Amaya's Amaranth (Wattys2014)

Chapter 30: Fears Confirmed

Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.

-August Wilson

Amaya's POV

I woke up feeling my eyes burn. My head felt heavy and pain shot through my stomach. My limbs felt numb due to the lack of blood circulation. I was afraid I would lose the use of them. The room was yet dark with only the yellow light hanging over head. I knew I was running a fever but gathered my strength to scream. The muffled screams were heard and Bianca came before me. My head started throbbing even more due to the sudden rush of adrenaline. She smiled an evil smile and came towards me taking the gag out of my mouth. If it was possible to melt out of the chair, I would surelt have done that out of fear then.

" Wa-t-ter," I stammered.

She again gave a smile sending chills down my whole body, making my eyes burn more. She came with an ice box again and I shook my head, " Pl-please. I-I am r-r-running a fe-v-er. Please t-t-turn the f-f-fan off-ff at-le-least. "

She took two cubes out and thrust them in my mouth, gagging me before I could spill them out. She changed the position of the fan and brought it in front of me. I looked up at her, pleading with my eyes. My gag was again wet from the melted ice and my tears. I was getting restless. I needed to lay my head down. Every joint in my body ached like hell. As if I was being pierced with thousands of needles. And all she did was stand and watch. Pain shot through my stomach and I realised I had not eaten anything since I was made unconscious. My body was a wreck then. All I wanted was to go home and forget this nightmare. To be held by Sky as he would say that all this was a dream.

But I guess peace was something I had long lost.

All I had then was hope. Hope that I would be found soon. Hope that I would be rescued soon.

But for how long would the hope last? I had no idea what time it was, let alone the day. I was not given any food and I needed water. Not ice. Not mere two cubes of ice could fulfill the work of a glass of water.

I was shuddering due to cold. Hypothermia, could I possibly get that? I didn't know how long the fan was kept on. But whenever I would wake up, I would feel it buzzing beside me. Plus, it was winter which meant presence of electricity almost the whole day.

The pale faced guy came over, playing with his pocket knife. Bianca took it from him and came over to me with it. And without a second word, she slashed my thigh with it. I wailed out in pain but all they did was laugh.

How could they laugh when I was in so much pain? To add to the pain, the guy came over and rubbed the wound with his hand. The pain was too much to handle. I screamed much to their amusement.

Where was I? Why couldn't anyone hear my screams?

" You get what you deserve, bitch, " Bianca spat and went out along with the guy, leaving me all alone.

What had I done wrong? Was my try for helping a girl out a wrong decision? Should I have left her alone and watch as she ruined her life? Why was I being punished like this? Why was God letting this happen?

Somewhere out there people were celebrating life. And here I was, celebrating about being kidnapped. I knew I had to remain strong. I needed to cling on to my hope. Hope and prayer brought people back from the dead. I was not dead yet.

I looked down at the blood soaked salwar I wore. The gash was huge. I needed to cover it unless I wanted it to be infected. But I knew Bianca would never do that.

I needed a miracle to happen.

Help me God. Please.

My head began to throb more violently. I shut my eyes to get some sleep. But who could in the situation I was kept in?

My mom always used to say that I had a fragile body. That I was easily infected and that was true.

Dust and fur made me sick. At first it would be allergies and then, sick for the whole week.

And now? I was literally being kept in a freezer. It was astonishing, what people would do to get even.

I tried to think happy thoughts but even that seemed hard. After what seemed like hours, my head began to feel heavier and I drifted off again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sky's POV

Hey, heading back to Chittagong. Bye.

The moment I found this text from Amaya, the nagging feeling inside me intensified by a thousand times. It was nearly evening and the celebrations were about to start.

Why didn't you tell this to me before?

I waited for the reply but it never came. I called but was reward rewarded by the operator saying - The number you are calling is currently switched off.

Everyone around me was celebrating. I was ruining everything for Steve and Oliver but I couldn't help it. I promised that I would make it up to them on New Year's eve. But first I had to confirm if Amaya was home or not.

I rang up the one person I knew. Disha aunty.

" Hello? " the other side sounded.

" Disha aunty? "

" Yeah, Sky. Is everything okay? " she said surprised.

" Yeah well. Do you know if Amaya was supposed to go home today or not? "

" No, she wasn't. In fact she made her mom cancel her ticket. And as far as I know her, she doesn't know how to cut a ticket. "

" That's what I thought actually. Anyways, merry Christmas," I wished.

" Wait, are you saying Amaya is not there? " she said with an urgency in her voice.

" No, I - you see, " I racked my brain for an excuse. I should have planned this out.

" I just wanted to see if she went home coz she was all alone you know, " I said.

" Ow okay then. It's quite impossible for her to be here actually. "

" I'll catch you later then, " I said and hung up.

And then I did something I really shouldn't have. But I desperately needed a clue. A clue that would settle my doubts. A clue that might put my mind at ease.

I logged in on her mobile bank account. And the last withdrawal, an amount of Tk. 6500 on 1st December. Which summed up the house rent and maybe some side use of money. But a ticket didn't cost so less. A ticket didn't cost only 500 taka.

And that's when I realised completely.

Amaya was definitely in trouble.