Chapter 49
I hear a knock on my door, and turn to see who it is. Ameena gives me a calculative look.
"You haven't answered Dean's calls at all these past two days," She tells me, her dark eyes looking just as emotionless as his.
Why, out of all the days, does she now remind me of him?
"I didn't think it was important. What did he say?" I ask.
"Told us to get rid of that maid we had, she almost ratted us out to the police," She tells me. I snort.
"Killed her?"
"Had to. It was fun watching her cry and try to run away from me. Just, don't tell Kade, he kind of used her for a bit, and she liked it," Ameena chuckles slightly. My mouth falls open but I don't say anything.
I didn't think Kade was into maids.
She was a nice one, though, made me fruit kebabs once in a while.
I look at Ameena and furrow my eyebrows.
"Ams, can I ask you something?"
She smiles. "Sure, ask away," I nod.
"Why don't you let me in your room?"
Her smile vanishes immediately, her guarded expression coming back on.
I guess I've never mentioned this before, but Ameena is quite the warrior. She's damn loyal, knows how to scare people, and has a way of making you think she's from the army or something.
She's never turned us down when we've needed her, and every time Kade and Jax have an argument which turns into fist-fighting, she breaks it up.
Partly because they're hella afraid, partly because Jax is madly in love and always wants to impress her.
It's kind of the same with all the guys, they worship her like she's an elder sibling.
But Ameena's different. Her laughs are rare, and her smiles are firm. She's a little like Arsen, just more lively about it.
I've always wondered if it's got to do with her past, the reason why her heart is locked up behind walls is behind the door of her bedroom.
When she sighs, I realize maybe she is ready to open up.
"Do you really want to know?" She asks, and the atmosphere seems almost thick with tension. I nod.
"I really want to know," I reply. She looks at me for a while, with a sober expression.
Then her eyes narrow in that scary way. "Really?"
I giggle nervously, scooching away from her a bit. "Y-yeah. Please don't kill me."
She giggles and gets up. "Come on then, before I change my mind."
I immediately rush off after her, eager to see the guards protecting her walls from breaking.
She pauses in front of the door, and I naturally bump into her, oof-ing slightly.
"What?" I ask wearily. She turns.
"If you come into my room, I'll have to tell you everything."
Seems like she doesn't want to from the terrifying look I'm getting. I gulp, smiling at her.
"Uh, you don't have to," I drawl out, and with a determined expression, she opens her door and barges in.
At first glance, it's normal.
Queen-sized bed with a dark purple duvet, black walls with pictures dotted everywhere and a plain, white door that most likely leads into her wardrobe. She must share the main bathroom with everyone else.
But then, when I give her black walls and the pictures on them a second glance, my eyes widen, and I feel shock run through my body.
They're not just any pictures of her, they show Ameena being...tortured in some kind of metal room with her hands and legs tied on either side.
I circle the walls, stopping in front of each heart-wrenching picture, rage growing each time.
My fists curl into tight balls.
"Who did this to you?" I hiss, glaring at a group of men with protection glasses over their faces, pulling at her hair.
I hear her plop down onto her bed.
"I guess I will tell you my story after all. Take a seat," She gestures to the spot next to her, and I sit down, still angry.
I'm going to beat them till they die, maybe I'll still keep on going until there's nothing left of their fatass bodies.
I'll make them pay for this. No innocent person deserves to go through this, especially Ameena of all people.
I watch her as she lifelessly looks at one of the pictures hung up.
"I hung these around my room the first day Arsen took me in. They helped me stay strong, to forget all the people I've hurt and killed without a second thought. It drove me to live, it gave me the strength I didn't have when I was going through this."
She still doesn't let a slip of emotion show, except for pain and anger.
"How did it start?" I whisper. She swallows.
"I was seven, and my condition was bad. I'd been ill for a while, now, but this was different, even the doctors didn't know what to do. My father was away on a long trip, and no other family of ours lived in Alaska, so my mom was naturally scared and out of proportion,"
She lifts her sleeve to reveal a plain, dark purple band around her wrist, neither with a beginning nor an end.
I furrow my eyebrows at it, curious.
"She asked for the best doctors, nurses and surgeons, but none could find a cure for the strange illness I had. Then, one day, while we were waiting for an appointment in the lobby of a hospital, an old woman came up to us. She looked kind, and my mother figured she genuinely wanted to help, so..."
Her firsts clench.
"So, my mom listened to her. The old woman told us about a man who took girls like me in for a few days to test our blood and our strength. She said he was the best of the best, and she wouldn't have lived till that day if it wasn't for this guy, so out of worry and recklessness, my mother took her advice. If only she fucking hadn't..."
I put a hand on her fists, noticing that she was drawing slight blood.
Her nails were newly done, too. So they were sharp.
I listen on.
"The next day, my mom put on my best clothes, and we were poor, too, so I didn't understand where we would be going. She took me in her arms and kept on telling me it would be okay. I didn't have a clue what was going on, my face was burning up and my thoughts weren't in line,"
She takes a deep breath.
"The building was in an isolated place, with only grass and trees around it. From what I can remember, it was dark and no windows were visible. It had huge gates on the outside, and a guard with rifles on either side, protecting it."
She pulls on the purple band but doesn't take it off, eyebrows furrowing.
"That's the day it started."
~*~
Ameena's Flashback:
It's dark and cold. Ma keeps crying, I don't know why. But I have to stay strong. I don't care, I have to.
I have to stay strong for her.
She's taking me somewhere, she's running, she won't stop. I try to tell her to take a break, but it hurts to speak, to watch, to breathe.
I'm tired, I want to sleep.
Suddenly, Ma stops. I open my eyes a little and see a big building in front of me.
A gigantic man walks up to us. He's bigger than Abu. I miss Abu, he's been gone for a long time.
Ma starts screaming, and I get scared.
Ma? No, don't cry. I'm here, Ma, don't cry. I'm here. It's alright, I'm here.
I start to cry.
Why is it so sad? Is Ma leaving me with this gigantic man? Is she going like Abu did?
No, Ma. Don't cry.
She looks down at me, and I see her smile.
I like Ma's smile, it's beautiful. Like a queen. And her smell. She smells like lilies.
Why is she still crying? I'm here for her. I'm here, Ma, aren't I?
Then, she starts to speak to me. I can't make out some words because she's crying, but I hear most of it.
"I'll come back for you, baby...I'll come back...don't be scared...Ma is coming back..."
When the gigantic man takes me, I become confused. Then scared.
Is Ma leaving me?
Don't leave me, Ma. Keep me with you. Why don't you want me?
My cries come harder, and I bite my lip to stop.
I'm not a baby. I won't cry, for Ma's sake, I won't cry. I need to be stronger for her. I have to.
"Wait...just one more minute!" Ma screams at the gigantic man, and I want to cheer her on, but water is still coming out of my eyes.
Why is the man taking me? Shouldn't he give me back to Ma?
I watch her as he takes me away, and she falls to the ground on her knees, crying. I hold out my arms to her, I call out for her.
No, Ma. I don't want to go. I don't want to die.
Ma! Don't leave me! Please...
I cried a lot that day, and then I was tired. I fell asleep because I knew Ma would come back for me.
She said she would. Ma never lied.
But when I wake up, I'm not in my room.
Where am I?
It's not purple and black, it's not dark, it's not filled with my toy dolls and my big, pink desk.
There are no windows.
Everything is shiny and hard, silver.
Where am I?
"Hey, kid!" Someone calls. I get scared and jump a little.
When I turn around, there are two men standing in front of me, and they're both huge.
I smile. "Hello! Are you taking me to Ma? She's waiting outside for me!" I tell them, excited.
I wanna play with my dolls, with Ma.
The big men laugh. "Yeah, sure. We're taking you to your Ma. Now come on, kid."
I giggle and skip after them.
We exit the room. I find the door strange, it's almost like a circle.
The long corridor is scary, though. There are no windows except for doors and doors, and everything is the same shiny silver like the room I was in.
They bring me to two big doors and open them from either side, like soldiers in a castle.
Maybe Ma's in there. She must be. They said they're taking me to her.
I skip after them, humming my favourite tune that Ma always hummed to me. I'm going to have a pretty voice like Ma's one day!
When we go inside the room, we aren't outside. And I don't see Ma anywhere.
There's just one man, and he's wearing a ridiculous, long white coat and huge goggles over his eyes.
Abu's a scientist, and I've seen him wear these before. It's cool on him, but this guy doesn't look right.
The room is dark and weird. And so huge.
A big machine is in the middle, in the shape of an enormous circle, and it has ropes hanging in the middle, with wires and dangly-things everywhere around it.
I don't like this room. It's cold and spooky. And these men are strangers.
Abu never let me play with my friends, especially not my friend Turner. He said that boys can be mean and naughty, and they never be nice to girls.
He was a boy, too.
The man with funny goggles looks down at me, a paper-clipboard in his hand. Ma has a lot of those.
I give him my mean face. "Where's my Ma?" I ask, putting my hands on my hips. He laughs.
"Sorry, Ameena. But your Ma's gone. She's not coming back for you anymore. She says there's something wrong with you, that you're different," He tells me.
No. No, that's not true. Ma wouldn't leave me. She wouldn't call me wrong or different!
He's lying!
"You're lying!" I yell. He laughs again and looks at one of the people in the room, who are wearing the exact same thing as him.
There's a lot of people in the room, and one lady gives me a kind smile. Maybe she'll take me to Ma.
Suddenly, the weird man lifts me up like Abu does and passes me to the kind lady. She's taking me to Ma!
When she smiles again, I feel tears in my eyes.
She's not taking me to Ma.
Walking over to the huge, circle-y thing, she puts me on a square, silver thing and ties a rope on each of my wrists. I get scared.
"W-what's going to happen?" I mumble, tears spilling down my face. She just smiles and then ties a rope around my ankle.
After, she nods at a man near a big metal box thing, with lots of buttons on it. He nods back and pulls the long, red thing, and suddenly, the ropes on my wrist get tighter.
I'm...I'm flying. The ropes are pulling me into the sky. What are they doing?
All of a sudden, lightning flickers in the air and hits me so hard I scream.
It hurts! Stop, it hurts!
The air is filled with noises and lightning.
They don't listen to my screaming. They're mean. It hurts!
Ma, please come back to me. It hurts.
~*~
It's been five years. I turned twelve yesterday. My mom didn't come for me. Neither did my dad.
They don't care. So I won't either.
My mom brought me here, so why should I even think of her coming back for me?
These people, people whose names I don't even know, teach me what I need to be taught.
There's a library here, and they sit me down and teach me. They've taught me how to read, how to write, math, science, and every time I get something wrong, they'll send me to the M.T. Chamber.
M.T stands for Metal Torture. It's the first place they ever brought me to when I got here.
Some shitty thing that drains your energy and tests your limits. And it hurts like hell.
They don't let me swear. If I swear, I get three swings off a whip to my back, then this kind woman cleans it up for me.
Sometimes, when the M.T. Chamber doesn't work, they send me to the M.T. Room, instead. They sit me on an electric chair and ask me questions.
If I lie, they turn it to level one, and it keeps going up every time I lie.
They've arranged it so it doesn't kill me, but it will one day. And I'm waiting.
Better to die than to be stuck here.
Everyone wears white lab coats and dumb goggles, and I've not seen a single other kid. Just me, and these creeps.
I have a metal room, and they finally moved me into one with a tiny window, covered with bars. It's plain, with one bed, and unbreakable walls.
The door is weird, shaped like an avocado, except, it's also metal, and only opens from the outside.
I'm in prison.
They've even made a schedule for me.
Wake up, M.T. Room, two hours of the library, M.T. Chamber, a bit of lunch, back to M.T. Chamber, two whips and then go to sleep.
I'm lucky I get only two beatings of the whip. I used to get five.
"Hey, kid, stop staring at the wall and get up," The man at my door says.
I've never known his name, but I do know he's the guy who took me away from mom. He's been with me for a long time, and till now, he hasn't really done anything to me.
Just stands, and watches.
Kind of like a personal guard, or watchdog for his boss.
"Chop chop, we don't have all day!" He growls. I get up and follow him.
Shout at me all you want. Your funeral's happening in my brain.
"Get in there, and don't scream. You know they make it worse when you do," He growls, opening the door to the M.T. Room and then shutting it once I'm inside.
I automatically sit down in the electric chair, not giving the man the pleasure of escorting me to it. He snarls.
"Great, let's get started, shall we? Repeat your law, please."
I cloud my judgement and don't give in to his stare.
"The world is above me, and I'm underneath. A mistake was made, night of the fourteenth. I deserve to be punished, it's best that I endure. For when the time is right, Satan will procure."
The man giggles like a dying hydra. I read about those in a novel I found when I escaped my room once.
I didn't get food for two months and they whipped me till I was raw. Then, I was sent into the ventilation system and had to spend the night there for as long as I can remember.
I still sneak out of my room, though.
"Good, you're starting to understand how much of a mistake you really are. Now, let's get started with these questions, shall we?" He giggles again, sadistically.
He glances at me and looks down. Then he looks back up again when he notices me properly.
"You know, I thought you'd be more scared. Show me emotion in those gorgeous eyes, please," He giggles. I just blank stare at him.
He doesn't deserve my emotions.
Sighing, he clicks a button on his table, and a wave of electricity runs through my body, and I feel my insides burn with pain.
I still don't show him my emotions, even though all I want to do is fall to the ground crying.
Once it stops, the man clears his throat.
"Right then. Let's start with the basics. Childhood best friend?"
"Turner."
"Parents?"
"Aisha and Mohammed Khan."
"Friends group?"
"Jaxon, Kaden and Xander."
"Do you wish to meet them again?"
"Yes."
He clicks the button - pain - then asks me again.
"Do you wish to meet them again?"
"No."
"That's better, sweetheart. Next, how old are you?"
"Twelve."
He looks up. "Really?" I nod. He shrugs and clicks the button.
Level eight.
My hair flies everywhere form static and this time, the pain is too much for me to handle. I let out a loud scream and hiss at him to stop.
He giggles, and brings it to level nine. It intensifies.
"STOP!" I yell, and the door opens. A man walks in.
"I've told you many times, sir, that level nine is not prohibited. Get out, Ameena. It's time for M.T. Chamber."
The chair stops and I intake a sharp breath, rushing out of the room with my fists clenched.
It's never going to stop.
Ever.
~*~
"How'd you get out?" I ask her, watching as she glares out the window.
Ameena snorts. "Guess."
A smile covers my face.
"He knew you were there? The whole time?" I laugh. Ameena rolls her eyes.
"Of course not. His dad worked there. He followed him one day, and once our eyes met, I knew who he was. He may have changed, but his eye colour never will."
I let out a deep breath.
Ameena's been through more than I have. How does she handle a past like that? Is that what motivated her to move forward?
"So, how long till he helped you out?" I ask, tilting my head to the side. She smiles.
"The very same day. Almost as if he heard me crying out for pain. After that, it was a bit slow to get back into the habit of things. Eating was hard for me, and my nightmares started. I had to get a lot of treatment."
"Have your nightmares gone now?" I ask. Her black eyes look into mine.
"They still happen," She shrugs. "I've just learned to get used to them. Besides, I kind of like having nightmares. It lets me know I'm different."
"Your dad?"
"He never came back. I never heard from him. I never asked mom. But she told me the real reason why she couldn't get me back. Simply because they threatened to kill me if she ever came again," Ameena shrugs. I raise an eyebrow.
"You haven't forgiven her?"
Ameena laughs. "I don't care about her, Xanny. She's just a woman who brought me into this world. She didn't do jack for me after she got me back. Just sent me to school and let me play with who I wanted."
I shake my head, letting her story run through my brain.
That night, all I could think about, was where Ameena had been for five years of her life.
Why did it sound so familiar? Almost as if I'd heard of it before. A place where parents sent their kids when they were unusually sick?
Then, it sinks in.
I know why I've heard of this place before.
My family are the one who built it.
_______________________________________________________
3440 words.
Damn, just in time. Sorry for the ridiculously long chapter.
You're probably thinking, 'who even does that?'.
Seriously sorry, guys.
What do you think of Ameena's back story?
If you want Jax, Kade and the rest of the gang's past too, then let me know.
I've got an idea for Jax's. Maybe there'll be a bit of a Jameena moment, too. Finally.
Jameena = Jax and Ameena.
Anyway, I love you all SO SO MUCH! Thanks for reading.
And don't forget...
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