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thud, everything went pitch black.

Chapter Ten
    When she finally regained consciousness, Lucinda found herself bound to a chair with the help of chains, in the middle of her bedroom.
    Juan was sitting right across from her on the bedside table, smoking a cigarette. She tried to move, but the chains barely left enough space even for her to breathe properly.
    “There’s no point in exhausting yourself. If you want to survive this, you’ll do exactly as I say.” Juan spoke in a menacing tone.
    She looked around and saw everything scattered on the floor; her bedroom looked like it had just been ravaged.
    “See . . . I thought I knew my brother well, so I started looking for his safe. I thought to myself, he must have a hidden the safe somewhere in here, and I was right.”
    Juan was acting like the situation did not strike him as disturbing at all. Lucinda started praying that Octa would show up soon, and she turned her head around as much as she could with the heavy chains to see their secret safe in the wall exposed. The wallpaper that disguised it had been torn off, but the safe was still locked.
    She faced Juan again, and he walked toward her suddenly and she flinched. “I want you to be the sweet, little slut that you are and give me the combination before your precious husband gets home, or you die.” The way he uttered those threats made her shiver. She glared back at him with tears rolling down her cheeks.
    “Why are you doing this? Octa is your brother! Your only brother! Please, Juan, we can help you! Please, just don’t . . .” Lucinda knew she had terribly misjudged this man and his intentions, and she was looking for any way out of this alive.
    Juan put his pistol to her forehead, and she let out a frightened shriek. “Nooo! Please don’t. Nooo!”
    “Tell me the fucking combination! Tell me or I’ll blow your head off!” Juan yelled at her, his finger on the trigger, ready to pull at any second.
    Lucinda was not trained for pressure tactics and soon gave up. She told him the combination, and he kept his pistol aimed at her until he managed to open the safe. Inside, stacks of cash were piled on top of each other, which Juan started transferring into a suitcase.
    Octa never used a bank. He hated the processing of transactions and found them tedious. All he had ever earned and accumulated was inside this safe. Lucinda begged Juan to reconsider as he filled up his suitcase and emptied the safe which was behind a light fixture. Octa accumulated this much money through invested stocks.
    “This was clearly easier than I thought,” Juan smirked at her.
    “Please, don’t . . . you’ll never be able to get far with this money, Juan. I can help you. Let me help you,” she said as she tried to make sense of him, but failed miserably.
    “How about a last roll in the hay? That might help me.” He was completely ignoring everything that came out of her mouth.
    Juan took the suitcase out of her bedroom and placed it where Lucinda couldn’t see it. He came back in and sat across from her once again.
    “Now, we are left with the biggest question . . .” He lit another cigarette and looked at her. “What to do with you.”
    Lucinda realized there was no reasoning with him. She started crying loudly and begging him to let her go. Juan got infuriated with her shrieks and started stuffing a piece of washcloth he picked from the dressing table in her mouth, when someone came rushing into the room and toppled him over.

Chapter Eleven
    The pistol slipped from Juan’s hand and landed on the floor. He wrestled with Octa, rolling around and trying to push him off, but Octa kept him pinned to the floor. Juan tried to make him lose his balance and kicked with all his strength. Octa lost control for a split second. Juan crawled toward the pistol, but Octa pulled him back by his leg and punched him harder, trying to render him unconscious. He hit with all his strength till Juan was bleeding heavily and almost