The Ties that Bind Me Book 1

Strange Awakening

I don't know how long I was out or even where I was but I could hear whirring and the sound was causing such extreme pain. I moved to rub my eyes but my hands wouldn't reach. The dangling of chains made me quickly open my eyes and look around, I was in a room chained to a floor. The whirring noise seemed louder and it took me a moment to understand that I was in an aircraft. I could hear whispered voices around me speaking in a language I didn't understand. I listened as much as I could but I didn't understand a word of what was said. The sound was harsh and very quick but as they saw me thrashing around two came over and spoke with me.

لا أنت مجرد علاج؟ (Aren't you just a treat?) the first one said, looking me in the eye. He knelt down and looked harder into my face and then looked at his partner. The young man looked at me and I must have flinched for me smiled at me before talking to me.

هل تعرف حتى ما أقوله لك؟ (Do you even know what I am saying to you?) He then looked straight into my face. This time I didn't flinch back or move away even though every muscle in my body wanted me to run away.

"I am sorry, I don't understand what you said." I tried to make my voice even, to show no fear, hide behind a mask that I used so well with my father yet the fear was just too much.

"Ah so you speak English, well then this is a treat now isn't it, I am sure that Ghassan will find you to be even more of treat. Are you hungry?"

His matter of fact disposition didn't really help to ease my fear in all actuality even though I was starving I was afraid to eat anything. "No thank you sir, I am fine."

His thick accent washed over me as he spoke again and his voice was not kind this time. "You will eat before you get to where you are going. If you are not well cared for then Ghassan will have my hide. So eat what you are given and take what you given, for once you get to Ghassan's care you will have to fend for yourself. You will do as you are told or you will be punished most severe."

I looked at him and my mask faltered. "Sir I just want to go home, I want to go back to my life. What does this Ghassan want with me, I am a nobody."

"Tell me girl, what is the last thing you remember before you got here?"

I thought back to what happened in the car, when my father was driving me and the last comments he made. "My... my father was taking me to Harvard, I was going to get my business degree, he got a phone call, started to act funny and then knocked me unconscious. What does my father have to do with this?" I couldn't think straight as many things ran through my head. How? Why? and so many other questions ran through my mind.

The taller man looked at me again and his voice held a note of remorse. "Your father was on the wrong end of many business deals with very nefarious characters such as our boss Ghassan. In exchange for those debts to be repaid he had to offer something of such value, a gift that Ghassan would want. I guess your father found you to be the best payment there was. You are a bit on the small side, but I think that we can make use of you. I don't approve, but I can only do as my Master commands of me.

I thought for a moment. "What if you tell them my father never paid you, that you never saw me? Couldn't you do that, all I want is to make a life for myself, my father never loved me. He never cared about any of us in the family, thought of us as overly emotional and a burd-." I didn't need to finish my sentence, I knew exactly why I was there. My father figured since I was not going to follow him I was of no use so he sold me, used me and for that he would pay. I would make him pay until the day I drew my last breath. I looked down and saw a bowl in front of me, I shook my head and let the tears fall. I felt my head being pulled back and my ears started to ring as the hand crossed my face.

I felt the pain sear through me and into my head, I couldn't move my hands to wipe my face, but I composed myself and looked up defiantly. His eyes looked through me as if I didn't even exist and said "I told you, you will do as you are told or you will be punished. Don't make me break you here Ghassan wouldn't appreciate me breaking his new toy before he got to try it out. Don't do something you will come to regret. Now eat, I won't ask you again. I can promise you that this will be a long trip unless you start to learn humility. You Americans take so much for granted so consider this your hardest learned lesson in your history."

At that thought I started to cry.