Chapter 2

Chapter two

My life leading up to today has been less than stellar.

I have cried.

I have gotten angry.

I have lost faith.

I have given up.

I have fallen down.

I've cursed my own beliefs.

I've contemplated taking MY LIFE.

I've doubted if I will make it out alive.

I've wondered if it's worth it.

I have hated God.

I have loved Him.

I have called Him cruel.

I have called Him good.

It's like everything in my life went wrong in the past years and some days I wondered if I'd end

up with my own happy ever after at all.

I wondered if it was worth it.

Maybe happily Ever after only existed in Disney or maybe I was just too unlucky.

If anyone asked what I was most afraid of, what terrified me, stole my breath, and made my life

flicker before my eyes, I wouldn't have said these three little words.

How could my life plummet so far into hell?

How could my love for Adrian twist so far into unfixable?

The black musty hood over my head suffocated my thoughts, and I sat with hands bound behind

my back.

Twine rubbed my wrists with hungry stringed teeth, ready to bleed me dry in this new existence.

Noise.

The cargo door of the airplane opened and footsteps thudded toward us. My senses were

dulled, muted by the black hood; my mind ran amok with terror-filled images. Would I be raped?

Mutilated?

Would I ever see Jacobi again?

Male voices argued, and someone wrenched my arm upright.

I flinched, crying out, earning a fist to my belly.

Tears streamed down my face.

The one of the many tears I shed, but definitely not the last.

This was my new future. Fate threw me to the bastards of Hades.

“That one.”

My stomach twisted, threatening to evict empty contents.

Oh, God.

Three little words:

I was sold.

I couldn't react. I couldn't scream. My head felt dizzy and my eyesight was blurry. My face had

gone numb. I could hear my breathing, but I couldn't hear anything else.

I felt paralyzed.

And I didn't know how long I had been like this.

I woke up to a bright light on my face and my hands tied to a chair.

Help me!

I tried to pull my hands in vain.

Help me!

I was shaking in fear as I tried to look around. I felt my ears getting pierced when I heard a very

sharp sound and I tried to blink a couple times.

Was… was that a mic getting adjusted?

Someone's here! Help me!!!

Slowly, I found my strength coming back to me when I felt a ray of hope. I could hear many

voices in Front of me.

There were people here!

My eyes widened in surprise when I heard a man saying something into the mic. I tried to open

my mouth to scream for help but only a few gurgling and moaning sounds came from it. My

tongue has gone numb too.

HELP ME!

Then suddenly the bright light in my face dimmed and that's when I saw it.

People have their faces covered in masks, sitting in chairs and staring at me, but nobody is

coming to help me.

What's going on here?

I tried to struggle more. My eyes started to sting as tears rolled down my face.

I could hear someone speaking on the mic but I couldn't process what he was saying.

I saw people raising some sort of banner but nobody came to save me.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. I wanted to wake up from these nightmare and curl into my

mother's lap and feel her fingers running through my hair.

“H—Hel..”

The person on the stage kept shouting and panic started to consume me as my eyes landed on

banners being raised by these people.

Then they landed on one person.

He was wearing a red mask and he was just staring at me. Not raising any banner, nor caring

about the person who was shouting on the mic. His whole face was covered but I could see the

gray outlines of his hair and his silver eyes.

These place screamed danger. I had to get out of here.

“H-Help…” my throat went dry and my head started spinning.

“H-Help…m–me..”

The man slightly tilted his head and raised a banner. At the same time I finally screamed.

“HELP ME!”

Then a strong smelling cloth covered my mouth again and I passed out.

Sometimes, it felt like a scream was trapped in my throat, one that had been struggling to get

free for the past twenty-two years.

It had a voice, a body, raging red hair, and a heart of steel.

I was terrified she would escape, that her echo would burn this world to the ground and leave

me standing alone, in smoke and ash. I pushed the feeling down, down, until a light sheen of

sweat cooled my skin.

I squeezed my eyes closed, tears escaping my bottom lashes. Neveah, neveah, neveah.

I tensed and waited for it. I waited for the world to recognize how damaged I was on the inside.

To crack me open and see everything my papà had from the beginning.

A different part of me, one quiet but strong, wanted to shout, to scream, to let her rule with a

steel heart and red hair.

My breath came out steady.

The knot in my chest loosened.

The tremor in my veins became the hot buzz of an electric line.

And then I did it for everyone who couldn’t.

I did it for every bruise.

Every scar.

Every slap against my face.

Most of all, I did it because I wanted to.

I screamed.