The tin chair

There weren’t always dragons in the valley he said looking at me with wide eyes. I ducked and a bullet wizzed just over my head. I could feel the hair follicles move as I rolled on the floor closer to him. We trained in Quantico together and became sparing partners, study partners and somehow along the way became lovers.

We were dancing at my nieces wedding when we got separated from each other. Luke saw the armed men first, pushed me away from the bullet meant for me. He took the bullet for me. What happened next was a blur, people were screaming, tables were toppled over, two gunman were yelling at the crowd to get on the ground. Luke’s eyes will haunt me for the rest of my days. When he was jumping in mid air how could he remember the first time we kissed? We were in a theatre watching a Fantasy fiction thriller. When the words were spoken, “there weren’t always dragons in the valley” played, he reached over to me and kissed me for the first time. Now by Luke’s side, I screamed for him to hold on. Someone grabbed me forcefully and dragged me. I remember looking at Luke and screaming for the gunman to let me go, trying to regain my balance. Frantically looking around the room for my mom and dad. Our eyes locked and screamed Luke. The gunman dragged me into the parking lot, sunk a needle in my neck and then nothing. Blackness.

I remember waking up several times very groggy to only see blackness and hearing the rumbling of a vehicle. Finally when I opened my eyes I could see where I was. My hands and feet were tied to a metal chair in the middle of a very small room with no windows with a gag in my mouth. It was still little hazy looking around, then I remembered what happened. My whole body went into spasms, and I started crying thinking about Luke.

Footsteps outside my door made me stop struggling and listen if I could hear anything. The door opened, and a very tall man walked in the room with a gun smiling at me and said, “look who is up after 12 hours of beauty rest.”

I tried to talk but couldn’t. I stared at this 6 foot very fit man with salt and pepper hair, a goatee and a familiar tattoo on his forearm. It was a tattoo symbol of a street gang in Vancouver where I lived. They were the strongest gang in city. Then it hit me why I was there. The leader of the gang Mr. Pipe’s daughter was hit by me in a raid a few months ago. My eyes grew wide and wondered what the leader wanted.

The tall gunman walked closer to me and ripped off the gag around my mouth. I spit on him trying not to show weakness. All he did was laugh at me.

The door opened again and Mr. Pipe was standing there staring at me. Two would play that game and I stared at him like I was in control, I never took my eyes off of him trying to study his every move. He had the tattoo of a sailboat on his forearm but much larger. He walked up to me and hit me so hard the chair fell over with my head smashing to the concrete floor along with my shoulder. The tall man easily picked me up from the floor and sat me back down facing Mr. Pipe laughing. Mr. Pipe rubbed his fist looking at me and said, “that was for my daughter,” and walked out of the room with the tall man following.

Day after day the same thing kept happening. I begged for it to stop and asked for water. I couldn’t tell my blood from the water because after each beating they would only give me enough to survive with no food. I could feel myself slipping in and out of consciousness. I herd the foot steps again and each time I would glare at Mr. Pipe, but not today. I turned my head and whispered what he wanted.

Mr. Pipe grabbed my chin so I could look into his cold black eyes, I could barely see from the concussions of dizziness and blurred visions. He said, “nothing, I don’t want nothing, all I want is for you to suffer for the rest of your life for taking my daughter away from me.”He dropped my chin, and sent my flying to the floor again. This time the tall man wasn’t there to pick me up. I lied on my side crying thinking of Luke and prayed that I would die.

I’m not sure how long I was on the floor for it could have been an hour or a month it was very unclear. I was now freezing with my head against the floor, my shoulder and tied up legs. The pain from not being able to move was unbearable. I had no more tears left, my stomach was no longer growling, my headache was gone, I couldn’t smell the urine drenched body, all I had left was my heart beat.

I heard footsteps that seemed so far away, yelling, a few pops butt couldn’t lift my head. When the door opened all I heard was, “Anna”. My body felt like air, I opened my eyes and saw Luke. My beautiful Luke.