It is 3:00 am. Something in this time of the day makes us associate it with unusual occurrences; maybe it is because the air is coldest at this hour.
Angel was awakened by a loud slap from a cold masculine hand in the middle of nowhere. It would have hurt more if not for the prior torture she received last night.
Just like being poured by ice-cold water, the slap awakened Angel’s body back to reality- a reality that is terrifying for her. She can barely see the silhouette of the person who slapped her nor can she count how many they are. The only thing she knows is that there is someone with her in this cold, dark and musty room- the moon hid behind the clouds as if taunting her of her already miserable condition tonight.
“Who’s there?” Angel whispered. She does not even have the strength to speak and can’t even dare to move. Bruises and sweat all over her aching body, clothes ripped one shoe missing. Angel has been like this for hours and her mind is completely blank, at the back of it something is telling her that her kidnapper is someone from the past- but it can also be someone from the present, especially after knowing that Kyle hid the fact that he is to be wed soon.
Stacy’s insides are at boiling point when she recalls how tragic it has been for her if not for this “bitch”, as she calls Angel and her father. Yes, numerous times in her mind she had killed both of them, especially after her mother’s suicide and her father being more indifferent to her.
Yes, she had wanted to slap this person in front of her right now- slit her throat and burn her alive- Yes! But only in her imagination. Never did she think of kidnapping her and torturing her- sure she might have wanted to “play” with her that wordplay in her mind is fairy different.
Shocked as her father slapped Angel in front of her Stacy stood there in silence as Angel tried to ask who they are. “This is not what I have in mind”
Another slap!
Stacy flitched as she watched how helpless his father was hostage, it reminded her of the days when her mother was still alive- how Stacy felt just like a hostage back then. Instead of being happy that her father was able to solve the mystery that she has been so eager to solve, Stacy felt an emotion that is different from what her father had expected.
But she did not let it show.
Stacy knows better to do just that. She pretended to enjoy the show. Join in the torture- asked some questions but behind her mind, she is looking for a way to let Angel go- because even if she hated this person Stacy is not even enough to kill someone out of anger.
“Kill me now!” Angel shouted with all her last strength as Stacy’s father grabs her hair telling Angel how she destroyed their lives.
“Stupid” is the only thing that Stacy can think of right now because Stacy knows that her father is more than capable of doing so.
“Oh don’t you hurry dear. Your time will come sooner than you think.” Brusque loud laughter echoed through the walls and into the deserted forest.
Stacy recalls the time when her mother was alive, the time when Stacy felt like she is dead. Her father is nonreactive and it is his passiveness to the situation that worsened. His quietness, the words he did not say and the steps he did not take are what destroyed their family. True, the moment when Kyle broke off the engagement is the time when the last thread that is holding them together was cut- they are beyond repair even before the engagement broke off.
For some reason the anger that she had felt so strong before towards this woman is not slowly being faded- and just like an ombre effect, it is slowly turning into piety.
That maybe they are just looking for someone to blame our misery into, that maybe they just needed someone to blame to survive their cruel reality of being broken.
But Stacy did not let her father see any hint of this- she knows better than to do just that in front of a stranger.
Yes, it is true, this man is his father- the father who has been indifferent to all her suffering. The man who Stacy has seen a couple of times but she had never spoken with – at least not in the level that most fathers and daughters are.
They are just father and daughter in the paper but in reality, they are like a slave and a master – at least for Stacy that is how it registered and it is the worst move to show weakness in front of a stranger- the only lesson she had learned from her abusive and possessive mother.
Stacy and his father left the half-dead Angel inside the cold, musty, and darkroom that is lit only by the subtle moonlight from the sky.
Humanity hasn’t left Stacy’s heart yet.
“How did you find her?”
“I have my ways. Such a stupid b*tch, does she think that I can’t find her if she changed her name? Finding her a piece of cake.
“Why are you telling me just now?”
“Because I know that you are also looking for her. I waited for years but you failed and let her slip your hands again – I can’t let that happen, not on my watch-You mother would have been proud if you found her but you failed.”
You failed.
You are such a failure.
You are not perfect.
These words pierced through Stacy’s heart as it reminds her of her late mother. Words that are said as if it is a term of endearment- the pressure of becoming the best but yet you will never be enough.
Be the smartest.
The prettiest.
The best- but still, you will never be enough.
She was top of the class- not until Kyle transferred.
Always the first until Kyle came.
They Stacy realized if there is someone to suffer it shouldn’t be this girl…
It should be Kyle!