Nightmare

The party lasted until the wee hours of 3am.

The rooms Nico got us were in another hallway in the same floor where the club was.

It was a connecting room where there was only a single door for an entrance. A connecting door led us to the room where the girls and I had settled.

While Suzy, Becky, and Ali had thanked the gods for finally getting to wash their faces after nights of no sure source of clean water except mineral bottles, I had gone on to view the wonders outside.

The room had a clear glass wall that had a little veranda overlooking the city.

Up here, the winds were undeniably strong and the cold summer breeze managed to crawl into my skin.

I touched my cheeks and realized they were already too cold for comfort.

"The city is pretty, isn't it?" Ali suddenly came behind me. She had washed her hair and removed the dark make-up she wore.

Even with just her bare face, Ali was still very pretty.

I looked back to the city below us and had to agree with the punk princess now turned to a normal blonde teenager.

"Do you find a bit of comfort with how everything looked so insignificant at a distance, but when you peer closer there is much more to it than what the eyes perceive?" she asked.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, just look at all of the people below us. From the police on patrol, to the drunk teens and hoes out and about." She paused for a while to take a deep breath and then continued, "You will think you know them just by what you see, but you only know them with judging eyes."

I looked at her in a quizzical manner and she laughed at my expression.

"I kind of think I understand, but at the same time can't." I confessed.

"Haha, don't worry about it, Liz. It's just me and my emotional hour." She moved back inside where it was warmer.

Ali had only worn a spaghetti top and a very small shorts I wonder how she could withstand the cold. She waved for me to follow her and I looked back one last time towards the twinkling lights of the city below us.

The lights were warm and music from large clubs close by and the sirens of police cars blared. There was an echo of bullets being released from their barrels and I jumped in surprise.

"Come on in now, Liz. Let's get some good winks." Ali said with a slight twirl of her hand.

I entered back into the room and saw that Suzy and Becky had now taken some of the beds and were happily lucid dreaming.

Suzy talked in her sleep, while Becky slept like a dead person with her hands crossed to her front.

"Which bed do you prefer? This one closer to the wall or that one near the veranda?" she made me choose.

"I'll get this one." I told Ali absentmindedly, pointing at the nearest bed.

Becky and Suzy had masks on, and Ali slipped hers too as she shimmied under her blankets.

"You can put the lights off or leave it on if you want to." She said and then rolled to her side where I could only see her back from where I stood.

I closed the glass door and locked it before I changed into comfortable clothes. I studied my face in the mirror and noted the difference time had done to me.

It was quite astonishing to see myself with a short hair and an edgy hairstyle.

I looked at the door that connected our rooms to the boys and heard what sounded like thunder rolling.

Their snores were loud and clear and I can't fathom how the girls could manage to sleep through it. The boys had been too drunk to even clean themselves and straight away plopped into their beds when the party ended.

There were four beds, one for each of them like how we had it here, but the idiots crammed in one bed. Apparently, they were just too drunk to care.

I lay on the bed and yelped as I almost thought I would drop to the floor. The bed was too soft - really soft. I shifted and felt like I was sinking in clouds of soft fluff.

This must be what heaven feels like.

I had never slept in such comfortable and soft bed before in Shalem. Only those who could afford slept in comfort, whereas we the poor had to make do with hard beds.

The loud sirens continued to blare outside while the snores of the boys distracted me.

I didn't know when I drifted into sleep.

The last thing I remember was that I had tried to muffle the noise outside and snores inside with pillows over my head.

There was darkness all over.

The sounds of chains dragging and heavy breathes were all I could hear.

Someone was crying - sobbing ugly - and it seemed like he or she was behind me. Another sound - sniffles - was what I heard from my right side. After that, a piercing scream forced my eyes open.

The scream sounded like Suzy's and I was expecting to see the gray and dim ceiling of the hotel room, but what I saw was something else.

It was a shabby looking shack, and there I saw Suzy in soiled clothes and another woman bound in chains.

Dream.

This is a dream.

This is Suzy's life as Sussanah Johnson of Shalem.

Heavy footsteps made the thin floorboards creak and I dread that whoever those footsteps belonged to would eventually destroy the wooden floor.

A tall and bulky man emerged from the corner of the room Suzy and the other girl was chained to a post. I couldn't pinpoint the who it was but his big hand suddenly grabbed Suzy by the hair and spat.

"Woman, if any of you should try to escape again, I swear I will end your lives." The man threatened.

Who was this guy and why is Suzy and the other girl bound?