Doses of bad luck
Lilly’s POV
It was like I was floating out of the building. It felt as if I was not really there and my mind seemed to be lost in some unknown dimension. There was a bit of dizziness disturbing me, but I felt stable enough to reach home without collapsing on the way. A taxi passed by and I did not bother to stop it because I wanted to walk. Home was over two kilometres away. I decided to walk until my legs gave out.
My mind was shut out from almost everything around me. Everything that had happened to me was a mess in my blurred mind. Vehicles cruised past, people passed by, I bumped into some of them because of my disorientation. Life was going on normally for most people, except me and probably a few others with disturbed minds.
At some point, I was just staggering along the pavement, pushing myself. I got weird looks from people who probably thought I was homeless and hungry or crazy but didn’t care. The good thing about my job as a newspaper and magazine reporter was that most people did not know how I looked like. In most of my articles, my photos did not have to be published. Had I been a news reader or talk show host, things would have been a lot harder.
My heart leapt in joy when I saw my neighbourhood McDonalds. My stomach growled and I felt some saliva pooling in my mouth. Swallowing, I headed straight for it. To hell with dieting and staying fit.
The sweet smell reached my nose even before I got to the door. Entering, I made my order and carried it with me. I don’t know where the energy came from but it did, and motivated me to start hurrying. The food smelt so good I wanted to dig in immediately but decided to save the remaining parts of my dignity.
After opening the door, I stumbled in and placed the burger and chips on the table. Not bothering to fetch a plate, I slumped onto the couch and grabbed the packet of fries, immediately started stuffing them into my waiting mouth. After having a reasonable amount, I looked for the ranch. Dipping in, I ate to my fill. I ate the burger more slowly because by that time my stomach was no longer screaming to have contents in it.
I was just about to take a nap when I heard a knock on the door. At first, I wanted to pretend I was not home. I did try, but the person at my door was stubborn and unwilling to stop banging it.
“Who’s there?” I asked.
“It’s me, you little cheat. Open the damn door or ill break it down and you will have to pay for it too.”
It was Miles, a money lender I had turned to when my sister ran into some trouble with the law and needed quick money. Miles wouldn’t give her the loan because she didn’t have security and was also a criminal according to him. I decided to get the loan on her behalf since her daughter needed her mother badly, and was driving me crazy. She had also been expecting.
Hailey had promised to pay me, but it had been almost six months and she’d not yet paid. She had not returned even a cent, despite having got a good job thanks to one of the women she met in prison. Mike had asked me twice for the payment and I hadn’t been able to finish it, considering that nearly all my money went to food and rent.
“I don’t have money yet,” I told him.
“Didn’t you get paid for last night?”
I gasped. “What did you just say?”
“We all know what your side hustle is. Don’t worry I’m a progressive guy and won’t bully you for it. All I need is money and I will be on my way.
“I don’t have it, okay.”
He hit the door so hard I was afraid it had fallen off his hinges. Rising, I went and opened the door. Miles was not alone, but with two other men.
“Someone tried to frame me. The only place I earn money from is my job at the paper. I have tried but Hailey has refused to pay my money.”
I was furious at Hailey for putting me in such a situation and abandoning me to face the consequences alone. I didn’t like debts so I always tried to avoid them. Hailey’s case had been extreme so I had made the sacrifice. The fact that she wasn’t worried about me reminded me of what a selfish bitch she was. I should have left her and her unborn child to rot in jail.
The men entered.
“That’s not our problem.”
“Just give me my money and we will be gone.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Then we’ll take the security. Guys, carry the computer and TV.”
“You can’t take the computer, I need it.”
“It was in our agreement. If you manage to raise the money within a week, you will get back everything of yours intact. If not, we shall sell it and get our money. It’s that simple. Now where’s that diamond ring.”
“It’s a family heirloom.”
“That you listed as security.”
“Fine.”Belongs © to NôvelDrama.Org.
As I watched them carry my things out of the house, I felt despair. Bank loans are so much better, only they require a waiting time period and it’s a long process. My living room looked desolate. The things that would have provided a good disruption were gone, leaving me in more misery than before.
Closing my door, I retreated to the bedroom and turned on my old laptop which had seen a lot of days. It was a mess which only worked when it wanted to. Sometimes it would freeze and crash while I was in the middle of something then I would lose all the work. It was why I had bought an expensive computer.
Placing it on top of the table, I pulled open a drawer and got its charger. When it came to the battery, that laptop had turned into a desktop. You couldn’t use it unless it was plugged in to a power source.
It came on, slowly. Whirring as the screen lit up. I didn’t even know why I was trying to revive it yet my mind was in no mood for work, especially the kind of work that could potentially disappear as soon as I was done because of faulty machinery.
When it was on, I turned on a sitcom I had watched over a hundred times and went to my bed. I unlocked my phone and started looking for Ian. Half an hour later, I had not found him. Was this guy even a real person? It had never been hard for me to find anyone before, even when all I had was a first name.
It seemed Ian was a professional who had done these kind of things before. I gave up and started watching random videos on YouTube.
While I was watching one of the videos which was about writing, a ‘how to create a blog’ video showed up among the recommendations.
I knew how to create a blog, and all the necessities, but I clicked on it.
An idea had popped up in my head.
Standing up, I went to the bathroom and washed my face.
As I dried it with a cloth, I smiled.
If Jake Rylland thought he would shut me up forever with his evil doings, he better think again.
I was not going down without a fight.
I wasn’t named Lillith Hellman for nothing. I was supposed to bring hell upon my enemies and Jake Rylland had just turned himself into one.
“Hehe,” I said to myself with new found confidence.
By the time I returned to the room, I had already brainstormed about five names for my blog.
My brain had started working quickly, as it often did when I got a new idea. That was my favourite and most inspiring part of the creative process. When I sat down, I meant business. Opening domain . com, a domain seller website, I started typing in the names off my mind, checking for the availability. Unfortunately, most of them were taking except the last one.
Expose`Queen.
By now you must have figured out that I wanted to open a blog. A blog is a regularly updated website about different topics. You can pick one niche/theme to focus on, or write a general blog. I chose to create a personal blog where I exposed secrets famous people didn’t want to let out.
Before long, I had already chosen a web hosting company and bought the domain expose`queen. This was my place, where I could talk about whatever I wanted without getting fired. I had censored some things for the paper but here I was the boss.
Jake Rylland had created a monster, a monster that was going to bite him in the ass.
“Hahhhahhha,” I laughed hysterically, like an evil villain in the movie. This was going to be so much fun.