Love in Disguise

Friday, June 27 “Get up.” I felt myself being shaken roughly. “Get up, I said. Now.” I struggled to open my eyes despite my exhaustion. I had lain awake until the wee hours of the morning contemplating my situation. How had I ever gotten myself into such a mess? Why hadn’t I seen it coming? Did I really think I was going to have that perfect, fairytale relationship? Who had I been kidding? I was still mostly hurt and angry, though I also felt like such a naïve little fool. I vowed never to believe in or trust anyone else ever again. Never would I put such faith in a person, no matter how good-looking or friendly they seemed. Floating toward total awareness, I sat up in bed. “What’s going on?” “What’s going on is that I have a case to go out and investigate, and you’ve slept late enough. It’s 10:00.” “Gosh, I guess I did sleep in.” “Same routine as yesterday, girl. Do your thing in the bathroom, get dressed, then go to the kitchen.” She waited in the bedroom until I was dressed in a short cotton skirt with a matching camisole. She wore a business-like pantsuit that was stunning on her. As always, her hair was brushed neatly and her makeup looked great. She had her usual collection of gold chains around her neck and wrists, too. It was virtually impossible not to be attracted to her and to suppress the stirring I felt surge throughout my body as my eyes drank her in from head to toe. I didn’t realize just how obvious I was until she spoke up. “We’ll have plenty of time for fun and games later on, Sativa.” My face went red. How could I think such explicit thoughts after what she’d done to me? She smiled, apparently amused by my embarrassment. After she made us breakfast, I surprised her with a kiss. “Wow, what’s that for?” “Why not?” I said, trying to sound like the sweetest sweetheart I could. In return, she chained me down once again to the refrigerator and left for work. I began to think more desperately about a means of escape. Perhaps I should’ve had Mary send the cops out. Nah, they’d just side with her, their own. The cops are worthless to you, girl. You’ve got to simply disappear forever. I tugged and tugged as hard as I could to break the refrigerator’s door handle, but it was useless. It simply refused to budge. I rummaged through the cabinets once again just in case I had missed something the other day, but I couldn’t find anything new or promising. Frustrated, I sat down on the couch in the den and pondered my situation some more. After two hours, panic welled up in my chest at the thought of never being able to break away. My throat constricted, making it hard to breathe. “No!” I declared aloud. “I will get out of here!” With that, I headed toward the bathroom to lose some of the morning’s coffee. As I entered the utility area where the bathroom was located, I glanced casually toward a cubbyhole filled with various tools. Pulling the chain to give me more slack, I began rummaging through the stuff. Finally, I found it stashed way in the back. A hammer! I grabbed the hammer and went back into the den where the floor was carpeted. Then I sat down on the floor and began to beat furiously at a select section of the chain. I’d beaten the thing for less than five minutes when I heard her car pull up. She was back already! I jumped to my feet and pulled at the chain just as I heard the car door slam shut. However, the chain wouldn’t budge more than a few inches. I looked behind me. The chain was hung up on the leg of the easy chair! I tugged the chain harder and got enough slack to get to the cubbyhole in the utility area. Footsteps sounded just outside the door as she mounted the steps. Hurry! I moved as quickly as I could and threw the hammer back in the cubbyhole. There wasn’t time to shove it all the way in the back where it had been before, as by now her key was turning the lock. She stepped inside the door, surprised to see me standing there. “What’s up, girl? You behaving?” “Oh, yeah. Actually, I was just heading for the bathroom.” “Ok,” she said, rather business-like, and reached for the key in her pocket. In no time at all, I was free of the cuffs. “Thank you,” I said as I stepped into the bathroom that was just a foot away from where we stood. I heard her gathering up the chain as I peed, fingers crossed that she wouldn’t notice the prominent damage I had done to some of the links. Nonetheless, as soon as I opened the bathroom door and stepped out, I knew I was about to be one of the sorriest people alive that day. “You little shit, you!” she said in a low, terrifying tone of voice. Ice seemed to run through my veins and my heart felt like it would explode and burst from my chest. Never had I known such raw terror as I did at that moment. “It—it was an accident, Kya.” “The hell it was!” she screamed. Her nostrils flared as she seethed with a rage unlike any I’d ever known or witnessed before in my entire life. She flung the chain at me, hitting me in the forehead. For a minute I thought I’d pass out. “You lying, deceiving little bitch!” I screamed as she seized me by the hair and dragged me out of the den, through the kitchen, and into the bedroom. “No, Kya! Please stop! I swear it was an accident.” “Yeah, you’re really going to be swearing in a minute, girl.” She pushed me so hard that I literally flew off my feet before I hit the bed. The last thing I remember before I finally did pass out was the impact of her fists striking me in the face, chest, arms, legs, and stomach while she screamed all kinds of threats and profanity at me. Instinctively, I tried to cry out, but she kept knocking the wind right out of me with each blow to my body.