𝑖 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒

𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 2 - 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑎

"𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑙" - 𝑀𝑎𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝐵

失敗

"Sloppy. Pretending to fail. You are stronger than you believe, Natalia. Try again." Madame B's words echoed in my ear as a bled from the thigh. I breathed heavily as I groaned in excruciating pain.

"I, I, I can't. Can't," I said, the words flowing out of my mouth like a stream.

The minute that she heard my words, she struck me with her gun, leaving a purple coloured bruise on my cheek and I collapsed on the wooden floor.

"Want another?" She asked cruelly, holding the gun up high, for me to see.

"No, Madame," I replied, my words struggling to come through my tears.

"Then get up and try again!" She shouted in my ears. And even through my fear, even through my sadness, I still failed to get up.

"It hurts," I said, now endless tears spewing from my eyes. And as I raised my face to see her, she struck me again.

Crap. Another nightmare. I turned on my back to see my alarm clock.

03:47 it showed in glowing red letters.

I took off my heavy duvet and got out bed, resting my cold feet on the fluffy grey rug next to my bed. I turned on my lamp on my bedside table and walked outside of my bedroom to the kitchen.

I reached into the glass cabinet and fetched myself a rather tall mug which I filled with some coffee that I had made earlier that day, which was surprisingly still kinda warm. I took my mug to the living room and I just sat there, thinking about nothing. I reached for my phone, which I had left on the coffee table. There was a message from Steve.

Hope you get better. See you tomorrow! 😁😄

Thx sm. See u! 😊 I texted back. I grinned at his sweet text, I dunno why, it just made me happy.

I was pretty hyped up to see Steve tomorrow, I mean, I hadn't talked to him for 5 months, except for the brief phone call yesterday and some excessive text messaging. He always made me feel, cared for. He had always been by my side, not only as a colleague but also as a friend, a best friend. He was the first person in a long time to show true and genuine care for me and my wellbeing, and I was grateful for that.