Toys are to play

Day 13| The couple

     Day 13| Part V

     "Do not worry, Mrs. Firenze. Hotel Vargas has already been inspected by our professionals. I must remark that the thieves were merely kids trying to call attention. Keep in mind that we work seriously here." It was Doctor Gene talking, I would recognize the British English and childish in his voice anywhere. My vision was still blocked by my eyelids, pretending to be asleep as I heard the conversation that was being held outside. I wasn't sure of all the bodies present, because the voices were too few for the number of breathings. Mom's voice afterwards was concerned

     "Oh, and my daughter Angelina? you see, I woke up today and she was sleeping, so exhausted, so dirty... when was the last time my daughter has received a bath?"

     The next thing I heard was the sound of the screen of a mobile phone being switched off abruptly. "... I apologize, Mrs Firenze." Oliver Snowfields' voice caused a wave of pleasure and nervousness inside my chest. "This was my fault and I am afraid Angelina might have some injuries under these sheets, may I take a look?"

     "Sure... but what happened?" Mom asked.

     Oliver said simply that fell on the ground, and I imagined him suppressing a bigger lie. I felt the sheets slowly scratching my legs, slithering my skin with its small synthetic fibers. My eyes opened at once and I grabbed the blanket with the greatest force as possible, swallowing a howl. He opened his Snowfields-styled smile that turned the background behind him blurry. "Hey Angel", he said.

     I shivered and kicked his hands off my space. Go say hey Angel to someone else, please!

     Oh gosh PLEASE...

      I turned my face to Mom and Sir and they rose their fists on the air, cheering that we were all okay. I didn't feel like cheering. I heard Doctor Gene lying to them. The thieves were merely kids wanting attention? What about the sleeping shots? Wasn't he going to "explain" why Mom stayed unconscious for hours?!

     There he was. That British kid. "Angelina, please let Snowfields see your injuries." The Doctor's adorable face was not helping me feel any better. In fact, the baby cheeks and the freckles made me feel real sickened.

    "Why? He's not a nurse!" I pulled the sheets closer to me.

     "The nurses are on vacation and as you see no one here has a gauze or knows how to take care of a cut."

     I was about to reply but Oliver himself interrupted me first. "You've been with these cuts for almost 3 hours. Think about it."

     Ugh...

     Gene excised us, leaving the sick bay with Mom and Sir. He was probably going to invent something else to fool them around while I knew all the truth and was almost killed by it.

     Oliver pressed the cold gauze against my knee. I felt it was with something to kill bacterias. "People are always in life danger, Angel. There are billions of dangerous particles in this air around us, as do you know why we don't die breathing? Because animals are born prepared for it. Unfortunately we are not born ready for everything and that's why we have to learn." He took my hand and started cleaning it too. His touches were like micro dynamites exploding sharped needles all over my skin. "We have to learn how to fall and get up ready to fight again."

     There was something stuck in my nose and throat, something hard and made me feel like crying. I tried to see what was behind of each of his words. I knew something was not right, but Oliver was such a great actor. I was lost, wasn't I?

•••

    He said I needed to go with him somewhere. That was all. It scared a bit because for a while he stopped being himself, wouldn't answer any of my questions. We ascended a lot of floors by elevator and it only peeped at — I realized — the last floor of Oxygen building. It was totally restrict. The only restrict room for ordinary peeps.

     "Why are we here?"

     "No questioning." He said for the 20th time that day, then put his finger against the elevator's door. It clicked and opened, as if his fingertip was a key. Inside, there was another door. Oliver opened it and pushed me through, locking us inside with a harsh click. I almost screamed and had a heart attack at the same time. Not because of his sudden violent temper, but because of what I saw.

It was a corridor, and there were cages; cages with people inside. The air become unbreathable, smelling like gasoline mixed with cleaning products. All those bodies, caged behind bars right up our heads and no one knew about it. I felt like throwing up.

    "Come here, they won't do anything to you. They are sleeping."

     "Why am I here?" My voice sounded like a goat's moan. His face was stone-made, his eyes, his green eyes, didn't show any type of kindness. There wasn't any trace of smile on him; so it wasn't a joke. Oliver placed his hand on the back of my neck, forcing my way ahead by the effect that his touch had on me. Shivering, I turned a corner, and we deviated from a grid that had fallen from a cell. Or should I say, pushed out.

     I couldn't see much, as Oliver was still pressing my neck and he made me walk fast, but there were metal bars lied on the floor, and they certainly hadn't gone down by themselves. Someone had broken its way from that place. And I already knew who it was.

     "I am going to show you something. You have to promise you won't tell anyone, ANYONE about what you saw here."

     I moved my head up and down, gulping as much saliva I could gulp; but it was dry. Oliver stopped suddenly and opened a another door. Places with lots of doors are dangerous. They mean secrets, but the more we went through doors the more I didn't want to find them out.

     I was at a squared room with no windows and adorned with two cells at the back, occupied by one person each, and they were awake. A woman and a man. They had their backs miserably leaned against the wall that separates their cells, and they were so dirty and so gray my heart sank.

     "Hey, I've got what you wanted." Oliver stepped ahead.

     Both of them immediately turned to us and clenched their fists around the bars, as though awaken by a sudden bucket of cold water. The man placed his forehead between the bars and let out a huge "Fuck!"

     The woman tried to kick the man's leg but the wall between was just too thick. She couldn't reach outside the cage and her skin scratched on the cement, lifeless, and without energy. I felt something. Two cages, two people, a barrier. Perhaps the barrier was the atual reason for most of their pain. The woman soon placed her face just like her friend, between her bars, and I could see her eyes shining. She was... I don't know.

     "Wait." Oliver ordered before they could make a sound. "I brought Angelina, see? now you talk; explain yourselves."

     The male prisoner tangled his hands around the bars and I swear he was imagining he was pressing Oliver's throat instead. "Let's make a new deal: leave her with us first; then we talk."

     Oliver protectively put an arm across my chest. "Of course not! Leave her alone? Only if you are dead!"

     "Calm down, men", the woman interfered, "Oliver... please can you let me talk to her?"

     "He doesn't have respect, I shouldn't have trusted you. Can't believe I actually did what you asked, Angel is scared now and I will have to fix it." Oliver pointed a finger at the woman's mucky feature. "And I won't let you go before knowing why you are here for. Start imagining what your lives will be like trapped in there, or you can begin your talking."

     The woman was shaking, her face twisted, her eyes still shining. Was being tortured by his words, or maybe more than that. She simply wouldn't move. The way she looked at us held such a desire I could be sure she'd break the arrest with only the force of her eyes.

     "Angel, lets go!" Oliver roared and grabbed my hand, his grip so strong it could break my bones.

     "Angelina!" The woman started climbing her cage. "Don't trust him! Do not give him the chain!! Keep with you!" She was desperate, hurting herself, and I was desperate too, pushing myself from Oliver, because that woman knew about the chain and how could she know and she was trying to say something and I was almost losing my hand but I didn't care.

     "DON'T GIVE THE DAMN CHAIN TO OLIVER SNOWFIELDS!" The man got the final shout before Oliver locked the door.