As Roja wakes up, she notices the soft fabric she’s lying on. It feels warmer against her body than what she’s used to. With her eyes still closed, she slowly moves her hand around, trying to feel what is around her. As she opens her eyes, bright sunlight makes her close them again immediately. Where is she? Her head still hurts and she feels that she’s still wearing the old, torn clothes she has been wearing for weeks. Roja slowly tries to open her eyes again, now more used to the bright light than before. She stares at a white ceiling. As she looks around, she notices that she’s lying on a bed. It would be quite comfortable if she weren’t that scared and unknowing of where she is.

Suddenly she hears a door being opened slowly. “Finally, you’re awake,” a female voice says calmly. Roja watches a woman with short brown hair walk up to her. She is smiling at Roja, trying to make her feel safe which works better than expected. “Do you think you can sit up?” she asks.

Roja slowly tries to sit up while asking hoarsely, “Who are you?”

“I’m Mary, your doctor. I need to check your wounds. You’ve hurt your head when you collapsed.”

“Where am I?” Roja asks, not really expecting an answer. When Mary gets closer to her, she forces herself to stay still despite the fear she’s feeling because of her new surroundings. Roja knows that doctors usually don’t mean to harm you.

“You are safe now, that’s all that matters,” Mary says before doing a short check-up on the bruise on Roja’s head. “You should rest a bit and I’ll get someone to answer your questions later. Please try to stay calm. It will help you feel better soon.” Roja looks down on her hands and thanks Mary. Why is this woman so nice to her? Mary leaves her as calmly as she came.

Once she’s gone, Roja decides to try and stand up. This could be her chance to be free and start a new life! However, just as she tries to put weight on one leg, she feels her knee hurting again. She lies back down with a hurting knee and a racing heart.

***

In the same big house, Jason and Oren are talking downstairs in the living room. “I can’t believe we didn’t get him. Did he know we were coming for him?” Oren asks. Their mission to get rid of Ric, one of the rival gang’s loyal members, failed.

“At least he’ll know we were there,” Jason replies, trying to get his brother to stop talking about the failure. At that moment, Mary approaches him.

“I did a quick check-up on her. She woke up but has a lot of questions,” she says to the two brothers.

“Who are you talking about?” Oren asks while giving his brother a confused look.

“The girl in the-” Mary starts saying but Jason interrupts her.

“Nobody!” he shouts. While seeing his brother giggle, he thanks Mary and lets her leave.

“Tell me what happened!” Oren begs although he already has a safe guess on what Mary was talking about. As Jason just angrily stares at him, Oren adds, “What kind of girl makes my brother let her stay at our house?” Jason gives in.

“She collapsed and has a bad injury on her head,” he admits. “I didn’t know where else to take her.”

“What about the hospital? Or one of the girls' places?” Oren asks sarcastically. He knows his brother wouldn’t just let any girl stay in their house. “If she’s just any girl, why is she here?” he asks.

“Because she was at Ric’s house and now, she’s injured and we have no information about her,” Jason says with a cold voice. But he can’t keep that cover up long enough in front of his brother.

“Don’t try to act like the big bad gang leader, Jason,” Oren says while holding back a laugh.

“She was so scared and when she collapsed, she looked so fragile. She’s a mystery, nobody knew she was there. She could be his daughter or another victim of their cruel ways,” Jason mumbles.

Oren starts thinking about those words for a short moment before offering, “You can go talk to her to see if she knows anything. I’ll wait for you at the bar.” Jason nods relieved and walks up the stairs to the guest room. Oren stays for another moment to watch his brother. “What has he gotten himself into there?” he thinks before turning around to leave.