My Dream Marriage

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I am in my study going through some files. “Sir, we may not need to go to Marina to locate that driver, he is here in this city. I already have the location of where he is,” Michael says coming into the study. “He is? Why though,” I don’t get why he might want to come back here after he clearly did what he did.

“Sir, according to my sources, he still shares some connection with the Lawanson family so he might have come for this reason. He still works for them but not actively like before,” Michael says. I should get hold of him before he goes back, he might have come back to carry out some more heinous jobs for them. “You should keep a close eye on Sara, make sure she doesn’t go anywhere alone for the time being,” I say.

“She just went out with one of the bodyguards so she could be safe,” Michael says. So she left without letting me know. “Where to?” “I really don’t know but the bodyguards must have an idea of her whereabouts.”

“Call him.”

He takes out his phone and makes a call but my phone rings, distracting him. I signal for him to wait for me to take the call first before proceeding on his. It’s one of my informers, “Charlie, watsup?” “Sir, I just spotted the driver heading to the cemetery just now and the problem is that that is where Sara is right now.”

“Keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t get close to my sister. I’ll be there soon,” I say getting up from my seat. I can’t let him finish what he started. “Michael, we need to get to the cemetery now.” I hope there is no traffic on the road, I might even break a rule or two today.

***

I have made it a habit to visit my parents’ resting places every month. Today, given this is the second month since their death, I told Martha and snuck out of the house without telling anybody else. It’s not like they are in the house at this time but they have made a habit of monitoring my movements.

After dumping the old bouquet that I had kept here a month ago, I sweep away the dust and the dirt that had gathered on the stones and place another bouquet. It looks better now. I am surprised that I don’t shed any tears even after telling them how I miss them. I am getting stronger than before.

Not far from where I am, I can see a familiar figure even though she has covered her head with a scarf, I can still recognize her. Direct from the woods on her left side, I see a man covered with a mask on his face holding a gun and pointing it towards her. Oh no, this isn’t good. I don’t want to shout because it would alert him, given that he looks like he isn’t ready to shoot yet. He moves the gun from side to side when Sara moves and I am sure he wants a particular position from Sara to be able to shoot. I walk faster towards her, praying that she doesn’t look in my direction because that would guarantee a better target. He would have shot her if he wanted to earlier.

She looks surprised when she sees me and tries to say something but I push her and we both fall on the ground as a gunshot sounds in the air. The man, I guess her bodyguard falls on the ground near us with blood oozing from his chest. Sara exclaims trying to stand up but I encourage her to stay down. The shooter might be aiming at her again.

I feel something on my nose and before I know it everything blurs.

***

I open my eyes slowly and I feel tired and dizzy. I look around me and I can’t recognize where I am. I am in a room and it is dirty as hell like the last time it was cleaned can’t even be remembered. I try to stand up but I discover that my hands aren’t cooperating with me.

“What the hell! Get me out of here!” Someone startles me from behind. I can’t see behind me but that is Sara probably because I know her voice. She wiggles trying to break free from the restraints that are around us and we almost fall down. “Sara, what are you doing here?” I ask her because I remember being hypnotized. “I don’t know either, I just woke up now and found myself tied up on this chair.”

“Someone kidnapped us,” realization hits me and I become scared. “Oh no, I need to get out of here. Do you have any idea how we can get away?” She asks me and I am amazed that she is talking to me like a friend, not an enemy of hers. “First thing we need to untie ourselves then find a way to get out of here.” “Good idea, now how do we get out of these ropes?”

The door opens and two rugged men come in together with the shooter still holding a gun in his hand. He comes to where we are and checks the restraints and after making sure that they are still in place he stands on the wall and holds his hands on his chest.

“Why did you bring us here? Do you know that kidnapping is against the law? I will sue you for this!” I say, hoping that my words may scare them but it all falls on deaf ears. “You brought that on yourself. I had my plan in place but what did you do? You ruined it and gave me double work and I asked myself, why not bring you along? So you see, you should be congratulating yourself on that.” He is proud of what he did.

“You wanted to kill me? What for?” Sara asks and I am shocked as well. Why would someone want to kill her? “You can guess, I am only working you know,” he shrugs. “I am gonna make you pay for this! My brother won’t spare you!” Sara shouts. “You can shout as much as you want but don’t make me angry, I may be forced to take it away soon although I wanted to take it out tomorrow so don’t make me impatient,” he warns making Sara sigh in frustration.

He leaves the room together with his cohorts and closes the door behind them. “Keep an eye on those two and make sure they don’t do anything stupid. Boss will be here in no time.”

“What do we do now? I don’t want to be here any longer,” Sara complains. “Look, there is an opening up there. We can escape through that,” I say.

“Where?”

“On your top right.”

“Let’s go then, what are we waiting for?” She can’t be serious.

“We are clearly waiting for the restraints to come off. Do you think we are gonna climb there sitting on these chairs?”

“You are right. We have to think of something.” After some time, “my hand!” She says. “What about it?” I hope she is not complaining that her hand is paining her because we don’t have a choice but to stay like this for I don’t know how long. “My bangle! You can help me get it off and then we can use it to cut the rope. Come on, give me a hand.” Our hands are tied close to each other so it makes it a lot easier to pull it off. I bend my fingers and try to push it down off her wrist and after an exhausting episode I manage to remove it but before I could grasp it, it falls on the ground. Oh no.

“Let’s push ourselves down and pick it up. We then cut it from there,” I suggest. We push from side to side in an attempt to fall down and finally succeed but the impact must have attracted attention because the door is pushed inside just after I pick up the bangle. The two rugged men enter and make us sit back the way we were earlier and check on the ropes to make sure they are still in place. “Don’t try it because I will get you even before you think about it,” one of them threatens before they go back, closing the door as usual.

I don’t waste any time so I position the edge of the bangle on the rope and start cutting it. I really don’t know when it is gonna be done because I am literally using a blunt object to cut a rope. I stop some times whenever the guys come in and resume when they go back. This is taking longer than I thought.

After what seems like a lifetime, I finally manage to cut it. We wiggle out of the remaining ones and finally we are now free. I place one of the seats just below the opening. I climb it but it is still high so I decide to add another chair on top of it but I can’t climb it. Someone should hold them in place.

“Sara go on, let me hold the chairs for you to climb then you will help me when you get up there.” “Yes.”

It’s my turn now. I arrange the chairs and get on slowly making sure that I don’t fall. I get onto the first one and now the real hurdle is how to get on the top one. I place one of my legs on top of it and steady myself. I lift my other leg to place it on too and hold my hands up so that Sara can pull me up. She manages to help me up and the chairs without my support fall down and that only implies that we need to leave here right now.

We get into yet another room but this one is vast with old machines at every corner of it. “This seems like an abandoned factory or something,” Sara notes. We walk faster towards the exit and find ourselves in an open passageway. I can hear footsteps from behind us getting closer and closer and I know that we are being followed. We run and disappear into the woods and lose track of them. I am tired and thirsty and I can’t run anymore.

“Don’t stop, we need to get help as soon as possible. We can’t stay here, it’s getting dark,” Sara encourages me even though I feel tired I decide to press on. It’s true we need to get out of here. I trip on something that makes me fall on the ground. “Are you okay?” “Yes, I just tripped over something and fell.” “What was it?” She asks and I think I would want to know what caused me to fall.

I stoop and feel my fingers on the ground and I touch on a hard object. I pick it up and see that it looks like a camera or a tape recorder. “That is so old, throw it away let’s go,” Sara says. “No, I am going to keep it, maybe it’s an old gem that could bring me good luck. It could be a historical camera that can gives a glimpse into the ancient world.” “If you insist, can we go then?”

After walking for some time, we find ourselves on a lonely road that leads to God knows where. We continue walking towards the direction that we think could be leading away from that old factory. Right on time a car comes from the direction we are going to and stops abruptly after a moment of passing us by. It could be those men looking for us. “Let’s go, we can’t trust whoever comes from there,” I say.

Sara turns to look back and exclaims, “that’s my brother’s car!”