The months slowly trickled by and Noelle did her best to learn more about the hacienda while keeping her distance from Sergio. She did her best to stay out of his way, hoping he would forget about her existence and the grudge he carried for her. After all, that was the only way she could put her plans into motion without being interrupted.
Luckily for her, though, Sergio soon became embroiled in a drug deal gone wrong at the border with Texas and split his time between the hacienda and up north.
“You’re sure about this?” Lucero asked worriedly as she watched Noelle put on a pair of loose pants and a light shirt.
She tied her hair tightly at her nape before taking a small flashlight and checking if it worked.
“I’ve been thinking about this for months now. It’s the only way I can escape the curse of my position,” Noelle pursed her lips.
Though she hadn’t interacted much with Sergio, she’d had enough time to see just what the people at the hacienda thought of her.
Whenever she walked by the staff, they didn’t hide their disdain of her, cursing her in Spanish and sometimes even spitting on her.
At first, she’d thought that their behavior was due to the fact that she was a foreigner where all Sergio’s previous wives had been local women or from neighboring regions. Yet as the situation escalated, Noelle had to ask herself if there wasn’t something more. After all, why would they be so against a foreigner?
They could ignore her, and they could not like her, but it seemed that they detested her.
It was only a few months after the wedding that she realized what the issue was.
Though maybe a few had had issues with her being an outsider, their abhorrence of her had resulted from the fact that they believed her to be responsible for the drought that had taken over the region.
Noelle had been shocked when she’d heard the whispers. But slowly, she’d come to realize why they believed it to be so. Just like why they believed Sergio to be some god who came to save them from their human woes.
It was all embedded in the culture.
The god could bring about the rain, but an evil spirit could come and take it away.
And since Noelle was the only new visitor, who also happened to be an outsider, she automatically became the evil they used to explain their lack of irrigation.
Sergio, on his end, had been unable to do much due to his embroilment in the cartel business. But that hadn’t stopped Noelle from figuring out how he did it in the first place.
Nuevo León had some very arid regions, and the area where the hacienda and its neighboring villages were located happened to be one of them. The locals lived off their fields, and as Lucero had recounted, since Sergio had taken over power, there had never been such a period of drought before.
Since nature wasn’t forthcoming with rain, Noelle knew that Sergio must have been doing something to ensure the fields were always irrigated. And with that thought in mind, she’d begun her exploration.
Of course, due to the distance between the hacienda and the villages, she could only visit the nearest one without drawing attention—and only at night when the locals wouldn’t curse her out for invading their space.
But what had arisen as a theory had soon been confirmed.
It wasn’t Sergio’s godly power that irrigated the fields. It was modern technology.
Small viaducts had been built under the land with the pretext of supplying the entire area with clean water. That much was true. But among the clean water ducts, there were also some special ones, situated at strategic points in the field, that would leak and hydrate the earth. This all happened at night, when no one was working in the fields.
That meant that even without rain, Sergio could keep the fields irrigated and his people happy.
Yet as much as that seemed to be a perfect solution to farming issues, it wasn’t without its drawbacks.
Water. Sergio needed a lot of water for his magic to take place. And that wasn’t without its costs.
Despite the hacienda seemingly being low-cost, it was actually the opposite. In a way, one could say that Sergio was buying his worship, since the investments needed to keep up the ruse far outweighed any practical advantages.
But Noelle supposed that for a narcissist such as he, there was no need for practicality.
Yet that confirmed to her why he was involved in all sorts of projects to generate revenue.
Like any narcissist, he wanted money and wealth. But in his case, he also needed it.
The drug factories. The forced labor. The slavery he dealt in. They were all avenues that brought him money. And Noelle was still not sure she’d found them all.
With the drug factories, it was quite easy to see their use, and why Sergio would need cartel ties to push forward his business—he might make the drugs, but he needed someone to sell it for him.
The forced labor and the slavery had been trickier to investigate.
At first sight, it seemed that the forced labor was used strictly for the construction of the temples—that it was all for the community. However, Noelle had recently found out that it wasn’t necessarily the case, nor were they only imprisoned enemies who paid with their blood and sweat. No, some were kidnapped victims—important individuals for whom Sergio would demand a ransom—while others were trafficking victims. The latter had been a shock for Noelle, but it had soon become clear that Sergio’s business was multifaceted, and the traffic in human flesh was one of the most economically successful avenues.
He sold and bought men, women, children—for all reasons human beings might get trafficked. Men were used for organ trafficking and illegal fights on the dark web, women for the sex trade and children… Children were used for all three and more.
Most of them were traded—bought and sold again—and Sergio had personal agents who worked on these transactions. But every now and then local people were trafficked, too—particularly young girls. It was all for the benefit of society, as Sergio always put it, and no one dared question his authority.
In the past, those girls would have been given directly to Sergio, as had been the case of Lucero. But since he’d had a bit of a mishap in that regard, he’d changed gears. He’d simply chosen some women for a regular harem and declared that they would all be his—another reason for people to hate Noelle, because it seemed as though she neglected her own husband. But the girls that were yearly offered as tribute to Sergio were no longer needed, they were given other purposes—they were sold.
Noelle had been absolutely shocked to find that—and she’d only managed to get some information by exploring Sergio’s computers when he’d been away from the hacienda.
The more she learned about the hell she was in, the more she realized that anything could happen to her.
If Sergio woke up one morning and decided he didn’t care what Cisco could do to him, or if he thought he could successfully fight against Noelle’s family, he could easily sell her off—make her disappear, never to be found again.
It was something she didn’t want to take any chances with, and that meant pushing on with her plans despite the anxiety that built within her with every passing day.
You can do this, she told herself as she stared at Lucero’s disapproving face.
While her friend meant well, she was still half trapped within the constrictions of the hacienda and the only life she’d ever known.
Lucero had only rebelled twice in her life. Once when her own autonomy had been at stake, and the second time when the man she’d fallen for had been in danger. Both times, it had been out of necessity and life-threatening circumstances.
Yet she didn’t understand that every second for Noelle was life-threatening. Just because Sergio left her alone for now, that wouldn’t be forever.
“Don’t look at me like that, Lulu,” Noelle called affectionately. “This is the best of a moment we’re ever going to get since Sergio isn’t coming back for a few more days. And then who knows when he’ll leave again since the Spring Festival is approaching.”
“I know. I just don’t like the risks involved,” Lucero sighed.
The Spring Festival was an occasion of celebration for the entire hacienda and a moment in which Sergio would show his godly powers in an annual ceremony.
Not only was this the perfect time to put her plan in motion, but Noelle needed everything to be done by the Spring Festival. Everything hinged on that event since everyone would be present—all the villagers under Sergio.
“We’ve talked about this. We go in and out. If you really don’t feel comfortable coming with me I won’t begrudge you if you stay outside.”
Lucero bit her lip in apprehension before shaking her head.
“You know I’m coming with you,” she added.
“Good,” Noelle nodded. “I promise you this will work. I know it in my gut.”
Lucero didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. Her doubts were written all over her face.
Even so, she dressed in the clothes Noelle had laid out for her and prepared to follow her.
“You’re a good friend, Lucero,” Noelle suddenly said, a moment before they were about to go. “You’ve risked more for me than anyone I’ve ever known. And I want you to know how much I appreciate that,” she gave her a smile, taking her hands in hers and squeezing lightly.
“I trust you,” Lucero said. “One way or another, we’ll make it out of here alive.”
With one last lingering gaze full of emotion, Noelle opened the door and they both went out into the night.
The factory was a good ten minute walk from the hacienda, and luckily for them, they didn’t encounter anyone on their way there.
It was when they arrived that they faced the most obstacles.
The factory building stuck out like a sore thumb among the temples and the local architecture. A metal building that looked like an alien technological center, it was also the most impenetrable place at the hacienda.
Where they had entered the temple easily enough due to Lucero’s knowledge, the factory was foreign territory. The only thing Noelle had been able to gather about it was the shift of the guards. And that was supposed to take place in exactly…one minute.
A loud noise erupted in the air and they both fitted themselves flat against the building, watching the door open. A man exited, looking around with a sleepy expression on his face as the door closed behind him.
He frowned when he saw that no one was coming to replace him, but Noelle and Lucero had made sure that his replacement had fallen asleep after a hearty dose of valerian mixed with opium—something Lucero had managed to obtain from one of the healers at the hacienda.
The man’s lips flattened together as he debated whether he should leave his station before his change of shift arrived, but after looking at his watch a few times, he sighed and left.
Noelle and Lucero waited a few more minutes until he was out of sight before they went to the main door.
“The code,” Lucero frowned. “We don’t have the security code.”
Noelle smiled furtively as she clicked on a succession of numbers on the security pad, a snapping sound indicating the door had opened.
“I told you I thought of everything.”
“But how…” Lucero blinked in surprise.
“With how much Sergio loves himself, and has made sure that everyone else loves him too, it stands to reason that the codes would have some type of significance for him. I compiled a list of all the dates I could figure out, but to be honest, it was just luck that I got it from the first,” Noelle chuckled
“So what was it?”
“The day of his coronation,” Noelle said, imbuing the last word with irony.
Both girls laughed as they made their way inside.
The first thing they saw was an empty desk for the main guard. Noelle hurried towards it, taking a seat on the chair and opening the computer.
“Do you see anything?”
Noelle pursed her lips as she went through all the documents. There were too many for her to sift through so expediently, but as she suddenly clicked on something, she jumped back images from the surveillance feed took over the entire screen.
“What…” Lucero frowned, but as she saw the screen, she barely held back a gasp.
“I thought this was only to produce the drugs,” Noelle muttered.
There were feeds from multiple rooms, all housing people behaving in what one could only call irrational ways.
“They’re trying them on people,” Lucero said, still unable to recover from the shock. “I thought the forced labor was awful but this… What is that person doing?” The last question was uttered in a low voice as they watched a man hit his head repeatedly against a wall.
“I don’t know what they’re doing, but we don’t have time for this,” Noelle suddenly said. Looking at the clock, she brought her teeth over her lower lip, nibbling at it as she did a quick calculation in her head. “They will soon find the sleeping guard and someone will come here. We need to grab what we came for and leave.”
“But…” Lucero was about to protest, and Noelle knew well enough what she was going to say. Her friend was too empathetic for her own good—sometimes painfully so. Noelle recognized it as a nice quality to have, but only when you lived in an ideal world where your safety was not so precarious. Yet Lucero could not stop herself from wanting to help others.
“Not now,” she said dismissively as she turned her attention back to the files, scouring through them and scanning the list of drugs housed in the factory.
“Shit,” she cursed, her eyes widening. “They aren’t just making drugs, Lucero,” Noelle said as she scrolled through a document. “They are experimenting with new ones.”
“What?”
“Look,” Noelle pointed at a screen. Lucero blinked as she struggled to read the words. She wasn’t very proficient at reading since she’d never had enough practice growing up.
“I don’t understand.”
“These are all different trials. This one,” she pointed to a column, “has a different list of ingredients than the other one. They’re trying to create another drug by mixing a bunch of others.”
“Can you find what we’re looking for?”
“I’m trying,” Noelle pursed her lips, typing different names for the drug into the database.
She couldn’t claim to be any expert in the subject, but she’d watched a lot of shows and read plenty about mainstream drugs.
“I can’t find any LSD,” she ground her teeth in annoyance when her search came up empty. “Let me try something else,” she murmured as she typed in the name of another psychedelic.
“And bingo,” she breathed out in relief when she found something. “It says it’s stored in room twelve, whatever that may be.”
“I think I may help with that,” Lucero interjected.
Noelle’s eyebrows went up in question before she followed to where Lucero was pointing—a map of the building.
With a wide smile, Noelle jumped off the chair and laid a loud smooch on Lucero’s cheek.
“I love you,” she added effusively before turning to study the map.
It took her a moment to familiarize herself with the layout, but once she was confident she could do it, she asked Lucero to stand guard at the entrance and look out the window for anyone approaching the factory.
Noelle hurried down the corridor as she looked for the right room.
There were a multitude of doors on each side, and she assumed that was where the test subjects were housed. She was curious about that, but she had a goal and she couldn’t let herself be distracted.
It took her a little longer than she would have wished to find room twelve. As it happened, the laboratories were underground, hidden from view. Yet as she found that piece of information, Noelle realized that all of the upper floors must be for experiments, which meant there must be even more rooms with test subjects.
Over the time she’d been at the hacienda, she’d had to accept that there were awful things happening around her that she had no control of. But somehow knowing those people were less than a few steps away from her made her falter—especially when she shouldn’t falter.
Wasn’t everyone on their own? She was fighting for her own survival, she couldn’t afford to care for anyone else. She imagined Lucero would rather help them than help herself. But that wasn’t Noelle. Not even when her heart ached at the images that replayed in her mind.
She had her purpose—one that was above herself, because though she fought for her survival, it was more than just a selfish purpose. It was more than the human drive for self-preservation.
No, Noelle was fighting for Blue. And the only way she could get to him—the only way she could find out what had happened to him—was if she had the resources to do so.
She needed to get to the top.
Though the journey might be fraught with unspeakable dangers and choices that would compromise her morality, she’d already decided that she would stop at nothing to get to him.
That was her life’s mission.
Find her Blue and for one day, even one minute, nestle close in his arms and feel the true meaning of love.
Turning sharply, she shoved everything else out of her mind as she strode forward, reaching the designated room. As expected, it was locked. But if there was something Noelle had learned in her rather short time, it was how to bend the rules—and lock picking automatically fit in that category.
She removed a few pins she’d prepared in advance from her pocket and she got to work. Her movements were brisk and efficient. She knew time wasn’t on her side and she needed to get this done before she was caught.
Sweat beaded on her forehead as she focused her efforts on the lock. In a few moments, though, she heard the tell-tale click and she grabbed the knob, testing the door.
A smile pulled at her lips as she successfully entered the room. Knowing time wasn’t on her side she hurried to scan the various shelves, opening each to see which one housed the psychedelic mushrooms.
A few tries later and she managed to find tens of bags full of shrooms.
Noelle wasn’t too sure how much she needed, so she took two bags, stuffing them in her pouch. With that done, she quickly went out, heading to where she’d left Lucero.
She was at the other end of the corridor when she heard a piercing scream. Her eyes widened and she dashed forward to see Lucero struggling in the arms of one of the guards—the one who should have been asleep back at the hacienda.
“Andale, muñequita. Si haces lo que te digo no le voy a decir a nadie que estuviste aquí.”
“Sueltame!” Lucero cried out, trying to strike him as he tore at her shirt.
Noelle didn’t think. She simply acted.
Rushing forward, she grabbed the first solid object she saw—a bottle of mezcal the previous guard had left on the table—and she hit the man over the head.
She took him by surprise, and with a cry of pain, he turned towards her, releasing Lucero. Unfortunately, her blow hadn’t been strong enough to hurt him.
Before he could hit her, Noelle raised the bottle again, channeling all the strength she could muster as she brought it over his head.
This time, the blow was powerful enough that the bottle broke against his head, shards of glass flying everywhere. A bigger piece got embedded in the man’s forehead, the cut deep and leaking blood.
“Que…” he muttered before his eyes rolled in the back of his head and he collapsed to the floor.
Lucero was shaking with fear, her eyes full of shock as she looked at Noelle before bringing her gaze lower to the man bleeding on the floor.
“Are you ok?” Noelle asked.
Lucero nodded.
Breathing out in relief, Noelle sank to her knees next to the man, bringing her hand to his neck and checking for his pulse.
“He’s still alive,” she murmured, her heart beating loudly in her chest. “We need to dispose of him.”
“W-what?” Lucero stammered.
“We need to kill him and make it look like an accident. And we need to do it fast.”
“But why… We don’t have to kill him…”
“He’s going to tell them he saw us here, and if Sergio hears that…” Noelle trailed off, the implication clear.
“But we’d be killing him,” Lucero continued, still pale from the shock.
“If we don’t, Sergio will kill us. Is that what you want?”
“It’s murder, Noelle. How could we…”
“It’s not murder,” she replied with a straight face. “It’s self-defense. You know what he was about to do—what he wanted from you.”
“Yes but…”
“We need to act fast. We don’t have time to argue the semantics of murder, Lulu. If we get discovered it will be worse. So much worse…”
The other girl was still reluctant, although she gave her a slow nod.
“You don’t have to do anything, alright?” Noelle felt the need to clarify. “Just help me clean the scene.”
“But how are we going to dispose of him?” Lucero whispered. “Short of burying him outside I cannot imagine how we could make him disappear.”
Noelle shook her head.
“We can’t do that,” she said pensively. “It’s too risky to be out in the open digging a hole. It’s even more risky if they find it later on. We need to do something that will ensure he won’t ever resurface.”
“But what?” Lucero blinked.
Noelle’s brows creased in concentration as she recalled passing by a stretcher on the way to the labs.
Without saying a word, Noelle got up and ran to where she’d seen the stretcher, grabbing it and leading it back to the body.
“Help me load him on the stretcher,” she said, already pulling on the man’s arms.
He let out a quiet moan as he shifted slightly.
“Lucero!” She called out when she saw the other girl hadn’t moved an inch.
“Sorry. I’m a bit out of it.”
“I know this is horrible, but we need to move fast.”
Lucero nodded.
“But what are we going to do with it after?”
“We’re going to burn it,” Noelle added, suddenly remembering the floor plan. “There’s a furnace room in the basement. Help me load him onto the stretcher and I’ll do it. You just clean the blood off the floor.”
Lucero blinked in surprise. For a moment she was quiet as she mulled over Noelle’s words. Eventually, she agreed, though Noelle could see how uncomfortable she was with the entire situation.
Even with the two of them, it took them a few moments to be able to load the man fully onto the stretcher.
“Look for bleach in the janitor’s closet and try to wipe it as best you can,” Noelle instructed. “I’ll deal with this.”
“But… Are you sure you can handle it?” Lucero added, pink marring her cheeks as she couldn’t even look at the dead body.
“I’m sure,” Noelle nodded.
She wouldn’t drag Lucero into her mess any more than she had to. She already knew that they were vastly different when it came to their outlooks on life. Lucero was kindness impersonate. Noelle… She wished she were like Lucero. Unfortunately, whether by birth or by design, Noelle was wickedness incarnate.
Leaving Lucero behind to clean the mess on the floor, Noelle led the stretcher towards the elevator she’d spotted at the end of the corridor.
The man continued to moan softly, attempting to move but being unable to.
She squashed any pity she might have felt by telling herself that he’d been the first to attack Lucero. It wasn’t as if he was innocent. Yet even if he had been innocent… Noelle couldn’t say she wouldn’t have acted the same.
“It’s me or him,” she whispered in an attempt to convince herself that she was doing the right thing.
Once in the elevator, she chose the basement key.
“God, I’m so happy I got a look at the floor plan before,” she muttered to herself.
The furnace was likely where Sergio got rid of those he no longer had any use for.
Considering the entire factory was more like a testing facility, Noelle could very well imagine some test subject didn’t make it out alive.
The elevator pinged when it reached the basement, the doors opening before her.
Gritting her teeth, she pushed the stretcher forward, looking right and left to identify where the furnace room was.
It took her a few minutes of pushing and pulling the body around before she finally found the room. It had an industrially sized furnace, and she noticed that all the smoke was being pushed through a huge vent that had been installed in the ground itself.
“Wow,” she whispered as she looked around.
The facility was already huge, but she realized that the basement extended far further than just the foundation of the building.
They had built it under the ground.
“Ah,” the low sound brought her back to the present and she shoved her misplaced admiration of the building out of her mind.
Looking at the man on the stretcher, Noelle realized she would have to actually kill him before pushing him into the furnace. She wasn’t as heartless as to let him burn to death—that was one horrible way to die she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemies.
Ok, maybe Sergio was the exception. He could burn in hell for all she cared.
Quickly swiping her gaze around the room, she noticed a knife on a table.
“I guess knife it is,” she muttered, her lips flattened into a thin line.
Despite having aided Ann Marie’s demise, she hadn’t actually killed anyone with her own bare hands. She might have injured the man just now, but was she capable of coldly dispatching him?
She pondered the matter for a moment—she couldn’t spare more.
Yet no matter how much she thought about it, it always came down to the same conclusion. It was him, or her. It was his life, or hers.
And Noelle was nothing if not determined to survive.
Taking a deep breath, she took the ultimate decision.
With hesitant steps, she neared the stretcher. The knife felt heavy in her hand, the blade holding the weight of her soul and ultimate damnation. For despite knowing she must do this, she also knew this was the beginning of the end.
Maybe in the past it had been involuntary, but this, right now, was premeditated. She was about to commit murder, despite arguing the semantics with Lucero. Deep down, she recognized it for what it truly was.
She let out a heavy breath as she tightened her hand on the hilt of the knife.
“It’s him or me,” she repeated, and squeezing her eyes shut, she aimed for his heart, burying the knife deep in his chest.
There were a couple more sounds that brushed against her ear. Still, she didn’t dare open her eyes again until only silence surrounded her.
Blinking her eyes open, she brought her other hand to his neck, feeling for his pulse.
He was…dead.
Noelle swallowed hard against the rush of guilt that assailed her. Yet despite the discomfort settling in her chest, she pushed forward, thinking only of the future. Because this was all for the future.
Noelle quickly opened the furnace door and set the temperature.
Before her conscience could make another appearance, she steeled herself as she grabbed the man’s shoulders and pushed with all her might. Once he was inside, she stripped the stained sheet off the stretcher, throwing it inside, too. She then closed the door and played with the settings until fire blazed from the other side of the furnace.
She took exactly three stabilizing breaths before she pushed her chin up high and strode out of the room.
Lucero was still scrubbing the floor, tears flowing down her cheeks as she stifled a hiccup.
“Lulu?” Noelle called softly.
She stifled as she raised her gaze, her eyes red.
“Let’s go. You cleaned everything.”
“Everything?” She whispered, looking back down. Her fingers were red from the combination of bleach
“Let’s get you out of here,” Noelle said, stooping low and helping Lucero to her feet.
The girl was still in shock, trembling from head to toe.
Ensuring everything was as they had found it and that she had the bags of shrooms they’d come for, Noelle led Lucero out of the facility.
As they got back to the hacienda, the girls went back to Noelle’s apartment, locking themselves inside.
Seeing that Lucero was still mostly out of it, Noelle took out a bottle of alcohol, filling two glasses and handing one to her friend.
“He was going to hurt you,” she pointed out in an attempt to make her feel better.
“I know,” she whispered. “It still doesn’t make it better. Or right.”
“Oh, it does make it right. I truly don’t know how you survived so far with that soft heart of yours, Lulu. Someone could literally stab you to death and you would still not wish to retaliate.”
“Well,” she took a sip of alcohol, licking her lips as she stared into the distance. “I would be dead. I wouldn’t be able to retaliate anyway.”
Noelle stared at her for a moment before bursting out in laughter.
“There’s still hope for you,” she chuckled.
“Is there?” Lucero asked after a moment.
“We survive, Lulu. That’s what we’re doing, and what we’ll continue to do,” Noelle sighed. “I know you’re not comfortable with some scenarios, so leave everything to me. My soul is already black. Yours can still be saved.”
“Can it? Because I doubt it.”
“I’ll never ask you to do something that goes against your beliefs again,” Noelle added.
“No.”
“What?”
“I can do it. I can…try. I can’t promise I’ll always be able to do it, but I’ll try. You’re right that we need to survive,” she took a deep breath. “For too long I thought I didn’t deserve better—that my fate was to suffer.”
“You can’t possibly believe that!” Noelle gasped.
“Not anymore,” she smiled. “I believe there is something out there—you called it karma. I think it exists, and what happened to El Señor is proof enough that there is justice in the world.”
“Why do you keep calling him El Señor when you know he’s nothing more than a charlatan?”
“Do I? I guess it’s been ingrained in my brain,” Lucero mused. “It feels odd to call him anything else.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t call him at all. Maybe we should just refer to him as it.”
“It?” Lucero’s eyes sparkled with amusement.
Noelle was happy to see that her friend was slowly recovering from her shock so she continued to joke around, finding different funny names to refer to Sergio—creating their very own secret language.
They drank and laughed, and for a moment, the world didn’t seem as bleak.
