual, due to the narcotics. Every now and then, not too often, her sad story comes up and lets everyone down. It has been quite a while since she moved here. Anij tries to keep it low profile with Samantha about going out in public places. That is about the only thing that they can do, since anybody could be an ambush for her ex. She doesn’t care if she has to stay long at home. As long as she is with Anij, she is a happy girl.

It is early in the morning. Anij and Samantha are sleeping on the couch in the living room. The boys are passed out from last night’s house party. Gentle breezes are brushing their hair in the tranquillity of the morning.

A few shadows are lurking around the house. Some are on the front porch, and others are at the back door by the kitchen. Nobody in the house notices anything. Everyone is simply enjoying dreamland without any interruption. The shadows are moving stealthily around the front and the back door area. Then they freeze. Something is about to happen. Suddenly the front and the back door are burst open. A bunch of men in black are spreading through the house fast and effectively, just like a green beret team. The boys, Anij, and Samantha are woken up by the slamming door. The intruders assess where everyone is and quickly surround the boys, Anij, and Samantha.

“Nobody move! Nobody move!”

“What the hell?”

“Oh, shit!”

“Keep your heads down!”

“I said keep your heads down, assholes!”

“How did you know?”

“Shut the hell up, bitch!”

“Aaah, who the hell are you?”

“I am your daddy, asshole!”

“What the? Do you know these guys?”

“I said shut up!”

The intruders are pointing guns at Anij’s head and at the boys as well. They are all wearing black armour and are heavily armed with shotguns, pistols, and baseball bats. It certainly doesn’t look like they are here to buy some drugs.

Everyone is still. The boys are just looking at each other to find out what is going on. Samantha is mute, with spasms running all over her body. She knows who these guys are: her ex-boyfriend’s crew. The boys are being held up as hostages and they don’t like this — not even one bit. Their train of thoughts are completely disrupted and are about to nosedive off a cliff.

Then the front door slowly opens. A little Asian guy is entering the house. As soon as Samantha sees him, she is about to faint. Her retinas dilate very quickly and her face is petrified with fear. The level of uncertainty is dropped, but the level of reality is skyrocketing to the clouds. The Asian guy is smoking a cigar in a leisurely way and is walking toward Anij and Samantha. She is shaking uncontrollably and rolling her eyes about to seek any place to hide. But her body is sucked dry by the quicksand of terror. She cannot move even a single muscle. Anij knows instinctively that this is her ex-boyfriend. Anij is in deep shit. There is no other way to say it. A complete predicament. It is not a bright idea to run away from this situation. So he tries to remain calm and to anticipate what her ex will do or say to him. Anij has been in this kind of situation before with other dealers or customers, but certainly not with someone this crazy.

Her ex isn’t opening his mouth yet. He is still smoking and staring at Anij and Samantha one at a time. The gaze from her ex is truly scary. He certainly knows how to create fear. The men in black are still pressing their guns hard against Anij’s and the boys’ heads. There is nothing going on in their brains. Just an empty state of mind exists. Everyone is waiting for the Asian guy to say something.

Finally, Samantha breaks the thin ice of silence. “Why don’t you just leave me alone, Naoki?”

His name is Naoki. No answer from Naoki at all. His face doesn’t even flinch. A steady emotion comes from Naoki and that is scarier. The boys are just watching this whole scene without a word. They have been expecting that this would happen at some point, but not like this. They are just holding their breaths.

Samantha tries to talk her way out of this. “I am sorry, Naoki.”

“Well. Well. Well . . . Look who is here!”

“I am sorry, Naoki . . .”

“It is the skanky bitch who betrayed me. And she has the nerve to talk to me?”

Samantha is sobbing her eyes out.

Then Naoki continues to snarl, “You knew what would happen. Why the hell did you do it?”

No answer from Samantha. She continues to cry.

“Oh . . . She is sad, now. Maybe I should do something, right?”

Then Naoki turns into a hellraiser. He quickly walks up to her and smacks her face with his fist, hard. It is quite a big blow. She almost faints from the sucker punch. It creates a bloody bruise on her face immediately. She screams.

“Oh, did it hurt? Let me cure that for you.”

Then Naoki smacks her again with a bigger blow on the same spot. She screams even harder. Her tears are flying off from her face as she gets smacked. Anij is frozen like a statue.

“Told you it would hurt, bitch!”

“I . . . am . . . sorry, Naoki. I am sorry . . . Naoki . . .”

“Sorry? Hm . . . For what? You just did what you had to do, right?”

“I am sorry . . . I just . . . couldn’t . . . live with you anymore . . .”

Naoki looks at Anij and speaks.

“You see? Bitches are all the same. You give them some money? They climb up on you just like that. But they get bored easily. And they look for something new all the time. This is what happened. How predictable they are . . .”

Anij stares at him and says, “Well, maybe you should’ve treated her better. I think you are a total jackass. Don’t you think?”

Right after he is finished with his words, Naoki smacks him really hard. His face is bleeding like a faucet. Naoki is not too upset at all. Maybe that is what he feels now. He continues to preach to Anij.

“Hm . . . Maybe you shouldn’t have been fooling around with this bitch. Don’t you think?”

“Haha. Funny. Why don’t you just leave her alone? What are you trying to do?”

“I am not doing anything. Just giving you and this bitch a life lesson.”

“Hm . . . I had enough of that shit since I was a kid. Why don’t you just knock yourself . . .”

Before Anij can finish, Naoki hits him even harder. But this time, Naoki has a metal knuckle on his fist. Anij is mourning with gushing breaths. From his mouth, blood is spewing like a volcanic eruption. His nose is completely busted. His eyes are already swollen from the bruises. He is spitting some of his teeth. The boys are also powerless against this situation.

Samantha is crying as she watches all this and yelling at Naoki. “Stop! Stop! Stop! Naoki, please stop!”

“Why? I am just having some fun. I don’t get this kind of fun very often. So I am trying to make the most out of this, you know.”

“Please stop! I am sorry, Naoki . . . But I can’t live with you again . . .”

“Wow! I am not telling you to live with me again, bitch.”

“Then why are you doing this to me?”

“I just told you. I am having some fun. I’ll let you have it, now.”

Naoki is putting brass knuckles on both of his fists and preparing for some brutal and merciless action. Then he gives his boys a signal. The guys are holding down Anij and Samantha tightly on the couch. She is crying even harder, but Anij has a smile on his face. Naoki starts to count down: “3. 2. 1. Zero!”

Naoki unleashes himself to the fullest extent. He is relentlessly punching Samantha and Anij, back and forth. Blood is spewing onto the couch and the floor. Naoki’s metal knuckles are also turning from a brass colour to bloody red. Of course, the blood is washing Naoki’s face. Samantha can’t scream anymore. She fainted a long time ago. Anij is badly wounded. His face is unrecognizable. His nose is nowhere to be found, and bruises are growing fast.

A few minutes later, Naoki is exhausted from pounding them both. He stops. He looks at them. He puts his hands on one of his guy’s shoulder. One of his boys takes out a handkerchief and hands it to him. Naoki is breathing heavily. It was a violent workout. He swings his brass knuckles into the air to get rid of the bloodstains and cleans them with the handkerchief. The boys are relieved when he stops beating Anij and Samantha. Strangely enough, the beating seemed like it would never end till the death was upon his feet. Naoki is looking at Anij and telling him something: “One day, she will do exactly the same shit to you. Just remember that.”

Then Naoki heads out to his car, his guys right behind him. Excruciating fury is boiling in Anij’s head. But there isn’t much he can do. He feels lucky that Naoki didn’t kill them all, especially Samantha. Anij struggles to move his eyes just to see her. But brutally bruised eyelids force his eyes to close, because there is nothing to see in this world for now. Streams of blood are raining from his eyebrows. His whole world is bloody red. A river of blood is flowing down the couch. It takes a while for Anij to get close to her. Struggling almost becomes his friend. That is how hard and long it takes for him to endure his pain to hold her. He is holding Samantha with the deepest sorrow and compassion. He can’t fathom the pain that she is going through. Never mind his pain. He tries to hold his tears while he is holding her in his arms. Shame whips his heart and leaves scars like a tattoo that he can never get rid of. Her arms are dropped on the floor like steamed vegetables. She doesn’t even have the strength to cry. Her eyes are straying within herself and her mind is stranded on an uninhabited island. He is slowly climbing up the stairs to his room with Samantha in his arms. He puts her on the bed and combs her hair, dyeing her hair with his bloody fingers. His worries are pouring down on her face.