Chương 4: THE UNPLANNED ESCAPE

THE UNPLANNED ESCAPE

I ran to my room and was shaking so badly. I had never been so terrified in my life, even when I lost my dad I was not this visibly shaken.

I changed out from my bloodied gown into a jean short and a grey polo with mickey mouse printed on it and strapped on my IN NEED OF A LIFE

I was tired of the cycle of my life of just cleaning up this huge house, making sure that food is always available, getting beaten up by my aunt , getting raped by her husband and being his sex toy.

I went nowhere apart from the store, knew no one apart from the beasts I lived with and understood no true emotion aside pain. I needed a life of my own and at nineteen, I had read enough books with numerous motivations to get me through but I needed a plan.

I thought to myself and knew I had to get some money because I have heard of how unsafe and unfair the world out there was and did not want to jump from a great fire to a greater fire but the question was how I could get money since I knew no trade and had no education.

The only educated thing I knew how to do was to read and it was something I enjoyed but it could not fund or feed my escape plan. I would not really need a plan because a month after I racked my brain on how to get the finances or plan my escape, an incident happened and I knew I had to escape and that was what I did. I escaped.

My aunt was off again for a fashion business venture as usual in Italy and I was almost rounding off my chores. I wanted to arrange Dr Matthew's room last because even though I knew he was not around, I was scared of that room but I had to clean the room and dress his bed.

After reciting some motivational words that I read from a book, I entered the room. With careful steps I began to carry out my duty. I looked to the bed and the image of him cuffing me and raping me flashed before my eyes and I had to close my eyes and breathed in and out for a while before I continued.

I looked under his bed and saw some used tissue paper under his bed and I knew what they were used for but I chose to act like I did not. I was sweeping them out from under the bed when I heard the door open.

I stood up abruptly to meet the face of a man I have dreaded the mere thought of all morning. He barged in like he was in a rush to take something but stopped on seeing me. He had an angry scowl on his face and my uneasiness increased a tenfold on seeing that look.

He gruffly what I was doing in his room and I stutteringly told him how I just wanted to fix his room and do his laundry. He eyed me up and down and I tried excusing myself from his over bearing presence when he asked me to strip.

I was tongue tied because I thought he just wanted to get something from the room and get back to work. I began to fidget and he bellowed at me telling me that he had no patience for my rubbish and I should do as told.

I didn't know where I got the courage from or maybe it was because I was so tired of feeling less of myself or maybe I had come to terms of preferring death to the current state I was in because the next second, I looked him in the eye and for the first time, I told him ''NO'' in the bravest voice I could mutter.

Shock crossed his facial features for a brief moment and left almost as immediately as it came. If I was not facing him, I might not have noticed it. He looked at me and guffawed ever so intimidatingly.

My newly built resolve almost faltered because I was expecting an indignant look but definitely not that despicable laughter he spilled out.

As he quietened, his laughter transformed to a murderous look and I knew what was about to happen. I tried to rush past him when he flung me back. He flung me far and hard and I collided with the fine wooden edge of the bed.

Tears gathered at the corner of my eyes on the impact and my right hand flew to my waist that felt like it was broken. He strutted towards me and grabbed me by my hair and started dragging me to the bed while I flayed my legs around like a displeased child.

The tears I was trying to suppress earlier came rushing hard and he pulled me up to push me to the bed. He hovered above me and said ''why do you resist me when you know exactly how this would end?''. I refused to cry further as I looked challengingly into the eyes of the devil. He whispered in my ears and barely said two words when I bared my teeth like an animal and bit his ear hard.

I felt a slight satisfaction on tasting his blood on my tongue and as I watched him clutch his ear. He held his ear and brought his hand to his face and saw the blood he saw on my teeth on his hands.

I knew he was raving mad and I knew what was coming next. He dealt me several severe blows until I felt like there was a crack in my skull. He stood up from me and moved to recover something from his wardrobe and I took that opportunity to roll to the other side of the bed. He had already found what he wanted and turned to my face which had a lot of bruises and I could feel the wetness of something I was sure was my blood streaking down my face. My throat felt dry and parched and as I licked my lower lip, I felt the swell there but I could not concentrate on that because the mad man across me held a knife up and had a sadistic smile on.

I managed to push down the lump that was forming in my throat and he jumped on the bed ready to pounce on me when I tried rushing out the door again. His long legs ate up most of the space and he was in no time at my front and tried to slash me with the knife when I bent diagonally. He stood aright and tried aiming for my throat again but I rolled under the passing of the knife and was at his back. He turned around so fast and was obviously angry at missing twice. He lurched at me again and sliced at my arm as I was a tad too slow to move back. I held the spot and bent down. He came at me and I stood up fast, he tried slashing at me again and I kicked him hoping to aim for his groin as I had read many a time could be a weakness to his specie but at the last second, he had held up the knife so I ended up kicking away the knife from his hand and that left a cut under my foot.

The both of us looked to the direction of the knife at once and as I was about to go for the knife, he threw himself at me and the both of us tumbled to the floor but I was in motion when he threw himself at me so he landed below my pelvic region. My gown was already ridden high up to my thigh and on seeing his 'prize' a stretch away, he rode my gown higher but I tried to stop him.

With the little energy in my left hand due to the cut and my good right hand that had not much energy either, I tried resisting but it was fruitless. I saw that he was going to have his way again so I searched for the knife above my head frantically. I came in contact with the hilt of the knife and slashed across his chest but I missed and dug the knife into one of his hands as he tried to defend the second slash. I did not stop there and stabbed him in his belly. He looked at the knife in his belly, then at me and as he was about to curse at me, blood spurted out of his mouth. I stood up, opened his door and ran down the stairs as fast as I could.

. I went to my tiny bathroom, tied up my hair, washed my face and my hands. I did this so fast and ran out of the gate before the gate keeper could start asking me any question that might delay me.

I had already used my only handkerchief to tie the cut on my arm but the blood was sipping out and was already making little stains on the arm of my shirt. I began to run as fast as my untrained legs could carry me. I ran and ran and even when my ankle began to ache I did not stop.

I had run through three streets already when in the next street, I saw two men leaning on an old lorry. They didn't seem to pay any attention to me and I heard one of the men telling the other to make sure he comes visit him sometime at Cradon. I had heard of Cradon and I knew it was several miles away from Taobi.

I ran to the back of the lorry and hopped on the back before the men were done with saying their goodbyes. There was a mesh like kind of iron that was at the back of the lorry that protected the greasy kegs of engine oil from rolling down when in motion. While trying to get in, I scraped the side of my left leg on it but I didn't mind till I sat in the middle of the kegs and was sure that I was well covered by the kegs.

I saw blood trickling down and wiped it with my hand. I then looked at where I sat down and how greasy it was but I didn't mind it still. How could I?

As soon as the vehicle was in motion, I drew my knees to myself and placed my jaw atop my knees and began to think of all that just happened. I tried to bite my lower lip hard enough to draw blood and push the tears in my eyes back, but they came pouring.

After some time, I rested my head on my drawn knees and was soon asleep due to fatigue. I woke up to the whooshing of breeze in my ears. I opened my eyes, stretched my tired hands and was taken aback by the bright lights coming from stalls by the side of the road, displaying their various wares. It was evening already and I wondered for how long I had slept.

I adjusted to the edge of the vehicle to see children playing happily in the port holes by the side of the road, older children who looked like they were just coming from school, most likely an extra lesson as the vehicle soon drove past them. I longed for that radiant happiness that I saw the children exuding and wondered if anyone had been able to come to Dr Matthew's aid on time.

I decided to not allow that bother me and Istarted having various thoughts on the turn my life would take from hereon if I am not found. I also wondered what the driver would do on discovering me at the back of his lorry.

My thoughts came to a halt when the vehicle came to a halt. My brain began to work in over drive and I decided to jump out from the back of the lorry. As my right leg was over the mesh like iron, ready to make a jump, the driver was suddenly at my front and gasped on seeing me. I was dumb founded and didn't know what to say. He must have heard my movements and come to take a look. He sure was a very attentive and observatory man.

On closer look, I guessed that he was in his 50's. His hair was sticking out from the base ball cap he wore and a huge jacket that I was sure would drown me if I attempted to put it on, covered most of his build. I wondered what a man his age was doing driving such long distance when he barked at me, asking me who I was.

I withdrew my leg into the lorry and he asked again who I was. When I said nothing, he threatened that he was going to drag me down and leave me right there along the road. I definitely didn't want to be dropped in a place I knew nothing of but I was skeptical on telling him who I was or my name because I was sure that my name and picture was circulating round the country for what I had done already.

In the last novel I read, Rogue's Honour, I loved the name Martha and thought it was a pretty name so I told him my name was Martha. He interrogated me further by asking what I was doing at the back of his vehicle and I half lied and half said the truth by telling him that I was being chased by a rapist.

He stared long and hard at me and I was expecting him to drag me out when he said the kindest words I had heard in a long time. He asked if I would love to ride with him. My countenance brightened and I affirmed his question and he watched me as I hopped off the vehicle. While taking the side to the shot gun seat, I silently prayed he was not a pervert or a rapist or a trafficker or worse, a serial killer. But I was in this lonely road with nowhere to go or no one to direct me other than this old man. I could only hope he was nothing like any of the aforementioned.