Hell is Lost | Book I

Chapter 18

The place started humming as soon as Damian made an entrance. People were greeting him, everyone was congratulating him, women in particular wanted his attention, even if it was just a wave of his hand.

But he wasn't interested and his eyes were moving across the hall, like he was looking for something.

I travelled my eyes to the woman, who had her arm firmly wrapped around Damian's arm--she was tall, and beautiful, and wearing a sleeveless blue dress. Her blonde hair was tied up in a messy bun, she looked proud that she was his date.

In that moment she was the object of everyone's envy.

But who was she? Was she his girlfriend? If she was, then why did he want me in this party.

As I was watching them, an inscrutable feeling suddenly engulfed me, my fingers tugging at my dress as I fought against the pull of two strong feelings.

Was I feeling bad that he was with another woman because no matter how much I hated it, I was sure somewhere in the back of my mind that I'd be up there with him...or why else would he take me shopping yesterday and order me to come to the party?

"No, no, I shouldn't care what he does," I cried, "I hate him and I hope he doesn't notice me."

But fate had other plans as Damian's eyes had found me.

How I wished the earth could swallow me, because the anger in his eyes was too much to bear.

However, his concentration was broken when a man decided to distract him, "Congratulations, Damian," the man said shaking his hand, "This deal is a game changer."

"Thank you," he replied.

Taking advantage of his oblivious state, I stood from the sofa, made an exit from the hall, rambled in the hallway, garden, and looked for ways to leave this godforsaken place, searched for any doors or gates that might had been left opened--but I didn't find anything, everything was tightly secured and my constant searching only earned me some suspicious looks from people around me.

Disappointed, I wished that I could atleast leave this party, if not the place, and repeatedly asked Agnes to let me go, but she insisted that I should stay.

It was around 11'o'clock and the party that had started as a quiet get together turned into this frenzied bash. Loud music pierced through the roof, people were dancing and alcohol was being passed on.

After sauntering around, I returned to the party, feeling completely dejected as I sat down on the couch in the corner, and looked at Damian, who was chugging shots after shots. By now he had devoured half the party's alcohol and it had started to manifest.

Feeling the effect of the alcohol, he grabbed that woman firmly by her waist and swayed to the music.

Sitting in the corner, I watched him as his hands slid down her back, but I felt embarrassed when I saw that his eyes were secured on me.

"Does he really think he can make me jealous? Was this the reason he wanted me in this party?" I wondered.

As much as I hated that he was teasing me, I felt relieved by the fact that he hadn't approached me yet.

Unable to take any longer and feeling an uneasy giddiness, I decided to finally leave, I just couldn't take anymore. This place, the party and its people--everything was filling me with unimaginable disgust. But just as I was about to walk towards the stairs, the waiter bumped into me and dropped his tray full of glasses--shattering everything into pieces, and spilled the wine on my dress.

"I'm sorry ma'am," he apologised, his voice trembling.

"It's okay," I said as I wiped the stain off my dress.

Watching him like that as he cleaned up the shards with trembling fingers, I suddenly remembered my own time as a waitress, that familiar guilt kicked in and I immediately crouched down to help him.

"No, ma'am, I will do it," he said.

"It's okay, I have been here too," I reassured him and cleared the mess, picked up the ice bucket and decided to take it to the kitchen myself. Rose to my feet, turned round and was left stunned--Damian was in front of me, and I instantly took a step back, for he was staring me down.

I should've never stopped I cursed myself but couldn't help looking at him and noticing that how well he was dressed. Though he always dressed like he was going to a business meeting, tonight he had taken extra care. His three piece tar black suit fit his muscular body perfectly and his slicked back hair was giving him an intimidating look.

In a few seconds, the blonde woman also joined him, with a glass of wine in her hand. "Damian what are you doing here?" she asked, but he didn't respond and kept on looking at me. The woman turned her face towards me, eyed me up and down with her protruding eyes, "Who is she? I have never seen her around?" she asked.

Damian was silent, his eyes scanning my body, sliding down, and he noticed the ice bucket in my hand, and his face suddenly changed, eyes got darker, nostrils started flaring and something in my mind said that he wasn't happy at all.

He finally broke the silence, "She is a maid," he said with wrath in his eyes.

Maid? He called me a maid?

The woman looked at me with surprising eyes and erupted into a sardonic chuckle, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to judge or anything, but you are pretty well dressed for a maid," she said as she looked down at my gown, "If he hadn't told me, I'd have guessed that you were a guest, but what can we expect? It's Damian, he sure knows how to put on a great show," she smirked and finished her drink in one gulp.

I pursed my lips in anger as shame, embarrassment and a hurt pride took hold of me. Squeezing the ice bucket with my fingers, I let the pain run freely through my arm.

I again looked at Damian who just stood there and stared at me with eyes that seemed to be taking pleasure in my humiliation, he was enjoying every ounce of my suffering how can he be so cruel. I moved away and ran straight to the kitchen, leaving them two behind.

"What happened?" asked Agnes as she saw me storming into the kitchen.

"Nothing," I said slamming the bucket on the counter. "I'm not feeling good, I'm going upstairs." I stated and left.

"But the party..." her faint voice persuading me but I ignored her.

There was no way I could've had stayed in that party, especially after the insult that I had just endured. I ran frantically, and didn't even realise that I was wearing this long gown, which had gotten an ugly cut at the bottom after getting stuck in the railing.

Reaching my room, I closed the door behind me, shutting out the music and the noises too. Now, there was just me and my loneliness and a flood of uncontrollable tears.

Feeling dejected, I sat down on the floor, hugged my knees, "Only yesterday I was thinking maybe there is some goodness inside him, when he had saved me from that man, but tonight? how wrong was I!"

How happily he was taking pleasure in my humiliation! What a cruel, insensitive sadist, devil in a man's body, I hate him!

Even the servants had the luck of getting some sort of respect from him, but me? I was just a low piece of trash for him.

Why me?

As I was crying, I suddenly heard footsteps in the hallway, became attentive, inched closer to the door and listened carefully.

"Where is she?" Damian asked angrily.

"Sh...she is in her room. She wasn't feeling good," Agnes' voice trembled with fear.

"This girl!" he hissed and took a pause before continuing, "Okay, let me finish this party first, I will deal with her later," he declared and stomped out of the hallway.

I flinched and pulled away from the door when he walked past my room, leaving a trail of his strong cologne behind.

I wiped my tears, rubbed my eyes and took a deep breath, "Let him come...I'm no longer scared of him..he wants to punish me? Then so be it..he might as well choke me to death...because I can't live like this anymore."

I stood up, walked over to the bed, laid down on my side, in a foetal position and pulled up the covers over my head as if they were my shield, and closed my eyes.