Page 65 of Eyes Like Angel
The last four words seared into my brain, until I ran away in the dark and ushered back into my attic without anyone discovering me at disobeying their rules—Father Divine’s rules.
Talk about a nightmarish world as soon as I stepped outside, outside due to Adrian’s persuasion. And his persuasionmeant nothing—it summons humiliation and lowers self-esteem.
I was stupid back there, stupid and naïve like a little girl expecting a wonderful event. That’s how girls and boys would call me if they ever see me.
Adrian extended his examination on me, swarmed by adoring fans fawning over him, arguing how he caught their eye first.
But he wasn’t eyeing on them.
For once, I didn’t bother to greet or send a little wave or bow nicely to him. I disregarded him and headed my way to see Micah, who I couldn’t forget the promise I pact with to learn the vast slangs and technology in modern timeline.
Excited as I was, the pit of my aching belly dropped.
Why do I feel nauseous? Was it the rations they distributed? No. Was it the dingy afternoon weather? No. My skin has gotten accustomed to a bone-chilling air. Was it the smell of chicken in a cooking pot? I couldn’t decipher the throbbing and shrinking soreness in my belly, as my throat went dry, despite I sipped the salty flavor in a chicken soup.
The pit in my stomach is incapable of vomiting the melted contents submerged in the intestines, when I met up with Micah, who was huffing and puffing like a wolf.
“Sister Eva,” he greeted with a wide smile, wiping his sweat with a used cloth he wrapped around his back neck. “Ready for a lesson?”
Somewhere far, I tinge of shiver ruffled up on my skin when someone’s eyes darted at my back.
“I’m ready,” I said, staying unruffled and never lose sight of my goal for today.
“Excellent,” Micah exclaimed, clapping his hands altogether. He took out his smartphone and had me memorizedthe shape of the icons on the home screen, and he showed a clip or two about the jokes that are trending on the social media app.
He explained the context from the comments section.
While I was listening intently to Micah’s explanations, a pair of pitch-dark eyes monitoring me. If I hide in plain sight, his stares might stalk me like an unwanted shadow.
Whilst he demonstrated another set of videos on his phone, glimpsing by mistake, I caught an eyeful view of Adrian Rivers glancing at me back, and the girls who hailed him, swarmed him closer, gone chirpier and friendlier.
***
The kitchen room was empty, a dripping noises on the silver faucet plopped onto the vacant sink. After three hours of scrubbing trays and setting the equipment aside, Micah entered the room with his spared shirt and jeans, replacing his previous ones from grime and bubbles from washing and sweating, throwing the sweaty towel in a separate laundry basket nearby the entrance.
“Let me know if you need any help with the trays,” he said and exited.
It didn’t take an extensive time to gather the rest outside, thick raindrops dropped on my head as I collected the trash and dumped them in dumpster. I didn’t risk my gloved hands to be dirtied, so I exchanged it for blue rubber gloves tightened on my palms, but it does its job well done as soon as I thrown it, too.
Walking by the church’s backdoor, a gloved hand grasped my forearm.
Turning around, my eyes met with Adrian’s.
“I need to talk to you,” he began, his breath rasping.
I took my forearm back. “There’s nothing to talk about, sir.”
His eyes gleamed in saddens when I referred to him as ‘sir’. Whatever reason was, I couldn’t bear to spare my kindness like how I worked as a housekeeper in his estate.
“It’s Adrian,” his voice raised, fatigued and conflicted.
As I took a few more steps, he chased me down, and his hands settled on my waist and pivoted me around, only to find him kneeling before me, his forehead pressed to the flat plains on my belly.
“I can’t stand you walking away from me,” Adrian begged, his energy been used up from sprinting, searching me. “I need to get a word in, if you let me. Did I do something wrong to make you hate me?”
A figment in my consciousness state recalled back to Emily’s patronizing and unpleasant words darted in my chest that had my next words choked, as soulless and ruthless as Emily’s words cut deep, my voice bled and dry as if she held a knife against me.
I don’t belong to anybody.
