Serpent's Deceit (Entry 004)

 

Suzie’s Bread & Breakfast is the cafe we used to go to. It is run by Hunter’s aunt who inherited it from her mom. Hunter lives with her and lends a hand in the cafe. That’s how the three of us, Hunter, Ray, and I became childhood friends in the first place.

I was a shy kid and Ray was an active one. Well, she was the naughty one too. She often got into trouble and got injured. One such day, Hunter found her injured just outside the cafe. He always had a motherly nature in him, still has. That’s what prompted him to take her inside and treat her wounds. Both of them were kids, so his work wasn’t the best. But that interaction made them friends for a lifetime. The next day, Ray brought me to the cafe. And thus, we became a trio. 

I don't know if we can call it a duo now. As I have already said, I have only had contact with Hunter for a year. He has had it with both Ray and me. And the three of us together now are out of the equation.

Yes, she has contacted Hunter and not me. I shouldn't be but it makes me jealous of him. I have never revealed it, however.

Speaking of the devil, Hunter is throwing away the trash as I approach the back door of the cafe. He gives me an accusatory look. “What are you doing here?”

“Robbing you and Suzie,” I reply, walking past him and pushing the door open with all my might and slipping inside. The door needs to be oiled, I swear. I have told them multiple times but none of them listens to me.

Hunter follows me inside, his footsteps echoing in the empty kitchen. “No, seriously. Why are you here this early in the morning?”

Despite being on the back side of the cafe, the kitchen and the backyard are heavily washed with sunlight. Even now, this early in the morning, soft rays of the sun filter in through the window, illuminating the wooden floor and walls. 

The cafe doesn't open before noon. That's why, it is so quiet and empty right now. Normally, Suzie wakes up early. But I am not seeing her either.

I walk across the kitchen, trailing my fingers lightly along the wooden countertop. Glancing over my shoulder, I check Hunter's annoyed expression once before countering back. “Why can't I?”

“You never do, that’s why I’m asking.” He slaps my hand away as I go for an apple from the pile on the counter.

I frown, crossing my arms over my chest. “Maybe I came all the way here craving that apple. And you’re not even letting me have it.”

The pile of apples wobbles dangerously. One starts rolling off. Hunter reacts quickly, catching it mid-air and steadying the rest with both hands. His annoyance is turning into frustration now. With a deep furrow, he turns to me with a look that even my mom doesn't give me.

“Please,” he says, “be a convincing liar. What’s going on?”

He has a point. But before I get to answer, the counterbell rings. A smile forms on my face immediately. That's Ray.

Hunter definitely sees me smiling and assesses me with a scrutinizing gaze. His eyes swiftly travel in the direction of the counter, then come back at me. From where we are standing, the counter is not visible. I urge him. “Get it.”

“You know who it is,” he accuses, narrowing his eyes into slits now. I believe that he has finally connected two and two together and reached the conclusion that I'm here to meet someone else. However, there is no need to look at me like I'm doing drug dealing here.

I end up laughing. “Now, you are being ridiculous. How would I know who has come to your cafe?”

The bell rings again prompting him to finally move his ass towards the counter, not before throwing another deadly glare in my direction. I shrug, following closely behind him. 

He lifts the string curtains and freezes on the door. The curtain falls from his hand dramatically with the beads hitting my head. Making an annoyed sound, I push him to the side and step out of the door. 

My best friend is standing on the other side of the counter. Seeing her, the first thing that comes to my mind is that she has changed. A lot.

Her iconic violet hair, which she started dying in fifth grade is now half-shaved. The other half is short and slicked back. She has piercings way more than I remember, on her ears, eyebrows, lips, and nose. She……has bold makeup, I think. The lipstick is dark. I am not judging her. I am just not used to seeing her like this.

“Why are y'all looking at me like you've seen a ghost?” She laughs and the familiar sound of her weird laughing might be the only thing that confirms her identity. I recognize her and I do not at the same time. She is so different that if we meet at a street randomly instead of here, I might cross past her thinking that she is a stranger or a very close look-alike of Ray at best.

“Ray? What are you… I mean, is it you?” Hunter looks more confused than me, even somehow ends up sounding rude. I smack his head to which Ray laughs again. 

He does not even flinch or glare in my direction. He is just staring at her without batting an eye. I turn to look at his face expecting to find him in awe or surprised. Instead, I find him horrified. Seriously horrified.

I look at Ray. She looks just fine. Yeah, different obviously but nothing to be that scared of. I look back at Hunter. He seems to be in a daze of horror.

I grab his shoulder and push him. “Hey, what happened?”

He jerks up, turning to me as if I have electrocuted him. His eyes lock with mine, excessively wide with fear and he does not move for a long moment. Then he takes one step back. 

“I have to go.” With that announcement, he flees out of there as if the cafe had gone up in flames.

Dumbfounded, I look back at Ray. “What just happened?”

Such a bizarre behavior on his account yet Ray seems too nonchalant about it. She just shrugs as if it were an everyday deal. “Who knows? Forget him. Are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna come over and give me a hug?”

Her behavior also seems odd compared to Hunter but not that much. Maybe something has happened between them that I have no business knowing. Shrugging, I turn around the corner and reach her with a smile. She wraps her arms around me before I can do that. I follow her. The nostalgic earthy scent with a mix of vanilla hits my nose. I inhale deeply making sure to absorb as much as possible. My hands tighten around her. Her warmth makes me realize what I am missing in life.

She grunts with a half-laugh. “Okay, okay. Now you're crushing me, T.”

I only hold her tighter burying my face in the fabric on her shoulder. “I missed you.”

“I know. I did too,” she mumbles against my neck. 

I pull back to look her in the eye. Her gaze flickers with something so much like guilt. Yet she is smiling. I shake my head. “No, you didn't.”

She loosens her grip around me to grab hold of my hands. Her palms are cold. Holding them tightly, she tries to give me an earnest look. “Trust me. I swear I really did. You just… don't know everything yet. I believe you will get it once I explain everything. Will you let me do that?”

I glance around the cafe. Every seat is empty and beckoning us to sit there. I take a glance over my shoulder as well from where we have come out and where Hunter has run off to. Finally, I turn to face her again. “Where do you wanna sit? Here or—” I jerk a thumb in the kitchen’s direction.

She peeks over my shoulder before looking back at me. “I'm hungry.”

“Kitchen, it is then,” I say, turning on my heel and heading in that direction with her on my tail.

As Hunter has fled and Suzie is nowhere to be seen, we help ourselves to a jar of choco chip cookies, a bowl of fruit salad, and two glasses of orange juice. While savoring them, what I get to know about her that she wants to explain so much goes something like this—

After moving to Spain, she was living with a family friend. Though they were kind towards her, she didn't plan on staying with them for the long term. She started doing all sorts of odd jobs to save as much money as possible to move out. The day before she was about to move out, she came home to find that no one was there. That's unusual because there were too many people in that house and someone was always there. Sensing the danger, she turned around to leave when a microbus pulled over and abducted her.

They took her to a farmhouse away from the local area and kept her there for eighteen days. There were four of them, one female. They did not physically torture her but they did not unbind her either. She was tied to a chair for eighteen days straight. 

Then one day, they blindfolded her, took her back in the microbus, drove, and left her in the middle of nowhere. Her condition was so bad that she could not even walk properly. They did not harm her but they did not take care of her either. Eighteen days of tying up made her muscles numb.

Luckily, a car was driving by at the time and helped her.

Fast forward, she didn't get a clue what happened exactly, why she was kidnapped, or why they suddenly decided to leave her. But she gets threats every now and then. For which, she is on the move currently. That is the reason why her contacts with people are so random. 

She has also managed to get into a relationship recently and her boyfriend moved here with her. I hug her once she finishes the story and I am so sentimental that I do not realize the huge number of plot holes in the story.