Princess: Nuance Of Love Book 1 (23 page)

"Puteri practices martial arts, she
doesn't need to be possessed by demons to break your bones with her
bare hands." He said out of spite. "Tell everybody to stand back. I
will search for her myself, give me a radio! If anybody sees her,
make sure to inform me!" He ordered.

"Yes Your Excellency." The Chief of
Staff nodded.

Ali looked at the ground and saw a
trail of blood, he followed it carefully feeling anguished and
worried. The distance of the splatter shows that she was running as
fast as she can. He quickly followed it, he began to build pace and
started running. The blood trail lead him to some trees and shrubs
that grew tightly together, he saw the blood stains leading into
the bush. He followed it carefully.

The surrounding area was a mess, plants
and small trees pulled out by the roots thrown around, the soil had
been dug at by bare fingers, and large river stones that were
placed there for decoration were thrown in different directions.
Ali was surprised to see her condition, she was curled up against a
tree and her hair was stained with blood and dirt. Her hands were
bleeding and covered in mud. He could see several belt marks on her
arm and back, welted, red and bruised. She was almost naked, her
skirt was ripped and torn in many places. She was hiding her face
between her arms, she didn't even notice that he was standing
there. He gently reached out and touched her shoulder.

"No....Please forgive me Mama...please
forgive me....please forgive me... forgive me.....Mama." Her
bloodshot eyes staring at him with dilated pupils like that of a
wild animal.

Suddenly she jumped up and punched him.
Ali was caught off guard, he was hit on the jaw line causing him to
fall backward. He was surprised at the extent of her strength, he
shook his head to get rid of the pounding feeling caused by the
impact of her fist. She launched at him again, he quickly rolled
his body sideways to escape her attack. Ali rapidly jumped up and
opened his legs putting stance anticipating her next attack. She
twirled her body in a chain kick for his head, he barely managed to
deflect the attack. Paramita started to growl and sneer seeing her
assaults were not hitting the target, she moved forward with a
series of punches alternating between his face, chest, and
stomach.

Ali felt frustrated, he didn't want to
attack back, but she was not giving him an option. Suddenly he saw
his chance, he grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind her back.
She struggled to free herself, making brisk harsh movements. Ali
felt a sharp blow to his stomach as her other elbow landed on it.
Instinctively he let go of her wrist, she jumped forward freeing
herself. He didn't know when she had moved forward, suddenly she
was in front of him, he felt her hand clasping his neck, he tried
to pry off her fingers, but she clenched tighter. He was gasping
for air as he felt her strangling his consciousness away, he
grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her hand off with no luck. He
had no other choice but to slap her across the face. She didn't
flinch, it was as if his slap didn't affect her one bit. Instead,
she pushed forward, throwing his body backward. He felt a hard
smash on his back as he landed against a tree, dropping to the
ground like a piece of cloth. His whole body was hurting, and his
head was spinning profusely.

He lifted his arm in a block
anticipating another blow from her, when suddenly she stopped
moving, and dropped to the ground curling up again, and hid her
head between her arms.

He quickly moved forward and pulled her
into his arms and whispered, "Mita, it's okay......it's okay now. I
won't let her hurt you anymore. I won't allow anyone to hurt you
anymore, I promise." He said while holding her tightly, his tears
were rolling down his cheeks.

She didn't say anything, she curled up
tighter and cried covering her head with her arms.

Suddenly he felt her becoming limp and
almost fell sideways to the ground. "Mita, Mita... are you alright,
Mita, can you hear me?"

He took off his jacket to cover her
body, and lifted her up. He carried her out of the bushes, and
quickly made his way across the lawn. The staff was standing at the
front of the residence. Ali was about to enter the building, when
he decided that it wouldn't be such a good idea. "Get me a car." He
ordered them.

"Over here, Your Excellency." The chief
of staff opened the door to a car.

Another man ran towards the driver's
side, opened the door and went in. "Where to Your
Excellency?"

"My residence." He answered.

"Chief, please call the doctor and have
her meet me there."

"Yes sir." He replied.

As the car drove out of the Sultan's
Palace, Ali held Paramita in the back seat, she was breathing
calmly as if she were sleeping. The wound on her forehead had
stopped bleeding, he removed the strands of hair from her face. He
bit his bottom lip to ease the pain from seeing her like this, she
barely recovered from the injury that happened before in the
forest, and now she's hurt again, in her own home, by her own
mother.

The car pulled up in front of the gate
of his residence. A staff ran quickly to open the gate, peering
through the windshield to see who had arrived. Ali waved from the
back seat, when the staff saw him, he opened the rest of the gate
to let the car in. The car drove into the driveway and stopped at
the main door. The driver got down and opened the door for Ali. He
stepped down from the car carrying Paramita. A maid opened the
front door, she gasped in surprise seeing him carry a dirty
unconscious woman in his arms.

Ali quickly entered, "Is my mother
home?" He asked.

"Yes she is Raden."

"Please ask her to quickly come up to
my room, and get me a big bowl of warm water and a towel. A doctor
will be coming soon, make sure you bring her to my room
too."

He ran up the stairs, gently kicking
open the door to his room, he laid Paramita gently on the
bed.

Raden Nabilla showed up at the door,
"What's going on? Who is this woman?" She asked.

He turned his head to face her,
"Mother, please help me clean her up. The doctor is coming, she has
an opened wound in the head.

Raden Nabilla came closer. "But this is
Ananda Puteri," she cried, "What happened to her? How did she end
up like this?"

"Mother.” He said while taking her
hand, "Thank you very much for all the love you gave me, for all
your kindness, for educating me, and for taking care of me." He
kissed her hand.

"But you're my son, of course, I love
you, and I will always love you and take care of you."

"I love you mother!" He said while
crying.

"Ali, what happened? Who did this to
Ananda Puteri?"

"We don't know yet, the only thing, I
heard, was that she had a fight with Madam Soraya, she ran out of
her residence bleeding, and euphoric."

"Oh, my poor child." She said softly.
She sat on the bed. The maid entered the room with the bowl of
water and a small towel. "Help me take off her clothes, so I can
clean her properly." She said to the maid, looking at Ali she said.
"Why are you standing there? Wait outside!"

"Okay."

He heard noises downstairs and went to
take a look. Captain Bagas was with a man dressed in a lab coat. He
saw Ali, and quickly approached he was breathing heavily in
anxiety. "Your Excellency, this is Major Doctor Johan, he is the
physician for the Royal Guards."

"Your Excellency, I need to see the
Princess immediately, the guards on duty told me about her
condition, and what she did. I've seen those symptoms before. I
suspect that Her Highness Puteri has been exposed to a high dosage
of military test drugs." Said the doctor.

Ali carefully studied his credentials,
"She's upstairs in my room. My mother is cleaning her up and
dressing her."

"We have to hurry. My colleague Doctor
Mariani is treating Madam Soraya now, we think that she was under
the influence too, but not at the same high level of dosage as Her
Highness Puteri." He explained.

"How can this happen?" Ali said, he
knocked gently at the door before opening it. "Mother the doctor is
here, he needs to see Mita immediately."

"Yes, tell him to come in." Raden
Nabilla responded from inside the room.

The doctor entered accompanied by Ali.
"She's burning up, we would need to put a cold compress on her to
stabilize her body temperature."

"I'll go and get some ice," Raden
Nabilla said.

"Not ice, water at room temperature
that would be better." The doctor explained. "I'm going to put her
on a drip with an antipsychotic medicine to control any further
episodes. Also, I'm going to take a blood sample to find what
exactly was the drug that she consumed. Right now the only thing,
we can do, is give supportive care, you need to monitor her
breathing and her body temperature. If there are any abnormalities
or if she has another psychotic rampage, you need to call me
immediately. I will leave you my cell phone number."

* * *

"The injury to her head didn't affect
her skull, but it is a deep flesh wound. I will have to stitch it
so it doesn't leave a horrible scar on your beautiful
bride."

"Doctor, I know that you'll need the
blood test results to accurately identify the drug, but do you have
any suspicions about what it could be?" Ali asked.

Doctor Johan sighed. "I'm not
completely sure, but one thing I'm certain of, is that one
component contained in it is PCP."

"PCP?" Ali was surprised.

"A few years ago Jothar's military did
drug experiments on soldiers to enhance strength, stamina, reflexes
and durability. I've seen many soldiers show the same symptoms as
Her Highness Puteri. But the side effects were devastating. The
experiments were finally banned by the Sultan, but it doesn't mean
that private laboratories didn't continue with it."

"Doctor, will there be any permanent
effects of the drug on my fiancée?" Ali asked worriedly.

"Not likely, she was exposed to a high
dose, but not overdosed, and it was a one-time administration as
opposed to a prolonged one." He paused, "I will prescribe some pain
killers, I'm sure she will be in pain when she comes to. One
reason, that PCP is perceived to increase strength, is because it
is a strong analgesic, suppressing the user from feeling any pain
when reaching their strength limit enabling them to continue using
force."

The Doctor finished stitching her
forehead and dressed it with a bandage. "You will need to clean the
wound every day and change the bandage, look out for signs of
infections like redness or swelling." He looked at Ali closely for
a few minutes and continued. "It will be a good idea to put some
ice on your jaw and neck, I will also prescribe an
anti-inflammatory for you."

He sat down and wrote the
prescriptions. When he finished he handed it to Ali. "You should
send somebody to buy these as soon as possible." He said. "One more
thing, she might have another psychotic episode, I recommend
avoiding giving her any more medication for this and try to calm
her and subdue her, it would usually pass after five minutes or so.
Here is my cell phone number, if anything gets beyond control, make
sure you call me as soon as possible."

"Doctor, we thank you very much," Raden
Nabilla said to him.

"Thank you, Doctor, please let me know
the result of the blood test once you have it." Ali shook his
hand.

"I will, Your Excellency. Please excuse
me." He replied.

"Maya will show you out." Said Raden
Nabilla.

Raden Nabilla turned to her son and
took a deep breath, "I will tell the maids to prepare the guest
room for you." She said.

"That won't be necessary Mother. I will
be personally taking care of her until she recovers." He
replied.

"But that would be indecent. I know
that she's sick, but this is not a hospital, this is your room.
What would people think?" She reasoned. "Maybe it would be better
if I stayed here instead."

"That won't be a good idea, Mother.
Trust me, the Doctor said that she might have another psychotic
episode, and somebody has to subdue her. Look what she did to me."
He said while pointing to his face and neck.

"Ummm...., you're right. I want to live
long enough to get to know my grandchildren." She said rubbing the
goose bumps on her arms.

"Mother, don't worry. Don't you trust
me? You taught me well. You and Father made me a decent man. I
won't disappoint you."

Raden Nabilla smiled, she caressed his
head. "I know you won't. Don't mind this nagging old woman who's
worried about everything."

* * *

Raden Hamza sat on the couch in his
son's room. His eyes looking with concern at the young woman lying
unconscious on the bed. "It was a good idea for you to bring her
here. At least she would be safe." He said. "Colonel Anton thinks
that this has something to do with the attempt against her life
last week."

"What did they find out about the
incident?" He asked.