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Survival
~Cassandra~
For a while, I lie on the soft surface like a cloud, trying to pry my heavy eyelids open. I can’t make myself come around as darkness like a comforting blanket holds me in its embrace. Not until the pain pierces my brain with sharp claws, scraping against my skull. Every thought is slow, drifting away from me. The harsh light coming from the windows hurts my sensitive eyes.
Once I manage to sit, doors click open, and someone enters. My vision blurs and I feel dizzy as I try to focus to see who it is. But I fail to process my surroundings or fully grasp where I am.
“Hi,” I croak, and the word scrapes against my voice box like it’s full of sand. “Who are you? Where am I?” I force words out as a cold glass is thrust into my hand.
“Drink, this will make you better.” An elderly woman’s harsh tone with a thick accent sends shivers down my spine.
“What is it?” The condensation clings to the glass, soothing my skin. But it’s so heavy it almost slips through my fingers as if someone filled it with lead. “Who are you?”
“Water,” she confirms, bringing my hand toward my mouth.
After I finish drinking, she speaks again. “Now lie down and sleep it off. The drugs should leave your system soon enough.”
Just before her words register, the dizziness hits me like rocks rolling off the mountain, burying me under the rubble. Someone catches me before I fall off the bed. My awareness starts to slip again.
“You’ll have to get stronger to survive here,” she speaks in Russian, but I understand her words since I learned this language at school ages ago.
Before I can grasp a thought, my body, enveloped in comfort, starts to fall, and spiraling thoughts drag me into the pit of darkness.
“Mommy, wake up, mommy,” my son sing-songs to me, and I pry my eyes open to find him beaming at me with his cute little dimples and blue eyes like the sky.
My heart squeezes in my chest with longing and my eyes water from joy as little Ethan beams at me. My fingers reach to stroke his face.
“You got to wake up, Mommy,” he whispers with an urgency that makes me lose my breath, and my hand falls to my side. “They’re coming, hurry up!” He points to the window.
A sheer curtain dances from the wind, parting at the seams in the middle. “They will find them.” Ethan tugs at me until I am out of bed.
I stagger toward the window. “Come here, Ethan.” But when I part the curtains, I find a wall of bricks where the window should be.
Confused, I look at my son, who sobs, clutching on my leg. “There’s no way out, Mom.”
“Don’t be afraid.” Bending to his eye level, I kiss his little head as the door bashes into the wall. Before I can grab my son, the ground opens, and I fall, losing a grip on my baby. “Ethan!”
I scream.
“Wake up!” Someone slaps me and I yelp in pain. “It’s just a dream. Believe me, the reality is much worst.”
Gasping, I blink away the tears blurring my vision and find the same woman at my side with the food tray placed at the end of the bed and her face twisted in annoyance.
“Eat and then shower. You’ve got to be ready in an hour. We don’t have a lot of time to waste with your antics.” She babbles things like this is just a typical day for us.
I watch her confused as she moves around, arranging clothes and shoes after she starts to run a bath for me. Some foreign instinct or perhaps even shock keeps me quiet. I just watch her bewildered in a hint of fear while I slide off the bed onto my shaky feet. A dizzy spell hits me, but soon clears up and I feel strong enough to walk to the small table next to the crispy white armchairs.
“Here, eat this, you will need your strength.”
I lurch forward, startled. But then I twist around. I’m tempted to cover myself. She studies me like a lizard does its prey before chomping it whole.
Instead of asking questions, I gobble the soup and eat toast with scrambled eggs, knowing I’ll need my wits to figure out where I am. The food is tasteless as if my taste buds are still recovering from whatever they used on me.
Then she pushes me into the bathroom. “Clean yourself well. You want to attract as many flies as you can with that body of yours.”
Her words crawl on my skin like insects, but I push them down and nod. I don’t mind her giving me a look. Playing dumb might be the best course of action in this place. Living with Lucas taught me a few things about survival. I didn’t know this knowledge would come in handy one day.
Once in the bathroom, I dash to the window to see where I am. I pull myself up on the top of the vanity, pressing my face to the narrow window to look around. My breath gets knocked out of my chest as my surroundings register. The palms and various tropical trees and flowers greet my eyes. The house formations with the swimming pools and beautiful gardens are swarmed by guards with guns patrolling the grounds. But only when I catch sight of a few women with collars, practically naked, it hits me.
