When Mereki and I arrived at the river, we sat on the grass and I snuggled into him.
“Let’s make a pact to come back here on this day at sunset every five years, no matter what,” he said, staring at the burning orange ball descending towards the horizon. “November nineteenth. I would say every year, but I think that’s unrealistic, and I don’t want to come back here that often. Do you?”
“Wouldn’t you want to visit your mum and dad?”
He shrugged. “They can visit us in the city.”
I remained quiet for a few moments, deliberating. Three little words. They could have meant nothing, but in that moment, to me, they meant everything. “I don’t like how you said ‘no matter what,’ as if there might ever be a reason we wouldn’t be together.”
“Is that what you thought I meant?” he asked, shaking his head. “Of course we’ll be together. I just meant that who knows what we’ll be doing or where we’ll be in five years. We’ll be twenty-three years old and probably finished with our studies by then. Hopefully I’ll be kicking arse at a big engineering firm, and you’ll be working on a major exhibition.”
I laughed at the beautiful picture he’d painted. “Well when you put it like that . . .”
“I just think we should always remember what this place means to us and come back to where it all began. We’ll tell the river about all the exciting things we’ve done since we left.”
I pushed up onto my knees and threw my arms around his neck. “That’s a wonderful idea. Let’s do it.” I kissed him hard on the lips before pulling back to meet his gaze. “So, four days after my twenty-third birthday, we’ll both be right here watching the sunset, no matter what.”
Nothing and no one would ever come between us.
It was late when we finally left the river and started the trek home. As we neared the small row of shops a few streets from his house, Ki’s whole body suddenly tensed. His grip around my shoulders tightened, and my heart rate picked up. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure, but I thought I saw someone up ahead in front of the milk bar.”
The moon and a few flickering streetlights made for reasonable visibility, but I couldn’t see anyone. We kept going, but when a stray dog barked, I clutched my chest. “Holy shit.”
“Must’ve just been dogs,” Ki said, exhaling. His tight grip around me eased as we picked up the pace, eager to get home. “Get outta here,” he growled, flicking his arm as one of the dogs scampered closer.
“I think I just lost a few years off my life,” I said, rubbing at my chest.
“Relax, Kalimna.” He kissed the top of my head. “Let’s just keep moving.”
Before we’d taken another step, a strong hand gripped my arm, and my bag was ripped from my shoulder. My heart leapt to my throat. I was yanked away from Ki. I stumbled, struggling against the grip as I was dragged down the small alleyway between the milk bar and the barber shop. There were men, but I wasn’t given the opportunity to see them clearly because I was slammed up against a brick wall facing the wrong direction. All I could see were shadows. Were there three of them? Four? I could hear Mereki shouting, but I couldn’t make out the words over the blood rushing through my ears.
A hand, large and rough, covered my mouth. As I dragged air in through my nose, I could smell cheap booze. I wanted to scream, but my throat was dry, and in a moment of sheer terror, I wondered if I would die like this.
“Fuck! Let her fucking go!” Mereki screamed.
Fear consumed me. I wanted to see him, but what I wanted more was for him to get away from here. I didn’t want him to get hurt trying to save me, but I knew there was absolutely no chance he would leave. I wrestled violently, but it was a wasted effort. Whoever had me was too strong, and I was just wasting energy trying to escape.
“I’ve got the cash,” said one of the men.
They could have it. Just don’t let Mereki be hurt.
With a hand no longer over my mouth, I screamed. “Get away, Ki. Please get away.” I wanted nothing else. “Please let him go. Do whatever you want with me, but don’t hurt him.” His life was worth more than anything else to me.
I received a sharp shove to the middle of my back and my knees hit the rough gravel, then I toppled forward. My wrists were held behind me, so I couldn’t brace my fall. My face slammed into the ground.
“It’s okay, Kalimna.” His voice was desperate, and his words were followed by a thump, then a groan. I strained my head to the side and managed to catch a glimpse of him in my peripheral vision. In the moonlight, I could see his nose was bleeding, and one of his eyes was closed. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
“Shut up, you little bitch.” I was slapped across the back of the head by a man I could feel kneeling between my legs, pushing them apart. Oh my God. He was going to rape me in front of Ki. This couldn’t be happening.
“Please don’t hurt Ki.” I desperately tried to turn my head again, but now one of his hands was pressing down on the back of my head. The other was pushing up my skirt and yanking at my underwear.
“Don’t touch her,” Ki roared. “Please don’t touch her.”
The man behind me was eerily silent. By contrast, my heart hammered, willing Mereki to be quiet. They would hurt him again.
My attacker managed to rip my underwear off, and I closed my eyes, willing my mind to fly away. I thought about the drawing I sold earlier today—the roadmap back to the light. How could I have sold it? Shapes swirled around in my mind. They were usually so clear, but now they were a fuzzy mess, chaotically morphing into a blurry and unrecognizable horror show.
An unearthly roar snapped me back into my horrific reality, and then I was crushed by at least twice as much weight as before.
“I’ll save you, Kalimna.” Ki’s voice was so close to my ear; his words breathed hope into my body. “I love you.”
Then he was gone, and my heart was filled with a fear unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It felt like life was being drained from me with every second that passed.
“Ki!” My scream died in my throat as a blow to my head sent me plummeting into darkness.
I floated above my lifeless body, watching in horror as a pool of blood surrounded me, paralysed by confusion and fear. I might’ve been screaming, but maybe I wasn’t doing anything at all. Someone was definitely screaming, but there was no one else here. So this was what it was like to be dead? Where was I? My vision blurred and shimmered, so I closed my eyes, welcoming oblivion.
Pain.
The only thing I could feel. Something wasn’t right. I was totally disoriented before even trying to open my eyes. Foreign smells invaded my nostrils, and my brain tried to place the scent of pine, lemon, and bleach. I was lying in a bed—the sheets weren’t soft, and they felt cold against my skin, and then I heard beeping. Random beeps coming from somewhere, but my foggy brain couldn’t make sense of it. I needed to open my eyes, but I was afraid. My eyelids felt like shields from whatever I was about to face. I hoped that they’d remain closed. Then no one could see me. I could hide.
“Emerson.”
I didn’t recognise the voice, so I defiantly squeezed my eyes shut tighter.
“Emerson.” The female voice repeated. “Can you open your eyes?”
She sounded friendly.
Then my mind flooded with fear. At the edge of my consciousness was an inkling of something so intensely painful that I shoved it away. Absolutely not going there.
Disinfectant. That was what I was smelling. The crisp sheets. The beeping.
Oh my God. I was in a hospital. Why was I in a hospital? My eyes snapped open and were met with a stern, yet friendly-looking woman with a uniform and a name badge.
“How are you feeling, sweetheart?” Nurse Marina asked.
“How did I get here?” I asked groggily, wincing as I propped my body weight onto my elbows.
“Just relax, sweetie.” She placed a hand on my shoulder and gently eased me back. “You need to rest. The morphine drip should keep you comfortable.”
My eyes drifted tentatively over my body. “What happened to me, and where’s my boyfriend?”
“You were attacked and took a blow to the back of your head.” She placed a hand on my arm. “The police would like to question you as soon as possible.”
“The police?” I asked, my heart catapulting out of my chest.
“They just want to learn what happened so they can find whoever did this.”
Before she could answer my question about Ki, I surrendered to the darkness, unwilling to face reality.
When I opened my eyes again, I was floating above my hospital bed, and all I could do was watch myself asleep.
The door opened and to my relief, Marina, the friendly nurse, was now accompanied by Mereki. I was overcome with joy and tried desperately to call out to him but couldn’t use my voice.
“Wake up!” I screamed at my sleeping form. “Wake up, Emerson. Mereki is here to look after you now.”
While Marina busied herself tucking in my sheets and checking my chart, Ki stood next to my bed, intently gazing at me with his beautiful, loving eyes. It gave me great peace to know that when I woke, he’d be there to hold my hand and tell me everything was going to be okay. We could talk to the police together and find a way to move on with our lives. I just needed to wake up.