Smiling Like It's My Last

C H A P T E R 1: the pain

 I can hear the screams as they course throughout the warehouse, at least I think it's a warehouse, I'm not precisely sure.

Everyday it's a new scream, if not the same one, from the previous day because it never ended.

The chains on my ankles burn more than yesterday but i'm used to it by now so it doesn't burn that much, the chains on my wrist however have the same amount of pain as all the pain I have on my body doubled and combined together.

I hear footsteps coming down the hallway that I'm in so I try to go as quietly as I can to the corner of my spot.

I guess that didn't matter because before I know it, I'm being pulled out of the corner and my chains are unlocked from the wall.

I don't even bother with pleading, it doesn't matter to them, it just amuses them more.

I start being dragged down the corridor by the end of the chains so they dig into my wrists more.

Finally we reach "the" room and I'm tossed inside. I already know the procedure so I don't even bother trying to bang on the door or ask silly questions like "what's going on?" 

The rags that are my so called "clothes" are ripped off my body and I'm pulled and chained to the chair in the middle of the room. Soon enough it begins.

The needles, the slices, the drainage of blood begins. I don't even bother with the screams or pleads anymore.

Everything done to me, I feel it all, but it doesn't bring anymore pain. The only time it actually brings me pain is when they add this weird thing, which they also have coated on my wrist chains.

I don't know exactly what it is, I just know it really hurts me.

I'm kept in that room for a few hours and by the end, my body is all limp. They start to drag me again, back to my area. Im shoved inside, but before the man goes he opens my mouth and shoves water for me to drink, then stuffs in a piece of bread.

With the "food" they give us, all of us are nothing but skin and bones.

I already know after that i'll black out soon enough, but before I do, I hear a voice coming from the other side of my cell.

The cells have bars in the front but from the sides they're blocks of cement.

"You didn't let them break you! that's good sissy! don't let them please.." I already know before I black out that it's my younger brother who is just 7.

Whenever I black out for some reason its not actually black. Everything around me is bright white and anything I imagine forms before me. This is my safe place where I create the story that I would have preferred instead of the one I'm living.

When my mother had just given birth to my brother and I was just 8, our house got broken into and both of our parents were killed. In just an instant they were gone and my brother and I were left without parents.

They brought us to this place and we have never been able to leave it since that day. At first they let us be together with a lady that was also hold captive in here, but once any person turned 8 they didn't mind doing what they had to do.

That's when they started to torture me as well as the others.

Many children, teenagers and women are locked up in here. My brother will soon be turning 8 and I don't want to see him go through that pain. He's still allowed to be with the lady that takes care of him even though most of the time it's him taking care of her.

One day out of every 2 weeks we are allowed a bath. That's when I get to see my only family member for a while before we're taken away from each other again.

That's how I have managed to let him know that we're family.

One day I promise that I will get us ALL out here and back to living a normal life.

As i'm blacked out I am taken to my safe space again.I start to imagine that I'm currently in an average size house and i'm still with my dad and mom, and my little brother.

We're currently all together in the living room watching s movie and eating popcorn as if it was all a reality, my parents turn and look at me and give me the warmest smile ever.

I smile back at them and my brother is there running around being an average 7 year old and being goofy as much as he wants.

He trips over one of the pillows and head bumps the floor, but nothing too bad. We laugh and he just looks at us with a playful glare.

He grabs the pillow that he tried on and starts hitting dad with it, we all look at each other and already know whats going to happen after this.

"This is WAR!" screams mom and then we all start to run to get more pillows. Dad is the first one to arrive at the room and get pillows, he hits my brother with one first, and knocks him to the floor.

My brother starts to laugh as he's rolling on the floor trying to get away from the war zone.

When dad isn't looking and about to go for mom, I go behind and hit him with my pillow.

He slowly turns around and looks at me with a playful evil glint in his eye. As he's about to go ahead and hit me with his pillow, mom comes to rescue as I did for her and hits him with the pillow.

Before my dad can go ahead and react she jumps on top of him and makes him fall down.

I go ahead and jump on top too making it less easier for him to get up, my brother soon follows and we're all laughing by the end.

Before we can even realize it he picks us all up, and throws us on the couch and jumps on top of us.

We all continue laughing until out of nowhere a huge bang is heard.

I look in front of me and my father has been shot right through the head. His eyes still remain open from the previous moment.

We all scream and my mother starts hurrying us up the stairs. She's crying while screaming to "go, go, go!". My brother and I start to panic and keep running up the stairs. Soon enough we hear a shriek to see my mom get a knife thrown at her back. I almost fall down from the shock but I manage to keep running.

I turn back and I see that some wolves have been released and are tearing my mom to shreds.

"Mommy no!" I hear my brother scream, I see his intentions to go back so I quickly pick him up and continue to run with him on my back.

The stairs are never ending and it feel like torture to keep running.

"You can run, but you can't hide!" I hear an unknown voice call out.

I continue to run what feels like hours upon hours. But just as I finally see something my brother is ripped from my back. They grab him by his hair and my brother looks at me with fear and pain in his eyes.

As soon as I see that I try to run to him, but somebody is holding me back. Before I even blink I see the head of my brother get sliced off.

I fall down to the floor and scream to my lungs give out on me.

I jolt up in fear, and realize it was all a dream, it was all just a dream.

I look up and I pray that this hell will end soon, I can't keep going on "living" like this.

I curl myself in a ball and get the small blanket that had been given to me and cover myself as much as I can. I close my eyes and then I let the sleep take me in, finally resting for a while.