THE NEXT TWO DAYS

Part Twelve

     
                  
                                             CHAPTER TWELVE
    Jason stopped at a very small house. It looked more like a store than a house, and it was the only house on the street and also the dead end of the street. The only thing to see apart from the house, were bushes and tall trees. He parked by the right side of the house.
“You can come down Cindy” he said already coming out of the car. He took her laptop bag with him.
“Where are we? This place looks scary” she asked but did not get an answer.
Jason opened the door of the house with a tap on his wristwatch.
“I am not surprised this old house has the latest technology, not after all I’ve seen” she said following Jason inside.
There was absolutely nothing. The house was very empty and the ground was not cemented. She opened her mouth to ask another question but stopped midway when the center of the house started opening. It opened to about a foot and half, then stopped. She moved closer to where Jason was standing, his left fingers on his wristwatch. She took a peep at the big hole and saw a ladder, it was not dark and she could see the end of the ladder.
“Follow me” Jason said climbing down.
“Jason, you know I can’t stand closed places.”
Jason stopped his movement. Half of his body was already in inside the hole. He raised his head and looked at her.
“Cindy, I know everything about you.”
And that was all he said before continuing his descend to the ground. She tried countering his statement but could not found even a word. She followed Jason after thinking over the available options. It was either she stayed back and be exposed to danger or go with Jason and be safe.
“I never had a choice. At least it’s not dark” she said.
When her foot touched the ground, she got lost with what she saw that she did not notice when Jason sealed the hole. They were at the sitting room. The wall was painted sea blue. There were black cushion chairs arranged in form of a semi-circle, there was a glass table at the center, a flat screen TV was facing the chairs.
“Let’s go.” Jason said taking her left hand.
They entered a corridor with 'THE CIRCLE' written on top. There were doors both at her left and right. After passing so many doors Jason stopped at a door with JASON written at the top. He tapped on his wristwatch and the door opened.
“What can this your wristwatch not do?” she asked not expecting an answer.
Jason did not answer but entered the room. She followed immediately.
The paintings in the room were black and ash, the bed was very large and the bed sheet was black. There was a small wardrobe by her left and a door was adjacent the wardrobe. The bed was by her right and directly opposite the wardrobe so that what she first saw after entering the room, were a black and ash colour wall. The room was lighted with blue bulbs. It was like Jason’s room back home. Jason never liked sharp colours.
“Cindy, I need you to stay here and wait for me.”
“What now!” She exclaimed turning to face him.
“You are looking worn out and you need to eat and rest.”
“I never said I was tired and there is no food to eat.”
“There is food in the fridge. It just need warming” he responded to her last argument.
“Are you going to leave me here?”
“This is the best for both of us. Things are about to get bloody and I need to be completely focused.”
She did not know why, but she felt hurt by his words.
“Come let me show you the kitchen. You can warm the food. It will still be fresh. It’s not long we used it” he said going out of the room.
She did not move. Jason must have come back after noticing she was not following.
“Cindy, I don’t have time. I need to get moving.”
“Am I a distraction?”
He did not answer but dropped her laptop bag by the door and moved over to where she was standing. He took her left hand, then led her to seat down on the bed. The bed was so high that her feet could not touch the ground. Jason did not seat but faced her standing. He looked at his wristwatch.
“I will be in the kitchen. Take a shower and come join me in the kitchen. It’s not hard to find.”
He did not give her time to respond as he left the room after placing a kiss on her forehead, the way he usually do to pacify her. But it was not the same feeling this time. Once he was out of the room, she knew she never felt hurt but what she felt was sadness and loneliness. She had not seen Jason for three months and although the past few hours with him had been a life and death situation, she preferred being with him.
        Now that she understood her feeling she felt selfish. Nigeria needed Jason to stop a bloody war but she wanted to have him for herself. There was a wall clock by her right hand side. The time was 2:P.M.  She wondered how long she had with Jason before he left. Without wasting time, she pulled off her wrist watch, then quickly opened her laptop bag. Jason had added her towel, her undies, her blue pencil gown and her black satin nightgown.  It was not the first time Jason had packed her clothes put it felt weird, she felt exposed. She did not dwell on the fact for long as she searched for the door to the bathroom. It was the door adjacent to the wardrobe. She quickly entered to take a shower.  The bathroom had a bath tub and there were two showers having hot and cold written on them. She switched on the cold one because the hot one meant her spending much time in the bathroom.
She was out few minutes later with her towel barely covering her lap. Just when she was about to pick her night gown, the door opened.
“Jeez Jason I’m not ready” she said turning to face Jason.
Jason was standing as if frozen. There was something different with the way he was looking at her. She looked at herself to see what was wrong.
“Oh my God” she said pulling the heavy bed sheet to cover up. The bed sheet was pulled away from her almost immediately. They stood facing each other. Her breath was already coming in gasps. She closed her eyes and waited for what Jason would do. First, she felt his rough hands on her lips, it moved to her left cheek, then her jaw.
“Cindy…..you are not helping” his voice was deeper than it used to be.
That made her open her eyes
“What?”
“You have to help me keep my promise to Mum” he said slowly withdrawing his hands.
“Food is ready. If you are at the kitchen before one minute, I will tell you something about your real parents” he said walking out of the room.
She was on her night gown in less than thirty seconds, she opened the door and walked towards the direction of the sitting room. Her former excitement had been replaced with ‘what’ Jason had to say about her real parents.
It had always been like that with Jason. He always knew the right thing to do to get her moving. Most times when Mum had gotten tired of convincing her to do something, she had always called Jason to help. She remembered one of such incidents. It was six months after her sixteenth birthday. Mum had wanted her to accompany dad to get some frozen chicken. Dad said he won’t be home soon and Mum needed the chicken to prepare the meal. She was reading for her math test and Jason had refused to help. She remembered he just came back from military academy. After many failed attempts by Mum, Jason had promised to teach her and he also promised he would allow her sleep in his room.
Jason had stopped her from sleeping in his room the night of her birthday and she had never adjusted to that. It was a habit she developed before she could pronounce her name. She just knew her room was to be used only in the day but Jason’s room was for sleeping and if her head was not resting on Jason’s chest she wouldn't sleep. Mum had tried stopping her when she was twelve but gave up after she developed a fever three days later.  It was very difficult to adjust when Jason started the University. He had studied in Lagos State University which was far from home. She believed Mum had a hand in it. For many nights, she could not sleep. She had never adjusted to sleeping without Jason. In fact, she still slept in Jason's room. She had cried the day Jason told her she was a big girl and should get used to sleeping by herself. He was back for her birthday. She never got to know how Jason was able to leave the academy for her birthday, but she had been happy Jason came. She had thought she was going to have a great sleep but it turned out to be her worst night. She never understood why Jason stopped her and he never gave an explanation. She remembered that she had immediately followed Dad after Jason made his promise but that night was very unusual. Jason did not allow her rest her head on his chest.
“You are a second late” Jason said interrupting her thoughts. She did not know how, but she was standing in the kitchen.