Chapter 8 - Bad Kane

Chapter 8: Bad Kane

Jason was in the orphanage library when Naya walked in.

"What do you want, Naya?" Jason and turned to face her.

"A chance to explain....I want you to hear my side of the story, Jason. Just hear me out before sentencing me to death" Naya sat on the table.

"Why should I?" Jason asked.

"Because whether you listen or not, by first light tomorrow I will be gone and you will never see me again" Naya held his gaze for as long as he glared at her and at the last minute, Jason looked away.

He was infuriated with Naya and disgusted with himself but she was right, he needed to hear her own side of the story. He wouldn't be able to move on if she left without understanding why she did what she did.

"Okay, Naya. I am listening. Tell me in details exactly what happened" Jason moved closer and sat on the table with her.

Naya experienced a momentarily relief but it was cut short when she realized she actually had to talk about the life, she fought so hard to escape.

She felt her stomach twist and suddenly she felt faint. She exhaled from her mouth severally to calm herself and she felt the cramps in her abdomen subside. She could breathe normally again. She closed her eyes briefly to offer a prayer to any God that was listening for stopping the nausea from overwhelming her.

Taking it as a sign, she decided to come clean to Jason.

"The first time Kane hit me was few months after I moved in with him and I had just turned nineteen"

Six years ago

Naya stood inside the studio apartment she shared with her live in boyfriend, Kane. There were times she couldn't believe he choose her and loves her. He was the sweetest guy she had ever met and he looked at her like she was the only girl in the whole world.

She remembered the times he would leave little notes all over the apartment for her to find, poems about everlasting love and soul mates. Once he actually wrote down something from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, it was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her and the only upside was that she hadn't understood a word of what Shakespeare was talking about. It was a wasted art but it still made her smile.

She remembered when Kane told her, he was leaving the military after serving two tours; she had been overjoyed on the prospect of having him all to herself. The apartment they shared was always lonely whenever he was gone to serve his country, which was a lot.

The sparsely furnished apartment was clean and the dinner she was cooking was almost ready. She hurriedly lowered the light on the stove and entered their little bathroom to take a shower. Kane hated it when she didn't look her best for him and she didn't know how to tell him, it was difficult to combine school and chores and still look beautiful all the time. But he expected perfection and it was the least she could do.

After the brief hot shower, Naya slide on a loose crew neck sweatshirt and shorts. She just wasn't in the mood to wear something alluring and sexy tonight not when she had tons of homework to do for her college classes; she figured Kane would have to deal with it.

Ever since he left the military, they had been short on Cash and were barely scraping by. Her father's lawyers were responsible for paying for her school and books, everything she needed to get an education but all the fees went directly to the appropriate school accounts. With the exception of the monthly living stipend paid into her account by her father's lawyer, she had no access to the funds her parents left her until she turns twenty-one.

Naya was jolted back when she heard someone push the door in; she didn't know when she dozed off. She dropped the book she was holding on the table and dashed to the kitchen to check on the dinner on the stove.

She turned the gas off but the pot was almost charcoal black, the food she was making was burnt. Instinctively, she reached for the pot's handle to carry it to the sink but it was too hot and the pot fell to floor.

With no idea how to treat her hurt hand, she switches on the tap and allowed cold water to run down the hand.

Kane heard the ruckus in the kitchen and rushed to the place. If they had smoke alarm, it would been going off since the whole apartment was covered in smoke. He found Naya by the tap running cold water on her hand and he tried to reach her, he slipped on the black liquid that came from the pot and fell on the ground. He was wearing the new shirt he got for his numerous job interviews.

Naya immediately went to his side and helped him up. It was when she felt the sharp pain go through her abdomen; she had staggered and fell back into the hot liquid she had just pulled Kane up from.

It took Naya's brain a while to acknowledge that Kane had just punched her hard on the abdomen. It came as a shock to her and she cringed away from him as far as she could.

"Do you want to burn down our apartment? And what the hell are you wearing?" Kane yelled at her.

Naya pushed further away from him as she felt the pain in her abdomen subside but the black liquid she fell into, burned severely on her back. She reached for the hand towel close to the sink and used it to wipe the hot fluid vigorously.

Kane saw Naya pull away from him like he was a plaque and it finally dawned on him that he actually lost his temper and slammed his fist to her abdomen as he would the Taliban he fought for years.