The Accidental Slave (Aya's story Part 1) (10 page)

“I did not cling to you,” Aya said,
embarrassed.

“Whatever you say… but unlike you, I was awake
and I remember it very clearly.”

Aya was worried that she might have told him
things in her dreams that she could never tell him in reality, so
she got up and walked to the bathroom.

When she returned to the living room, the door
to Jonul’s room was open. Aya immediately took a step back.

“Jonul, wake up… wake up. Come on…” Kato
called.

There was a low growl from Jonul.

Aya walked closer to the room and was hit by a
stench of blood, sweat, urine, and gas. She covered her nose with a
grimace.

Jonul rolled over and opened his eyes and
spotted her looking at him from a distance.

“Come here, slave,” he ordered but Aya shook her
head and took a step back. Nothing in this world could make her go
to him. He was the most disgusting human being she had ever
encountered, and she was only sad his injuries hadn’t killed
him.

While she heard him call for her she ran to
Kato’s room and hid in his bed praying like she hadn’t prayed since
she was a small child. “God, if you can hear me, please keep me
safe and bring me home.”

Aya wasn’t a religious person but she had been
baptized as a child, and if there ever was a time to claim
membership in a club of higher power it was now. She had nothing to
lose and kept mumbling prayers for protection.

Kato

Jonul was cursing at Aya for running away from
him.

“Shut up and let me help you,” Kato barked.
“Come on… get up, I’ll help you to the bathroom.”

“I don’t have to pee,” Jonul growled.

“No, you already did that in your bed,” Kato
pointed out, annoyed.

“I can get up myself,” Jonul claimed and tried,
but was forced to reach for Kato when he lost his balance.

Kato helped Jonul to the bathroom, where he
guided him into the shower. Jonul was too weak to stand so he sat
on the floor instead. Looking at his brother, Kato felt both pity
and disgust. The man was a shadow of the brother he remembered from
his childhood. He hosed him over with the showerhead while Jonul
sat impassively unable to do anything himself. Kato didn’t know if
he could shampoo Jonul’s hair with the stitches, so instead he just
gently washed some of the blood away.

“Here, hold the shower head. I’ll go and change
your sheets and then I’ll be right back,” Kato instructed.

The sheets were ruined with blood and urine.
Kato threw them in a trash bag, wondering how he should clean the
mattress that was stained. He gave up before even beginning, and
laid out a towel to soak up the urine before changing the sheets.
It was an improvement compared to before and the best he could do
for now, but he feared the place would always reek of urine. They
would need to find a new bed for Jonul.

Kato headed back to the shower and handed Jonul
his toothbrush. Jonul made a weak attempt to brush his teeth but it
would have to do. For a moment Kato considered shaving his brother
and cutting his hair, but he looked so fragile and sick that Kato
decided it was best to get him back into bed. The cosmetic needs
would have to wait until he felt a little better.

It was hard to both hold him and dry him, and
Jonul was still partly wet and completely naked when Kato got him
back into bed.

He fetched a glass of water and some crackers
for him to eat and placed them next to his bed.

“I have to go. Will you be okay?”

Jonul waved a hand at Kato. “Just go, the slave
will take care of me.”

Kato raised an eyebrow thinking of Aya searching
for knives in the kitchen last night. “About that, could you maybe
just leave her alone today?” Kato suggested.

Jonul smirked. “Not likely.”

“I think you need to gain your strength before
you do anything, so sleep the day away and leave her alone,
okay?”

“Whatever,” Jonul muttered and went back to
sleep.

Kato sighed, relieved. For now Aya was safe, and
hopefully he would find a way to convince Jonul not to hurt her
when his strength returned.

He found Aya hiding in his bed.

“Hey, Aya. Don’t worry, Jonul is still very weak
and I think he’ll just sleep all day.”

Aya nodded, pale with fright, and Kato felt a
pull towards her. “Come here for a second,” he said and spread his
arms in a protective hug. But Aya didn’t move towards him like she
had last night when she had her nightmares; instead she moved away
from him. His face fell when he understood that to Aya he and Jonul
were both monsters who had kidnapped her and held her captive.

“I have to go to the headquarters,” he
murmured.

Aya’s eyes shot open in disbelief. She opened
her mouth to speak but then she closed it again.

“What is it?” Kato asked.

“Are you really leaving me with…
him?
”
she asked, horrified.

“He won’t touch you. I told you, he’s too weak,”
Kato assured her.

A tear rolled down Aya’s face and then she
whispered to him, “And tomorrow when he’s stronger. What then?”

Kato moved away from her, feeling overwhelmed
with a desire to protect her and hold her. But he knew that if he
touched her he would increase her fear and she wouldn’t like
it.

“I told you it’s complicated,” Kato said and
pulled back to the door. “I’ll bring back food but I’m going to be
gone the whole day. I’ll see you later, Aya.”

As he left he heard her crying in his room. It
made him question what he was doing here in the first place.

Aya

Aya heard the front door slam and Kato run down
the stairs. He had left her with Jonul. Panic crept back into her
body. She hyperventilated and pressed herself against the wall. It
was evident now that Kato’s calm presence had been the biggest
component in keeping her above water. Now that he was gone she was
lost, vulnerable, and drowning in anxiety with worst-case scenarios
circling around her like hungry sharks. She kept staring at the
door and dampened her sobbing in the pillow, afraid the noise would
attract Jonul’s attention and make him come for her. But he didn’t,
and for a long time she heard no sounds from his bedroom.

Her sobbing ceased and her thoughts became
clearer, and with shaky legs she dried her eyes and stepped out on
the floor, taking one step at a time out of Kato’s bedroom. All her
senses were on alert. She peeked into Jonul’s bedroom and saw him
sleeping soundly. Then she proceeded to the kitchen, where she
collected the biggest knife she could find. She desperately needed
to pee, and so snuck out into the bathroom. While peeing she held
the knife in front of her and pressed her muscles, making the jet
as tiny and silent as possible. She didn’t flush but allowed
herself the luxury of washing her hands quietly with the knife
lying securely beside her, and then she tiptoed back into the
living room. With shallow breathing she raised the knife in front
of her and walked slowly into Jonul’s bedroom.

He was lying on his back with a blanket up to
his stomach. His chest was naked and from anatomy classes Aya knew
exactly where to place the knife. To find strength she looked at
the bloodstains on the floor and wall.
It’s you or him, Aya, you
have to do it.

Aya raised both hands with a firm grip on the
knife and took a long last deep sigh.
1… 2… 3… now!

But her hands didn’t move.

Tears ran down her face and her hands trembled
uncontrollably, making her drop the knife. It landed on top of
Jonul, who made a small grunt, and then it slid down onto the
mattress and landed just underneath his armpit.

Aya gasped and stepped back with a heart pumping
so fast that it felt like it was trying to escape her body and
would run the hell out of here by itself, if it could.

But Aya wasn’t running. She couldn’t. Her body
wasn’t cooperating and she was dizzy. All she could do was stare at
the knife and hold her breath.

Breathe, come on, breathe or you’re going to
pass out.
The sound of her first sharp intake of air was loud,
and her chest pumped up and down to pull in the air her lunges
needed so badly.

Jonul uttered a loud snore and his eyes
flickered. He was waking up.

It was the signal Aya needed to focus again, and
in a quick movement she grabbed the knife and fled to the living
room, where she grabbed a chair and brought it back to Kato’s room.
Quickly she closed his door and was relieved to see she could lock
it from the inside; and then she tilted the chair under the
doorknob, making the barricade more solid.

Jonul must have gone back to sleep without
realizing she was in his room. The minutes felt like hours in
Kato’s bedroom and gave her too much time to think about her family
and friends, who would have been notified by now. Their concern and
worry for her would be great. She was her parents’ only child and
they had begged her not to go.
Why didn’t I listen?

Tears of anger and powerlessness streamed down
her face, and then suddenly she heard sounds from the other side of
the thin wall that separated her from Jonul.

“Slave,” he called. She didn’t answer but pulled
the knife in front of her and moved back into the corner of the
bed, pressing her back against the wall farthest from Jonul’s
room.

“Come here, slave,” he shouted angrily, and then
she heard him slam his fist into the wall between them. She blinked
with the loud thud and kept her eyes fixated on the door.

“You will come now or I will beat you
senseless,” he threatened her, and when that didn’t make her come
she heard him stumble out of bed and to the bathroom. He was in
there a long time. Too long. But then Aya heard him stumble back
into the living room and she closed her eyes, waiting for the
inevitable. He reached her door, and from the thuds Aya was sure he
was leaning against it. She saw the doorknob wiggle and heard him
call again. “Open the fucking door, slave.”

Aya didn’t make a sound, and after several
attempts at calling her out Jonul lost his temper and screamed with
fury while slamming into the door. “Let me in, bitch, or I swear
I’ll cut you up in slices.”

Aya covered her ears and started humming loudly
to cover the vile threats that kept coming in a steady stream. When
she stopped he was quiet. Everything was quiet.

Her sense of time betrayed her without the
chance of knowing if the sun was up or down, but after an eternity
of fear she finally heard the front door open and noises coming
from the entry, and then Kato’s voice.

Kato

“What the hell are you doing on the floor?
Jonul, talk to me, what happened?”

“The slave won’t open the door. It’s your fault.
You are hiding her from me.” Jonul’s voice was low and angry. “I
told you, she’s mine!”

Kato snapped back, “I told you to leave her
alone for today.”

“You fucked my slave?” The accusation was
raw.

Kato shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”

“You’re lying.”

“Come on, let me help you into bed. Lying here
naked will only make you sicker.” Kato squatted down and tried to
support Jonul.

Jonul took his hand but frowned. “I’m not sick,
I told you I just need to rest a little.”

“You are deluded. I gave you twenty-five
stitches yesterday and you lost a lot of blood. You are sick and
need to rest, Jonul.”

“Why the hell did you give me the stitches when
I told the slave to do it?”

Kato pulled Jonul up and answered at the same
time, making the words strained. “She supervised.”

Jonul was cursing with pain. “Fuck the slave. I
don’t like her, she’s a bitch!”

“I’m sure you’re not her favorite person in the
world either,” Kato said dryly.

“You better not be fucking her. You hear me?”
Jonul was walking slowly back to his bedroom, leaning on Kato.

“I hear you. Come on.”

“Tomorrow, I’ll be fit again, and then I’ll
finish what I started. I have to break her in and consummate my
ownership.”

Kato felt his belly muscles clench thinking
about the sight that had met him when he found Aya bound in Jonul’s
bed. “I thought you already did.”

Jonul grunted. “No, I was distracted.”

Kato led Jonul to his bed and let go when his
brother sank back into the sheets.

“Why the hell did you let her loose? I had her
tied up and ready for me,” Jonul murmured with eyes closed.

“Jonul.” Kato felt torn between his fundamental
love for his brother and his anger about his actions.

Jonul opened his eyes and grunted, “What?”

“Why do you take pleasure in hurting
others?”

There was a ghost of bitterness on Jonul’s face.
“Because I’m a freak like our uncle. He trained me well.”

“You were not always like this… you have a
choice.”

Jonul turned his face away. “No, I don’t.

“We could run away together and leave this hell
behind.”

“I told you to stop saying that. It wouldn’t
matter. I’m a dead man anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I just said,” Jonul said dismissively.
“Now tell my slave to get in here. I want her in my bed.”

Kato felt nauseated. He knew Aya wouldn’t go
voluntarily. He would have to force her and he didn’t want to. He
wanted to protect her as long as he could.

“I’ll tell her, but I won’t force her… it’s not
my thing.”

“Ha, you really need to grow a pair of balls,”
Jonul said and turned on his side. “Give me a few hours of sleep,
then I’ll come and get her myself.”