Haunting Pasts

F O U R

The body suffers pain and torture in hopes to attain the solace of achievement which alludes like a mirage

~M . Asim Nehal

~~~~~

Darkness.

It was all around her.

Black.

The darkness that she was almost happy to be in , she was certain that when her eyes saw the light she would miss the comfort the dark provided.

The air smelled like blood , dried blood or fresh blood either her's or the blood of one of the other 19 children in the small , hot , cramped cell.

She was starving it had been days since she even had a drop of water much less a taste of food. She couldn't even remember the last time she had even taken a shower , dry blood stuck to her dirty hair ,her body was much worse not a part of it was spared from the cruel beatings and torture she endured nearly every day.

Her body was completely covered in scars and open wounds she was sure would get infected in these horrible conditions, the most she had gone was about a week of no beatings and some of her cuts and bruises were beginning to heal just for them to be turned into blisters as boiling hot water was poured onto her battered body. She had made the mistake of asking for a hot shower because it was winter but in a cruel way she got exactly what she asked for.

Tessa Aloisio Curled up in a corner of the eerily silent cell praying to God that everybody else was still alive and that she wasn't alone with a bunch of corpses.

Loud footsteps echoed through the silent corridors as well as the sound of jingling keys ,  fear paralyzed her small body when the footsteps stopped infront of the big iron door separating her from her nightmare , the clicking sound of it being unlocked echoed through her eardrums.

Oh no they're back.

Light poured into the room letting her eyes scan over the corpses that scattered the dirty concrete floor only now realizing that the horrible smell was coming from the bodies that were beginning to rot. she was right she would much rather stare into the darkness than look at all the young lifeless kids , but she wasn't crying ,as much as she hated it seeing a dead body was nearly an everyday occurrence.

Only four kids including her were alive " You just won't die won't you " the man in black growled at her, dissatisfaction clear in his voice as he told the four kids to stand up.

As much as Tessa tried to her body just couldn't. Pain shot through every part of her body screaming for her to lie back down and close her eyes and never open them again. Just as she was about to collapse two of the other kids helped her up saving her from another harsh punishment she definitely would have gotten, they put both her arms over their shoulders and holding her up by the waist helping her walk.

Each step was pure agony for the 14 year old girl trying to hold back her tears as they followed the black clad man into the disgustingly filthy bathrooms "you have 10 minutes to shower and get dressed " he said as he put down the clean-ish clothes for them to change into , toothbrushes with a small tube of toothpaste and four bars of soap.

Barely being able to stand as the cold water ran down her back wetting her long hair aswell. lathering her hands with the soap that was given she ran them through the length of her long brown hair trying to wash out all the dried clumps of blood then went onto the rest of her body hissing as the bar of chemicals came into contact with her torn skin painfully scrubbing off all the blood and dirt from her extremely delicate skin.