1 - The Dark Face Of Desire

Fireworks go off outside and today is January 1st, my birthday.

But while people celebrate, I can only hear the music, the screams and the laughter, lying on the ground, without the strength to get up.

I haven't eaten anything in three days and I'm so hungry that I'm starting to feel delirious, imagining myself eating a huge piece of birthday cake, with lots of whipped cream.

A tear falls from my eyes as I imagine myself eating without stopping. Suddenly, I see my mother smiling, encouraging me to eat more and that's when I woke up from my hallucination.

I look at the dusty ceiling of this attic and no thought crosses my mind, maybe they are not just weakening my body, maybe they are also managing to weaken my hope of leaving here.

I wake up to a bucket of ice water being thrown in my face.

It's so cold that I start to shiver and try to keep warm by curling up, while my tormentor looks at me, she is my uncle's wife.

"It's morning Sammy, what are you doing sleeping until this time? Go down and clean up the mess from the party and then make breakfast for the family!"

I shake my head, avoiding looking into her eyes. I don't do this because I feel afraid, but because sometimes we must play the enemy's game, to have an advantage. If I go downstairs to clean up the party mess, I'll be able to eat some of what's left.

Ágatha crouches down, roughly grabs my chin, making me look, and says:

"You know very well how you can get better treatment in this house, dear niece, tell me the password to the safe."

"I don't know the password, I told you!"

"Do you really think I believe it? I know you know. You're being stupid, Sammy. With the value of the jewelry in the safe, we can take you to a plastic surgeon and fix that ugly face of yours, but if you keep lying, I'll take it myself." take a knife and make some more scars on his face."

"I don't know the password.", I say succinctly, I will never believe her promises. They have already stolen all my inheritance, sold the land where my house stood, took the life insurance values, sucked everything they could, the only thing missing is the safe, which they cannot open in any way. But this, I won't let anyone steal from me, I know that inside there are many more things than jewelry, there are secrets destined to be revealed only to me.

Yes, my mother died in an arson fire, inside our own house and, when I was fourteen years old, my face was marked by burns.

After that, I ended up in the hands of my uncle's family and four years ago my life became hell due to their greed.

Yes, I know the password to the safe they want to open, but that is something that I repeat, I will never reveal.

"You know what? You don't deserve to enjoy some of our party. I'm not going to let you go down any further.", Ágatha says, moving away and showing disgust by looking at my face marked by burns.

"No, aunt! Please, let me get down... if I stay stuck here I'm going to die!", I beg, I'm so hungry that I think I'd eat anything they gave me.

"And what do I have with this? Tell me the password to the safe and you can go down!"

"I don't know the password.", I say and cower back in my corner, not even the desperation for some food will make me say it.

Ágata looks at me for a few moments and then she leaves, locking the door.

At some point I end up fainting from weakness. And at some point later I am awakened by kicks in my ribs.

"Oh, you're alive."

As my vision begins to focus, I see the annoying face of Pearl, my cousin.

"I'm glad you're alive, Sammy. I didn't want you to die before you saw that!"

She shows me her ring finger, with a diamond ring. She smiled happily, and continued to say:

"It turns out that I was proposed to by the mayor's son and now, no one wants that jewelry from your mother anymore. I'm going to get much more expensive jewelry from my fiancé."

She kneels down and rubs that diamond on my scarred face, scratching my skin, and expressing a sickly smile.

I try to move and slap this bastard in the face, because if I'm really going to die, I can't die without this. However, I can't lift my arms, my body has given up fighting, only my mind is still strong.

"Sammy, dear. Nobody needs you anymore and now, your life is worthless.", she continues, taking advantage of the fact that I can't retaliate.

My body shudders, with the realization that something dark was behind her words.

"In fact, her life is still worth a few crumbs, yes, Pearl."

Aghata appears with my cowardly uncle, holding her arm and avoiding looking at me. He knows that I have his blood running through my veins, we are from the same family, but he still allowed them to do barbaric things to me.

"Agatha, dear. Give up on this, we're not going to call those people to our house. We take the girl and throw her somewhere far from here, she won't be able to survive alone on the streets.", my uncle says, demonstrating how much of a coward he is.

"Let go of me, Gerald!" Agatha reacts harshly: "After everything we've done, she must die and what's more, we spent a lot to support this ungrateful woman in our house. We deserve compensation and will probably receive a good amount for handing over the head of her miserable niece."

How? What are they talking about? Who will give them a good sum for my head?

"Aghata, don't do that…", my uncle tries to protest again, but is interrupted.

"I already did, Gerald! Any minute now they'll be here and we'll get rid of Sammy for good."

Gerald looked scared and ran to take my cousin's hand.

"Pearl, daughter. Put the essentials in a suitcase and let's run away! We can't stay here! Those people are going to kill us! Where is Jimmy who hasn't returned from high school yet?"

He was desperate and I was still confused. Who were these people capable of causing him so much fear?

Pearl breaks away from her father's grip, harshly and says,

"I want to see Sammy tortured by those people, daddy. I hope they rip the skin off his face once and for all. I'm not going anywhere…"

"Where are you thinking of going?", a man I don't recognize appears, his voice reverberated throughout the room, he was one of the most muscular and tallest men I've ever seen in my life.

His biceps felt like they were going to rip his shirt apart. His eyebrows were thick and almost covered his eyes, but his gaze still gave me goosebumps and everyone fell silent when they saw him and it seemed that I wasn't the only one who could feel the aura of danger that emanated from that stranger.

"W-let's not leave, sir.", Aghata says, recovering from her freeze, "By the way, we were waiting for you. That's the girl, Sammy…" she points at me and continues, "It's my sister-in-law's daughter, if If you want, you can do a DNA test on her and prove that I'm telling the truth, I would never deceive them."

The man takes a step towards me and Aghata steps in front of him.

I must admit that the vixen is brave.

"Before you touch the girl, I want to get paid first for the agreement."

"Of course…", the man says and looks at the door, demonstrating that he was not alone, as soon after, grim-faced men enter and one of them was carrying a black suitcase.

He opens it and I see Aghata's eyes widen and fill with ambition.

"The "lady" sent twice as much as agreed.", he says and Agatha tries to take the suitcase, but the man pushes Aghata's hands away and says, "Here's what was agreed, but before I deliver it I have to inspect the girl."

"Of course! Of course! She's not in good health, but she's not missing any parts, if they want to sell the organs."

Agatha says referring to me as an animal, in fact, perhaps an animal would have better treatment than I have had.

The man crouches down and grabs me by the chin, making me look into his dark eyes. My heart is pounding and the danger alarm in my head is beeping non-stop.

However, I'm so weak that I can't react... I don't even have the strength to scream for help.

Strangely, the man examines my face, with his fingers in the form of pincers, he opens my eyes wide and examines my retina, he touches the red and wavy strands of my hair, takes my arm, pulling my skin and then opens the buttons on my blouse, examining me completely.

I feel a horrible feeling of being watched intimately by a strange man and not having the strength to fight.

I swear! I swear that if I have a second chance in life, I will fight and fight. I won't let anyone else treat me as if I were a commodity, or just a password...

The man lets go of me and my body falls to the ground like a sack of potatoes. The tears flow, I can't hold it back, I feel like crap for going through this terrible situation.

"Alright, let's deliver the deal." The man says and pauses, before continuing, "However, the “lady” sent you a message first."

At that moment, something I didn't expect happens.

Each henchman who was with the huge man gets behind one of the family members.

The first to fall was Agatha, after being unexpectedly punched in the stomach. From that moment on, I began to see a terrible beating scene.

They kick and punch my uncle and his wife, who are lying on the ground, unable to defend themselves. Pérola is taken screaming from the room by one of the men, who does not seem to have good intentions, and her screams do not stop.

The big eyebrows man, who looked like their boss, only watches the torture

"Please stop! Just take the girl, we don't want the money anymore! What are you doing with my dear Pearl?"

Agatha screams, terrified as she continues to be beaten.

The man coldly waits and after a few minutes says:

"That's enough!", at that moment the henchmen stop, with blood spattered and their leader, continues to say, "That was the message that the “lady” sent. No one deceives her, without paying the price. You hid the girl for years and thought there would be no consequences?"

Crying, Agatha says with difficulty, "We didn't do it to deceive, we were going to hand the girl over as soon as she said the password to the safe. Please tell the lady that we didn't mean to deceive her."

The man snorts disdainfully and then opens the suitcase, letting wads of money fall onto Aghata's weakened and bloodied body.

He comes to me and lifts me into his arms, taking me away from that place.

I don't know what's going on, was this a rescue? Did someone decide to take revenge for me? But who? Who is this "lady"?

I pass through the corridors, hearing Pearl's cries echoing from her room, when I go down the stairs, I see Jimmy, my cousin, with his face swollen and purple, passed out on the living room floor. Apparently, he didn't escape and I don't feel any pity for anyone here.

"Don't think this was a rescue, child.", the big eyebrow man says, answering one of the questions I asked mentally, as he walks with me, taking me out of that hellish house, and continues, "You will have a much worse fate. They survived , but I have doubts whether you will achieve the same. It will fall into the hands of someone much worse than us."

I feel my body go cold and, of course, it wouldn't be that easy for me, that only happens in fiction. I feel like after surviving so many things, this time I will truly meet my end. I take a deep breath and surrender, letting the abyss embrace me, while my body faints...