Chapter 32
Lana
“Clean everything up, Lana. I’m going to close in about five minutes. Hurry the fuck up!” He is in a fucking awful mood.
Fucking asshole.
The diner is a hole-in-the-wall, and when I look outside, nobody is on the street. Everybody is probably gathered in the center of Sarajevo. Every year, the city hosts a big free concert, and every single inhabitant of Sarajevo goes to it.
Even though work has been fucking hard today, it can’t keep my mind off Marco.
A seemingly quiet and ordinary man who shook me to my core.
For years, I have been an expert at keeping my real identity a secret.
The real me was something else, and I wish I could say that I hate it, but I don’t. It shaped me into the woman I am today.
Nonetheless, I had to evade my past because it could interfere with my future.
I must—
“Lana, come here, now!” Before I go to my boss in the kitchen, I check my phone. I snuck it into my apron because it’s fucking dead in here. When I check my phone, my heart stops.
From the looks of it, you haven’t quit. You had your chance.
What the actual fuck? What is he talking about?
M, I need this job, I type out.
You don’t want to mess with me, little hummingbird.
Should I be afraid?
Very. See you soon.
“Come in here, right fucking now!” The voice of my dick-ass boss is booming throughout the restaurant, and I wish I could drop-kick him from here.
Stay calm, Lana.
I shake my head and compose myself before I head into the kitchen. When I enter the kitchen, there is an ungodly sight. My boss is fuming, and if he were a bull like in the cartoons, there would be steam coming out of his ears.
“What is it, Belmin?” I ask as I interlace my fingers behind my back. He crosses his arms and points to the entire kitchen with his gaze. I follow it, and I don’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“You really don’t see the problem?” he asks me as he takes a step closer. An upside to being alone in the restaurant? Being alone with this misogynistic piece of shit. I take a step back and my back hits the door.
“I really don’t. Is there something not up to your standards?” My resolve is wearing thin, and I fucking hate how small I look right now.
Stay calm, Lana.
“Lana, you haven’t cleaned the kitchen. It’s a fucking mess!” His tone and body language are getting more aggressive. His eyes don’t just glare, they burn, sharp and focused, like he’s trying not to explode. I take another quick scan around the space, and it’s spotless.
“Belmin, I’m sorry, but the cooks cleaned the kitchen, and I did as well.” I try to keep my voice as steady as possible.
“No, it’s not. I have found dust in the corner.” Probably because this whole fucking diner is one health code violation away from being closed. I look for anything, and the nearest thing I can grab is a knife, which is across the kitchen and still far away.
“What the fuck are you looking at? At the dust? You can’t see it from here!
Go and take a closer look.” He is now standing just a few feet away, a little too close for my comfort.
There is a strict zero-tolerance policy on us drinking, but this bitch clearly didn’t get the memo. He reeks of alcohol.
“I won’t do that.” I feel myself slipping into my old ways, and my jaw tics. “I know I cleaned everything. Can I please go home?”
“Home?” He slurs the word, but he is keeping that air of danger. His lips, which are pressed into a thin line, suddenly turn into a creepy smile that reaches his sinister eyes.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
We are almost touching noses, and I feel his breath on my face.
“Belmin, please don’t. I don’t like this at all,” I tell him as I turn my head.
“I don’t fucking care. You will learn how to be a good fucking girl.” His words are poison and laced with lust which I don’t care to entertain. At least with M, I fucking want it.
Right before he can do anything, two small grenades are thrown into the kitchen from the small window, and I realize what it is.
“Move!” I scream at him. I turn around, and as I go to open the door, Belmin stops me and throws me on the floor behind him.
This asshole only wants to save himself.
He doesn’t get to escape because the small space is filling up with thick smoke.
Belmin starts to cough and quickly falls, his limbs weak and heavy.
My vision blurs, and my nose senses something sweet, but I have this metallic taste in my mouth.
Fuck, this shit is strong.
I feel myself falling unconscious, but before I lose it completely, someone walks in the room. The man steps through the haze, black respirator hiding half his face, eyes glinting like sin dressed in salvation. He steps over Belmin and kneels beside me.
“I told you I would see you soon.”
And my whole world turns black.
***
“I told you I would see you soon.”
Those words jostle me awake, and I want to drag my hand across my face, but I realize that I can’t.
It feels like my hands are above my head, and when I look up, I freeze.
The chains curve over my shoulders, lifting my arms until the weight presses into my bones.
I sway slightly, caught between gravity and restraint, and the room seems to lean closer, watching.
Fuck, where am I?
I look around, and my eyes are still adjusting to the little bit of light that there is, but I can still gather that the room is fucking haunting.
It feels alive in a way—too quiet, too deliberate, it’s also cold.
The stone walls are rough and dark, streaked with shadows.
There are chains all around us, some thick, some thin, swaying slightly.
Cabinets line the walls, their contents displayed all too proudly.
Every single torture device the race of men has invented in the last ten years is in them.
Then it hits me—I’m in M’s home. I’m finally here.
Every corner seems to lean in, watching and waiting. It’s a space built for control and fear.
Then my legs hit something as I sway, a fucking table. There is a table right in front of me.
“Oh, good. You are awake.”
“What the fuck!” I say loudly as M appears from behind me. He goes to his cabinet and takes a cleaver, a small knife, a rag, and a bat. He lays them all in front of me on the table and smiles at me like we are ordering coffee.
“What?” he asks me all innocently.
“M, don’t act surprised. Get me the fuck out of here!” He moves toward me and positions himself behind me. His chest almost touches my back, and I find myself leaning into him. It’s something I can’t control, this urge that I need him, and I’m ashamed.
“You asked for this, little hummingbird.”
“I didn’t ask for this shit, M! What are you talking about?”
“You didn’t listen to me about quitting, and now you are going to learn what the word consequence really means.
” He grabs my chin with his left hand, turns my face toward his, and kisses me softly on the lips.
Embarrassingly, I moan into his mouth. My mind didn’t catch the memo from my body that it misses his touch.
He steps back, goes to the other side of the room, and stands before a switch. Before he turns it on, I hear pained moaning coming from behind him.
Come here, Lana!
I’m breathing harder as I know what is waiting for me on the other side.
“M, no. Please don’t do this. He was just desperate!” I yell at him. I try to wiggle myself free to no avail. M purses his lips at that.
“I designed these rooms myself. Lana, you won’t be able to escape.” He flicks the switch on. I close my eyes and open them again since I can’t believe what I’m seeing. “And you can’t escape this as well.”
My boss is chained up to the ceiling like me, and he is slowly waking up, with only his pants on, as his upper body is free of any clothes. When Belmin notices where he is, he turns toward M.
“Come on, man, let me go!” My boss’s words are doing nothing to help him. M cocks his head, one eyebrow quirking up, eyes soft with confusion, lips pressed into a thin line.
“I won’t do that, Belmin. I can give you a choice, though.”
“Yes, please. Anything for me to get away from here!” His desperation is so thick that I can taste it. M comes up to the table before me and picks up a bat. His moves are slow and deliberate, any way to instill fear in his subject. He is now standing in front of my boss.
“Scream or don’t.”
“Those are my options? These are some bullshit—” Whack. M strikes his right leg, and a sickening crunching sound emanates from Belmin’s knee.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! This hurts!” He wants to grab his knee, but he can’t do that shit right now. And as this spectacle is going on, he will never be able to do that anymore.
“So you chose screaming? Splendid.” Another whack follows his left knee.
M keeps on hitting Belmin’s body with a ferocity that transcends any normal decency.
Belmin’s bones are cracking, and the sounds of his sobs are reverberating against the walls.
Even though there is light in the room, darkness is enveloping us all, creeping into our bones, and this is a turning point.
We are crossing lines from being cared for to absolute madness. And I can’t take it anymore.
“Stop! Stop this madness!” I scream at M, but he keeps on hitting him. I turn away, and suddenly, he drops the bat to the floor.
“You think this is madness? Do you, Lana?” His whole demeanor is like ice as he walks toward me. His height towers over me. M stands beside me and points toward my boss.
“Do you honestly believe he doesn’t deserve what is coming to him?” I shake my head because I can’t answer that.
“Don’t you dare look away. This is his punishment for touching you!” M is becoming angrier, and I fear that nothing will be able to stop him. Maybe I need to see the dark side of him, so I know what I’m dealing with. I haven’t seen this level of evil and brutality, ever.