Broken: A Legend Of The Seeker Fanfic

Amnesia

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Wow! This is a pretty long chapter, so I'm going to keep the note short. This part contains a scene from Akeela's past when she was almost raped by David, so if you know you are sensitive, you are fore-warned.
***

Akeela looked behind her, her breath coming out in quick huffs as she struggled against the wind. They hadn't followed her. Her heart jumped in relief and she had almost smiled when she bumped into something solid.

The impulse of the collision knocked Akeela to the ground and threw her glasses off her face.

"Sorry," she mumbled, as she groped around for her glasses. She had just spotted it when a hand reached out and grabbed it before she could. Her heart froze in her chest.

Those hands...

"You really should be more careful Akeela," Dave drawled, inspecting Akeela's blue wire-rimmed frames.
"You wouldn't want to break these now would you?"

"D-Dave," Akeela stammered. "I-I was just-."

"Running away?" Dave asked, raising an eyebrow. "It looks to me like you were running away."

In the confusion of the moment, Akeela hadn't realized that she was surrounded by David's goons.

"I'm n-not," Akeela stuttered. "I-I w-wasn't running away."

Dave rolled his eyes. "Grab her," he whispered. "We need more privacy."

"No!" Akeela screamed as one of the boys effortlessly pinned her hands behind her. "My father is getting suspicious! He'll find out. Please."

Akeela's dark skin mostly hid her bruises from prying eyes, but even her resilient skin could not hide her limps and occasional pained expressions from her father. This was why she had been avoiding Dave for two weeks; she had been giving her body time to heal, before she went for the medical check-up her father had scheduled the following week. She tried explaining this to Dave but he wouldn't listen; his goons just went on dragging her into a dark alleyway. Akeela lashed out and kicked the boy opposite her right in the face, splitting his lip. The boy, outraged by the fact that he was bleeding punched Akeela in the stomach, promptly stilling all her movements. When David's friends threw her into the alleyway, she doubled over in pain, trying not to be sick.
It was getting dark; her father would be worried.

"Two weeks," David growled. "Two bloody weeks, Akeela! Who the fuck you think you are?"

"I-I'm sorry, Dave," Akeela mumbled, squinting her eyes slightly to look around for anything she could use to fend him off. She'd have to get out of this somehow, she knew, with or without her glasses. Finally, her myopic gaze settled upon a stone and she grabbed it discreetly, turning it over in her right hand.

"You know what this means Akeela?" Dave asked, sliding Akeela's glasses into his pocket. "It means I'll have to hit you harder than ever. I really don't want to but you give me no choice."

I have one shot at this, Akeela thought, her left hand clutching, tightly, a pendant she had bought off an old merchant over the course of the week.

It's magic, he had said. It will take you anywhere, as long as you wish it.

Akeela knew it was silly to believe in magic, but what other choice did she have? She couldn't let Dave hit her before she went for the check-up. If anyone found out what Dave was doing to her, Dave had sworn he'd kill Marie. She couldn't let anything happen to Marie.

Akeela clutched the pendant harder in her fist.

It has to work. It just has to.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself, kid?" Dave asked.