- Two weeks later -

“May, wake up.”

This was the beginning of my new life. I would be living in Bangkok with Jacques and Sherry, who now went by the name Everleigh. According to Sherry, Lee Jung had provided us with a new identity each, and Jacques changed his last name as well, from Jacques Jones to Jacques Jensen.

My new identity was Maybel Wright, May for short. 

I didn’t know how the last two weeks passed, but out of my cage, everything seemed to get better as Jacques promised. While I no longer felt my body was disgusting as before, it was only that fear of darkness in me that struck at night.

He was always there for me.

His voice always calmed me, and I opened my eyes. The plane had landed. I was finally away from the city that had brought me so much pain.

We met Sherry at the baggage claim section, wearing a fake wig and baggy clothes that hid her obvious bump from being seen. It was my first time leaving the city and hearing people speaking in a fast, foreign language that I didn’t understand. When Sherry left to make a call, Jacques explained that we would be staying at the house that Lee Jung had arranged for us, and I froze.

“He got what he wanted, Piper. He won’t be doing anything to you anymore.”

My hands trembled, and he held them to steady them. 

I hoped his words were true. I took a deep breath and found my strength. Sherry dialled Jacques to get us to go to the pick-up point where a dark luxury car awaited us. Only after knowing it was a hired taxi, my heart stopped racing.

I felt that we were being monitored although Jacques had explained to me countlessly that from the moment we stepped down from the plane, we were on our own. He had paid Sherry, and indirectly us, a considerable amount of money for her and Jacques’ help. Not only had Sherry succeeded in bringing down Lin Corporation; Sherry also faked her death to lie to her husband.

I remembered the dream that Princess had gifted me with. If it was not for that unlucky night, or if Anderson had taken a different action, the four of us would be very happy.

Unfortunately, it was only a dream. I glanced at Jacques, letting out a false insane laugh, and he comforted me with a confident smile.

Then I yawned and closed my eyes, relaxing myself for the entire car journey.

We got down at a house. It didn’t look very old, nor did it look inhabited.  

During the car journey, minus the time I was resting, I resumed my act of being a sixteen-year-old insane teen. I even bounced and laughed childishly inside the vehicle.

When Sherry unlocked the door with a key from her handbag, I dashed inside and danced all around the house. Free I was… or not?

That question bugged me all the time. In addition, it was tiring to keep up the act of being May.

“Sleep tight, Piper, tomorrow, we’ll be seeing the experts,” Jacques whispered as I tumbled into the bed prepared for us. My body stiffened when I heard the word ‘experts’. How confident could he be in this? Would they be able to restore me to the person I was before?

“Jacques,” I whispered as softly as I could to ensure Sherry couldn’t hear us. “Do you think I have hope?”

“Do you mean practising martial arts? Don’t worry, the experts here are more qualified than those back home. I mean, City X.”

He was right: Bangkok was our home now. But something in me told me that I wouldn’t just let everything go. I had to get back what I lost. One day.

“They told me I was irreparable.”

“Piper, would you believe the words of people who sought to break you?”

I kept silent.

“Piper, believe me, we are young. Our future still goes a long way. You need to have confidence in yourself and in science, that one day, you can stand up again. No matter what, when there’s a will, there’s a way.”

I fathomed what he meant. But nothing could ever undo the past. I looked down at my hands in sadness, and memories of my achievements in sports clouded my mind. I was a black-belt and an award winner. I was also a strong swimmer.

But I believed his words. I had to have confidence in myself and in science. If Sherry’s mother could live past her cancer, I too would have a way of survival.

Until then, I would be May and await that day that Piper would resurface again. 

………………………………………

A rooster’s crow in the distance awoke me. I felt Jacques stir beside me, then his light movements as he entered the shared bathroom to fetch me a basin of water.

“Piper, here.”

I rubbed my eyes and accepted the basin, washing my face with a clean cloth.

“I want to take a bath too. Myself,” I told him adamantly.

Jacques walked away from the bed to grant me space to walk myself to the bathroom. I hesitated outside the door.

“Wait, Sherry is in the bathroom.” He handed me a towel.

I had to face my fears, especially how I feared being alone and seeing my scars. But in the last few days I was able to look at my clothed reflection in the mirror without finding my body disgusting.

To challenge myself, I needed to bathe myself without feeling revolted. 

I stared at the towel and then at my bare feet. It was a month and two weeks that I had been wearing Jacques’ old clothes, fearful of my former revealing clothes. Jacques had reassured me my scars were faded, and the bruises had healed, but I was still shaken by the thought of seeing myself naked.

“I can do it,” I whispered to him. 

The door opened, revealing Sherry’s very pregnant self wrapped in a bath towel. She looked surprised to see us and clutched the towel more tightly around her body in embarrassment. It barely covered her pearl-white skin, and that made me feel insecure. 

Jacques turned his face away consciously. 

“I didn’t know you guys were up so early.”

I let out a fake giggle.

“You’re getting fatter, Sherry!”

She just nodded. “In future, call me Leigh.”

“Your name sounds like ‘lay an egg’.” I stuck my tongue out at her. “When are you going to lay your egg?”

“May, please excuse me.” She almost stumbled on the slippery floor. “Just for a bit.”

I saw her disappear towards her room, and that perfect bottom made me uneasy. It wasn’t fair to me that I was the one reaping all the pain when I had sacrificed everything to help her.

“Piper, what are you thinking about?” Jacques’ voice led me to realise I was lost in thought.

I grimaced, opening the door to the bathroom, and blinked my eyes. A large square mirror greeted me in the bathroom.

“Piper, if you’re not ready-”

“Leave me be!” I yelled at him, yanking my hand free from his grasp and slammed the light door behind me as hard as I could. I locked the door and took a few steps towards the mirror, swallowing hard. 

The reflection in the mirror showed an innocent pale face with flawless skin. My hair was still in its ‘just woken up’ mode, and my arms, under Jacques’ shirt, seemed as normal as anyone else’s.

I slid the shirt above my head and braced myself for my first obstacle. 

Piper, you can do it. Prove yourself proud! I told myself. 

The mirror revealed a pair of symmetrical shoulders, then the fullness of my breasts. I went down to my tummy. Not a single scar was in sight.

Then I pulled down Jacques’ large boxers. I was wearing an ugly pair of panties underneath that was too big for my ‌good. I couldn’t blame Jacques for buying them too large, since he didn’t know my size. 

Seeing my bare bottom, I almost zoned out remembering what happened back in the den. Blurry images of men releasing all over me, covering me in disgusting white filth that stank. Their cries of pleasure, and then speaking ill of me.

But somehow, I heard a voice call out to me.

“Piper, you can get through this.”

It sounded so much like Princess, but hearing her voice seemed to fill me with a strange power that granted me the strength to pull myself up and punched the mirror repeatedly.

I stared down at my bloody fist and then at the face in the mirror. 

You only live once, so why live with regret?

With that thought in my mind, I dunked the top of my head into the bucket of icy cold water, feeling the coldness hit my head.

Then I continued with the rest of my body, until I felt refreshed.

“You will pay. You will all pay,” I hummed to myself as I lathered myself with soap. In time, I would make sure each one of them suffered a fate worse than death.

When I walked outside in the towel, a breeze lifted the calendar in the living room, flapping its pages to show today’s date.

I just smiled, thinking about what the future had in stock of them.