The Sweet Nothings || ✓

'IT'S CALLED THE THIRD EYE EFFECT'

Xavier did not know what was up with Maia.

Though he knew that something serious had gone wrong but he failed to understand exactly what.

Why had she been ignoring him ever since that heated session between them?

Or why was she locked up inside her room most of the time and even she came out, she would stare in a distance?

Or why nothing seemed to get a reaction out of her?

He failed to understand anything but he still tried to talk to her, still tried to gain something, anything, even the slightest of reaction out of her.

But Maia wasn't noticing that. Instead she wasn't noticing anything at all. Her eyes seemed to look past everything nowadays.

All that she could see were those men, who kept laughing at her. All that she could hear were her screams and requests which were falling on deaf ears. All that she could feel were their hands all over her body, touching her in so many ways, corrupting her innocence until she felt numb.

Every second of the day, she could feel it happening to her, them taking turns while she screamed for mercy, and then in response they would simply do it to her.

Again. And again. And again.

But most of all, she could remember this one boy. The most merciless one. The one who laughed at her tears.

She could hear other people cheering him on while he ravaged her body.

"Charlie!"

"Charlie!"

"Charlie!"

They would chant while all she did was close her eyes and wait for the impact.

But something had also started happening.

She had started remembering now. Not just small things this time.

This time she remembered things that were necessary.

She remembers why there were marks of cuts all over her body.

She had done it to herself. All of them.

She had wanted to feel. She had wanted to know if something would ever hurt her again.

And it had. She had nearly bled to death, but something else had happened that had saved her. And that was the only 'something' that she couldn't bring herself to remember, no matter how hard she tried.

She remembers that she used to draw and the last thing that she had drawn had been a black rose. But she couldn't remember if she had finished it or not. Why had she drawn a black rose though? Why had it been significant to her?

"You can bring objects to life Mai. You can breathe life into the dead. You can make things come alive when you draw."

Maia knew that that answer somehow traced back to the 'mysterious girl' of her flashbacks.

She remembers that all of what had happened to her had something to do with Xavier. But what? She couldn't remember.

But most of all, the most important thing that she remembers now was Andrea.

"Andrea Francisco Oberain." Maia whispers to herself, again trying to draw out strength from that name. And it did happen.

This girl happened to be her strength. For some reason, another name kept popping up in her head when it came to her.