Crimson Hunger

Chapter 31

Ada picked up the pistol from the ground outside the van and held it cautiously but had no idea how to handle it. She stared at it and pictured herself shooting Ian by mistake instead of the creature struggling beneath him. She cringed at the vision and at her thinking about shooting anyone at all. Her cracked, dirty hands distracted her—she'd never expected them to look ugly. These were always the hands of a lady and an artist, but now they looked like a laborer's or a farmer's. Their insides were chapped, scratched and brown with dirt. Her fingernails were mostly surrounded by a dark color and ragged cuticles.

An earsplitting sound of nearby gunfire startled her into dropping the weapon that was in her cold palms.

Ian was knocked over by a piercing pain in his upper arm that set his victim's neck free. He fell to his back, holding his arm and clenching his jaws. Feeling cast out of humanity, he lost control over his body and began to writhe on the van's floor in agony like a lower creation.

A bang near her body made Ada freeze even though her heart wanted to shatter her ribs and rush to Ian. Her muscles twitched. She was unharmed yet unable to move. In her awareness, she knew someone with a loaded, eager gun stood behind her, but she didn't wish to turn around and see another horrid creature.

"You let your captive strangle you, Qusay?" A very deep yet cold voice yelled from behind her in Arabic.

The creature, whose name was obviously Qusay, coughed as he rubbed his neck. He got up and kicked Ian in the side, making him groan loudly. Ada's body vigorously attempted to run forward, but was blocked by a venom-drenched voice yelling, "Take one more step forward and I'll shoot him in the head right before your very eyes."

Brother said he needed them alive and unharmed," Qusay cried, and Ada knew their lives were now safe for a while longer.

"His arm was like this when we took him," the voice behind Ada said.

Qusay's insect face creased into a sneer of malice. "Yes, we found him this way and treated him." He winked.

The man behind her let out a sardonic laugh. "We only do as we find fit to complete the job."

They laughed like two victorious demons.

Ada's stare grew wider and her forehead broke out in a cold sweat with the realization that they were now in the hands of heartless, homicidal captors.

She said a prayer under her breath and swallowed.

A ruthless grip seized her upper arm making her gasp, and the stench of body odors mixed with hashish filled her nostrils. She was dragged by a robust, foul-smelling man away from where Ian lay. She turned her head to the right so that her eyes would still be fixed on him, but a cruel hand forced her head forward she thought her neck would snap. She was being escorted to her next mobile prison—a huge box truck.

The man grabbed her by the waist and tossed her into the box. Her knees and elbow were very likely to develop colorful bruises after the strong knock. She now turned and looked at him only to realize that Qusay was a beauty in comparison. This one had the filthiest long blond locks, the most bloodless complexion and the shallowest gaze. He was a live embodiment of Frankenstein's monster.

"I will not tie you up," he said, "but trust me," he now spoke slowly, emphasizing each word, "if you as little as think about running away, I'll make sure we took you from Issam missing a few fingers, an eye and a couple of toes perhaps."

She crawled backward. A young, anemic teenager carrying an AK-47 was left in charge while the monster dragged Ian to the truck.

Ian's pain seemed to have given him an unexpected energy boost. He resisted his captors as they tried to drag him to the truck. He wriggled in their grip and punched and kicked them until the giant monster pressed his gun to his head and yelled, "Haraka thanya afaddi almosaddas fi rasak (move again and I'll shoot you in the head)!"

He failed to understand a word the man said and was even distracted by his bad breath, but it was obvious he wanted to shoot him, so he froze, pursing his lips, sweating and breathing loudly through his nose. The two horrid creatures hauled him into the truck's box as he yelled fruitless 'fuck yous.'

"You're alive," Ada said as soon as they were locked alone in the dark.

"Told you I was a vampire," he replied, "the wound healed very quickly."

"Show me," she said as she scooted closer to him. She gently helped him pull his arm out of his coat's sleeve, then the jacket's sleeve, and finally she took his shirt off. There was not a single drop of blood. She gently ran her hand over his arm since she could not see well in the ray of light that found its way from between the two giant doors.

"See?" He said, smirking proudly, "Told you!"

"Or perhaps it was a rubber bullet," she teased, "Does it not hurt?"

"It does, like hell."

"Then it was a rubber bullet and you got lucky," she said, "the bone wasn't fractured because the asshole stood at a distance of more than five meters, you're dressed in thick layers and the bullet didn't hit you in the head, torso or joints."

"Thanks for the lecture, but I'll stick to the vampirism theory."

"Can't blame you," she helped him put his clothes back on, "vampirism is sexier."

"And now we're seriously going to the slave market."

"Or the slaughterhouse."

***

"A few hours and the two foreigners will be standing in front of you," Majid said, his chest swollen with pride.

Ayman Laham got up from behind his extravagant desk and strode to stand in from of him. He patted his shoulder and said, "Majid Bassiki, even though you have defied me and went against my wish, I find myself obliged to commend you."

"On what, master?"

"Definitely not on your disobedience," Ayman replied, "but on making Lord T. happy with us."

He paused for a second then walked back to his massive chair and said as he settled in it, "Because of the two people you abducted, I will be signing a major deal with him as soon as he arrives in Beirut. He was supposed to sign this deal with George Dayoub," he allowed a smile of malevolence and triumph to curl his thick lips before he continued, "not anymore."

***

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