Amarah

Prologue •Escape•

I wondered if my family had given up looking for me. They probably thought I was dead. There's no doubt about that. After all, it had been almost a year since I've been locked up here. I only knew this because of the digital clock in the room that flashed the time and date. It was May 29th, 2019. 

I wanted to yell that I was still here, waiting for someone to just walk through the door and help. Though the only people that would ever hear me were the people that brought me here and the little girl.

That poor, little girl was only 6 when they had tossed her in this room with me. 1 year of her childhood was gone. 1 entire freaking year. Laila was her name. I took every chance I had to protect her from this hellhole because she didn't deserve this. Laila was the sweetest thing ever and was the only thing that brought a smile to my face in here.

When I had first come here I was sobbing so hard because I had thought they were going to kill me. It turned out that they preferred for me to suffer instead. When all the sobbing had died down and I knew I wasn't going to get out, I had taken in my surroundings. I was so utterly confused, and I still am, looking at the room they had put me in and why they took me. Almost everything was white: The curtains that draped over fake windows, the floor, the ceiling, the bed. Even the damn TV. It sent shivers down my spine, for I had expected a more beat-up room. One filled with bugs and unknown stains. I would've preferred that to this. This room was the opposite of everything I felt and I always felt as if the room was trying to make our kidnappers' act seem okay. 

Yet even though the room put my stomach in knots, I had memorized every last bit of it in hopes that I would find a way out. I forced my mind to engrave the room within my head, wishing it might come to some use, but the only way out was the way in.

Movement next to me put a halt to my deep thinking.

Laila was stirring in her sleep on the bed. I had been sitting next to her, watching the TV. In the first months, I had refused to be 'entertained' by the TV they had given us. I wouldn't do anything to make myself look comfortable or as if I was fine with any of this. After all, who would be when they get kidnapped by some filthy strangers who have nothing better to do with their lives? At first, I didn't understand why they would even provide us with a TV, but then I realized that it only played the news channel. By having us watch how the world would quickly move on to a more attention-worthy story, rather than continue looking for us, they thought we would feel even more worthless. It sickened me.

"Amarah," Laila tapped me on the shoulder with droopy eyes.

"Yes, Laila?" I replied with a small smile.

"I'm thirsty," She replied getting up. "Will they bring us something to eat and drink?" I looked at the clock placed on the table, it read 11:04 AM. They only brought us a meal to share at noon, once a day, because God-forbid that we starve to death and end our suffering. 

"Yes, soon," I replied, hoping to assure her. Her tiny shoulders slumped a little. Laila was very strong for her age, no 7-year-old should go through this, but she never threw a fit about it. Her birthday was a couple of days ago and she had not complained a bit about spending it here.  She was a petite kid with long, curly brown hair. Her hair had been way shorter when she first came. Laila also had big, green eyes, which I thought were so beautiful, Mash'Allah. Whereas I had brown eyes. I know she will grow up to be such a lovely person, both inside and out. "Hey, we could play a game while we wait," I suggested, in an attempt to lift her mood. Laila looked up excitingly at the mention of a game.

"Can we play hide and seek? Please??" She asked with a pout. She was so adorable, I smiled back and nodded my head. It was a pretty spacious room and I wanted her to get her mind off of the thirst. "I will hide while you count to ten!" She held up her ten fingers at me, then went to hide.