THE ISLAND WOLF - EPISODE 56

The hunting was very successful. Avril returned with two medium sized hares. They had dinner and slept off on the floor. Avril was grateful she was feeling sleepy, but unfortunately, she had a nightmare. She saw bullets raining down on Alejandro and screamed out. She sat up panting heavily.
“God,” she muttered and palmed her face. Her friends were still sleeping despite her scream. She looked at the still burning fire and moved closer to it. She arranged the wood untill the fire blazed up even more. She stared into the fire while thinking of what was going to become of her life, now that Alejandro was gone. How were they going to locate Arturo when he arrives Italy to take them back to Mexico? Her phone was probably still at the hotel. And she didn’t even know where exactly they were. What if Miguel had successfully driven them out of Milan?

It was not until two hours later that Avril could fall asleep again. This time, she had a nightmare-free sleep. She woke up in the late hours of the morning. Nana was seated opposite where the fire had burnt.
“Morning,” Nana hailed at her. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.
“Morning,” she hailed back and dusted off dirt from her body.
“We didn’t want to wake you up. You seemed to be sleeping really deep.”
“Thanks. I needed that sleep. I had a nightmare and stayed up for two hours.”
She yawned and got on her feet.
“Nightmare? Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine. Where are the others?”
“Went to look around. Here, eat this. Leftover meat from last night,” Nana said and brought a stick with meat stuck through it to her. Avril accepted it and walked out of the shade of the tree. She began to eat and look around too.

Close to noontime, the girls set out again. They continued to walk, in hopes of meeting civilization soon. Certainly, there might be a village around. Or even a tourist center. Everywhere in Italy was almost a tourist center.
It was close to evening when they finally heard other people’s voices. They stayed still and hid behind a tree when the voices got nearer. Five men appeared from the direction the girls were headed. They were talking in hushed tones and walking. They wore normal outfits, but something about their body figures was putting Avril off. They were broad chested, tall and tan skinned. They looked really suspicious.
“They look like a bunch of boxers,” Nana whispered and immediately, one of them looked towards their direction. The girls hid behind the big tree and waited for the men to walk away. Their conversation stopped and Avril guessed they were standing still to look for them. Few seconds later, their voices came up again and Avril thought they were finally leaving. But she was wrong. They were walking towards them.
“Hello, come out,” one of them bellowed. Avril glanced at her friends and told them to stay put.
“Let us see your faces, ladies,” another one said.
How did they know they were ladies when they hadn’t seen them properly?
Two of the men began to walk towards the tree.
“Run,” Avril ordered and they all scampered towards the same direction, the opposite of the men. Two of the men who were walking towards the tree began to pursue them. The girls ran but could see the men just feet from them. Suddenly, each girl screamed in pain, stopped running and fell to the floor.

***
“Avril, wake up. Wake up,” Xiào Wéi whispered and kicked Avril’s legs. She opened her eyes and blinked them repeatedly to get her to see clearly.
“Where are we?” she asked as she saw the brownish color of the wall.
“We don’t know. We woke up here. But we know it has to do with those men,” Chidi’s voice sounded. Avril realized they were all sitting down on the floor, with their backs against the wall, and their hands bonded together.
“What in the world is this place?” Nana whined and hissed.
Avril looked at the engravings on the wall and could pinpoint that they were in no ordinary place.
“Xiào Wéi, check my pocket. Is my charm bracelet still there?” Avril asked desperately and shifted her butt to face Xiào Wéi.
“Yes,” she answered after she felt her right pocket and the gold bracelet was still there.
Avril sighed in relief and leaned back on the wall.
A tall man walked into the room through the door and peered at them with a grin.
“Hello, ladies. I apologise for any inconveniences. But, we just have to keep you,” he said.
“For what exactly?” Avril asked.
“Oh, you’ll see. Be good,” he said and left.
“Are you girls thinking what I’m thinking?” Nana asked.
“From frying pan to fire,” Chidi stated. The girls all sighed and made sounds of tiredness and hopelessness. It was obvious they were kidnapped again, and could even be in worse trouble. Avril had suspected those men right, they were looking far from people with good intentions.

Right then, the door opened again and two men dressed in animal skin walked to them. They pulled them up and took them out of the room. They walked through a very long hallway and arrived at a large door. The men held them tight and opened the door. They walked into a very large hall with spotlessly clean marble floor. The walls were golden with black and gold carvings and inscriptions. But Avril and the girls did not have a sound mind to check out the features of the hall room. They walked with the men until they reached a dome in the wall. The dome had a curtain of fine beads on a string, hanging from the top to the bottom, making it a little hard to see the other side. People appeared to be sitting behind them and talking in hushed tones.

“The girls are here,” the man holding Avril and Xiào Wéi announced. They were in front. Another man who was dressed like them came out through the beads. He looked at them and held a few beads for them to pass through. Few seconds later, they were moving into the dome. The people became quiet as the girls stood. Avril looked ahead and froze.

Dakar. It was Dakar who was sitting on a throne and peering at them. Her blood stopped flowing and she physically turned pale. She could not feel her legs, and got a partial deafness. No other sound in the world passed through her ears, except the sound of her own heartbeat which was beating slower than normal. A very curvy lady was seated on a smaller throne, by his side. Her hands were intertwined with one of his own hands and her thumb was gently grazing against his skin.

Dakar looked at the guards and the black girls behind, but not at her. When he finally set eyes in her, she became warm blooded again. But, those green eyes she had loved were not looking familiar anymore. They were cold, hard, expressionless and indifferent. Dakar did not show a slight look of recognition when he looked at her. In fact, it was like she was a pillar that always stood at that spot.

“Alpha is not home, so take the girls back. When he comes, we can put them up for unction,” he ordered with a voice that certainly wasn’t the one she knew. She stared into his eyes one last time before the guards turned them around to head back. At that very point, she realized that the man sitting on that throne was Dakar—but not her Dakar.