Chapter 25

That night, I lost a little hope. 

A significant number of hours had passed since the phone call. Darkness had sheltered the town in another night. But there had been no sign of help. 

Hope was a dangerous thread to hang onto. It showed an illusion of what might never happen. It was only a word to speak about but not believe. Clinging onto it with dreams of it manifesting into a reality only prolonged one's suffering.

I was beginning to think that maybe Mom had not gotten the message. Maybe she had waved off my words casually. 

I bit my lip, closing my eyes. 

Had she called Irene? What had Irene told her? 

What if…What if my plan had failed? 

My eyes snapped open. 

No. I could not afford for it to fail. 

Christina had not told Ace anything about this morning yet. But I knew that she wouldn't be able to hold it in any longer. Her bubble of rage would burst soon. They would fight about it. And then the tables would turn on me. I would face the brunt of my words. 

But mom had sounded wary, right? She had also talked about sushi. Surely, she was suspicious. Then why was she not doing anything? Why had she not acted yet? 

Wait. 

What if Mom was suspicious but she had brushed it off as nothing major? She couldn't imagine that I was in a situation like this. So, what if she had thought that I was just being silly? 

No, no, no, mom. You can't betray me like this. Please. You've got to help me. 

Save me before it is too late. 

***

The next morning, I lost all hope. 

Ace and Christina came into the room with bright smiles. And I knew that it was over for me. Christina had told him everything. 

"That tongue of yours is as snappy as ever, isn't it, Dalia?" he asked. "Trying to evoke a reaction out of Christina? How brave." 

Keeping quiet was the only help that I could lend myself. 

I took in a deep breath and braced myself for the worst. 

"I have to say, it was a good try. But it failed to make us fight, babe," said Christina. "Though, I can't lie. It did hurt me quite a bit."

"And if something hurts Christina, then there should be payback, right?" Ace seemed amused. "I still can't believe you said all that. So unlike you." 

I looked down at my knees that were brought close to my chest. 

The sound of Ace removing his belt made my blood run cold. 

I sucked in a sharp breath and braced myself. Tears welled up in my eyes and I clenched my fists. 

Mom failed me. I failed myself. 

Ace handed the belt to Christina, and I swallowed the sob that shook my body. 

They came closer to me, and I shut my eyes tightly.

I was a coward who had given up. I was a coward who couldn't protect herself. I was a coward who had lost.

The first hit struck me across my arms that were wrapped around my knees. Then the strikes were more rapid and harsh.

The rage hidden in the strikes could be seen on my broken skin that was split open in some places, oozing blood.

She targeted my back, my legs, and my arms blindly.

Scream after scream escaped my lips but she wouldn't stop.

"I can't-can't take it anymore," I said, between the cries that were shaking my body. "Please stop."

Ace watched with a grim face as my pleas fell on deaf ears.

"Please, Christina, stop," I begged.

As I tried to protect myself against the hits, my fingers grazed something wet.

Blood was smeared across them. I was bleeding from a few of the slashes.

If this was what had been written down for me in the name of life, then I cursed the day that I was born. Ever since I had stepped into my teen years and begun to question the purpose of my life and the reason that I was alive, I had believed the reassuring words of every motivator and speaker about the good that every person was destined to put into the world.

I did not know if I had had the chance to put out any good into the world yet, but with the damage that I was incurring every day, I knew that it would be impossible for me to fulfil that purpose. It was a lie, anyway. A repeated, rehearsed fairytale formulated to make people feel good about themselves.

All the effort that I had put into shaping my life up until now had been a waste. The countless number of nights that I had stayed up studying late for exams, the hours of stressful studying that I had forced myself to do in the hopes of designing a better future for myself had all been useless.

Every single thing that I had done, every single moment that I had lived…None of it held any meaning anymore. It had all come down to this moment when my life was being held by two strange pairs of hands that were sniping away at it.

Was this it? Was this my end?

Screams burned my lungs and created a deafening vacuum of silence around me amidst the ear-piercing cries. Shocks of electrifying pain rippled through my body, searing and burning me all over.

The pounding noise in my ears grew louder. The hammering headache amplified. A wave of fatigue and exhaustion washed over my body.

Black dots appeared in front of my eyes.

The strikes of the belt stopped. Had she finally taken mercy on me?

There was some noise. I couldn't make out what.

People. There were more people. They were in the room.

Then everything went black.