ESCAPE

Memories

All of my life had been spent running. Every other month we moved to a new place and erased every trace of our existence from where we had been. Nothing was left behind and nothing was left unchecked. But I had my memories of each place. That could not be erased. I remember when I was five and we had hidden in an abandoned apple grove. For months we ate nothing but apples and rabbit. I could live my life off of those apples.

When I was ten we were in a rainforest. God that was horrible. The bugs were everywhere and everything was dangerous. But it was beautiful. There were so many colors and different creatures. We had met up with some indigenous women and a few men who traveled the area. The had kept us safe and taught us to survive.

"Remember Asteria, not all men are against us and not all women are with us. Never trust anything hear or see. Only trust what you feel"

Those words belonged to one of the indigenous women. She was a cameo and could blend into the jungle effortlessly. Even her breaths and voice sounded like the forest. She had treated me like a daughter and had offered for me to stay with her. I had refused and that is something I will forever regret, but I didn't belong there. I could feel that I didnt.

When I was fifteen I was hiding with my group in the mointains. There was a village nearby full of men, women, and children. They all loved together freely and I found their way of life perfect. There was a harmony of family among them Halfway through the first month of hiding there an army of men came. I watched them take the mothers and daughters to be sold in the cities. The sons were brought with the army men and the father's were left in the dirt dead. We moved two days after we were sure the soldiers had gone. A whole peaceful world destroyed and we were the only witnesses. It hadn't been a fair fight and many women had died alongside the men. But they were outnumbered, outgunnes, and vulnerable. We all were.

I didn't ever connect to the women I traveled with. We watched out for each other, but everyone had their own scars. Many sought comfort in small groups or couples, but others like me were loners. We conducted ourselves like a tribe by voting on decisions. The older women had more say, but each woman could speak her mind. If one of us wanted to leave we let her go and moved. If someone wanted to join we voted on it. Only Marie, an old grey woman who had once been banshee, was considered close to me. She had helped raise me when my mother had died, but she let me make my own choices. She was like a grandmother to all of the women and as the oldest of us she acted as the head of our group. When I had been captured I was nineteen and she had been the one to scream for us to run. She used the last of her powers to warn us.

Everyone I know is gone. Erased away like the tracks we left behind as we hid from the world. There was nothing of me left behind in the world. I had taken nothing and given nothing. All I had were memories of freedom and there was nothing I could do to erase those. Freedom was the only thing keeping me alive. Now that it was gone the memories haunt me. I didn't fight to stay in the places I love or for the people I cared about, but freedom was worth dying for.

"Time to wake up princess." A man called