Disguised Love

The sea breeze cursed through Anna's skin. She frowned. Even the sea was really angry, maybe twice as she was. Depending on the enormous problem weighing on her shoulders, she needed money since her family had turned their backs on her.

Some days ago, she was sacked from work due to the ugly issues with the newly appointed boss. He was all nasty and lurking around her all in the name of 'I want you in my bed'.

She endured his harassment hopefully because she was not going to find another job easily if she stupidly gets herself sacked because of his nonsense.

She was doing her job diligently trying to avoid his office or ever meeting him alone. She wasn't his P.A and that did her enough favour.

He might have been too quick to notice her strange behavior and so that particular day, he surprised her.

She arrived work early like usual with thanksgiving occupying a part of her heart. The boss do come to work late on days like this; a Tuesday precisely because of his usual meeting with his friend at a popular factory.

To think she would have more time to deal with her new tactics of avoiding him.

She heaved a sigh and opened her office door, shutting it afterwards. She turned around and was met by her boss's gaze. He was sitting comfortably on her seat with the usual smirk dancing on his face.

Her heart skipped. She was shocked and immediately wished the floor could swallow her up till he leaves.

"Sir, what are you doing here so early? You should be having your usual...." She paused on seeing how his eyes was almost raping her. Her knees went numb. She hoped it wouldn't fail her once she decides to run from here.

"I haven't seen you for four days now and you know what's shocking? We are always in this same company. Why are you avoiding me sweetie?"

She beat her palms on her forehead in anger "Sir could you stop? If no one has told you yet, I would"

"Sir, I don't like the way you approach me and touch me. I recall saying so to you but you can't simply get that. You are quite uncomfortable to work it, pardon me but that's just the pure truth"

He seemed offended that she was resisting him again. He walked step by step towards her while she stood there not moving backward like she watched some ladies in the movie. She was gonna be brave and not chicken out.

He pulled her by the waist and that caught her by surprise making her stagger of which it had given him the opportunity to pin her to wall before he forcefully tore away the buttons on her white shirt.

She slapped him but that felt like a mosquito bite to him. She struggled to get freed from him. luckily the door opened. The person at the door yelled out his name.

"Stanley!"

It was his father. The Heaven had smiled on her. She suddenly felt like the man was a godsend.

To cut the long story short, she was given her pay for the month and sacked by Stanley's father. To cover up his son's mess, he made everyone believe that she seduced his son. She was shocked and devasted all the same as tears found its way streaming down to her jawline.

Her parents heard that and vented their anger on her for disgracing them. She's been casted out of the family as she was a disgrace to the family. Her Family was a big family afterall so she wasn't needed at all.

A family of ten consisting of the parents, six daughters and two older sons. She's the closest to the last borns of the house but got no love from her mother.

Her father was rarely at home so he could believe anything about her.

She stood up from where she squated. Her bag was lying on the floor beside her. She picked it up but some guy swooped in on her. He was running from some other guys holding strange weapons.

He caught her by the hand and called her sister.

"Stop right there. Hands above your head" one of the men said

The guy did that and even turned still standing beside her.

"I will find you the package. If you don't trust me, hold my sister captive for a while."

"I'm not your sister. In fact I should get outta here" he pulled her back and handed her to them before pulling out his phone.

He shoved it to their view. The picture made her dumbfounded. When did she take a picture with him?

She was still in shock that she couldn't realize she was being taken away. She came back to her senses trying hard to free herself but was pulled away forcefully. When she screamed and disturbed, a white handkerchief was shoved in her face. It had drugs because she felt weak right then and even collapsed in their arms.

She was taken to where the car was parked. Behold, a man was standing there, he was actually the driver. He opened the car door and held unto it while they laid Anna inside the car.

"Take her to the mansion. Tag No 15" One of the guys said. The man nodded and entered the car immediately. He zoomed off afterwards with the unconscious girl at the back seat.

"Come on wake up" a voice echoed before it died down. Anna felt someone tapping her but crazily assumed it was her cat Winnie.

"Winnie, I'm so tired" She frowned in her sleep. Her nose suddenly hurt her. She squeezed it, feeling the intense of the pain.

She freaked out on seeing a red haired girl right close to her. She jerked up while the girl carefully moved away from her to avoid their heads knocking against each other.

"Who are you? Why were you even that close?" Anna stared at the surprised red haired.

The girl smiled and pulled out her hand for a handshake." My name's Winnie and please do not think I'm a lesbian. I only wanted to wake you but surprisingly you called my name"

"That's my cat's name too"

The girl's smile broadened revealing her cute dimples. She has a lovely smile though but now was not the time to think about that. She wasn't sure where she was even.

"Tag no 15" the girl read from her T-shirt. Out of shock, Anna found her eyes dart towards her t-shirt. She gasped on seeing herself in a weird T-shirt.The girl suddenly laughed on noticing the shock on Anna's face. It wasn't a surprise to her.

"No 15 died. I see you are her replacement. I must say you are very clueless now. Everyone of us felt that way." Anna looked from Winnie's shoulder.

There were other people in the room staring back at her. Was she in a slut house? She cried in her heart for this nightmare to end. She quickly promised within her never to watch horror films again. Maybe that was why she was having this weird nightmare.

"We are 50 in number. Twenty five boys and twenty five girls brought to this big mansion. I'm certain its occupying half of the street." Winnie quickly sat down as she had been squatting. She heaved a sigh of relief upon resting her back on the wall.

Anna looked at the other girls who were now engrossed in their own discussion not bothering to spare them a glance.

"We are all dreading the day we meet our deaths in here. In here, your days are numbered cos each person have a ten day count on their head. This is my fifth day though" She laughed it out.

She continued talking after scratching her back from her T-shirt "In these ten days you are to either escape here alive or dead and if its quite impossible to escape, you could try to kill the monster that ordered us abducted"

"Does he want us to kill him?"

"Yes. He said he would love it if there was a person who could kill him but No 15 tried that. She couldn't even fight him and that earned her death. Poor girl, it was just her second day here. I only blame that psycho who killed her"

*sighs*"I can't believe I am in this shit."

"You better believe it since today is your day 1. Keep counts" Winnie said before they noticed everyone in the room leaving. Winnie pulled her along too. Since the hallway was a long distance, she kept on walking not trying to think on how she had ended up been brought here. Thinking about it would end up eating her up.

They arrived at a door which was opened on their arrival. In the large spacious room was two tables and twenty five chairs each connected well to the table like a dining set. She sat down on the chair beside Winnie's.

"What are we doing here?" Anna whispered."To have our stomachs filled. You've got to eat a lot and guess what? The sight of the food is very much tempting." Winnie replied looking into the empty mugs. She had earlier spotted an ant in it.The food was served by the kitchen staff. Indeed it looked tempting, though the thought of it looked heaven.

"See? You like it too. This is exactly the reason why I am going to continue eating nonstop. I won't escape or try to kill that monster. I rather eat to my fill than wasting my days. This is just the best chance I have to even feed well"

Anna realized from the tone of her voice that she must have suffered a lot but that wasn't her problem now. She was going to escape from here since the other option seemed impossible. She can't even hurt a bird talk less of a human like her.

She gobbled the food hungrily while thoughts of how she came here flooded her mind. The stupid guy had sold her into this mess over some nameless package. She wondered why those idiots that brought her here believed him without bothering to see if the picture was fake but how was it possible that he had faked the picture immediately. She doesn't recall knowing him from anywhere.

She quickly noticed she had put an empty spoon in her mouth. Realizing her foolishness, she looked to her plate and saw it was now empty. This is the result of not having enough money to feed herself yesterday.

Winnie yanked her hair band off her hair before packing it again. It was giving her discomfort while she ate. Anna could guess the girl hasn't gone to the hair salon for years considering how long and bushy the hair was. She looked tattered from the looks of her hair.

"Goodness sake. I didn't brush my teeth" Anna said resting her back on the chair. She had been over fed.

"Doesn't matter. You can still do that later. We are going to bath now. I know where they keep new tooth brush. Come with me" Anna followed thus. At the end of the day she got to know some things about the people here. For once she felt so happy since the girls were nice and lived like a family.

She sank in the bed enjoying how comfy the bed was. Everyone was asleep now including Winnie. Only Anna felt the loneliness of the night. She was restless and felt the need to move around. With that, she walked out of the room with the small torchlight on the table by the door.

She walked through the verandah and was glad to have seen the garden some distance away. She walked on not minding the strange quietness of the night. Her instinct told her that she was being watched in case of any escape.

She sat down on the bench in the garden watching the sky. It had lots of stars and in fact the night was very awesome. She felt her tears trickle down. She hated the fact that she had no family to call hers.

She buried her face in her palms crying. Her heart was burning with pain. She noticed movements from the bush and looked, it was a cat. She wiped her tears about to call to it but the cat just stood starring at her.

"Hey, you're lost or what?" She asked but the cat continued to stare at her. She got closer to it and touched it while it meowed in joy. She could see that the cat loved to be touched. The cat suddenly became filled with too much happiness and meowed. Maybe it was homeless just like she was after her parents threw her out of the house.

"Are you not supposed to make your escape this night?" A voice said making her flinch. The cat ran towards the owner of the voice. It was a guy. The lights in the garden were turned on but it was dimmed. She could still see his face. He was super handsome. This could be her godsend, her own angel; She blabbed in her head.

"Are you a security guard? Oh now you think I would escape so I could have my head served for your boss on a platter. I am not going to escape today. Maybe tomorrow, how about that?" Anna grinned evilly.

She suddenly had the urge to scare this guard away. She sat back on the chair with her eyes on the cat. "Nice cat. So you guard with a cat. Do you hate dogs?"

"No I just love cats the most. The dogs are for the gate and Minnie here as my own pet"

"She's Minnie? That sounds like my cat's name. Mine would be hungry by now. Tell me, if I keep your cat locked up, what will be your reaction?"

"Young lady, I am not in the mood for such questions. Just looking out and saw you. You need to get inside. Its not safe here. I hear wolves party here at night"

"I'm not scared. Won't it be better to make the wolves love me? It could do me good. I would end up ordering them to have that psycho whom I haven't even seen dead" She laughed "But I don't have that heart. I want to just be away from this nightmare"

The guy laughed. Even his laughter was cute. She slapped herself within. Normally this was her first time thinking a guy cute.

"There is nothing bad in killing whom you hate. I'm sure you hate the boss. I heared your friends call him a monster"

"Geez! You stalk the girls? What am I even saying? We are being watched and you know what? You are even supposed to be at the gate or the system room perhaps. I'm fine here. Its not like you like me being alive. I wonder why this was the place I ended up in. Could have been at president Miles residence."

The guy got bored she presumed as he just left her there with the cat following him. She was now alone just like earlier. She somehow miss the little time they had here. The guard wasn't showing any sign of cruelty towards her.

She got tired that she didn't know when she slept off on the bench. Later on, something jumped on her causing her to jerk up in fear. She exhaled. it was a juice box thrown at her.

She yawned. It was morning already so she looked only to see Winnie looking at her.

"I can't believe you felt comfortable sleeping out here when there's a room meant for sleeping. Didn't you like the bed?"

"No no... I just couldn't sleep last night. Don't even know when I slept off" She said. Winnie believed her and helped her away to have their teeth brushed.

While at the table, a guy approached their table. His T-shirt looked torn. No! He tore the sleeves away. For a moment, Anna assumed he did so to keep the tattoos on his arms revealing.

"Mitch" A girl seated opposite Winnie called in joy. She even winked at him. OK this was crazy to Anna. This girl was supposed to be thinking of leaving here not checking out a guy.

"Hey, heard you are Anna? Just Anna?" Mitch said to Anna. She coughed since she had choked on her food. Did he just talk to her? Hope it wasn't what she was thinking.

He passed her the water on the table and sat on the table still looking at her. She felt his almost permanent gaze on her especially the deadly stares from the girl from earlier.

"Annabel. But I prefer to be called Anna. Mind if I ask, why are you asking me this?"

"Cos I like you" Everyone in the dinning room diverted their gaze towards her. The girl stood up abruptly. She was dumbfounded since she never expected Mitch to want a newbie over her.

"Mitch just confessed his feelings. Man you have my back" a brown haired guy yelled.

"Now she's going to have him in between her legs" a girl said

That does it. She stood up angrily. This was pure embarrassment. She had never even met him before and now he just made her first impression on everyone slutty. She's not cheap like they were probably thinking.

"Look, I appreciate your boldness but you could have just held that feeling in. I don't like you...read my lips"

"Can't read those lips. I want them bitch" he yanked her by the hair. No one tried to even stop him. Winnie moved away in fear just like all of them. This guy must be dangerous, Anna assumed.

He tried to kiss her which was even more annoying cos out of anger she smashed a mug on his head. Then he let go of her to nurse his wound. Anna moved away from him immediately.

"I'm sorry about that but you gave me no option. I choose who touches me and who has the right to be intimate with me. Stop being crazy right now" Anna yelled out in fear.

She realized his face redden with anger with his hand still placed on his wounded head.

"You are surprisingly crazier than I am. I love you more" he said walking towards her. She tried to make it for the door but his friends were quick to grab her.

Angrily, she bit their hands off her and ended up running towards the table where the other boys sat. They were shocked but not less than when she grabbed the knife on the table.

"I'm going to kill anyone that approaches me since you people do not have better things to do?"