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I get dressed, putting my earrings back in. I take my handbag down with me. I think about turning on my cellphone but then I remember they might be able to track it if I do.
I’m not sneaking out, just feels good to know I could. I just need a little bit of air, that’s all. Then I can snuggle up next to him and go back to sleep. I’ve no idea of the time but it’s barely light. The room is shades of gray and silver.
The bedroom door’s open. I head through it, my feet sinking into the thick pile of the carpet as I make my way along the corridor and down the stairs. I blink and there in my head is the vision of him carrying me up here last night.
It all feels imagined now, like a dream that I’m waking up from. It’s drifting away like so much cotton wool on the breeze, coming apart and vanishing. Did it really happen like that? Am I no longer a virgin?
I touch my lips as if I might be able to still feel his embrace on them. I get nothing but a slight tingle. My fingers smell of his aftershave. That’s something that’s real, at least.
His house is real too. I try the back door but it’s locked and there’s no sign of a key. His bunch of keys are by the front door in a small white bowl. I pick them up and on the third attempt, manage to get the door to unlock.
I step outside and take a breath. I can see the row of houses opposite. A perfectly ordinary street. No sign that a god lives here. No plaque on the wall.This is where Aurora Moretti lost her virginity.
The sun still isn’t up but the first rays of the morning light are scattering across the sky. What will happen between now and when the sun sets tonight?
I have no idea what’s to come. I know I need to go back home sooner or later and face the music for what I’ve done. Right now, all I want is for a little air before I rejoin him in bed. I can at least have another couple of hours of imagining I’m a free woman in charge of her own destiny.
In reality, I’m not much more than a robot. I’ve been programmed to act a certain way and that’s it. I go along the pre-ordained path. High school. Marriage. Children. Housewife. Grandmother. Death. That’s the trajectory. No career for me. No trips to other countries to find myself. No freedom to choose what I want out of life. It’s all been decided for me already. The only question is who I marry and I don’t even get a say in that.
I turn to head back into the house and that’s when they grab me.
I don’t even hear them until it’s too late. Two sets of hands on me, pulling me down his drive to the street where there’s a van waiting.
I should have guessed. It’s my own dumb fault.
I cry out for help but a hand goes straight over my mouth, cutting off the sound. I look behind me, straight into the eyes of my father’s favorite lapdog, Pietro. “Good morning, Aurora,” he says as he drags me over to the van, shoving me inside. “Your father wants to see you.”
I hear a shout. My stranger from last night heard my cry. He’s bursting out of his front door, naked, gun in his right hand, pointing it at the van as the door slams shut and the driver hits the gas.
“That looked like Nico Casella,” the driver says, glancing in the rear view mirror.
“Bullshit,” Pietro replies, his hands still on me, stopping me from fighting him. “This isn’t Casella turf. It’s the suburbs. You’re seeing things, man.”
“I swear, it looked a hell of a lot like him.”
Pietro turns to me. “Who was that guy?”
“Him?” I say with a bitter smile. “Just a stranger who fucked me last night. Took my virginity.”
If I expect him to look shocked, I’m to be disappointed. He only shakes his head. “You dumb bitch,” he says, sounding bored instead of shocked. “You’re going to get yourself killed behaving like this. You know that, right?”
“How’d you even find me?” I ask, trying to get into a seated position.
“You going to behave?” Pietro asks, loosening his grip. “Or am I going to have to shock you.”
I’ve felt the electrodes from his Taser before. Pietro has my father’s permission to punish me. The only one of his goons who can. He has done it before. I’ve no doubt his threat is real. I nod, gulping hard.
“Then sit there and think about what you’re going to tell your father.”
“How’d you find me? At least tell me that.”
“So you can hide better next time? Yeah, right.”
I think to myself for a moment. There’s only one real option. The GPS inside my cellphone must still work even if it’s turned off.
Stupid!
I should have left the thing at home.
