Dirty Women

32 I'll Kill for You

Listen to End Game by Taylor Swift x Ed Sheeran 

Stella Davis

Everything that happened after the frozen bodies touched my skin seemed like a misty dream.  

I don't remember how much my fingers trembled as they swiped on my phone to call Chad.  But what I did remember, and will never forget, were the numb, blue faces of the girls.  The blackened veins that coursed through their neck were paralysed and no longer carried blood.  The images of their faces were drilled permanently in my skull too deep and I knew that nothing I do will make me forget. 

When I gazed at my clock as Chad brought me back home, it was already three in the morning.  

Chad promptly searched my medical stack and thrust a pill on my palm.  He slid a glass of water across the table.  "Sleeping pill.  Go to bed now.  We can talk tomorrow." His voice was stern and final, so I silently took the pill and drifted to sleep.

Meera Bagwat

I vehemently pushed one tray of freshly filled medical capsules away, only to replace it with another tray.  Work was easy and undisturbed today.  Boring, in fact.

But to think about it, working in the pharmaceutical industry would usually be described repeatedly with that same word.  Boring.  

Usually, I mixed chemicals in the labs.  But today I was ordered to fill medical capsules with Aimi and two other guys whose names I didn't bother to remember.  I followed the order without hesitation, secretly thankful that I could do something else for a change, until after four hours of moving my hands like a robot and listening to the monotonous grr of the filler machine.  

It was only twelve noon, but I already wanted to go back to mixing chemicals.

"Looking sober, Meera," Aimi stated appreciatingly in an attempt to small-talk.  Her smile reached her tiny, beady eyes.

I smiled back, blushing.  

I was proud of myself too.  The only other time I passed six days without alcohol was when I had pneumonia two years ago.  Even then, I was begging the nurse to bring me some beer.  I even tried bribing her, but she was an honest woman who wouldn't take bribes.  By the time the fever had waned off, she'd started calling me 'that crazy bitch on Bed 7.'

But this was all because of Stella.  She made me feel good.  And she made me want to take care of myself.  I wondered if I'd ever go back to being an 'alcoholic' again.

Just then, my mobile buzzed, making me snap out of my daydream.  I pulled off my gloves and produced my phone out of my pocket.  

I grinned when I saw the caller ID.  

Stella. 

I pressed it to my ear enthusiastically, saying, "Hey?"

"Hello!" an unfamiliar male voice reached my eardrums.  I wrinkled my eyebrows in confusion.  "Is this Meera?" he asked.  My mind raced to the men that kidnapped her only two days ago.  

When Stella and I had walked back home that day, she'd emptied the answers to all the questions that tormented me.  She'd come in contact with a devil named David and she'd ranted about wanting to help his mom out.  

I gulped.  Has he come back to get Stella again?  Was I speaking with one of the kidnappers?

"Hello?  Can you hear me?"