Just to Live

Within the span of two days, Tabitha was back at the mansion. She had to remain in her bed unless she had to use the bathroom. If she needed food or water, all she had to do was turn on the walkie-talkie sitting next to her pillow and ask for assistance. She assumed it was everyone’s way to try to make her feel comfortable once again in the mansion. It was too bad the effort wasn’t working.

Eventually, Maria walked into Tabitha’s room with a cup of hot chocolate. “This is for you,” she said quietly, handing the cup over to her daughter.

Tabitha took the cup, but stared angrily into it. She wished she wasn’t here; she wished she were anywhere else. How could her mother make such a rash decision without consulting her?

“Why are you fighting this so much?” Maria muttered, obviously sensing the anger emitting from Tabitha.

‘Hold it in. Do it,’ Tabitha was telling herself. She chanted these words in her head like a mantra, but couldn’t maintain her waves of rage. “You wanna know why?” she began to snap. “They found out I snuck out to see you. I was in a basement for weeks ‘cause they thought I was some spy for another company. That’s why I didn’t want to fucking go back. But you made me without even telling me.”

Shock was a feeling that Maria seemed to accept as of late. “Sweetie…”

Maria tried to touch Tabitha’s arm as a way to calm her. Yet, once Tabitha’s temper flared and erupted, she would not be able to cool it down.

“Please stop it!” she cried, placing her cup on the table beside her bed with a loud thud, making some drops of the hot chocolate spill over. “You can’t try to sugarcoat everything for me. You always fight with me like you know exactly what’s going on but you don’t. You never know what’s going on in my head. No one does. Just leave me alone.”

“Tabitha-”

Her last endeavor to quiet Tabitha was futile.

“PLEASE!” Tabitha practically screamed, crossing her arms against her chest. Maria left the room without another word.

After Maria left, Tabitha took two long sips from her hot chocolate, hoping the chocolate would create some type of effect on her. She distinctly remembered reading somewhere that chocolate held endorphins and endorphins were supposed to cause happiness. She wasn’t sure if this was true, but the chocolate did have an effect on her; she felt tired and eventually fell asleep.

The next time she woke up, Matthew was standing by the window, looking out towards the horizon. “You woke up finally,” he said uninterestingly.

In less than a minute, Tabitha’s anger once again reigned. “Why would you do that? Now I owe you my life.”

He continued to stare out the window, never looking at her. “As long as your family lives right?”

“…Yes.”

When he finally did decide to look at Tabitha, he was disappointed to see how different she looked. In physical aspects, she looked thinner than before. In moral aspects, she looked like she hated everything. Something definitely stirred while she was out on the streets yet again.

“You weren’t even using your money in your account. Why?” he questioned, sitting at the corner of her bed.

“The card is still here.”

‘Well that was obvious.’

“Oh,” he muttered. He didn’t like how she was treating him. Her attitude was sarcastic and bitter. If that was how she wanted to act, he was going to mirror her. “Anyways, I expect you to get back to work in one week. Don’t worry; your mom isn’t going to do hard labor. File documents. And she agreed to let Erika go to school.”

Tabitha looked down at her hands. She mumbled almost shamefully, “I don’t want my job back.”

He stood up to leave. “That’s too bad isn’t it? You’re bound by a contract.”

“Then why did you let me leave the first time if I’m still under contract?”

‘You’re too smart.’

“Good question. I wasn’t thinking. It took me awhile to find you and now you can’t get out of this no matter what you may think. Your mom signed her name too since you’re under 18. You’re bound.”

The way he was speaking to her made her feel so small, so meaningless. She couldn’t bear to look him in the eye. If he never acted like her superior before, now he definitely was. And she couldn’t leave due to her contract. She felt like what Brian said she shouldn’t be; a slave.