ACRO

In Our Story

Sam and Youssef lay awake, in the early hours of the morning, the sky displaying a calming hue of indigo, sparkling with a span of stars.

She lay right next to him, her eyes on the ceiling. He watched her, silently, his palm laying beneath his head, on the pillow.

"Why do you hate it when I call you by your real name?" he asked.

Her head turned to look at him.
"That's not who I am, anymore." she said.

"Why not?"

Her gaze averted.

"What happened?"

Her eyes lowered, as memories flashed in her head.

"It was the last phase of my training." she started.

"Ian wanted to test my limits. How far I could go if I were stimulated by emotions." she said.

"A psych evaluation?" asked Youssef.

"Something like that." she said, her eyes fixed on the ceiling.

"I was put in a circle of fire, with a few hostages. I was drugged. My vision wasn't clear at first when they removed the hoods off the heads of the hostages. But when I could see clearly,"

She paused for a moment.

"It was my family."

His eyes remained locked on her, filled with intrigue.

"Here." said Ian, throwing a gun towards her, from the other side of the fire.

She caught it, in confusion, looking around her. She blinked her eyes, straining them to see the officials and fellow trainees, standing outside the ring of fire, watching her quietly, against the background of the night sky. The drug dilated her pupils, restricting her vision to the to ring she stood within, hazy and unclear with the increase in proximity.

"Finish it." said Ian, making her look at him in shock.

"We'll take care of the bodies. No one will know it was you."

She exhaled deeply.

"He told me it was my chance to take revenge."

Youssef's gaze intensified as he listened.

She looked at her family, anger surging in her.

"Did you even care that I was gone?" she asked.

"Or were you glad the burden was off your shoulders?"

She walked to and fro, watching them with disgust in her eyes.

"Are you proud of yourselves?" she hissed, walking towards them.

"You," she shouted pointing the gun at her mother.

"For hating me without reason."

"You," she pointed at her sister.

"For refusing to know me in public. ME, the reason your fucking hymen is intact," she muttered through gritted teeth.

"And you!" she pointed at her father, the gunpoint against his forehead.

"For planning to marry me off to my rapist?"

She spat on the ground.

"How could you do this to me? You were my family!" she screamed, in anger mixed with pain.

"What happened, then?"

She exhaled, her eyes moving up to the ceiling.

"I pointed the gun at them. First, mom. Then I moved it to my father. And then Monica, and back at Mom."