Chapter 5: 5. I don't know...for now
Aurora decided to get back on the bed and pretend to be asleep, and that was when the door creaked open.
Her heart started pounding hard against her chest. She kept staring at the door, her eyes wide open, till a slender young lady entered the room. She looked like she was around her mid twenties, quite tall, as compared to Aurora, with brown eyes and dark skin with curly black hair. She looked very harmless and beautiful, and Aurora wondered what such a lady would be doing in a den like this. She approached her with a wide smile, exposing her pearly white teeth with a gap between the two front ones.
"Hi, I'm Esther. How are you doing?" The lady asked in a very calming voice that made Aurora breathe in relief and relax her stiff muscles. At least there was one person who was nice to her, well for now. She didn't really know this lady to make a final conclusion, but the aura around her was very relaxing and welcoming. She smiled back and nodded.
"I'm fine. My...my whole body aches, though."
"Then you're not fine." Esther said, a smile still lingering on her round face. She stretched her hand towards her and that was when Aurora saw a small plastic bag in her hand. "Here. The boss asked me to get you some ointment and pain killers. I'm sure he noticed you were in pain so he asked me to get these for you."
As she spoke, she removed the items from the bag. There was a tube of ointment and some drugs. She handed Aurora a bottle of water and popped two different capsules into her hand. Aurora looked at the drug for some time. She was in pain, but she was a bit sceptical about taking the drug. Maybe this was their way to finish her up? She started having dirty thoughts about the possibility of being drugged.
Esther saw her hesitation and smiled.
"You can trust me. I actually got these myself as per the boss' order. You don't have to be scared of me, you know." She assured Aurora.
Aurora felt embarrassed a bit for being so obvious.
"Sorry, I...I didn't mean it that way."
"It's okay. I would have thought same if I were in your shoes. Go ahead, take it and have some rest."
Aurora nodded, sparing the drugs one last glance before she drank some water and dropped them into her mouth.
"Good. I'll go get you something to eat first before you rest. I'll leave these here." Esther dropped the plastic bag on a small table near the bed and left the room. Aurora stretched herself back on the bed. She felt a bit relaxed now that she knew someone was, at least, thoughtful of her wellbeing.
And, wait, did she say the boss asked her to bring the drugs? Like, Mr. Dangerous Man actually said that? But why would he do that? She was still thinking about it when a knock came in again and the door was pushed open without her response. Thankfully, it was Esther again, this time, with a tray. She was still smiling like before, warmly, her dark, smooth skin complimenting her white teeth, making her smile look so cute with that diastema.
Aurora was actually light-skinned, pale white to be precise, with blonde hair and blue-green eyes. She had never seen a dark-skinned this close before. She had seen some in movies and afar off. So seeing a pretty dark-skinned lady who was so friendly was very exciting to her.
"You look very pretty." Aurora couldn't stop herself from complimenting. She was indeed beautiful.
Esther's smile widened. She must have heard this a thousand times, Aurora thought.
"Thanks for the compliment. I was going to say the same thing about you. I especially love your eyes."
"Thanks. I'm Aurora, but you can call me Rory."
"Nice to meet you, Rory."
"Same here."
Esther brought a small foldable table and placed it in front of Aurora on the bed. She placed the tray on it and opened the small bowl of soup for Aurora and handed her a spoon. Aurora was starving, so after muttering an appreciation, she started sipping the soup in silence while Esther watched her.
"Wow, the soup is really nice." Aurora praised. She tasted some herbs and mushrooms, and it was her level spicy, which made her enjoy it.
"Thanks, Rory." Esther muttered in excitement and she watched Aurora take spoonfuls of the soup.
"Uhm...So do you live here?" Aurora asked after some few minutes and looked over to Esther, who was on her phone. Aurora saw her hand pause for a few seconds before she continued pressing her phone.
"Yes." Came her simple reply. Aurora only nodded. After some seconds, she asked again.
"Have you been here for long?"
"Quite long." Esther replied. "How is the soup?" She asked. Aurora felt she deliberately changed the topic, because she had already commented on the soup, and she wondered why, but she didn't think too much into it.
"It's very nice, thank you." She replied and continued eating. When she finished, Esther cleared the table and folded the table back to its position. She helped Aurora tuck herself in the bed and said.
"I'll be out now. You won't be able to leave the room, so I'll come back later to check up on you. For now, have some rest." She picked up the tray and walked up to the door.
"Esther..." Aurora called her, pausing her on her tracks as she turned to look at her. "Thank you."
Esther smiled at her.
"You're welcome, Rory. Get some sleep." She added and left the room.
Aurora relaxed on the bed and soon, her eyes became heavy with sleep. She didn't know if it was due to tiredness or it was an effect of the drugs she took, or maybe the soup? But she was too weak to think much into it, as she soon slept off.
Esther went upstairs to a large hall where they mostly hold important meetings. Derek was seated in a swivel chair, his eyes staring into space.
"How is she?" Derek asked without turning to look at her.
"I'm sure she's asleep by now. She looked quite hurt, but the drug I got has a high potency. She will have enough rest." Esther said and took a seat near him. "What are we going to do with her, boss?"
Derek fell silence for some time, not knowing what to say. He had been asking himself this same question some moments ago.
What was he going to do with her?
Frankly speaking, he was beginning to think that he was being too hard on them. They were innocent. It's possible they didn't even know what that man was into. Dragging them all into this mess looked as if he was being petty. But he couldn't help it. Fernando caused a lot of damages. His job was at stake now, and he needed to find out where that huge sum of money went.
That was what made Derek look into his background and found out he had a family somewhere. A wife and a daughter, who were enjoying life peacefully while he was put in deep waters. He was expecting to meet a hooligan and a stubborn brat when he went into the house that day. He had prepared his men, armed, because he knew with such a notorious man and the trickster that he was, he might have probably taught his family some fighting and shooting skills. But when he got there, one look at them, and he knew they could not even hurt a fly. Especially the young girl. She looked so innocent and vulnerable. That made him waver in his decision in killing them. He resorted to torturing them, but that too, he was having a hard time even seeing her tears. How could he put her through pain if he couldn't even bear seeing her tears? Would he be able to stand seeing her gnash her teeth in agony?
Esther kept staring at her boss. She must admit, that was the longest it had taken Derek to think of a question before giving an answer. And for as long as she had known him, this kind of silence meant he didn't really care what happened to his victims. But the look on his face now... No, he had a stoic expression, as always, but his eyes held some series of emotions she had never seen in his eyes before. It looked as if he was struggling to find an answer, which intrigued Esther. But just as she gave up on getting an answer, his gruff voice resounded.
"I don't know..." There was a brief pause, then he added, "...for now."
Esther blinked for some few seconds. Did Derek just say he didn't know? Wow! That was a first! Usually, his responds would have been, "kill her", or maybe, "take care of her". And by taking care of them, it meant they were to torture those victims, sometimes to death, or sometimes till they got whatever answers they were looking for. So for Derek to actually say he doesn't know?? Now that caused for alarm. Something must be wrong somewhere.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone