Chapter 1: Go to hell Bitch!
Emma was working on her laptop, confused and tired, deleting yet another article. It was even worse than the last one. Jason, her boyfriend’s name, popped up, indicating a new message. ‘Aww, how lucky am I?’ she reflected.
Many girls would give their lives to have their boyfriend surprise them with random messages throughout the day. It just showed how much he was thinking about you all the time. She entered her pin to unlock her phone; it wasn’t an SMS, but rather an MMS. Jason had never sent her an MMS, which piqued her interest; he could have sent the photo via WhatsApp, but he was the type of man who piqued her interest.
The phone slipped from Emma’s firm grip, but she managed to catch it by the edge before it fell. She was out of breath, stood up, and sat down again. Her head felt borrowed, heavy, and full of jumbled thoughts. She palmed her face in disbelief, afraid of stealing another quick glance at her phone.
After she had gained composure she finally looked down to her phone again. With shaking fingers she keyed her pin, she brought it close to her face until she took in all the unnoticeable scratches caused by her keys and pens. It had to be a Photoshop; did Jason’s head appear bigger or smaller? No. neither did the girl’s body appeared to be patched next to him, it was real. Her Jason was kissing another girl, not when-will-this-end kiss, but it was i-could-stay-like-this-forever kiss.
“You sick son of a bitch, it is not funny. I swear I’ll kill y-
Her impatience prevented her from finishing her response. Jason couldn’t possibly have done this to her. He dared to send her a photo of himself kissing his lover. Jason she knew was mature enough to tell her straight up that he was cheating on her and was polite enough to ask for a breakup. She clutched her phone, threatening to castrate him if he ever the balls and showed up.
A sound of dripping water indicated a new message. In a haste manner, Emma read the reply.
“Go to hell bitch!”
When did her Jason started calling her bitch, this morning he called her at their usual time 6 a.m. The time he always woke up to go to the gym. He was sweet, he teased her, and he even made his usual joke when she declined his offer of joining him, he jested that he would find a slimmer girl since her weight was increasing rapidly. She knew he was joking because after that, he told her he will always love her unconditionally, slimmer or not.
She calmed herself by counting from one to ten; she was never irrational. There had to be an explanation; a four-year relationship would not end abruptly for no apparent reason. ‘What exactly did she do? What did she not do?’ She knew those questions would haunt her for the rest of her life if the true intention of that photo was to mark their demise. It also implied that she was to blame; people always cheated/ broke up with people who did not fulfil them.
Right?
What if Jason felt guilty? What if it was a onetime thing and he was ashamed of directly confessing? What if it was a way of saying sorry, would she forgive him? “Arrggh...” She cried out with frustration.
She was already dialing his number, she need her peace of mind. He had to tell her why he was doing this to her. On the second ring he picked up
“Hello Jay” she felt ashamed of herself when she broke down in tears, “please answer, why are you doing this to me?”
A deafening female laughter filled the small space between her phone and her ear; she was forced to move the phone away from her ear.
“Who is this, where is Jason? You better give him his damn phone” she yelled.
Instead, the caller hung up, and Emma stared at her phone. What was going on? This had to be some sort of joke. It had to be one of those nightmares where Emma was weak and her limp body gave up on her no matter how hard she tried to scream or run. She would return to consciousness mechanically just as the monster was about to attack, drenched in sweat.
“I underestimated you honey, did you like my voice, coz Jason loves it?” A message from Jason materialized.
“Who is this?” Emma was quick to reply.
The phone was not answered by Jason neither did Jason text in that manner, now worry replaced her anger. What if something horrible had happened to him? Maybe he had been kidnapped.
“Did I scare you?” another reply appeared again.
Emma: Where is Jason? What have you done to him?
Jason: Are you sure you want to know what I have done to him? Oh, Honey you will need two hearts to sustain you, when I tell you all that I have done to him in a span of one hour
Emma suddenly dropped her phone on her laptop’s keyboard as if the sheer touch of it burned her. Like waterfall, tears streamed down her cheeks.
Jason: why the silence, Emma? That’s right I know your name and many things about you EMMA.
How did she know her name? Jason had saved her as a pet name which he constantly changed but he had never saved her contact in her name.
Emma: Who is this?
Jason: the woman and I repeat woman not girl that will pilfer Jason.
The response was quick it was if it was computer generated with automatic reply. Emma had no idea what pilfer meant, but she could guess it wasn’t something pleasant; neither did she have the oomph to Google it. Again she was dialing his phone.
‘I’m sorry the number you have dialed is no longer in service’ there was the usual calm system generated voice.
Did she or maybe it was Jason who blocked her? She had to come to the bottom of this today. She grabbed her car’s keys and Jason spare house key and also her defense weapon, pepper spray.
