Page 97 of Kings of Desire
‘I will.’
I closed the phone, getting back to the news. The world rebellion was instilling a molten fear inside my veins. The revolution was about to break and I was bringing my siblings into the battlefield.
I think I watched the news until morning. Seeing the witness’s testimonies about the rebels, then hearing politicians lie, and so many people expressing so many different opinions that I didn’t know what to think anymore. But one thing my mother has taught me.
The truth is often found only between closed doors.
And if thatwas accurate, then almost everyone I knew was in deep shit. Including me!
A strange idea was forming in the back of my mind. Similar to one of the strategies rich people play on board games. Though I cast it quickly aside, in the need to focus on a whole different thing.
The dish was ready, and as if knowing it was just out of the oven, the doorbell rang, forcing me to swallow the gulp I had in my throat ever since Brax left.
I twisted the key and pressed the doorknob, praying to all saints I knew that they were safe. In a way, I wanted the door to open immediately, but in another, the fear of what will happen when it does was making me almost collapse on the floor.
I pushed it anyway, gathering all strength I had to face the truth.
Brax was right. He did it!
HE DID IT!I screamed, as two pairs of arms instantly wrapped around me.
It was them!
Natalia and Sebastian!
My family!
I think we were all collapsed on the entrance hall’s floor for good minutes, holding each other and only parting from the embrace so I could look at their faces from time to time, still unable to believe it was them.
‘I’ll be leaving, Miss. If you consider everything to be ok.’
The voice stroke me as strange, especially since the word Miss wasn’t in Brax’s vocabulary, and as I raised my eyes to look in the direction it was coming from, I understood the reason. It was thedriver,and not Brax.
‘Where is Brax?’ I asked.
‘Boss had an emergency and had to stop at another location.’ The man spoke, confirming my suspicions. He didn’t want to come and bring them himself because he didn’t want to see me again.
‘Thank you. That will be all,’ I nodded as I received all information I wanted.
I wasn’t going to let his absence cloud my day. Not this of all days.
‘Let’s get you two inside. It’s not that safe here lately.’
‘I know,’ Natalia let out a sigh.
‘What do you meanyou know?’
‘I saw cars as we entered the city. Cars filled with men moving in and out. Sad men.Badmen, Bea.’
‘It will all be ok. We will be ok. I’ll see to that. Now, smile. We’re together again and nothing - I mean NOTHING can break us apart any longer.’
And I will make sure of that!
I must have used all hugs available in my system in those hours as I couldn’t satisfy my need of feeling them close. But there was something that was worrying me ‘Did they hurt you when they took you out of there?’ I asked my sister, noticing a few bruises on her face and the uncovered part of her arms. Though the bruises didn’t seem so recent.
‘No... I tried to run. A couple of nights after I talked to you on the phone. I didn’t want you to get in trouble because of us, so I tried to escape when one of the guards was sleeping. I didn’t even make it to the door... And this,’ a crystal tear ran down her face. ‘...this was my punishment, she lifted her sleeve high enough to reveal an almost open wound that was going from the elbow to her shoulder.
‘What the hell is that, Nat!?’ I felt I couldn’t breathe as my blood was boiling so strongly that it was beginning to think it will burst through my nose. ‘Who did this!?’ I screamed so furious that I was only seeing red.
