Hailey woke up to unfamiliar surroundings, and that was when she realised that she was still in the 'torture' room. She frowned and clenched her hair in a fist as she sat up, and found herself on the bed. Flashbacks from the previous day flooded her mind once again.
*flashback*
Hailey ran and ran and ran until she was sweating buckets and hyperventilating. Every now and then, Mr Ng would come into the room and check on her. Hailey was afraid of him, and he often left some comments that made her push herself further. "Is this all you can do? I'm disappointed." Mr Ng once said, which pushed Hailey to run faster than she ever did, setting the treadmill to impossible speeds. Hailey cried and cried as she ran, as if she wanted to run from her problems that she was facing. She knew that Mr Ng wanted to both mentally and physically break her at the same time, and from the looks of it, his plans were working. Hailey was weak, tired, and definitely dehydrated. Soon enough, her thighs were burning, her neck was aching, and her brain was shutting down. Before she knew it, she was on the floor next to the treadmill, her lips making the movement to say the word "water", but of course, no sound came out. She looked at the world that was sideways, and everything blurred before she finally closed her eyes.
*Flashback ends*
Hailey panted as she recalled what had happened yesterday. Looking at the plain white clock hanging on the lonely plain wall across her, she realised it was midnight, so she had passed out for about a couple of hours...Hailey felt sick to the stomach, and her thighs still ached. She wished she could escape, but that was when she saw Mr Ng looking straight back at her from a corner of the room. "You are awake. Might as well go back to sleep, if you don't want to continue studying." He stated. Hailey looked at him, confused. "W-what about my dinner?" She asked. Mr Ng rolled his eyes and glared at her. "I told you, no dinner for these couple of days because of how you acted today. Go to sleep, or I will drag you to the study to continue your math, you were really weak in algebra today..." Mr Ng reminded her in the nicest tone he could muster. Unfortunately, that still turned into something nasty and Hailey could not help but feel sorry for herself. Lowering herself slowly onto the bed, she resumed dreaming about big exam papers towering over her.
"Wake up." Mr Ng stood next to Hailey and stated. Hailey slowly opened her eyes and looked at him. "Go wash up and meet me in my study in 15 minutes. We will be skipping breakfast today since as I said before, you don't deserve it. Chop chop, I want you to start working as soon as possible." Mr Ng told her, before turning and leaving the room. Hailey sighed as she looked at the door (which had no door, just an empty hole), wishing she had Sir as her mentor again. She quickly shifted her thoughts to her friends and almost started crying. She was filled with doubt about them. Were they over her? Did they still care about her? Did they miss her? Mr Ng standing in the doorway again reminded her about her tasks. She hastily stood up and made her way to the wardrobe to get a fresh piece of clothing, and ran to the bathroom to freshen up.
Soon enough, hailey came to the study and sat down promptly. Mr Ng nodded at her approvingly, thinking he managed to break her and she was finally listening to him. The only thing he did not like is the way Hailey seemed to be dazed before. Unfortunately, he could not control that and he decided to let that slip. "Let us go through what you have gotten wrong yesterday. Hailey, i am so disappointed in you. Why did you get so many things wrong? You really let everyone down. We all believed in you, but you just had to make us so disappointed. Look, you failed your math paper, your science and your mother tongue. I know I disciplined you already yesterday, but I am afraid you will not remember the lesson. Therefore, I am going to make you redo these papers again and do the work you need to do by tonight. May I remind you, you are still not getting food today so you should have a lot of time to do what needs to be done. Listen up, I am going to explain these only once, and I expect you to do this paper again with only at most 2 mistakes. Let's start." Mr Ng rambled on and on. Hailey groaned in frustration. Although Mr Ng was speaking relatively normally, he was still being harsh and unreasonable. How could she get everything almost perfect with just a one time explanation? Furthermore, she did so many papers the previous day, she would never be able to do so much work!
Unfortunately, that was how the day was for Hailey. She was forced to try to do everything, and she did her best to remember everything. By noon time, she had done a ton of work, and she was having a bad case of Writers cramps. Just then, the front door opened and someone familiar came in. "BRO-!" Hailey squealed and stood up immediately, but Mr Ng shouted, "HAILEY, DOWN!" Hailey sulked as she sat down immediately, and could not help it feel like a dog that was under Mr Ng's control. Her older brother finally walked in and he grinned at Mr Ng. "How is she doing?" He asked Mr Ng. Mr Ng thought that he was on his side and replied, "Good, or not so good. She has not really been broken so I intend to starve her for a couple of days. I think she is breaking though. Yesterday, she fainted! Isn't that great? She was so physically exhausted from the exercise. I think i have her under my control now." Hailey's brother gulped upon hearing these things from Mr Ng. He only knew that Mr Ng was hired to pull Hailey's grades up, not to torture Hailey. Luckily he came to visit! Their mothers did not even want to visit her! What if he came too late, and Hailey suffered from malnutrition? How much pain must she be going through? He looked at the pale and already extremely thin little sister that was sheepishly doing her work like a robot, and he had enough. He looked at Mr Ng and pretended he was pleased. "What are your other plans?" He asked. Mr Ng listed a few. Beating her, giving her unreasonable amounts of work to do, not letting her sleep and many more! Hailey's brother pretended to support him and soon left.
The moment he left that cursed room, he immediately ran to Hailey's friends, hopefully he would be able to learn more about the situation. With all the evidence he needed, he rushed home where their father was, ready to reveal the truth of what Mother was hiding behind the secret room of AEA.
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1221 words if you wanna know
Hey guys, here's an update for yall, hope yall like it! Should I enter the watties? I am almost done with this book and I think I can get it done in time, do suggest in the comments if I should! Thanks for everyone's support, remember to comment and vote! Peace out ✌️ 💓