It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 100 - R & R, Ami

Battered, bruised and underfed, they were beyond weak. Emaciated and on the verge of starvation, Aarav and Ami's captors cared little for their plight. They were the cause of it, and they wanted the children vulnerable.

They said that humans are some of the most resilient creatures and could become used to any situation. It was difficult to believe in the dank of the basement. Meals were irregular, so Aarav couldn't even use them to tell how long they had been in here. By his estimate, they had likely spent an entire week in the darkness, at least, nothing but bleak emptiness, their accompaniment to hunger and pain.

With Ami by his side, things were not as bad as they could have been, and thankfully, that creature that held them had not separated them. They clung to that hope like the last raft of residues in a sea of chaos. And he thanked God that they had not had worse done to them, and he knew it could very well happen at any time to him or Ami. Please, god, if you have any mercy, let us get out of this with our sanity intact. The Indian faith had many gods. At least one of them had to hear his plea and save them, right? Otherwise, why did people pray to them? There had to be some justice they could mete out.

Alas, he was beginning to think that no one was listening to his prayer. Ami had become sick in the cloying filth their captors forced them to endure. No bathroom breaks had made the space even more unliveable. We have to keep fighting to live. Ami...I will take care of you. I will do everything I can! An empty promise, he knew he had no power here. If Ami was going to die, he could do nothing to prevent it.

"Hey! Get up!" Another vicious kick followed the first, and this time its force lifted Aarav off the ground and slammed him into the wall behind. He couldn't move, and the pain and weakness were overwhelming. He tried to raise a hand towards the foot, a feeble attempt to ward it off. There was no god.

"Please." He hissed through gritted teeth. "Please...Ami." Seething air through clenched teeth, he whispered her name in a hoarse voice. "Help...her." His Hindi was not excellent, but he could utter those few words. The person-not this was not a person-the beast that used his body as a football turned away from him to inspect the other in the room and grunted, annoyed.

"Get some medicine for this filth! I will not lose my investment!" the individual with them spoke the words just slow enough for Aarav to understand, and he gasped in relief. They will take care of Ami, even for their selfish reasons. For now, that was enough. His eyes began to close as his exhaustion caught up to him, and he slumped.

"I said get up!" Another kick, and this time with the support of the wall, the foot had something to brace against. There was no space for Aarav to dissipate the energy, and he puked up what he had been given for his last meal, slop and what looked like mucus. Specks of red interspersed the contents of his stomach. He was bleeding internally again. So exhausted. He could not even muster up the fear and shock that such a revelation should have conjured.

Some of the vomit landed on his attacker's foot, and they turned in disgust, wiping the boot and stepping away from the wretched boy. I hope he says away. It was a faint and desperate hope, he knew, but he clung to it anyway. A dying boy would hold onto any hope.

Trying to take in any amount of air into his lungs was excruciating, forcing his injured ribs and abdomen to expand and compress in waves of agony.

"Disgusting child!" the man in front of him screamed, and here Aarav realised that it was the man that had brought him here in the first place.

Next, the man hauled Aarav to his feet but one arm pulling on all his injuries and bruising, and he hissed in pain but otherwise hung limply in the man's hand. His clothes were tattered and dirty and covered in his mess for the last days, and he could do nothing else. Just barely able to see Ami from the corner of his eye thanks to the light from the opened door, he could see that she lay prone on the floor as well, unable to move; she could have been dead. A frustrated tear trailed from the corner of his eye. It was all he could muster, dehydrated as they both were.