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ESMERALDA 1
I can sense danger approaching, and I’m so tired of running. Why can’t they just give up? It has been months now, and still the Desperados are after me. I thought that after slipping Sean’s notes into one of the Elementals Cape Town MC’s Ol’ Ladies’ bags, that they would resolve the issue with the Desperados and they would stop coming after me, but no such luck. To be fair, they did do something because Sean has disappeared from the picture, and Basil has stepped up as the leader for the Desperados street gang.
Picking up my meagre belongings, I prepare to slip away once again. I know that stealing Sean’s ledger was stupid, but I had to try to stop them—stop him. I was sold to Sean when I was barely seventeen to pay off a debt. Luckily for me, or unluckily, I’m still trying to decide which, Sean took a liking to me and decided that he wanted to keep me instead of selling me off like they do with so many other women.
It’s going on six years now, and it was only a few months ago that I managed to get away. I know that if they find me, I will be dead. I know that stealing from the Desperados is something they don’t take lightly, but I had to try to do something. I have tried to get out of Cape Town, but everywhere I turn I see one of their men.
I know that I’m fighting a losing battle and that sooner or later I’m going to be found, and will be made to pay for my crime. I might not have stopped the trafficking or the abuse, but at least I managed to get rid of Sean. At night when I fall asleep, I still dream that he is out there, always watching. My hand creeps up to scratch the scars at my wrist. It was a dark time in my life—a time that death would have been preferable to what I was going through. But Sean never let me slip away. Now he has gone, but I’m still on the run.
Opening the door to the little bedroom that I managed to rent under false pretence, I quickly slip out, closing the door quietly behind me. I keep to the shadows as I make my way towards the hole in the fence that I found a few weeks earlier. Slipping through the hole, I start mingling with the people walking up the street towards the waterfront.
The hoodie that I’m using covers most of my hair and body, but it hasn’t been easy these months that I have been in hiding. I have exhausted every venue I could think of, initially I worked for a few weeks in a kitchen, but once the owner found out that the Desperados were looking for me, he apologized, but he didn’t want to get mixed up with gang business, therefore he would need to let me go.
Next, I managed to find a part-time job at a laundromat. But one night when I was leaving, one of the gang members saw me and pursued. Luckily, I managed to give him the slip, but again I couldn’t go back to work. It has been like that since I ran, and to make matters worse, the Elementals are also looking for me.
Sometimes, I think that I should just give myself up, but to who? In my eyes one will kill me, and the others will exploit my knowledge and who knows what else until I wish for a speedy death again. I hear running footsteps in the distance and know that it is time to hurry up because those footsteps I know.
Sean found out about my gift a couple of months after being sold to him; he used to call me his secret weapon. He made sure no one found out about me and tried to keep me away from everyone as much as possible. I have a rare ability that I can enhance my senses to hear, see, smell, and sense things more than the normal human. That is what has been saving me from everyone that has been trying to capture me. Slipping into an alleyway, I hurry to an abandon building which I found a couple of weeks ago. I know that it’s just as dangerous in there as it is out here, but at least I can try to keep safe from the elements. Besides, I don’t think that they would suspect that I was hiding right under their very noses.
I can hear movement inside, but I know that it’s the two homeless men that live there. Finding the broken window, I slip inside trying to be as quiet as possible as I would rather they also not know that I’m here. Because if they can sell my whereabouts, I’m sure they will.
Opening the door to the little closet that I spied out the other day, I slip inside. I will be as warm and as safe as possible in here. It doesn’t smell all that great, but the same way that I can enhance my senses, luckily, I can also diminish them. Pulling my hoodie off, I place it on the ground so that I can sit on it. There must be something more to life than this constant turmoil.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been pushed from one place to another. My mother was a drug addict, doing anything for her next fix. When she died, I was handed to my grandmother, who didn’t miss a chance to remind me at every opportunity of what a useless burden I was on her. That is, until she used me to pay off the debt she had with the Desperados.
Sean was a mean bastard that would do anything for a buck. When he found out about my gift, he made sure that I used it at every opportunity to help him acquire his fortune. A tear slipped down my cheek. No matter how much time passes, the pain of what I did for him never becomes easier. I was his way in with the women that they kidnapped, I would strike up a conversation and then bring them to him.
He would have me find them like a blood hound, sniffing them out so he could make money. I don’t know what it is about the women he had me find, but all of them had a particular fragrance to them, and funny enough, the two women that I met at the coffee shop a couple of months ago that belong to the Elementals CT MC had the same fragrance. I slipped Sean’s ledger into their bag, hoping that they would give it to the Elementals, which would hopefully find a way to stop him.
In a way, they stopped him. But that didn’t stop the Desperados from looking for me. Initially I would fight Sean, but with time, I found it easier to submit than to fight, as the scars on my body will profess. I was his plaything, his personal rabbits’ foot, as he would say, but in the end, I was also his destruction. I was hoping to stop the whole sickening business they had going, but I need to be happy with the Elementals having defeated Sean.
When the Elementals women told me that they had gone to war with The Desperados because of me, not that they knew it was me as I didn’t tell them my name, I was surprised. Why would a group of men go to war because of a woman that they didn’t even know, but then I realized that they must have been looking for the information that I stole.
I figured that if they could find it useful and maybe stop what was happening, then I would give them the ledger. Unfortunately, I think they are thinking that I have more information because they are still looking for me. It is already difficult to hide from one crime organization like the Desperados that are one of Cape Town’s most feared gangs, but now I have the most notorious motorcycle club looking for me too.
There is something different about them, though, as their tread seems to be softer but more assured. I can tell when they are close by the softer sounds they make, but also by the static energy that starts to approach. There is one energy in particular that perturbs me, it calls me in instead of drawing me away. I have been curious to find out who’s energy it belongs to, but I’m scared that they will find me if I get too close, and I must be honest, they have come closer than anyone ever should, and somehow, they keep on finding me. I still don’t know how they do it, but they find me in the most unexpected places.
Closing my eyes, I sigh. The one thing that I would really like is to have a full night of uninterrupted sleep. I would like a night where I felt safe, and no one was going to find me—a night of peace. But even if I fall asleep, my dreams wake me up. I clutch the backpack close to my chest. All the meagre belongings that I own are inside. I don’t have anything of value as I was never able to acquire anything worth keeping throughout my life, and everything I had while with Sean was given to me.
When I was younger, I had very little. My mother didn’t have the money for anything except drugs. And when I went to my gran, she only acquired the essentials needed for me not to embarrass her. Placing the haversack on the ground, I lay down with my head on it, my body curled into a ball to try to maintain my body heat. The cold of the floor is starting to seep through the hoodie into my bones. I have no one to turn to. I never knew who my father was, and throughout my life, I was never able to make friends.
I dream of one day having a life where I can be at peace, it’s the only thing I want out of life. Most people are usually after riches, to be happy, or romance. Me, I’m only looking for peace, and no matter how much I think about it, I can’t find a road that leads me to that peace. It has been my dream throughout my life; I remember when I was young; I heard a woman say to another that some people are born under a lucky star and others are just unlucky. Unfortunately for me, I think I’m one of those that was born under an unlucky star.
I tense when I hear the rats scurrying about, but because there is nothing in here, I’m hoping that they will stay away. One of the men grunts as he moves about, but after a while, he quietens. My senses tell me that for now I am safe, but for how long? Things tend to change quickly, and I need to be prepared.
This is the safest place at the moment. Being inside the building, keeps me away from the men that squat here, and it keeps me marginally warm for the night, but tomorrow I need to find a better place to hide, a place that has an escape route that is easily accessible as this tiny little room is closed in and nowhere to hide or run.
I’m only twenty-three, but I believe that I have an old soul, a tired soul. Sometimes I wonder why I was born into this life, a life that has brought me nothing but pain. My hair falls over my face, obscuring the pitch darkness where I find myself. Luckily, I had a chance to shower today before sensing that they were closing in on me. My long black hair is clean, I have been tempted to cut it since I started running but I believe that it’s my only good feature. My dark green eyes are too large for my face, my lips are too pouty, and my skin isn’t the light peachy colour that makes women so beautiful. Instead, I have a dark honey tone that luckily hides certain scars. I guess for the life that I have had, it’s the best type of skin. A lily-white tone would show all the bruises that I have received throughout the years.
I suddenly tense. There is a light rustle, different from the other sounds. I wait to try to hear it again, but it doesn’t repeat itself. If anyone catches me in here, I’m done for. I’ve got nothing to protect myself with, not even a bat, and there’s no where I can hide. I don’t know how long I lie stiffly listening to the sounds outside. Down the street, I hear a couple talking. Their playful words make a sad smile lift my lips. I hope their happiness lasts for a very long time. I have become tainted to love. I’ve never felt love for anyone. I loved an old dog that used to hang around near where my gran lived, and every chance I got, I used to creep out and feed him, but one day he just stopped appearing. I took food out for him for weeks after his disappearance, but he never came back. Since then, I learned never to hold on to anything, because sooner or later it leaves.
There banter starts to lull me to sleep, my body cold but too tired to care. I must have dozed off because the next thing I know, I’m snapping awake from a dream, the same dream where Sean is still alive, and he has found me. He tortured me for disobeying him—torturing me worse than he ever has before. My breathing is loud in my ears, my cheeks wet from the tears. Sean was evil, evil to his very rotten core.
Sitting up, I listen. I must’ve been asleep for a while because the sounds outside are minimal, which tells me that it must be the middle of the night or very early morning. Stretching out my legs, I pull the haversack towards me to open the outside pouch. Pulling out the little bag of dried meat, I take a strip and slowly start to chew. In the olden days, people used to live off dried strips of meat and water. For now, I still have a few strips which I need to make sure lasts me for a while until I can find another job and place to live, or until I finally find my way out of Cape Town.
Today, I will once again try to approach the train station and see if the men are still there on the lookout. I know that they are at the bus stop because I checked yesterday. I can’t make it on foot out of Cape Town because I’m scared that they will find me hitchhiking and bring me back. I tried to hide in a truck that was going to Johannesburg once, but the driver found me and kicked me out.
I hear footsteps. They are quite a distance away, but I recognize them as belonging to the Elementals. What is this Elemental doing by himself at this time of night, walking the streets of Cape Town? His steps are unhurried as he walks. I open up my senses and immediately sigh when I feel the energy of this particular Elemental; it is the one that calls to me, the one that calms me, but today I sense something else. Closing my eyes, I focus only on his energyToday there is a feeling of sadness radiating from him. I don’t know this man, but my heart tightens in sorrow for him.
