Project #785

.:. Chapter One .:. 'Till I See You Again .:.

The freshman class at Begriasia high school was going on normally. It was language arts, and Maria smiled, looking over at her boyfriend, Tomohiro. Tomohiro smiled back to his love, then stood up from his seat. Class had ended early, so he was going to go over to talk to Maria when an announcement rang through the school. "Lockdown, lockdown, lockdown!"

The students looked at their teacher, confused. Was this a drill? But they had just had one recently. So this was the real thing? What would anyone want to do with their little school? The students huddled in a corner, while the teacher covered the windows and locked the doors. Everything was quiet. But that only lasted a few minutes. There was a knock at the door. No one answered. Another knock. "Open the fucking door," they heard someone curse, then nothing. Maria furrowed her brow. It sounded familiar, the male on the other side of the door. She felt something warm on her hand and looked down to see Tomohiro's hand on hers. She smiled to him, and he smiled back. But she could see the fear in his eyes. 

A loud bang. The door opened and three men came into the class. Two of them had guns. "Maria, where is Maria?" one of the gunned men asked. "Like I'd ever tell you," the homeroom teacher snapped, and the other gunned man pointed the gun at her. Maria stood up quickly. "Stop! I'm Maria," she said. She was trying to be brave, but she was so scared... She recognized the men. They had been outside her house, talking to her father. "Maria, no," Tomohiro whispered, trying to pull her down. Maria smiled to her love, then crouched down. "Don't worry, I'll be okay. Just watch over yourself, I'll see you soon," she told him, then touched his cheek, and leaned forward. Their lips touched, and both of them felt as if they could fly. That was their first kiss. 

Maria stood, then the men dragged her out of the class. "What is it that you want with me?" she asked. The one man that had no gun chuckled, turning, and looking at the girl. He had dark brown hair, and his eyes were a vivid green. He wore a lab coat. Even though he looked pretty normal; besides the lab coat, she was terrified of him the most. "Your father sold you to use, my dear. But don't worry, we won't hurt you," he told her, then smoothed her long, light brown hair down. She stared at him, and soon, they dragged her out of the building and into a minivan. They drove deep into the woods near her house, then pulled into a hidden garage. 

One of the buff men picked Maria up, slinging her over his shoulder. She did not fight. She knew she had no chance. They walked her into a small house, then went down into the basement. In the basement, it was empty. It was just a white room. No, it had a chair in the middle of the room. and a small table next to that, the kind that is usually next to the large dentist chair. The man sat her down, then chained her ankles and wrists. 

And that is where she stayed. 

Three years later. 

Maria sat in her usual chair. Her feet chained to the legs of the chair, and one of her wrists were chained to the back of it. The other wrist was in the hands of the doctor. The man with the dark brown hair in vivid eyes, the man she now had nightmares about. The doctor smiled to her, then took a syringe from the table next to her. He injected the blue fluid that was in the syringe into her arm, and Maria quickly felt as if she was burning from the inside out. She bit her lip, trying hard not to scream. The doctor looked up at her and frowned. "Scream," he commanded, stabbing her abdomen with the now empty syringe. She let out the scream that she had been holding back.

The doctor smiled. "That's a good girl," he said, going behind her and chaining her other wrist to the chair. She was crying due to the pain she felt. "Now, I'm going to go make your dinner."

Maria sat in her chair, sobbing, after the doctor left. Every day he would inject something new into her. If she didn't scream, he would make her scream. She had wounds all over her, and even the doctor was surprised at the fact that she was still sane. That's why he liked her. She was interesting. Somehow she was still sane, for some reason she would hold back her screams. And for some reason, on that day three years ago, she didn't fight back when they had taken her.

"I wonder... What Tomohiro is doing," Maria said out loud. When the doctor was gone, she would wonder about Tomohiro. "Did he move on...? Did he forget about me...? I wonder if he still lives in that same house," she continued. "...I need to see him..."

With those words, the chains that bound her wrists and ankles snapped. She stood slowly and looked around with dead eyes. She looked up at an air vent, then gave a nod to herself. She pushed the chair under the vent, climbed onto the chair, and opened the vent. After climbing into the vent, she closed it once again. She followed the vent, trying her best to stay quiet. Maria didn't even know what she was doing. "I need to see him, I need to see him," she repeated to herself. "It's been how long now since I have seen him?"

After finally finding the vent exit, she ran through the woods. But once she got to the edge of the woods she stopped and looked down at herself. The stupid doctor had taken her clothes when they had gotten to small and she complained about them. "I can't go out like this," she told herself, "I wish I could just disappear from people's view..."

Like magic, her body disappeared. "Wha-... What's going on?" she asks, looking around. After some hesitation, she gave out a sigh and walked to her old house. She simply walked in, no one even notized. And her room... It was just how she remembered it. She stood there in her old room for some time, then went into her dresser and grabbed some clothes and threw them on. But they didn't disappear like her body had, so she looked like a floating white sundress, some sandals that walked on their own, and a floating sun hat. Maria's body slowly faded back into vision and she opened her window, climbing out and running off. The sundress and the sandals fit pretty well, because her parents had bought it a few sizes too big when they had bought them. She ran for some time, holding onto her hat, until she reached the house. 

The house that Tomohiro had lived in oh so long ago... She walked up to the door and gave a soft knock. After a few moments of waiting, a teenage boy answered the door. Black hair, blue eyes, it was Tomohiro. Maria gave a smile, trying to hold back her tears. Tomohiro stared at her. "Maria...?"

It was barely a whisper, but she heard it. She tackled him into a bone-crushing hug. "Tomohiro, I told you that I would see you soon, didn't I?" she questioned. Tomohiro gave a nod, wrapping his arms around her small frame. "Yes, you did..."