Two Villains

Ch. 22- RUN!

"I had warned you...."

A child's voice echoed from the void I was in.

Lying on the hot gravel, the sharp edges pressing against my skin felt as though they would either slit or burn it.

The world was ablaze around me. All I could see were the flames reaching up to the sky, darker than my soul. Flecks of burning embers floated in the air, and the sound of screams echoed everywhere—my own scream, Little Kaya's scream.

Little Kaya's head hovered above me, gently stroking my sweat-drenched hair with her tiny, bruised fingers. Memories of my mother punishing me by putting a pencil between my fingers and twisting them hard resurfaced. I almost  broke a few fingers as a child due to these tortures.

"Sameer lied to me..." I cried my heart out to her.

"Sameer was never there to begin with...." Little me spoke in my mind. I could not believe my ears.

"You, Kaya – a 30-year-old Doctor, trainee surgeon, worked your ass off to work in NHS, you left Bangladesh, you left your hell- you never dated because you were afraid of men misunderstanding you. Now you fell in love with a man within just 4 days because he had a pretty face and he saved you from kidnapping? Are you insane? Are you living in fantasy? Are you a fucking Cinderella?"

Her baby voice was raging with anger, fear, and disappointment.

"How would I know?" I tried to explain.

"You let this heartbreak happen to you. You are the idiot here. Rhys Volkner spread the trap, you gracefully stepped into it. I have warned you. Many times! All the signs were there. Every single sign was there.... You were the fucking blind, bitch!"

Little Kaya's screeches reverberated in the distance.

Her cries melded with the screams echoing all around me. Everything seemed to be screaming in my ears, causing my head to pound with pain and my body to ache—as if the hot gravel beneath me was threatening to engulf me, dragging me down to hell...

Then I woke up.

I found myself lying on the living room carpet, in front of the TV. I had fainted at the moment when every piece of the puzzle clicked in my brain, finally solving the mystery that had haunted me for the past four agonizing months.

The TV was still on, and the two experts continued to babble like two buffoons on the screen.

I realized I hadn't fainted; it was a vasovagal syncopal attack. The Vagus nerve, responsible for the parasympathetic nerve supply to the heart, had malfunctioned for a few seconds due to my extreme agitation.

My eyes were fixed on the TV screen. There was a clock above the TV, indicating it was almost 1 pm in the afternoon. I must have been in syncope for less than a minute.

My phone continued to ring in the kitchen, its faint ringing reaching my ears. I slowly walked over to it and saw that I had received voice messages. I opened them.

"Hey, Kay, darling...... I am sorry I will be entering another important meeting; I may not be able to text you, but don't worry I'll call you the moment I come out.... I love you... wish you were here with me......"

Sameer or Rhys Fucking Volkner's soft, velvety purr traveled from the phone and burned my ears with disgust.

The voice memo started to repeat.

"Hey, Kay darling...... I am sorry I will be entering another important meeting; I may not be able to text you, but don't worry I'll call you the moment I come out.... I love you......."