Koruna

Friends and Enemies

Chapter 66
Friends and Enemies

Koruna’s discovered that she was tied to a chair, she had to stop fainting. She told herself that as the light adjusted to the room. She took note of Abriel sitting across her with what looked like torture equipment beside her.

“I know you are awake, stop pretending.” Abriel said with a sadistic smile.

“I wasn’t pretending, I was wondering how you went wrong. I do that a lot these days, wonder… why are you so mad at me?” Koruna asked.

Abriel frowned at her, “Is that a serious question?”

“Do you see me laughing?”
Abriel scoffed and took out what resembled a plier, she stood behind Koruna and picked her left middle finger.

“What are you doing?” Koruna asked warily.

“Shhhhhh… This will only hurt for a minute.” Abriel used the tool and attached it to her finger, Koruna took a deep breath, she knew what was coming and grunted when Abriel pulled out her finger slowly, when she was done she whispered in Koruna’s ear. “Look, behind that glass is your lover R’ao, Simi is making him watch the more you scream, the faster I’ll be able to stop and the sooner he’ll give her what she wants.” She smiled wryly as she sat back down opposite her.

Koruna closed her eyes and let the pain go through her, when she opened them they were filled with unshed tears, “Why are you doing this? You were the one who betrayed me and went on the assignment alone, I thought you were dead. I was mad at you, so so mad at you for years and in pain. I felt guilty, we all did and how, how is it that you look at me like I betrayed you?”

Abriel stared at her blankly,
“Do you know how people become enforcers?”

“Sell their soul to the Devil?” Koruna responded drily.

Abriel laughed without humour, “I have forgotten how you make everything into a joke. I didn’t want to leave you alone if you must know. An Elite who claimed to be your father threatened me, he also paid me off when he knew that threats wouldn’t do much to deter me. The job seemed easy enough at first, I got more money than I thought I’d ever touch from your said father and so it seemed like a fair exchange. Only that the job wasn’t just a job.” Abriel touched her ear like she was listening to something, she picked the plier again and went for Koruna’s thumb this time.

“No… No… Not the thumb, my forefinger please.” Koruna sighed.

“You discriminate against your fingers?” Abriel snickered but picked the fore finger. She pulled at it slowly at first. Koruna hissed out in pain, she tried to keep the screams in, she really tried but she couldn’t hold it in anymore. Abriel laughed satisfyingly at that and went back to sit.

She waited for a few minutes, then continued;
“Where was I? Oh yeah, the job was more of a recruiting test. All of us walked into that place unaware of what awaited us, it was them or her as the case might be. Simi was in need of enforcers and you can guess where her recruiting pool was targeted. Home sweet home! Flames… Would any Elite consider this a job? We are dispensable, nobody gives two shit about our lives. Pardon my cussing, I have forgotten that I am in the presence of royalty.” Abriel bowed mockingly.

“My father?” Koruna was acutely aware of the smell of blood.

“I know!!! That’s what I said too.”

“You are angry with me because my father was an Elite? That makes no sense.”

Abriel bangs the table in annoyance, “No, I am angry because if everyone in the world didn’t give two shits about me. I thought you would!!! I thought you would come for me, through every painful moment, through the loss of my friends, my sanity and my dignity. I hoped that you would come to my rescue, I believed that you wouldn’t believe that I would die like that, I believed in you Koruna, I trusted in you!!! And you failed me! Imagine my surprise when I saw how well and fine you were doing without me, you even managed to snag one of the most powerful bachelors on Nige. Anger, envy, jealousy, with a touch of the feeling of unfairness… can you see? I hate you, with everything I have.”