Escaping Ethan's Clutches (Ruining Innocence Vol 1)

Chapter 16- Full Chapter

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The greatest tragedy of life is that once you've suffered misery, the trauma inaugurated from it takes you back to the same experience plenty of times, bleeds open your wounds anew, and relishes at the sight of you falling apart all over again.

-Maryam
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There were times when Maryam wished she had died. And all of them were from the repercussions of meeting him. Even when her father had died, and she had witnessed his dead body being taken away for burial with her tear-filled orbs, she hadn't wished for death. Not once. Not until she met him.

And even though her perfect little world was shattered upon her father's death, she was filled with so much hope, the hope that she'd reunite with him in another realm, in Jannah (Paradise) where they'd never have to separate from each other. Her heart was still fine, even when it cried, reminiscing about her father.

But that day, that night..., she had hoped she was dead before she let him touch her. She had wished she was dead when he let himself inside her house, set to take her against her will. Something she didn't think she had anymore..., freewill. She was unwillingly enslaved by him whilst God created her free. She was unwillingly thrusted into the criminal world whilst God brought her into this world as the daughter of a pious man. Righteous and honorable, whom she was completely inspired by.

Death, to her began to feel like her closest friend. It became a medicine that promised to cure all her problems. She cherished the thought of it and even embraced it fully, only to come back to life, to suffer all over again.

At this point though, she was not only stripped off of her freedom but almost stripped off of her honor. Sure, physically her honor was still intact, but her soul was drained. Her honor was sucked out of her by him like a parasite living off of her life source. That's what he was. A parasite.

Was it too much that she had somehow begun to smile again? Begun to laugh. Begun to hope. Begun to dream? Was it too much to ask for?

Just a day ago, it seemed to her like the whole world was in the palm of her hand. She felt free. She could taste the freedom at the tip of her tongue and glide her fingers through it, the warmth reminding her of the soft feathers of a bird. But now, with her face plastered against the metal, she was pulled back into the harsh reality. Her reality was that she had nothing at all...

She never did.

It was just a mirage, an illusion that her mind had conjured up for her, a form of escape.

This, however, this exact moment was her reality, where the horror of her life stood behind her, surrounding her from all sides with the heat of his body fiercely invading her space, spread throughout her body, until she was completely entrapped, plastered between the locker and him, such that she didn't exist at all. It was either him or nothing at all. His ability to render her mind, body, and soul frozen has not shriveled even slightly from the time he was away. She was trained well. She hated it.

"I said," his lips brushed over the curves of her right ear, while she could feel his left arm snaking around her waist, his fingers splayed over her abdomen, staking their claim, "breathe..."