Desperation - Part I

TRIGGER WARNING!!!

Violence, people trafficking, murder, death, rape, corpse mutilation, suicide, and suicidal thoughts.

My body felt so light that I could float away, but my feet were like lead. My eyes were dry, and my lips parted, and I could not close them. I felt trapped in the warped wardrobe I was hiding in. All I could see through the crack in the wood doors was red. Everything was covered in red blood. The silence rang throughout the lifeless room.

My breathing was shaky, but my lungs were ready to burst. The dry roughness in my throat caught my voice. My hands trembled against the wood. My mind was empty. 

Several men had burst through the doors, and my parents and I were upstairs. My mother put me in the wardrobe and told me to be quiet, that everything would be okay. I wanted to cry as the fear I could sense from them radiated from them in a panic.

The moment my mother turned away from the wardrobe, the door to their bedroom had flung open with so much force that the sound of it slamming against the wall made me flinch. I couldn't see my father because my mother was standing between my only view of him. She pleaded with them to take anything they wanted, but we didn't have anything of value to give. 

Blood splattered across the wall and bed. I couldn't see whose blood it was. My mother gasped but stayed firm in her place. I couldn't understand the language the men were speaking in, but it was clear my mother could.

One of the men grabbed my mother and threw her on the bed. Right beside her on the floor was my father, his throat slashed. His face and body had other cuts and slashes. His blood was everywhere. The men were speaking to their mother in a strange language as one of them approached her, grabbing her right leg. Dragging her towards him. She kicked him between his legs as the man fell forward on top of her. 

My mother jammed her thumbs into the guy's eyes after he put his hands around her throat to try to strangle her. He let her go. Two of the other men pulled the first guy off my mother. The tallest of the men I could see put a knife to her throat, and she spat in his face. The man slit her throat before stabbing her in the chest immediately after. 

The men undressed her, I wanted to scream, but the fear in me turned me to stone. I couldn't look away as much as I wanted to. I felt forced to watch each one of the men take turns with my mother's corpse. Eternity passed before the men left, leaving me paralyzed in the wardrobe.  

Night fell, and the light in the room left. Cold from the night's air started quickly filling the room. I finally pulled myself away from the doors, sliding down the back of the wardrobe and pulling my knees to my chest. My forehead rested on my knees as I wrapped my arms around my legs and hugged myself. 

Dawn started approaching. My stomach started growling, and the pain of hunger set into my body. I reached for the door, but could only open it a little as the fear of the men still being in the house coursed through me. I sat back as the day passed. 

An unpleasant aroma started filling the air as my parents' body started decomposing. I reached for the door again, slowly opening the wardrobe. I opened it just enough to squeeze myself through before the creaking noise it makes could make a sound. My stomach started making a gurgling noise, and panic set into me. I ran to the open window. My mother left it open yesterday while my mother was putting away laundry.

A rusty metal ladder attached to the outside of the building was just outside the window. The ladder led down the side of the building into the alleyway. I slipped near the bottom of the ladder and fell onto the dumpster lid. My lungs felt like they couldn't expand as the pain in my back spread quickly.

I rolled off the top of the dumpster and landed on my side. More pain ran through my body. I slowly made my way to the main street. The afternoon was slipping away from me as dusk began to approach. I walked the street in no particular direction. My mother had only taken me to a few places before. She used to tell me it was dangerous to go anywhere alone. Now, I will always be alone.

By the time the sun left the sky, I approached a place called Sigi's Tavern. I went down the alleyway next to the brick building. I found their dumpster with the lid open. I looked inside to see if there was any salvageable food. 

The back door to the tavern opened, and a young lady dropped two bags outside before going back inside. My heart was racing. Several minutes went by while I searched the dumpster before I heard the door open and close again. I peered out of the bin to find a bowl of soup, bread, and a glass of water.

Whoever saw me was kind. I quickly made my way out of the trash and took the food. The water felt like bliss. I finished the glass before I made my way to the food. Next to the soup was a pitcher of water that I hadn't seen when I peeked out of the dumpster. Whoever saw me definitely was looking out for me. The soup was warm. I could feel it down my throat. Draining right into my stomach. The next moment, my body ached more to be filled with this food. 

I finished my soup and bread before tears streamed down from my eyes. I touched them in surprise. I haven't cried since my parents were murdered. I don't have time to cry now. I needed to find a safe place to sleep. I heard footsteps come down the alleyway, and I hit behind the dumpster. 

A girl from the tavern gave him some bread before they parted ways. I decided to follow him. He looked like an orphan, which is now what I am too, he's probably going back to one of their camps. I should be safe there. I followed all his turns, but he stopped. Sitting down on the corner and eating his bread. It looks like he's looking for something. Like he thinks someone is following him. 

When he was done eating the bread he ran back from where we had just come from. I hid behind a barrel near a lamppost. After he was gone I walked down the alleyway where he had sat on the corner. There was a stone staircase that had been busted up. Looks like it was destroyed intentionally to prevent someone from using it. There was a red brick wall at the end, so I decided I would sleep between the staircase and the brick wall. 

I tried to lean up against the brick wall to slide down because my knees felt weak. As I did that. I felt myself being pulled backward and losing my vision as the colors all blurred together. A ringing in my ears started. Before I knew it, the pull stopped. I blinked my eyes till my vision came back into focus. The brick wall now stands in front of me instead of behind me. I turned around quickly to find a ton of pop-up shops. Lights were strung up across the street. An old woman had her stall set up next to the wall. She didn't look at me even though I was sure she had noticed me.

I sat down next to her stall curled up and closed my eyes. Before I knew it I was waking up with a cloth over me. The old woman must have placed it over me. Dawn was leaving the night behind as the sun kissed the tops of the buildings. I looked around at all the stalls that were once filled with people and their goods. Now, those stall were empty. They looked more abanded than just unattended. The lights that were strung up were gone too. 

I walked around the streets to find no one was around. I spent the whole day exploring the area, just to find it abandoned. Only the rats and street cats were scurrying throughout. 

I found a ladder that led to the roof of one of the buildings. I climbed to the top to get a view of where I was. When I reached the top, I could see the sun leaving the day. Two days. It's been two whole days since my parents died. Now, all I feel is lost. I have nothing and nowhere to go. If I fell from this height, I might die myself. 

I remembered the song my mother used to sing to me. Before I knew it, I was singing it on the roof. My voice felt quiet at first but grew louder and louder and carried itself throughout the area. I finished the song and stood on the edge of the roof. My body felt empty. One small breeze and I could just fall. 

Dusk was on the horizon, I closed my eyes and slowly leaned forward allowing myself to free fall off the roof. A ringing sounded in my ears. I opened my eyes to find myself hovering over a Rabitroo Wilden. He was probably about 8 feet tall with a purplish tint to his coat. He was using a rare magic sub-type, sound magic. 

He released his magic and caught me in his arms. Tears slid from my eyes, streaming down my face, but no cries left my lips. He looked at me with a neutral look and carried me off. I fell asleep in his arms.

When I woke, I found myself in a cell. Chained to the wall. There were others in the cell as well. I didn't bother asking questions. I couldn't care about any of it. A guard approached the cage with food and water and slid it into the cell. I sat and watched everyone scramble to get their scraps. 

Everyone kept looking at me with silent questions, but none of them spoke. The cells didn't have any lights in them, but the walkways on the other side of the bars had plenty of light to see the guards as they walked by. There were blankets, but no beds and a buck looking toilet. 

I sat in the cell without any words. I just wanted to die, and the only way to do that now is to refuse to eat or drink. There were no windows to know when it was day or night. So I slept in my chains against the wall. I refused the blanket that was offered to me. 

The floor was cold, my toes were numb. My shivers remained constant in my bones. A leak dripping from the ceiling created a quiet echo through the cell. Death waits for no one, but me. Time ticked and yet I still lived. Guards came, dropped off food and water then left over and over. Each time I left my share up for grabs for the others. 

I could feel my body growing weaker and weaker. Eventually, one of the guards opened the cell and unchained me from the wall. He tried to force me up on my feet, but my body kept giving out due to my weakness. I ended up being dragged by that guard out of the cell and down the long hallway of cells. There were people of all races chained up in the cells. Even races I've only ever heard about. 

We came to a flight of stairs before the guard decided to lift me up. I dangled from the chains that bound my hands together as he carried me up the stairs and down another hallway. We approached a room with double doors. Behind them was the Rabitroo that interrupted my suicide attempt.

I was dropped on the floor in front of the Rabitroo who stared at me blankly. I lay on the floor as people came and left seeking an audience with the Rabitroo. I felt myself fading in and out of consciousness, not like there was much care on the respect level of where I was at.

Food came, and the giant rabbit person sat before me on the floor. The food was more than scraps or old bread. It was a hot, delicious-smelling meal. My stomach rumbled and gurgled as my body started to feel the pain from the lack of food I had been allowing myself to ignore. 

He sat before me as he ate. No words were exchanged as he pushed water towards me with some of the bread. I refused to eat. By the time he was finished eating, I was dragged back out of the room and into an actual bedroom with windows, a bed, and a wardrobe. The guard removed my chains in the room but locked the door so I couldn't leave. 

I moved to the wardrobe and opened the tall, beautiful decorative doors. I climbed into it, closing the doors before pressing my back against the wood. I passed out in the wardrobe, finally finding a place I felt safe.