12 The day after: Are you Natalia?

Natalia woke up early in the morning with a man beside her who slept like a log. Her whole body was aching and she smelt of alcohol and smoke. "Too wild." She sighed as she painfully moved towards the side of the bed.

She looked at the marks on her body and moved her gaze to the scratches on the body of man which reminded her of the wild night they had before. She was admiring his handsome face. 'Men with a well-defined faces are the best.' She giggled as she remembered Harith whose face was a god-crafted one.

Her inner thoughts came to a halt when a phone vibrated. She saw that it belonged to her one night stand and decided to check it anyway.

"Oh..it's a message." She looked at the notification and tried to open the phone but it was locked. A new message appeared.

She could only see the ID name of the one who sent message. "Anne?? Is it his girlfriend?" Natalia felt envious of whoever the girl was for getting such a handsome man.

Suddenly it was her phone that rang.

"That frightened me...." Natalia placed her hand on her chest taking a deep breathe. "Which stupid decided to call me this early??" Natalia cursed as she reached for her phone. It was an unknown caller. She picked up the phone, waited for few moments and finally answered the phone.

As soon as she kept the phone on her ear, she felt her heart almost explode when the voice she yearned to hear spoke from the other side. "Hello. Is this Natalia?"

***********

It was a pitch black space. Lucia could hear her own heavy gasps as she tried to maintain her breathe in that space which seemed infinitely large but it felt so closed and suffocating. Lucia felt lost, her body paralyzed as she sank deeper in that darkness. Her eyes were shut tight but she could still feel the stifling and creepy atmosphere.

'-Love you Lucia..' She could hear a voice from afar. 'You can do it Lucia, these internet trolls…Don't give them a da-…' The same voice coaxed her. Lucia tried opening her eyes trying to follow the voice. 'Roy, is that you?' Lucia shouted out but her voice was stuck in her throat.

The voice still continued, '-I am always here for you..'.

'You are lying you cheating jerk.' Lucia wanted to yell and pour out her hatred but she couldn't utter even a single sound. But the voice didn't stop and continued to torture her with each sweet word that was spoken.

'Let's get married someday….' Lucia could clearly hear the voice making her remember the day when Roy had knelt on the floor and proposed her with a simple silver ring. That was the happiest moment in her life.

'Stop, please…stop…no more. Don't ..' Lucia was not brave enough to handle all of this at once when she knew all these words, all these moments that she treasured in her heart were an act to fool her. It was all a conspiracy and she was just a plaything.

'Babe..' The same voice spoke again but it had a different addictive and sultry accent to it. 'Anne..' He continued. As if all this was a torture chamber, Lucia could finally open her eyes only to see the damned cursed scene.

'Roy.' Lucia uttered and could speak no more. No, she did not want to speak anymore. She did not have strength for that.

'Oh, we have an audience.' The eyes of Roy met Lucia's as he hugged the naked and lewd body of another woman who turned around and smiled smugly as she slowly bit his lips.

'You like what you see?' He curled up his lips into a smirk, his eyes colder than the winter breeze.

It felt as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water on her. Lucia froze up completely.

"-cia, Lucia.." Someone was calling her. Lucia heard the call and felt herself shaking.

Lucia opened her eyes with a loud gasp. Her chest was heaving up and down as she struggled to breathe. Her eyes opened wide, she looked at the white familiar ceiling of her room. "Lu Lu, you awake?? Were you having a nightmare?" Her mother who was wiping her sweaty forehead and her tear-stained cheeks asked worriedly seeing her open her eyes.

Lucia was absent minded for a while. Did she just have a nightmare? Or was it the reality that she was forced to remember every time she closed her eyes.

"Lu Lu?" Mrs. Sovuyer noticed her thoughts wandering somewhere again.

"Hhh? Ahh..sorry Mom, guess I am still tired…hehe" Lucia didn't know which was reality or which was dream but she didn't wish to worry the only person who loved her truly.

Seeing her daughter acting brave in front of her Mrs. Sovuyer felt a pang in her heart. "OK, just sleep and get rest for now. I will heat up some dishes for you later."

Lucia nodded her head and smiled at her. She covered herself with the warm blanket and pretended to have gone to sleep with a yawn.

Mrs. Sovuyer turned to look at sleeping Lucia once more before closing the door softly. As soon as she was out the door, Lucia jumped out of her bed.

"I don't have time to just sleep." She slapped herself in her face with her both hand twice as to wake her self up. A sharp and crisp sound filled the room when her hand hit her cheeks.

"Owww…" She felt her cheek slightly swell. Hitting oneself was a probably bad idea, she thought as she looked at her red plump cheeks.

She looked at the bright light coming through her closed window. She wanted to check the time and picked up her alarm clock.

"Holy Freaking god." Lucia almost shouted. It was almost 11 pm. It was already the next day and she was already late for her campus. Even if she ran in her pajama she was not sure she would make it.

She really wanted to see how that bitch Natalia would respond when she showed up all fine.

"Arghhh.This sucks." She sat down on her bed with a thump. She looked for her phone. She reached her hand on the table beside her bed where she normally kept it but she could not find it. "Huh? Where did it go?"

She looked under the bed checking every nook and corner. "Not here." She even found spiders that had made its web in the legs of her bed but she did not find her phone. She was unconscious when the perverted man had thrown her phone away so she was still in dark about the phone.

****************

Harith after taking care of drunk Sam and returning home finally had chance to look at his phone which was dead. He was also very tired that day and directly went to sleep after keeping his mobile on charge.

The next morning he was welcomed by a barrage of notifications that showed he had twenty missed calls. He was even more surprised when he saw the caller ID. Without thinking anything he called her back.

'Did something happen?' Harith felt queasy and antsy as an unknown fear crept into his heart. He waited for the call to connect.

"Hello." A tired and a hoarse voice greeted him. By the voice itself Harith felt something must have happened. "Aunt…This is Harith." Harith felt guilty and spoke in a low voice. "I did not see your calls.. It must have been something urgent…umm" Harith hesitated for a while before asking further. "Did something happen?"

Lucia's mother was cleaning up the house. She did not get a wink of sleep so she was doing something to keep her mind occupied. When her phone rang she was not excited to check it.

Seeing that it was from Lucia's friend she unwillingly picked it up. "Hello."

After what happened yesterday she felt angry and disappointed at Lucia's friends and especially Harith who had promised to take care of her. "It was nothing.." She replied trying to end the conversation as quickly as possible.

Harith who heard this understood something must have had happened but Lucia's mother was not willing to speak anything so he just gave up on asking her. "Ohh..then..I am sorry aunty. Have a nice day." Harith waited for her response but got a bland reply.

"Hmm..okay." Mrs. Sovuyer cut off the call with a sigh.

Harith immediately called Lucia. "Please pick up." Harith muttered under his breathe.

"Sorry the number you have dialed is not available. Pease try again later." The mechanical voice of telecom lady was the only answer he got.

"What the hell happened?" Harith got anxious and tried calling her again. He called Mrs. Sovuyer again.

"What is it?" She asked in her tired voice making Harith feel guilty all over again. "Aunt, I a-am sorry but I can't reach Lucia. She…Is she okay?"

"She is alright. She must have lost her phone somewhere." She replied calmly while her heart pained as she remembered each detail from the last night. "She is just sick so she won't be coming to the class for today."

"Please give her my regards. We will come visit her." Harith ended the call and rang up Sam who was still passed out on his bed. Who else could he call? He suddenly remembered someone.

"Hwaloo.." Sam who was still half asleep spoke in his nasal voice. "Hey sleepy head. Get me the phone number of the girl who always hung around Lucia." Harith directly asked Sam since the three of them were in acting department.

"Why?" Sam suddenly felt his eyes open wide when Harith asked for a girl's number. "Just do it…I will tell you later." Harith himself did not know what was going on so he was not in condition to give any kind of information to Sam.

Sam looked up his contact diary and messaged the phone number to Harith. "Its done." He informed Harith.

"Thanks man." Harith hurried to call Natalia but before that he informed Sam. "Lucia is sick so she won't be coming today. Prepare something for her…Hmm porridge will do. We should go and visit her."

Sam who could only hear the sound of call ending wanted to kick the man on his butt. "I am not your paid cook you dimwit… At least hear my opinion first you fool." Sam was finally awake now. Even though he said all that, he swiftly got up from the bed and went to kitchen to see if he could make some healthy porridge.

Harith waited anxiously for the girl to pick up his call. When his call was finally received he spoke without any delay.

"Hello. Is this Natalia?"