Only upon hearing that voice did Afanisi slowly recall what had happened before she lost consciousness.
Her memories ended with her utterly helpless before him, like a puppet he could manipulate at will. Whatever he ordered her to do, she could only obey.
Afanisi still clearly remembered how it had felt to lose control of her body before him. Her soul no longer seemed to be the master of her flesh, and her body had become a cage imprisoning it. She could not control her actions. The man before her had been mere steps away, yet an insurmountable gulf seemed to separate them, an endless tide of blood-red spreading from the distance toward her eyes.
It had felt as though boundless darkness enveloped her. She still vividly remembered the despair of having her soul imprisoned in a cage called her body.
So when she saw Jonas again, her first instinct was to escape his presence. The pressure he exerted on her was unlike anything she had ever experienced. Even a simple greeting made every muscle in Afanisi's body tense and her hair stand on end.
"You filthy maggot, stay away!"
Afanisi instinctively took two steps back, trying to drive the man before her away with words. But shackles held her body fast, and those two backward steps did nothing to widen the distance between them.
Fortunately, Jonas stopped when he heard her words. Afanisi breathed an inward sigh of relief, only to see him studying her with interest, as though examining a novel toy.
That look made Afanisi deeply uncomfortable. Disgust showed in her eyes, but Jonas paid no attention to her attitude. He simply found a chair nearby, sat down, and asked with a smile:
"Do you know how long you were unconscious, Miss Afanisi?"
The question made Afanisi