Page 95 of A Broken Promise

“I am sorry, Priya.” My heart ached for her. With her.

“So no, don’t tell me it’s a fucking gift. Because it’s not. Would you like to know howIgot thisgift? I’ll tell you since you always wanted to know. I was a child sex slave. My family was brutally murdered, and my sister and I were sold and trafficked for years. My baby sister didn’t make the jump. She died within her second year. A relief, I suppose, because she didn’t have to endure it any longer. I on the other hand? I wanted to. Everyday fucking day I begged for it, prayed and begged each time they showed up and ripped me to shreds. I begged to die. Until I realized that my will to survive triumphed overit all. So, I stopped begging and stayed alive. Raped and tortured multiple times a day for years, ever since I was five until I made my first jump at thirteen.

Have you ever been in a psychotic pedophile’s rotten mind as he was raping you, high from torturing you? No? Well, I have. I practiced jumping every time the men ravaged my little body. I willed my mind to stay there, to accept the waves of their foul feelings and thoughts. To wander their memories. To surround myself with their foul desires as if it was my cozy blanket. I willed myself to give in into their horror and…soon enough I learned that once you stop flopping like you are drowning, you can try and swim. So I did.

They were always so unaware. Until one day, I pulled on that little thread I knew would end him. And I watched him choke and die in his own blood as his mind becamenothing. AsImade himnothing. I ran away that day, living on my own ever since.

So no, it is no gift. I will not use it for anything or anyone but what it is created for.Me. My survival. I think I’ve paid a high enough price. I’ve lost my family, my sister, my childhood, my sanity and innocence to the bloodlust of men. I will never.Never. Be someone’s toy to handle when they need it.”

Our eyes met as she continued.

“The Rebels, the war, the Royals, it is all the same, Freckles, don’t you see? Hungry men hoping to get more power.”

I stood still, unsure of what to say. The air in the room felt even colder than before.

It all made sense to me then, the bitterness, the never-ending violence, the complete lack of sympathy, the constant craving for control, the sarcastic humor and that scar. Branded as an animal for everyone to know that she is a slave.

A childslave.

My heart broke in more pieces than I knew it could.

I knew the world was evil but the realization of how evil would never stop breaking me. “I am so sorry, Priya,” I said, knowing full well that those words were nothing, though I meant them with the entirety of my soul.

“I don’t need your pity,” she grumped back.

“The baker…he was one of them?” The words came out loud as I started piecing everything together.

She chuckled.

“Oh, the baker? Nah, he was just that. A baker. He used to bring me extra slices of cake and treats to our compound.” She paused, taking a look at the cookie she was devouring. “Ironic, isn’t it?”

She took another bite. “I killed them all, Freckles. Today, all of them are gone.” She paused as she stared at the wall, unsure of herself what to feel. “Ten years of me hunting and now the Baroness was the last one.” Priya lifted her hand, showing the exquisite ring on her finger. A Royal ring. “She orchestrated it all. I guess when your son is a pedophile and you have the means, you provide the perfect environment for the kidnapped pretty kids to indulge his needs.” She sadly chuckled. “All of them are gone. Each one of them. Even the staff that cooked us meals, the ones that ironed our cutesy dresses, that brought the toys and gifts for us.”

“They brought you gifts?”

“Don’t be so surprised. They kept us ‘happy.’ Broken in. Rape you in the morning, make you cake and bring you a new doll at lunch time. Rape and cut and choke you in the afternoon, a new dress and nice care by the nurse two hours later.” She smiled tensely. “Messed up fucks are gone, but I wish I could say that justice was served. But scars never go away…”

She chucked a cookie at me, and I caught it, though I couldn’t bring myself to take a bite as bile rose high in my throat burning me from within.

“You know,” she said, taking another look outside as another group of drunks passed. “I came back after a while to the compound where they kept us. A nice little manor it was, secluded, away from anyone. It was run down since my first kill but a few girls were still there.” She took another bite. “I murdered them all there that day. I did what I hoped someone would do for me and set me free; so they would never have to figure out how to live their lives so broken. I left everyone to rot, except those girls. Them, I buried in my overgrown garden.”

I was going to throw up. Nausea held me as a prisoner as I thought of those young girls enduring so much only to be brutally killed by theirsavior. Shoved into the cold ground to never see the world again. My eyes filled with tears, and I blinked faster to stop them from pouring down my cheeks.

“Oh yeah, I used to have a garden there. If I had any time, I used to go to the garden. My keepers would get so mad since the dirt would get under my little nails, and we were to be kept pristine.” Priya smiled at that memory. “Then I asked the baker to bring me gloves, and he did. And so, I gardened every single day. That book you’ve read?‘Plants and Poisons around the world?’I asked for it as a gift from the Baronesses’ son. I was his favorite to take, and he almost thought we had a connection. It was the last birthday of mine that I remember or chose to remember.”

My chest ached as I tried to take a long breath. So many questions lingered within me. Why? Why would the gods allow this to happen?! Screw the gods, why were there so many people aware of it and yet not saving those girls? How many people were okay with the wrong, knowing that they should’ve done something yet closed their eyes and choose to not intervene.

“You know, at first, I asked for the book to learn about poisons so I could kill myself or at least learn which plants would get me the highest of highs enough to numb myself or let me have a nightmare free sleep once in a while.” She smirked. “Isn’t it funny how things turn out in the end? All of them dead with poison in their blood from me? I outlasted them all.I killedthem all.”

“Why me?” I asked her.

“Why not? I needed laundry done and you seemed fit for the job.” She shrugged, finishing up another cookie.

I ignored that deflective answer.

“That day, by that river. Why me, Priya? Why did you help me?” I knew it wasn’t sympathy, I was sure she didn’t feel those emotions. I wasn’t sure why I needed to know that answer. Why I cared, but something inside of me did. Maybe it was the last thread connecting me with her, begging me to stay with her.

Priya snarled but replied.

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