Chewing on the apple in my mouth I start to feel my body fill up with energy.
“That should heal you up.”
From behind the man, I hear someone say, “You know if you sold those to us you would live in comfort for the rest of your life.” Looking past the man I see it was Tiburcio.
“Being comfortable and being fulfilled aren’t linked in the slightest.”
“Being fulfilled and being happy aren’t linked in the slightest my dear king,” Tiburcio says finishing his sentence with a bow.
“King?” I say shocked.
Turning back to me, he stands me on my two feet and says, “My name is Ahmed Abrahams, and from today on you're free.”
With disbelief, I say, “Your kidding, right?”
Tiburcio says, “He isn’t in the slightest, that fool has just bought all the slaves we had available for twice their market value.”
“What that pest said is correct, from this moment I have given you all freedom.”
Hearing this tears start to form in my eyes, “Looks like I can see you after all Tarina.”
Suddenly Tiburcio starts to laugh, and then he says, “No way, what are the chances!”
Turning to him, Ahmed says, “What are you on about?”
“I just realized something, and you might get to hear about it for the right price.”
“Another scam.”
“You can think that all you want but you will definitely regret it later.”
“Ok, then I will pay you whatever, just tell me.”
“I was just going to tell you that it would be messed up to only buy the husband and leave the wife.”
“What are you on about?”
Hearing this my mind goes blank for a moment. Seeing my despair Tiburcio smiles and says, “Just down the hall to my left.”
I run out of my cell and head down the long hallway. As I do I see the faces of people in their cells but my mind immediately deletes them as I run, the only thing my brain does is constantly repeat the words, “No way, no way, no way, no way.”
Using all of the energy I was given I run as fast as I can until I reach the end of the hallway. Seeing a cell in front of me, memories of my wife pass by in my head.
“Yamal your looking completely stunning today.”
“Yamal do you know all wonderbeast's poop smells like flowers.”
“Yamal, I can't wait to leave with you I am so excited.”
“Yamal I love you.”
Arriving in front of the cell, I see a decrypted woman, she has cuts and bruises all over her body, and her skin is as dry as a raisin but without a doubt, I can tell this is Tarina.
Falling to my knees I break down in tears. Running up to me Ahmed hugs me and says, “It will be ok, it will be ok.” But I can barely hear him.
Turning to Tiburcio, Ahmed says, “Who is she?”
“That would be Tarina, Yamal's wife apparently. About a week after we brought in the rest of you guys 3 and half years ago, we found her snooping around our compound and quickly detained her.”
Hearing this I freeze in terror and say, “She came here cause of me.”
“Most definitely. Funny how all this time you guys were only one 30-second run away from each other, that must be fate.”
As I cry even more intensely, Ahmed says, “Why the hell is she in such a state?”
“Well, a 30-something-year-old woman like her is basically valueless so no matter what happened to her it didn’t really affect our profits, but at the very least she did give us some amazing future profits.”
“What do you mean?”
As Tiburcio and Ahmed talk all I do is cry, but from behind the cell I hear someone say, “Don’t cry, Mommy said you should only cry in front of your family or friends.”
Looking up I see a little girl with a piece of cloth wrapped around her eyes.
“Who is this?” I ask with fright.
“That’s our amazing future profits, isn’t she adorable? This is Tarina’s daughter.”
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With a calm yet shocked voice, I say, “Her daughter?”
“I guess that also makes her your daughter considering she was pregnant when she arrived, but in all honesty knowing females she probably isn’t.”
Φ Using my legacy, I surround Tiburcio with chains and say, “Watch your tongue!”
“What are you going to kill me if I don’t? My 2nd seat title isn’t just for show and in your nearly sleep-deprived state do you think you even have a single chance of beating me.”
With fury building up in me, I utter, “LEGACY ADVEN-.”
“Stop for a second, and think about what you’re going to do. If you do that you could probably kill all of us here, but then my boss one of Gevurah's 1st seats will come to your little country and burn it to the ground, and then he will take his time enslaving all your precious citizens.”
Calming down I turn off my legacy, then Tiburcio says, “Good boy.”
Then from behind us someone runs up and says, “Tiburcio there is an issue.”
Φ With an energetic smile, she says “Are you my Baba, mama always told me about you.”
Seeing the girl that is my daughter in front of me I freeze up, I don’t know what to say, so my mind starts asking questions to make sense of this. “Why are you where that cloth?”
“Baba, Mama told me to wear this whenever the guards came because if I do baba would come to find us, So during certain times I wore this and put this stuffing in my ears,” She says talking off her covering.
Looking at her face I see a gorgeous little girl, who looks exactly like my darling wife. Bowing she says, “Mama told me to mind my manners.” Then with a big smile on her face, she says, “Nice to meet you, Baba!”
Slowly I stretch my hand out and through the bars a give her a hug while crying.
Φ As the man finishes informing Tiburcio, he says, “Never thought Cole would abandon his brother like that, but I guess the destroyer of the Animus family isn’t going to care much about bonds. Go fetch Lionheart for me.”
Turning to me, Tiburcio says, “Change of plans Ahmed, we have just made a huge loss and because of this the price of all prisoners will double, oh and if you want that little girl there it will be ten times the going rate.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“Hey, I think black girls are utterly gorgeous, so I think that is a good value for that child’s future potential. You know if you buy her, you could even take her as your wife in a couple of years.”
Enrage I grit my teeth and say, “Whatever price you want.”
“Thanks for doing business.”
Φ The man named Ahmed breaks the cage open and says, “Let's get them out of here.”
Talking off the cloth he is wearing he wraps the body of my wife as I pick my daughter, and we walk through the corridor. As we do around me, I see the crying and smiling faces of all the people who have been freed along the way but I just completely zone them out, and I say, “What’s your name.”
“Raqiue!”
“Raqiue is a beautiful name,” I say with even more tears.
When we all leave the compound, Ahmed gets in front of us all and says, “All of you are free from this moment on. But that isn’t enough in my opinion, you have no clothes, no money, and are all inflicted with wounds both in your bodies and your minds. Simply letting you go would be irresponsible, so all of you can come to my kingdom.
It might not be as familiar as home to some of you, but I can guarantee you will never go hungry, you will always have someone, and you will always be safe. A place without discrimination and hate where you will never ever be a slave again!
Though if you choose to leave, I will give you money to help you survive wherever you choose to go.”
Around me I see people wavering at the words of Ahmed, and I know why; it is too good to be true. A saviour appearing out of nowhere and liberating us all, most people have had to hold on to such hope to survive but now that it is right in front of them, they simply just cannot accept it.
But I already know my answer. I finally have freedom there is nothing stopping me from heading to Cordum and becoming an adventure, my body was broken but that apple has fixed me I feel like I could run all the way there by myself. What I want most is right in front of me and there are no barriers between me and reaching it.
Walking forward I shout, “Please let me come with you!” After I say this many others come forward and also request to be taken.
I can’t let my selfish dream eat up any more of the lights in my life. This innocent child born from my mistakes will not be swallowed up by them, in this moment Yamal and all he is dies. Goodbye, forever your delightful dream.
-Break-
With haste, we were all brought to his wonderful kingdom, and just like he said all our needs were taken care of. I was put in the most beautiful house I had ever seen with the clothes we were given being just as nice every day we ate hefty meals that filled our stomachs, and at the end of the day, we rested our heads on a nice bed.
The locals were wonderful and accepting, they all treated us like we care and they made a beautiful grave sight to bury our dead. So only a few days after we arrived, we held a ceremony for the passed.
Tears filled many eyes, even my precious daughter Raqiue who only just learned of her mother's passing. “Mama, Mama!”
As I stared at the grave all I could do was stand there holding Raqiue. I had cried enough tears over the last few days, and it seems they had all dried up. Not a tear remained.
And unforgivingly, time moved on. Raqiue went to school to learn while I just walked around Jedidiah wherever I wanted, I tried to look for work, but I was unable to motivate myself to do any it is like my mind rejected the very idea.
For many months my life went on like this. I would wake Raqiue up and talk to her about Tarina, then I would wake to school. Until she finished school I would walk around and talk to the locals about the jobs they were doing or I would visit the attractions across the town.
When school finished, I would pick her up and then together we would sit down and eat as she told me what happen. Then we would finish up our day by going to see one of the stories at night. Seeing the smile on her face when I tucked her into bed filled me with energy each day, I thought if the point of my life was to just do this I could go on. But then, the darkness crept up on me yet again.
Day after day I could feel something was wrong something was off, something was wrong. This feeling crept up on me like an assassin, but I ignored it and kept going, but it never ended so I used my only tool to wage war against alcohol.
Every day I drank to suppress it, but it grew more and more so I drank more and more. Though eventually I reached my breaking point and had to face the truth; I hated being here.
I hated being in this country, I wanted to go on an adventure and see the world I wanted to be able to see everything with the people who mattered most to me, but here I am living the life that my wife promised me I wouldn’t.
Even after all my failures that ended up consuming my wife, I still yearn for it; the life of adventure I always wanted. I am disgusting, from the bottom of my heart I have never felt more hatred than I do for myself.
As the days went, I felt the two opposing forces of my lust for adventure and my hatred for my existence clash again and again without victory, and eventually mentally fatigued by this battle all I could do was drink the pain away.
Laying on my desk surrounded by bottles, I say with a slurred speech, “Oh how I want to die.”