NURA

Chapter 30

Nura

Nov. 2014, Unknown location

Even though Nura had spent a relatively short amount of time on this earth, she could still confidently state that she had been through much more than most people.

From being thrown out on the streets by a man who was supposed to love her no matter what to the whole white slavery ring thing, not to mention being bullied and made fun of by club members once the truth came out about her past. But never, and she literally meant never, had she felt so betrayed than when her eyes landed on John.

It was incomprehensible to her that this man was behind everything that had happened to her and Zaria in the last few months. Her mind just continued to reject even the idea that it could be the truth, even though the proof was right there, standing in front of her with a cruel smirk on his face.

"I don't understand," she whispered meekly, sounding pitiful even to her ears, but she couldn't help it. She felt as if the whole world was crashing down around her while she was made to stand there and watch it all go down, unable to do anything to prevent it.

"Oh. Would you look at that! The whore got her feelings hurt!" Bear taunted as tears started running down Nura's cheeks.

The words hurt, as much as Nura didn't want them to, considering where they were coming from, but the thing that hurt her the most was the laugh that came out of John's mouth.

It was a cold and harsh sound, so unlike the way he used to laugh when Nura would make a joke or when they would gang up and make fun of Ben and his undying love of pies while the man blushed and flipped them off before continuing to devour the damn thing.

"Stop... please, John... please just stop. I don't understand... I thought that we were friends... I... please..." Nura begged him, her breathing becoming labored, the dark spots swimming in her sight getting bigger as the familiar feeling of walls closing up on her crashed through her and made her stumble and drop to the ground.

"Nura!" she heard Zaria yell out, her voice panicked and far away as she tried to pull Nura into her lap with her one free hand.

"I don't understand..." Nura whispered once more before everything turned black.

~

A harsh slap across her face woke her up, its sound echoing around the room like thunder as the pain of it spread through her cheek and made her eyes water.

She blinked away the moisture and shook her head, trying to clear the fog that had decided to envelop her mind, and then pulled herself up, which was proving to be harder than she thought, with one of her hands still cuffed to the pipe.

"Welcome back." a voice said quietly, making her look up to see John walking to and then sitting on a chair a little bit further down from where Nura was sprawled over the floor.

He was dressed in his usual attire: a dark, tailored suit that screamed wealthy, a white button-up shirt with one button left open at the collar, and the silver Rolex watch shining at his wrist.

One of his legs was crossed over the other, his hands tucked into his pants pockets, and his face a picture of calm and collected.

To anyone watching him from outside, John would appear as if he was relaxing after a long day at work while waiting for a drink in some high-end bar and not sitting in the middle of a damp room in an abandoned storage building.

Nura's eyes traveled from him to the rest of the room in search of Bear, but to her great relief, the horrible man was nowhere to be seen. As a matter of fact, besides John and her, there was no one in the room at all.

Nura's heart skipped a beat, and her eyes flew to the spot next to her that Zaria had occupied until Nura fainted, but the girl was no longer there.

"Where is she!? What did you do to her!?" she screamed and tried to jump to her feet, only to be yanked back by the cuffs on her wrist.

She fell down and banged her head on the wall pretty hard if the blood that soon started dripping into her left eye and a dull pain spreading from the spot were anything to go by.

"Who?" John asked, his face scrunching up in confusion before he rolled his eyes at her.

"Oh, the little brunette? She's with Bear, doing something; I don't really know or care."

"You son of a bitch!" Nura screamed as soon as the words left his mouth as dread started spreading through her chest at just the thought of her friend being left alone with that monster.

"If that bastard does something to Zaria, I'll kill you, you disgusting piece of shit! Did you hear me! I'll fucking kill you!" Nura started to scream and thrash around, the sound of the cuffs banging over the pipes as she tried to break free, echoing around the room but to no avail. She was stuck, completely and utterly helpless and useless.

She couldn't break free, she couldn't help Zaria, she could do nothing but crumble down to the floor, hugging her knees close to her chest and crying out, which was exactly what she did.

She wasn't sure for how long she lay on the dirty, cold floor, unable to move as sobs wracked through her body. It might have been mere minutes or a couple of hours. After a while, she calmed down and lay there in silence, breathing in the musty air of the room and staring without seeing.

"Why?" she finally asked the man who had remained quiet during her little meltdown.

"Take your pick. Money. Power." he said as Nura finally looked at him to see him looking back.

"It's really rather simple. The guys from Morocco were all locked up, and there was no one to take over the business, well, no one worth mentioning, so I saw an opportunity and took it."

Nura closed her eyes and tried to calm down as bile started climbing up her throat once she realized what John was saying.

"But, why betray the CIA? Why did you sell the information? Why did you take me? And what about Bear?"

"Well," John said and sighed as if the whole conversation was boring him to death, and Nura was once again struck with disbelief that this person was the same guy who had helped her with her college applications while they binge-watched Netflix and ate pizza.

"I needed a lot more money than I had if I wanted to take over the business, hence selling out. As for Bear, he was fortunate enough to never get caught during the Morocco raids, and he also knew everything I needed to know, so I hired him. Although, I am not sure how long our partnership will last since he seems rather uncouth, don't you think?" John said and laughed out loud as if he had just told her the most hilarious joke.

"I mean, can you believe that the only thing he asked for in return for his contacts and help is the information about yours and the brunette's whereabouts!?" he snorted and bent in half laughing as Nura watched on blandly.

He sobered up after a few moments and stood, going to leave the room, but then turned around at the last second.

"For what it's worth, it's really nothing personal, Nura. I do like you; you are a cool girl, but I guess I just like money more," he said, opening the door. Standing on the other side was Bear, who nodded once and stepped into the room as John left, the door closing behind his back soundlessly.

"This is going to be fun..." Bear said as a shit-eating grin spread over his lips, his eyes racking over Nura's body and devouring it on their way.