To Love Through Thick and Thin

Rain thundered down above me, lightening flashes inches away from my skin, hail the size of quarters pounded down on me, winds blew and whipped around, slashing my skin with raindrops and hailstones until drops of blood began to ooze from the gashes. The bitter cold pierced my skin until I was shivering too hard to think straight. I ran hysterically, trying to avoid the storm, trying desperately to find a way out. I slammed myself against the wall of the dome-shaped room and pounded on the locked door with all my might, banging until my hands seemed to disappear from the ends of my wrists and I could muster no more energy. I had lost all sense of time long ago – it could have been hours, days, centuries by this point. In a final act of desperation, I hurtled myself on the ground and curled up into a ball, trying to protect my head from the bullets of hailstone and my skin from the tiny daggers of rain.

A cackling laughter ran around the room, echoing and bouncing off the smooth, curved walls. The storm slowly dissipated. A man shimmered into sight, and stood before my violently shaking figure, still hunched over itself on the ground. I raised my head up slightly, daring a glance. From what I could see through my rain-clouded eyes and my perspective on the ground, he was tall, slim, dressed all in black with flashes of yellow amidst his clothing.

He kicked me in the side, hard. “Get up”, he demanded harshly in a voice that sounded like frozen metal. I did so, shaking even harder as I unwrapped my body, half from the frigid cold that still lingered in the room and half from pure terror. As I slowly pulled myself up to full height, stumbling slightly along the way, I met his eyes and nearly tripped over myself again. They were a cold, solid black. But it wasn’t so much the color in them that scared me as the emotion. He stared back into my eyes, radiating an aura of pure hatred, of total lack of compassion, of unfeeling cold.

He grabbed the front of my shirt and jerked me forward.

“Where…is…she…?” He growled between his teeth.

“I…I…who? I d-d-don’t know who – I don’t know who…you’re t-t-talking about!”. I started hyperventilating, and shaking even more violently. I hadn’t the faintest idea who he was, what he wanted, or who he wanted. And yet he seemed certain I did, and I quickly began to fear I truly did know this girl.

“DON’T LIE TO ME!”, he shrieked. The man struck me across the face, and I hit the floor. I lay there, terrified, too scared to even breath.

“I don’t know…who…you want…”, I gasped. “Please…please, just let me go!” I begged. The man slowly stepped over and knelt down to face me.

“You know who I want. You know who she is. You know where she is. I know you do. I know everything”, he hissed menacingly. He grabbed my chin, and forced me to look at him. I stared into his frozen black eyes, so dark the pupil was indistinguishable from the iris. They had the depth of a thousand years. One thousand years of evil, of tormenting others, of living a vile and horrid existence. I stared, unable to look away, feeling my eyes grow wider, not even able to blink.

“I don’t know…I don’t know…”, I whimpered softly.

“5 years ago. Bright summer day. You two went to the park together. You ate lunch together. You shared a laugh. You shared a kiss. I know it. I saw it. Now don’t lie to me”.

I gasped. I knew who he was talking about. I thought back, thought far back into my memory, and remember nothing of her. But I was certain I knew that day, that girl. Just those few days struck into my mind a picture as clear as any other memory in my mind. The man smiled, lips curling back to show blindingly white, sharp teeth. He drew himself upwards, and clumsily, I followed.

“I knew it. You know her. I can see it, see it in your mind. Now tell me…where is she?”. I took a step back, mind racing. If this girl was who I thought she was, I could not tell him. I couldn’t recall who she was, exactly, or why she was so important – only that she was everything to me. I would do whatever it took to keep her safe.

“If you know everything, then why don’t you know where she is?”, I challenged. I was still swimming with raw fear inside, but I remained supported by what I knew was love. Pure, undying love for this girl that I couldn’t even remember.

He looked at me disgustedly, as if he couldn’t believe one could be so stupid.

“She wiped all traces of her memory. The only way I can know is if you decide to tell me. And believe me when I say…”, He leaned in closer until his face was hardly a centimeter away from mine. “I will do whatever it takes. Whatever it takes”. My breath quickened. I had to stay strong. I had to. “I know you know where she is. And if you don’t tell me, well”. He chuckled. “That would be a very unwise move on your part”.

“Try me”, I dared. Why not go out with a bang? But then suddenly, he became angry. Very angry. He stalked towards me, and I quickly backed up, until I hit the wall. He towered over me and I trembled with fear. But I still forced myself to look directly up, into his eyes. I would not let fear conquer me. I would not.

“You STUPID little girl!”, he screamed. “TELL ME WHERE SHE IS”.

“I shan’t!”, I declared, lacing my voice with confidence that did not exist. He leaned in closer, and spoke in a quiet, low, terrifying voice.

“If you do not tell me where this girl is”, he growled, breathing hot breath into my face. “Then you will suffer the consequences. I will make sure your death is slow and painful. I will make sure you suffer beyond imagination. You, pitiful fool, will beg me to die long, long before I grant you that happy pleasure”. I knew his words were true. I could see the hard, steadfast determination in his eyes. Every line in his face contorted in fury as he glared down at me with pitiless black eyes. I had no doubt in my mind that he would do whatever it took within his power to obtain what he wanted. But I had a greater purpose in mind. And so, I drew in a breath of cold, camp air, squeezed my eyes shut, and steeled myself with resolve to do what’s right.

“No.”.

Immediately, the storm started up again, but this time magnified tenfold. The winds slammed me to the metal floor, and then I crashed into the opposite wall. Hailstones whipped around the room, leaving deep gashes in my skin inches long and wide. I struck solid surface after solid surface, while meanwhile the jagged ice cut deeply into my flesh. And then the lightening started up – and this time, it hit me. Electric shock after electric shock ran through my body, leaving agony behind in its wake. My screams were lost in the roaring wind. The pain raced up and down my body until it scrambled my brains and overwhelmed my conscious mind. The next thing I was aware of was being curled up into ball, pressed up against the wall, sobbing so hard I couldn’t draw breath. And then something took hold of my arms and forced me roughly upwards.

“You think you have felt pain? You know nothing yet. That was only a taste – a small sample of what is to come if you do not give me what I want. Now tell me: WHERE IS SHE?”

I was so preoccupied with trying to expand my lungs well enough to draw in a few short gasps of breath I didn’t have time to even consider saying yes. I pulled myself onto my knees, coughing and sputtering, fighting hard to obtain a gulp of oxygen. Desperately, I shook my head.

The next onslaught of torture was instantaneous – but this time it did not come in the form of wind and hail. This was different. It stemmed straight from every nerve within my body – straight from the core. I contorted in agony, slamming myself against the wall again and again, furiously attempting to relieve the horrible torment that radiated from every cell left in my weak, ravaged body. My throat was sore from screaming before I even became aware that sound had left my mouth. I curled into a ball, and took to slamming my head against the floor, again and again, over and over, praying for unconsciousness, paralyzation, death – anything that would make it stop.

And then I was screaming something else. A word. A word that I did not even know was in my vocabulary. Immediately the pain stopped, and I suddenly realized what the word was. It was a place. The place where she lived. Where she was.

He grinned his wide, blindingly white smile at me, his black eyes glinting with excitement and triumph.

“Excellent”, he breathed. With a whirl, he left the room, set off to fulfill the devastating deed he had planned.
Leaving me alone, alone in the cold, metal room, to sit, and to think, and to sob over the horrible deed I have done, and the words that can never be taken back.