Authors note: Welcome to my second try on a story, lets not talk about the first one tho. Once more, before you start to read please be aware that this story is handling very dark and mature themes. Otherwise, please enjoy this dark journey.
??? Pov_______________________________________________
Pain, it was our omnipresent companion. Alongside the cold and hunger which burdened our bodies this was all we knew, pain and sadness, suffering and regret. Battered and bloodied, covered in bruises we were laying there in our own small world, no clothes covering us, no warmth in reach. Shivering, all we could do was embracing each others small and wounded bodies while looking outside our small world consisting of a cage.
It had been months already, maybe just days but for us it felt like an eternity. Getting barely enough food to stay conscious through all these many hours of pain and humiliation. Each evening we got taken out of our cage, we were then taken to the strange brown haired, green eyed leader, a mage. At the first day we were simply scared, even when the guards closed in on us and ripped our garbs to shreds on his sign. We, at least I did feel the humiliation and shame to be stripped to nude in front of so many, but soon enough the fear outweighed the shame by far.
After we stood naked in front of him and his many guards his gaze wandered around our bodies, it felt like a farmer who inspected his cattle. With an expressionless face he gave another nod to the shabby armored guards, on his command they proceeded to push me on my knees, holding my upper body upright. Then his hand touched me above my heart, even before I could question his action it began. A searing burning pain shot into my body, spreading from his hand all over me. I began to scream and cry in pain, I even begged him to make it stop. But he simply kept going for a long time.
Only after my body had reached it’s limit and was nearly collapsing he did stop. At that point my body was weak and cold, all I could do was keep kneeling while being held down by the guards, not even having the strength to swallow my saliva anymore. Then he did the same to Aria and little Rain, for a long time I could only watch them winding in pain, screaming, crying and begging like I had before them.
For many days this cycle repeated, sleeping, waking up, eating barely enough to stay alive, getting tortured, returning to sleep while hugging each other. But as to not let our minds and bodies get used to that all, soon a change came. After another of this cruel hours with the mage something different was happening, we were not taken to our cage. Instead we were taken and brought over to the fire burning in the middle of the camp, hope was blossoming in our tiny hearts for but a fleeting painful moment.
Oh how we had yearned for the warmth of fire, how we had missed the warm touch of this bright flame. But soon the hope was shattered and replaced by despair, first was Aria, she was ten like me and a gentle child at that point. But this night something broke in all of us. They held us down near the fire so we were forced to see what was going to happen.
After that one of the guards began to drop his pants with a for us strange expression on his face, I did not know what was going to happen to her. But I screamed, I struggled with all my might and bit on the arms holding me down, my reward were painful knife cuts through my face and on my back. How I despised this pain, this suffering I couldn’t help it, I simply began to cry like the child I was. But for those slavers, our guards it seemed to just excite them more. They made me and little Rain watch as the one without pants spread Aria’s legs to forcibly enter her, the whole time we needed to watch Aria scream in pain, seeing her expression, her struggle as one after another took a turn on her.
I tried to comfort Aria but she didn’t even do so much as to turn towards me when I spoke. After a while I started to try my luck with Rain. I scooted over to her side of the cage where she sat facing the outside. I called to her for minutes but there was no response. Eventually I decided to go up and turn her towards me. Like Aria, she was left broken. Her eyes diluted, no life in them whatsoever. I would try and get her to speak, but she simply stayed silent. Occasionally out of the corner of my eye, I would see Aria looking into our direction, simply watching. Minutes turned into hours as I began to lose hope. Be it from exhaustion, from the torture or simply from my tiredness, I eventually dozed off. When dawnlight finally shined I awoke to see Aria sleeping in the same corner and Rain where she was before.
The next day was the same, again we were taken to the strange mage, once more we felt hours of pain there, only to be taken by the guards afterwards. That day it was Rain, our little Rain who was only eight at that point. Again I had to watch, this time with Aria. Her crying, her pain, her suffering it was all burned in my eyes, pictures and memories I would never be able to forget. Once again I struggled, I somehow managed to free myself that time, with all my rage and hate I ran up to the guard hurting Rain, trying to hit him, to hurt him.
But before I could even reach there, I was hit with something in the back of the head and everything turned dark, when I woke again the world was growing dark once more already. Once more it was time for our meeting with this silent mage, at that point despair began to change, every time I closed my eyes I would only vividly see those scenes of Aria and Rain being hurt in front of me, while I simply laid there helplessly and weak only able to let it happen.
I could not help but feel unending hatred and frustration, frustration at this situation, at our parents dying and not protecting us. Hatred towards those broken promises of our parents to always protect us and at us being unable to escape. But above all hatred towards myself, towards my weakness, just being able to watch. I was all the time just watching, burning those images into my mind. Those days continued for a long time like this, first we were taken to the mage to get our daily treatment of pain, afterwards the guards would take us with them to satisfy themselves hurting us. Days turned into weeks and then into months. For a while I simply lost count as every passing second was filled with nothing but agony.
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People always said once you get used to something it is not so bad anymore, but that was a lie told to children, to naive children who do not know true pain. For nothing changed, nothing got easier, it just grew harder and harder to stay alive. The only thing that changed in all that time were we three. Aria began to grow cold, not her mind for she nearly never spoke anymore, but her body.
No matter what I did, no matter if I and Rain held her body at night. Her body just grew colder and colder with each passing day while Rain simply lost her voice. Rain no longer was the cheerful child that she was, only a husk of her former self.
It was a deafening silence in our little world from that day on. She simply stared out of our little world, looking at the stars at night or watching the birds landing on our cage.
Maybe I was the only one who didn’t change, maybe I simply couldn’t for somewhere deep down I wanted to protect those two. Even after I had failed like this, even after all those torturous hours of pain and suffering, even while feeling this despair, this hatred and weakness all I wanted was to protect the two of them no matter the cost. But no matter how much I wished upon the stars, nothing changed. Weakness, pain, despair, hatred, hunger, coldness, those always present emotions and feelings were all that was left for me. Each time I had struggled, each time I had tried to protect, each of those times our punishment was just harder.
The girls would have to endure more and even I had to endure their game sometimes, but my mind was already numb to those things at that point. But I still felt the knives and whips dancing across my body each time I had tried to stand up to them, long scars and wounds were decorating all of my body at that point. Even my face had gotten long scars, but those scars were what held me together, for they were the proof of me being still alive. The proof of me trying to protect those I have left, even if we were not related by blood, our bond was running deeper than blood, a bond crafted in pain and suffering.
But near death, the tiny flame of which hope burned in my chest, which had already died for Aria and Rain began to die within myself as well. I simply could no longer hold on to the hope of escape, it was a strange feeling, foreign and scary. But at the same time there was a blissful feeling to it. Simply accepting the reality of this whole situation. Perhaps I thought it would lessen the pain. Long since I had forgotten the face of my parents, Aria and Rain were probably the same. All we could remember were pain and suffering, those two even more so than me.That was the reason why I simply wanted to give up like that.
Somehow we stayed alive all this time, I simply was not allowed to die, neither would they let the girls die. There were days where my thoughts lingered on the idea of death. My soul free from all the pain but I would always remember Rain and Aria. The thought of leaving them alone was scarier than death. Rage mixed with frustration in those nights, and this mix turned into despair and hatred. All I wished for was to get out, be free, be away from this place. Those were the nights where I would hit the cage bars with all my might, I would scream and cry and later even beg while sobbing. But no one answered my plea, only darkness and silence.
At those nights it was Rain who would embrace my back and cry together with me, even if she was silent all the time, at those times she would actually give me comfort and strength to keep going. Aria was always coming close to rest her head on my shoulder then till we fell asleep with faces covered in tears.
It was once more such a night, a dark and cloudy night, it was cold and we were holding each other after another such breakdown, sharing the little warmth our bodies could produce. Only that this night was different as a shadow creeped into the clearing of the forest, I could not help but stare at it through the darkness. It was something I had not seen before, it were always the same guards, the same mage. But now someone new actually crept closer to the slavers, just for a moment a tiny flame of hope was welling up inside me just to be instantly extinguished by my mind.
It was stupid to have hope, it was just frustrating and painful to get all your hopes up just to get em shattered moments later. This was probably just another slaver, maybe someone they knew, but anyway it would mean just one more person to hurt me, Aria and Rain tomorrow. It was only one more person to bring us pain, maybe a new pain but still just pain and suffering, nothing was gonna change with this one person. Rage filled my mind once more at the perspective of seeing the girls being hurt even more, but there was nothing I could do.
Just as I wanted to close my eyes to ignore the shadowy figure, it looked towards us. Maybe, just maybe I thought, maybe there was still hope, or at least finally salvation in death for all three of us. But the shadow was not coming closer to us, instead its figure blurred in the shadows. My last hope was finally extinguished. I simply looked back at the girls and lied down, awaiting whatever suffering our fate would bring us next.
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Authors note: Please be aware that this is just an prologue. It will continue for probably one more chapter like this. The length will increase after the prologues, so don't be angry with me for having such short chapters. If you have found mistakes you are free to notify me of them, I will gladly try to learn from them to get better at what I am doing.