The next time Diego visited me was a year later, on my 9th birthday.
"Diego!" I ran to where he was sitting. But I didn't get the desired reaction I had hoped for. He didn't look even half as excited as last time.
"Lili, you've grown taller." He observed, stiffly. Diego had also grown taller. He was starting to resemble father. There were heavy bags under his eyes telling me he hasn't been sleeping properly.
"Are you here to take me home?" I asked, excited. His promise last time was the only thing keeping me sane in this hellish place.
At my question, Diego looked up from the ground. "You're here to take me back home, right?" I asked, my voice breaking at the end.
"I-I can't, Lili."I noticed the slight layer of water under his eyes.
"Why not?" I asked, my voice showing how desperate I was. "Diego, I can't live here anymore. Please, you have to take me."
"I can't," he repeated, firmer than before.
"When can you take me back then?" I jumped on my next best option. "I can wait for another year. Or two. But promise me you will save me from here."
Diego looked at me with sadness in his eyes. Raising his hand, he gently caressed my face, "Lili, can you call me big brother again?"
"Just once," he pleaded, silent tears falling down his eyes.
"Big brother," I complied, "I don't like it here. Please."
Diego turned his face away from me, "You're not supposed to like it."
"What?"
"Do you know what the punishment for murder is?" He asked in a cracked voice. "It's death. A life for a life."
"Consider yourself lucky, dad is being merciful towards you by leaving you here."
Merciful?!
Getting beat up on a daily basis was considered mercy? Having to spend days with nothing to eat but water was considered mercy?
Getting experimented on like a guinea pig was considered mercy?
I would much prefer death over it.
"This is not mercy." I voiced out, bitterly.
"Tsk, still so ungrateful. If it were up to me you would be long dead already."
"You don't mean that!" I flinched back, horrified.
"Oh, but, I do," he smirked. "You know, every time they told me to make a wish on my birthday, I would wish I could kill you."
The raw honesty in his eyes scared me. "Why are you doing this, Diego?"
"Because you deserve it."
I didn't move. I couldn't move. My body had just frozen on its own. Diego didn't leave either. He quietly sat beside me for the remaining twenty minutes left of visiting time.
"Diego," I called out when the visiting time was over. "It's not too late yet."
"What?" Diego looked back at me, confused.
"It's not too late to make your wish come true," I explained. "You can kill me. Right here, right now. It would save us both a lot of trouble."
"Lili-" he started, his eyes wide with shock.
YOU ARE READING
Rheostat
Teen Fiction"It's not what we are but what we do that defines us." Aylin Black has come to believe that she deserves all the misfortunes life throws at her. Yet she refuses to back down. At least not without a fight. But as her past comes knocking at her door s...
