FIFTY-NINE

Lucy yelled in pain as she pushed, but the doctor said she should push harder as if he knew what it felt like.

Lucy screamed again and fell back and a baby's cry was heard, then at that moment, all the pain, exhaustion and agony, all the sleepless nights, all the divided attention between her oldest daughters and her developing son, all of it vanished, he was the most important thing in the world to her at that moment.

She slowly picked him up and tears mixed with her sweat as the child slowly opened his big blue eyes, then began to laugh.

She was a little hesitant when they said they needed to clean him, but she eventually obliged.

They took him out of the room and showed him to his uncle...and his father.

Luis looked at the child, but still felt a void, he actually didn't want the child to begin with and the only reason he was so desperate to get Lucille back was that Lucy loved her, but now there was going to be a fifth child to call him father, and he wasn't ready for that yet, but he still had to smile for the cameras.

After Junior had been taken away, Luis started moving his wheelchair towards his room and I offered to help him but the face he gave me made my soul shrink three times smaller.

I decided to leave him to his thoughts as he still wasn't ready to meet his fiancee after failing her, which she said, numerous times he didn't, but he still felt and I couldn't blame him though, Lucy on her own always cried silently whenever she thought about the baby during her pregnancy.

She knew Luis never wanted him and feared that the unpredictable but nevertheless, charming man may leave her, and it was still a possibility though...

I just went to Luis' room to annoy him for no reason, possibly because my life had no meaning at the moment and I was seeking any source of entertainment...or excitement...or not.

Then I saw him getting on to his bed with the nurse's help.

She left some food for him and when she left, I was about to walk in when the fork came flying at me, past my ear and stabbing through the wall behind me.

I frowned at him then he simply said,"Bring the fork and leave."

"A please would be nice."

"Alright, please stop being the pain of my existence before I get my legs back because when I do, there would be nowhere for you to run..."

"Okay, bye."

I banged the door in his face and walked away, leaving the fork for him to get it himself, and Luis chuckled from within the room, he hated that kid, but couldn't live without him, he had grown on him.

Mack had slammed his forearms into a slab of cement for several minutes, and it had began breaking.

He then hammer fisted right through the concrete block, shattering it and the table below as he breathed heavily, then left.

He had been training nonstop ever since he arrived and even his master was both impressed at his performance, and worried that he may be harmed by his own determination.

Slamming his arms, fists, palms and limbs in general into the thick tree stumps around him, they slowly began to wear away, then he ended it with a powerful elbow which dislodged the one before him, making it topple onto the next.

He got out and was going somewhere else when his master said in Mandarin,"You seek great power, do you not?"

"If that's what it seems like."

"And what is your purpose for this?"

"I have to rescue my wife from her father."

"You wish to rescue your wife, or you wish to have revenge? The first being a noble cause, the second being an arrogant one, just know, rage only blinds you, it doesn't help you."

His master then left him to his thoughts, then he looked at his scarred body, was he actually doing this for Ruby? Of course he was...then why was Mr Welshes the only thing on his mind?

Making slow movements on the rooftops of the monstary, Mack tried to find inner peace through Tai chi.

The flashes came back, of wooden beams being broken by the impact of them hitting his chi enforced body, of him performing the movements of water among the lotuses...of him beating his partners almost to death in a sparring match, of him hunting down and killing sacred animals just for the sport of it, of his...enraged deeds, he needed to put an end to it...

***

Lucille had been in her room for a while, sobbing silently to herself, when Ruby stood up and said,"I'm going for a walk."

Rose abruptly stood up and since there was absolutely no privacy in the three bedrooms, separated by five foot thick walls of flowers, she asked her sister from her room,"Are you crazy?! Do you have any idea what they'd do to us?!"

"Could it be worse than what they've done to us before? I've literally been sitting, looking at the same colour everywhere for ten hours straight and it's driving me nuts!"

Before Rose could speak, Lucille said,"I'm coming too."

Rose was short for words, sighed then said,"It wouldn't be fair if they only killed you two and left me to break the news to everyone else, I'm coming too."

They got off their literal flower beds and walked through the giant rooms reserved for them, through the open doorways and out.

The place had a silver- white, slate grey hue to it, but it was better than looking at fifty shades of pink all day and it was filled to the brim with cats...what was up with that?

They also realized several people saw them, but never interfered, either they gasped and briskly walked away, looked at them in awe...which especially annoyed Ruby, or simply ignored them.

After walking for like ever in the giant mansion, they finally got to a balcony and were surprised at what they saw outside...

"We're in a...desert?"Ruby asked.

"The Sahara desert, to be precise."

The three turned back and their hearts skipped a beat when they saw Rose's and Ruby's father, standing there with his hands behind his back.

He walked towards the balcony and looked at the endless rows of golden sand, till Lucille asked,"Could we...go out there?"

He looked at her from the corner of his eyes and Ruby covered the child's mouth and apologized, but he responded,"Who ever said you were prisoners here?"

He then smirked then darted his eyes backwards as a subtle growl came from behind.

The girls looked back and saw a lioness with a snow white coat, as it growled.

Climbing down the walls to their side was a black leopard and their father yelled for them to run as the cats lunged at them, then he caught the lion midair by the hind legs, as it was about to claw Ruby's face off, then slammed it down but was pounced on by the black panther.

Ruby found herself screaming for him in fear as he yelled with the cats roaring and the guards literally doing nothing, till he began to chuckle then burst out laughing as the cats suddenly became game and acted like domesticated bobtails.

He sat on the floor as they purred and rubbed their heads around him, then growled at the girls, before continuing.

The girls were shocked as he stood up and said,"These are my pets, Lea and Fahad- Leo."

Rose was speechless as he asked,"Don't you still want to go and explore?"

They looked at each other, as he continued looking at the landscape then slowly left.

They didn't get far when some maids offered to take them outside.

Rose decided to stay, she still wanted more Intel on... everything, so Ruby volunteered to go out with Lucille.

The two girls were given the appropriate clothing, Ruby in drab black and Lucille in ivory white, and food and water, enough for an entire family.

They offered them camels but they rejected the offer, or at least, Ruby did, she didn't intend to stay out for long.

As they walked through the passageway to the outside world, which looked more like an indoor runway, several cats appeared and stared at them, creeping Lucille out until one appeared at her foot.

She screamed but Rose began to pet it as the two left.

It purred comfortably and toppled over when she was gone, the final challenge they had to overcome were the two Sphinx cats, sitting besides each other, which slowly turned to face them, as kitten after kitten appeared behind them, then one toppled over trying to get a better look.

They walked through the soft sands till they got to the bottom of a ahndn dune, then Lucille just sprinted away.

Ruby called after her but she didn't turn back she screamed for help as she ran off and Ruby was about to chase after her when several quad bikes zoomed past her, for fear of what they may do to her, she ran and held the frame of one.

Being dragged in the sand, she strained to get on, and as the driver almost attacked, she held his gun like weapon and strained for it then headbutted him and threw him off.

Her heart sank when they began shooting at Lucille, who fell down the tall dune after that.

Ruby accelerated then sped above the dune, jumping off before the bike went crashing into another one and blocking the path of one more.

She tried to get to Lucille, but a man had already grabbed her and was dragging her by the hair as she screamed.

The man slapped her with the back of his hand for her to be silent, and that was all Ruby saw, till she was knocked unconscious...

Rose walked through the place, looking for something more interesting than people emptily complimenting her on how perfect she looked, when she saw a locked room, which was surprising since the only other room that had a closed door was the bathroom, and even then, it was free to open, this one was locked shut.

She hid when she saw people walking by, then took a deep breath and took them down, before removing their gloves and placing their hands, one by one, on a screen that seemed to be for palm print recognition.

She was right, but none of them matched, she was stuck.

***

The man threw Lucille and Ruby before their father, who was still standing at the balcony where they left him, then said,"Sir, they tried to escape and destroyed multimillion dollar property."

Their father turned back with his eyes red, literally his irises being red and his pupils a dull brown, as he walked closer to them.

Lucille was scared as Ruby provided her with solace, then he turned back and thrusted his hand through the chest of the guard.

The guard started choking as blood slowly oozed out of the wound and his mouth.

Their father then pulled out his heart and gave him a spinning back kick, throwing his crushed body several meters across the balcony and over the edge.

He turned back, squatted and offered his bloodless hand to the girls, with his eyes being their original sea green, but Lucille got even more scared.

"I'm not going to hurt you."He said.

"Any more than you already have?"Ruby asked,"You've traumatized Lucille time and time again, after kidnapping her and trying to murder my sister and you wouldn't hurt us?!"

"I did nothing more than discipline you as a good father should his children when they go wrong."

He looked at Lucille as she whispered between tears to Ruby of how much she missed her mother, and Ruby trying to comfort her...

He then stood up and left.

***

Rose stood by the people on the floor, questioning all her life decisions, when someone walked right by her, placed his bloodstained hand on the scanner and opened the door.

She looked at him and for the first time in a long time, she felt worried.

"What happened to you?"She asked.

"I just had some people to punish, that's all."He said,"Go in if you wish."

She walked into the room filled with large cages.

She walked in and gasped when she saw several people in them, begging to be set free, then heard her name called...

"Mother!"She yelled.

"Oh rosebud, your father has gone mad!"

"What? What did he do to you?"

"He kidnapped all of us to use as a sacrifice during some ceremony he's going to perform during the next solar eclipse."

"But... that's three weeks from now."

"Then that gives you ample time to set us free, please, don't leave me, get us out of here!"

Rose heard her father call and knew she had to leave, she shed tears as she apologized, with her mother begging her to help them as she left.

Her father locked the door again then she asked with tears,"What are you going to do with them?"

"You do not need to worry yourself about that my daughter, just remain under my protection for now, many will try to deceive you."

"...what about mother?"

He looked down then back into her eyes, then said,"She told the truth..."