No compensation

MARGAUX

Green. There was something green dancing in my vision. Yet, I couldn't be certain because I could only see a blur of movement from my mind's eye.

I shut my eyes close, willing my vision to come back to normal.

I blew out a sigh of relief upon regaining my sight, finding myself lying on a green grass. A soft breeze caressed my still form, almost lulling me to sleep. I looked up towards the sky, it appeared to have the right kind of blue, letting me know that it would definitely be a good day.

I imagined hearing birds chirping and savored the coolness of the grass beneath me.

It was tempting to stay where I was. But then, memories of Takahashi murdering my family suddenly came crashing back to me. I got up in an instant, seeing nothing around me except for the green grass and a vast expanse of it.

Dread began to settle in my stomach as a new realization hit me.

Did I die? I began to panic. The last thing I remembered was my world turning pitch black and nothing else.

Crap. No. I can't be dead. I can't be dead, I repeated the thought-chant, willing myself to believe it.

I can't die just yet. No, not yet.

"Margie," a familiar voice called out. I spun, trying to find where it was coming from. It was Mikee's voice, no doubt. There was no one who had that angelic voice. I was certain.

"Mikee," I called out, softly at first.

"It's okay, Margie," I shook my head, still not seeing anyone around me.

"Mikee!" I screamed, gasping for breath and opening my eyes to a sunlit room right after.

I shut my eyes once again, allowing my head to fall on my hands, letting it graze by the bandage that seemed to have been placed over my forehead, securing the wound I had gained from last night.

I took a deep breath, pulling a handful of my hair as I clenched my hands into fists. I felt like I had been on a week long marathon, my body was sore and my left shoulder stung. I was feeling a little feverish too.

Dang.

I looked down and found that I was no longer wearing the piteous dress that had undergone a lot like I did from last night. Instead, I was wearing a large shirt and some sweatpants.

My eyebrows furrowed, slowly realizing where I was and also recalling how I got here.

The plain curtain and the unembellished signature of the room has become strikingly familiar all of a sudden. I was in Paul's bedroom.

"Margaux," forcing myself to look in the direction of where the infuriating familiar voice came from, I found the traitor coming towards me. He was carrying a tray of food, the aroma of the mushroom soup teased my senses, making my stomach grumble in response. I barely ate during the party and then I was chased to death and almost died trying to keep myself alive. It was no surprise that I was starving.

But despite my hunger, I refused to say anything and kept a steady glare in Paul's direction while he played almost nonchalant about it.

Placing the tray in front of me, Paul carefully sat on the edge of the bed. He gestured towards the food which had bacon and egg and garlic rice together with a steaming mushroom soup and a cup of hot chocolate drink arranged carefully on separate containers.

"Eat," he prompted. Even though the scent of it was wafting through my nose and my stomach kept on betraying me, I defiantly continued to glare.

"Margaux," he repeated. "You need to eat. You were running on a very high fever last night. Your body needs to recover." Hearing him say those words, I wanted to believe that they were sincere. But his betrayal kept on reminding me that he was no longer the same Paul whom I had almost known my entire life.

"And then what? You will take me to Takahashi?" I scoffed.

"No," he said, looking a bit hurt. "I won't do that, Margaux." I let out a bitter laugh.

"No? Aww, I'm so touched," I said, making sure to drop every word with as much sarcasm as I could.

"I have no excuse for what I have done," he paused, running a hand through his raven black hair. "But know that you and your family meant something to me, Margaux. You can at least believe that."

I laughed once again, shaking my head and narrowing my eyes towards him right after.

"My family meant something? Really? Because it somehow didn't feel like it. I mean come on, they are all dead, Paul. They are all dead thanks to your--" I stopped, abruptly halting myself from finishing that sentence. I was going to use a curse word to describe Takahashi. But, I had no idea why my mother's stern face had suddenly popped inside my head. It was as if she was preventing me from saying it out loud.

My siblings and I grew up without learning to say curse or swear words from our parents. My mother was too strict about it. Whoever did say one whether on purpose or by accident, she would grab a chilli pepper and force the doer to eat it.

I like eating spicy foods, but eating plain pepper was an entirely different story. I would know as I had the grave experience of the punishment.

I blame watching movies and reading a few books here and there for my cursing vocabulary. After that incident, I had been careful in my choice of words whenever I was at home or whenever my mother was around.

Yet, I would prefer to hear and feel my mother's scolding about half of the things I was doing that was far from her approval rather than not hearing anything from her at all and ever again.

"I'm really sorry about that, Margaux." I scoffed, looking at Paul dead in the eye.

"Sorry? You're sorry? My mother and sister were killed during the onslaught while I had to watch both my father and younger brother get killed by the power hungry Mafia Boss right in front of my eyes and you're telling me that you're sorry?"

Fresh tears began to blur my vision. I was seething with rage and once again, my heart was aching so much, I was so close to having another breakdown.

"Your apology won't bring back the dead, Paul. No matter what you do, I can never ever forgive you."