PLAYING WITH THE MONSTER'S MIND

It's so dark in this room. It is so dark that I cannot recognize the faces of the people around me. All I can hear are croaked voices that are so confusing. I don't know if they are the voices of men or women, because they are inaudible too. I try to take a close look at their faces, but all I see is darkness. I stand up and walk towards something that looks like a door, with a little light coming in through it. I still don't see anything but darkness. What is this place? I turn to walk back inside, but I hear two voices calling my name. One is coming from inside the house, and the other from outside. The one from outside is for a girl, clear and audible enough, and the one from inside is for a man, struggling to breathe. I stand on the spot, listening to the voices again, and they call me a second time all together. "Who is it?" I ask, taking a few steps into the darkness outside, but the male voice calls for me, making me stop. They both need my help. Who should I go to first? Who is in much more danger? Who are they? The voice of the girl from outside calls again, begging me to help her. But this time, her voice stops all of a sudden. I don't hear it again. What just happened to her? I decide to run in the direction of his voice, but the darkness is too much. It's horrifying.**

"Gia! Gia! Wake up, Gia!" I wake up from my horrible dream, screaming with fear. "Come down. Were you dreaming?"

"Nora?" I call softly to the only lady in this room. "It's just the two of us?" I ask.

"Yes! What were you dreaming about?" She asks. What was that dream all about? I rub my eyes, and I realize I was unknowingly crying. "I will go call Ejay. He said I should call him immediately. You wake up." She adds.

Ejay!

All the memories of my last moments on stage yesterday come flooding in. He shot more than ten people in front of me and everyone else yesterday and acted like nothing happened. What kind of monster is he? He should have barred them from the club or some other kind of punishment, but killing them? "They are all dead." I ask Nora before she can walk out of the room.

"Who?"

"The men he shot yesterday," I say, sitting on my bed. And she joins me, sitting beside me.

"Who could have survived all those bullets? He did not want any of them to survive in the first place. Is that what you were dreaming about?" I nod my head in agreement. "Listen Gia. Get used to these kinds of things, because they happen every now and then around here. I know you are still recovering, but you need to make an effort to be strong enough to handle anything." She pats my shoulder and stands to leave after I nod my head and thank her. But I remember that I did not see any girls on stage during that whole time. So whose voice was that calling me? "Nora." I stop her again, and she turns to me. "Were any of the girls hurt? "Were any of you on stage when that incident happened?"

"No. Why?"

No? So, I was not dreaming about them?

"Nothing. Just making sure none of you got hurt because of me." I mumble.

"Relax. We are all safe. In fact, you saved us yesterday. I am sorry you had to go all through that, but at least something good came out of it. For the first time since I came to this place close to two years ago, I didn't have a man torture me last night. We owe that to you. Thank you." I nod my head with a weak smile, but deep down, I am jumping with joy.

She walks out to call Ejay, and I sit on my bed again, wondering about that dream. If the girls did not encounter any harm, if no girl was on stage with me, why was any girl calling for my help? Who was she? I try to think, but I give up after failing miserably to interpret the dream. I take my painkillers and lie with my back on the bed, staring at the black ceiling, hoping that an angel could come down from heaven and help me understand what is happening.

The door flows open before I can even close my eyes, making me almost jump up from the bed, and Ejay walks in, looking cool like nothing happened. Is killing that easy for him that he is not bothered at all? Then again, I remember him confirming that he does not have a heart, meaning he does not have a conscience either. He is such an animal.

He tries to touch me, but I move away. "I was told you had a bad dream. What was it about?"

And what does he care? Wait, why does he think he needs to know what I dreamt about?

"I don't think I ever encountered such a horrible scene like yesterday's before, did I?"

"I don't know. What did you dream about?" His voice is as cold as usual, with no feeling at all.

"You, Ejay! " I shout. I can't tell him the truth. "It was all about you killing those men in cold blood. My night was so noisy with the screams of those men you killed. All I saw was blood everywhere, screaming at me. Do you know how disturbing it is to spend the whole night being tormented by something as horrible as that? That was me last night." He slowly walks to me.

"I'm sorry for that, but, just to make sure, when those dead dogs were roaming their filthy hands on you, humiliating you, disrespecting you, Gia, you called for me, right?" Did he hear me? Did he really come because I called him? "You called me to come and help you, and you knew what I was going to do to them. I did come, and I gave those idiots what they so deserved. Be grateful, because I am doing for you what I have never dared to do for anyone in my life." The moron turns to leave, but I remember that I need to show him that I am by his side.

I have to justify all his actions before him if I want to succeed. I can't afford for him to lose my trust and the protection he is giving me. "Wait, Ejay, please!" He stops but refuses to turn to me. I walk to where he is and hug him from behind. Forgive me, dear God, but I will have to play this game the best way I know how. "Will it be too much to ask you to stay with me for a while?" I asked with a very soft voice that made him turn to look at me. For a moment, he says nothing. He is just staring at me, like he is thinking of the best way to end my life. "I am sorry. You probably have a meeting to attend or a business to take care of. I'm sorry."

"Why do you want me to stay with you?" He finally speaks.

"To talk. I want to talk to someone. To distract my mind a bit." I say.

"I can't stay for too long." I want you gone, like now, you moron! I say it inwardly. I take his hand and pull him to my bed. Well, there is nothing else you can sit on in this goddamned room. He comfortably sits down, and I do the same beside him. "I wanted to die yesterday instead of suffering the humiliation those idiots had planned for me." I start. "And I was mad at you because you left me there all alone. I looked for you in the crowd, but you were nowhere to be seen. I felt horrible. I felt abandoned. I felt betrayed. When I called you, you did not come immediately. I thought you left me in the hands of those men. Where were you?" My fake tears are dropping very well down my cheeks, keeping this murderer's hands busy by wiping them. I think he is moved by my well-prepared performance. Oh, my! I am even hiccuping from crying. I did not know I was such a drama queen up until now.

"At the basement."

"Basement?" That is so new to me.

"Yes. You will know about it as time goes by. It was a trap. They thought they could trick me, but they suffered the same fate as everyone who has dared me. I did not come immediately because I didn't hear you. You can't hear anything outside any of the rooms here. Only when I saw the alarm did I know that something was wrong. The DJ must have pressed the alarm. And when it blinked three times, I knew I needed to rush to you."

"Then how did you know I did call you?" I have stopped crying now, but I am still managing to keep a sad face.

"I reviewed the CCTV footage after you fell asleep." He explains.

"Thank you for saving me again. It seems like you are my destined savior." I smile bitterly—a fake but genuinely convincing smile.

"But you don't trust me. And that is your biggest problem."

I cupped his ugly face with my palms, my eyes looking anywhere on his face but his eyes. "I am sorry for not trusting you before, but now I do. Believe me, Ejay. Just don't ever leave me alone, please.

"Okay, princess." Princess, my left foot! As a show of my fake gratitude, I pull his monkey face's to my beautiful, deceiving one, and I kiss him again and again, hoping this does not happen again.

I want to pull away after a minute of disgusting kissing, but the hungry moron does not want to. He is choking the breath out of me, for hell's sake! As I figure out what to do, the door opens, and Mayleen walks in with her deadly glare, as usual. Whatever brings her here for the first time since that day she almost got killed in here, I thank the heavens for it.

"Do you ever learn?" Ejay asks, standing up to walk to her, and I know he is angry. Where does he think the kiss was headed? Filthy jerk!

Mayleen cowers to him, head bowed down.

"Ejay." I call him, my mouth almost full of saliva, because I don't intend to swallow any of his garbage. "Let us talk later, please." His way of saying yes was to capture my lips again for another heated kiss in front of Mayleen. What a thirsty, disgusting, annoying jerk! "See you at seven, my princess. I will send your outfit for today by four." He says this after he is done with the kissing and walks out.

I don't know what the deal is between him and the jealous Mayleen, but that is not mine to worry about. Immediately the door closes, I rush to the bathroom, and after locking the door, I throw out all the shit I had in my mouth. I then gargled my mouth countless times. Yuck! He tastes like a rotten, uncooked egg! Is that how kisses taste? If yes, then I don't want to be kissed ever!