Chapter 2 The Boss's Dissatisfaction

The night was heavy with an eerie silence, broken only by the sound of Vanessa's sudden, piercing scream; "Noooooooooo!!!!"

She shoots upright in bed, bathed in cold sweat, heart racing. It was the nightmare again!.

Frantically, she clutches her throat, half-expecting to feel the hole bored by Cane's sharp-edged rod. She examines her trembling hand, then turns to her husband, Dale, who lay beside her in blissful slumber.

Dale's eyes meet Valerie's, concern etched across his features.

"You had the same dream again?' he inquires, his voice laced with empathy.

"Ye... yes," she stammers, her breath still ragged.

"But this time, he almost..." Her voice trails off, unable to put the horrifying images into words.

Vanessa's fear is palpable, as she instinctively leans toward her husband for solace.

Dale envelops her in a reassuring embrace. "It's alright, my dear," he whispers, his voice a soothing balm to her frayed nerves. "It was just a dream. I'm here with you, and no one will ever harm you."

As Dale gently cradles her head against his chest and caresses her trembling arm, the night's terrors gradually fade into the comforting embrace of reality and they both fall asleep.

It is dawn and Dale gets up early as usual. He prepares for work and is about to leave, but decides to greet his wife, he goes into their room, stands and stares at Vanessa for a while then goes ahead to kiss her slightly on her forehead "Muah!"

"I'm off to work," he says, then he walks out to his car parked in their small yard, gets in and zooms off.

Dale arrives at his workplace, and is greeted by every colleague he walks past, but is so lost in his thoughts he waves at every greeter without verbally reciprocating their greetings.

Dale heads straight to his office. On getting to his office he encounters Valerie.

"Good Morning Dale," she says in a flirtatious manner.

"Good Morning Valerie" he replies.

Valerie's office was two offices away from his.

Shortly after he gets into his office, he receives a call from his Boss, Mr. Benson.

"Morning Mr Cruise, please see me at my office," Mr Benson says over the phone.

"Good Morning Mr Benson, Okay Sir.." Dale responds.

Dale at Mr Benson's Office; "You look stressed out Dale, what's the problem?" Mr Benson inquires.

"Nothing serious sir, it's just a little family issue," Dale says.

"Is there any way I could be of assistance?"

"Because you're not as productive as you used to be, in the past few months you've been careless with work and all, the project I placed you in charge of is still unfinished, you promised me you'd finalize it three days ago," Mr Benson says. "What could be the problem?" "Because I know who I employed and this isn't him" he adds

Dale takes a deep inhale and releases the air through his mouth, then bows his head in shame as tears roll down his cheek.

"Would you be kind enough to share?" "You never know I could be of help," Mr Benson says, handing Dale a soft towel and urging him to speak.

Dale clears his throat and says "It's my Wife, I try my best to look strong for her but I really am not that strong, I'm tired and stressed out, I don't know how long I'll keep doing this"

"Doing what?" Mr Benson asks "What exactly happened to your wife?" He adds

"I don't even know, she changed after we got married, she has a similar dream every night where her ex chases her, and she can't even say why and what she did to him," Dale says. "I don't get proper sleep at night" "She has developed anger issues" "....gets angry and picks offence over the littlest things" and "The other night I tried to spice things up during lovemaking..."

"How so?" His boss cuts in.

"Well, I tried choking her du..."

His Boss tries holding back laughter but ends up smiling: "Are you listening to yourself? You said she frequently has dreams about her ex chasing and wanting to kill her and the only thing that came to your spicy brain to do to her during sex was to choke her?...." his Boss says, smilingly.

"Sh...she.. used to like it" Dale stutters "I don't know what changed, everything about me annoys her, and it's nerve-racking, most times I act as if I don't care but it's eating me up, I can't even think straight, I don't get enough rest and I don't even eat well.."

"And please don't get it wrong, my wife is a wonderful woman, Nessa is kind, loving and selfless, she isn't a bad person, she is just going through a phase, I think" he adds

"You have the answer right there, 'she isn't a bad person' and you're fully aware it's a phase. Why then do you allow it to affect you so much?" "You should read about stoic philosophy". Mr Benson says.

"But it's impulsive, I can't help but feel this way, I..." says Dale

"You need to develop emotional intelligence and learn to control your emotions, that's by the way. I've heard you, okay?" Mr Benson says as he stands up and walks toward the glass-sealed window.

Pauses for a while not to sound too insensitive then goes on to say "..... this might seem valid to you, but it isn't enough reason to neglect your duties here at work" "I've tolerated you a lot, because I Know how much of a hard worker you were when you first came, you have to get back to being you at work else we'll have to let you go, these are family issues that can be easily handled but you let them control you" he says and then walks back towards Dale.

"Be the man your wife needs you to be and take charge of the situation, this is the last time we'll talk about this, Thank you and please shut the door behind you" he adds as he goes back to sit down on his chair.

Dale leaves Mr Benson's office feeling bad; "So why then did he ask if there was anything he could do to assist" Dale thinks to himself.

In South Africa: Brian Doss receives a call from his PA; "Sir, your flight has been booked for Tomorrow, Thursday..." Doss's PA says.

"You moron, I asked you to book it for Friday, and you call me now to tell me it has been booked for Thursday, am I paying you to be stupid?" Doss asks rhetorically.

"Cancel that flight and rebook for Friday. I still have things to do here in SA" he adds, in a rude and disrespectful tone.

"You didn't have to sound that way, he must've heard wrong when ....." Annie, Doss's side mistress, was about to complete her statement.

But Doss cuts in; "Shut the fuck up bitch, I pay you to fuck me and not give me stupid ass advice on how I should and shouldn't speak to my PA" Doss says in anger as he chases Annie out of the room. "Get out of here, please I've heard so much from morons today...." He says.

Annie sighs in hurt as she puts on her skimpy gown and walks out of their hotel room.

"Please find me a nice-looking Zulu girl, I heard they're the best here. One with a big bum though...."

Henry cuts in "They always have big bums,.." "It isn't a Zulu thing, it's a South African.." Henry was about pitching the beauty of South African women to his American friend, Doss.

But Doss doesn't really care, so he cuts in, "Okay, Whatever!, just get me something good," Doss says.

Back home at the Cruise's, Vanessa wakes up feeling lightheaded, she eats cereal and goes into the bathroom to have a warm bath, maybe she'll feel better she thinks to herself.

While bathing she hears a noise in the sitting room and hides behind the door in fear :

"Who is there?" She asks.

There is no response, she asks again this time in a higher tone, "Who is there?"

She quickly steps out from the shower, grabs a short stick from near the bathroom entrance, poised for defence as she cautiously enters the parlour, only to discover it was merely a gentle breeze, and the room was empty.

She sighs in relief. She later becomes anxious and scared when she thinks about the possibility of Cane breaking in and Killing her for leaving him. She calls Dale, but he ignores then she calls Sarah her younger Sister, Sarah without hesitation comes over and assures her things are okay. The day grew old with two sisters having a heart to heart moment.

Later that day;

"Have you heard from Annie?" Vanessa inquires, standing at the kitchen door.

"About a week ago, I think she left for South Africa for an event, I'm not certain though," Sarah replies, as she cooks.

"Try and talk sense into her, she chose to prostitute herself over getting proper education..." Vanessa says

"You know how many times we've tried talking to her, she has chosen to live that way, the earlier we get used to it the better for us" Sarah replies, "She is an adult, the way she chooses to live her life shouldn't be our problem" "we already have enough to deal with" she adds

Vanessa sighs as she walks back to the sitting room.

Sarah made turkey stew and rice, accompanied with a healthy veggie drink made of cucumbers and carrots, medically proven to calm nerves and aid relaxation. They both ate and watched a comedy series.

At Dales's Office, he tries to put himself Together before returning his wife's call to reassure her she is safe, as he already knows why she called.

Dale calls his wife; Vanessa apologizes for disturbing his sleep at night; "I Know you really needed to sleep, and I'm sorry I disturbed your sleep..." she says, "How is work coming?" she asks.

Dale reassures her "It's nothing, my love.." "Work is fine"

Dale was still on call with his wife when he heard a sudden, ominous knock on his office door. His heart raced as he snapped out of his thoughts, caught off guard by the unexpected interruption. He hesitated, the voice on the other end of the call fading into distant background noise, as he cautiously approached the door. With seemingly trembling hands, he turned the handle and swung it open, only to be confronted by a sight that left him paralyzed with shock and dread: