Keep
Rising
The limo seemed to hit every pot hole in the road. I sat there staring at
my feet as I lurched up and down with every hit the limo took. They had
gotten really filthy since I lost my heels hours ago. Or was it days
ago. I looked at my tattered dress and tried to cry at it's lost beauty
but there were no more tears left. I had cried them all out a while
ago. Finally my eyes came level to his. His skin had become like
charcoal with cracks that let a bright red light through, almost like looking
at lava that was cooling.Why had I not noticed that before?
His eyes shone cruelly at me as he sipped his Mojito. He smiled that charming smile that before now had melted my heart. Now it made my skin crawl.
"Don't worry love, we're almost there," he said as he looked away to set down his drink. I wanted to ask where we were going. I wanted to open the car door and jump out and take my chances with the moving road. I wanted to die but I could not do any of those things. I was crippled by fear. My soul was a prisoner of this man. This demon. This devil that took away who I was. And I had no more fight left in me. I was nothing. Just an empty shell.
The limo finally came to a halt and the charcoal man finished his drink. The door opened from the outside and he got out before I did. I turned my head to see the outside when the driver grabbed my arm and yanked me out. He was a brute of a man with concrete for skin and the size of two linebackers.
He threw me on the ground in front of the charcoal man. He offered his hand to help me up. I held back vomit as I accepted his help and got to my feet. I looked around to see that we had come to a massive shipyard dock. In front of me was a ship right out of Pirates of the Caribbean. The sails were black and torn, it's hull was rotten and as the plank lowered, seven demons came down from it to meet with us.
The charcoal man, still holding my hand, turned his head towards me and said, "These are my friends you'll be staying with. They take good care of my girls and you're the next one to be cared for." He kissed my forehead and pushed me towards them. I touched the spot where he had kissed me and turned back towards him. He was already getting back into the limo without a second glance back at me. I could feel the seven standing behind me so I turned to see them up close.
They were all wearing three piece suits like the charcoal man but their skin was like polished black onyx. And for some reason I knew they represented the seven deadly sins; lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. The tallest one, Pride, came up to me and punched me in the stomach.
"We like his girls nice and bruised. Oh and please, struggle for me, I insist. We haven't had a fighter in a while."
I spit blood in his face and began to run back towards the road. Before I got too far the burly one, Wrath, ran up behind me, grabbed my hair, pulled me back to a halt and slammed my face into the ground. I felt my nose break. I choked on my blood as it filled my mouth and throat. Warm tears flowed out of my eyes as he grabbed my feet and drug me to the boat. My head hit every bump and rock as he continued to pull me to our destination. By the time we got to the dock I lost all consciousness and I embraced the darkness that took me in.
I woke up still in my torn dress but now I had shackles on my ankles and wrists. I look around my cell to see a moldy blanket on the floor and next to it a chipped bowl with possibly oatmeal or something equally gross in it. There's no window and as I look through the iron bars I see the elegantly dressed Lust looking down at me in the torchlight.
"Evening my lady. I thought I would welcome you to your new lovely home, His Holy Gift. And let me just say, you're a much prettier girl than the last one we had to take care of." He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a cigarette. He snaps his fingers and the end of his thumb catches fire. He takes a long drag and smiles down at me as the smoke creeps its way out of his nostrils.
"Before you start asking questions or begging me for this and that, just know that this trip is as long as it needs to be and our destination is quite permanent. We stay topside and man the ship and pretty much just leave you down here to rot. You're just some trash we take out for Mr. Abaddon. If you need anything, don't bother us. Piss and shit in that corner and just leave your bowl there when you're finished eating. You get water after you eat. Don't try anything, we've dealt with every known trick, so trust me, there's no fooling us."
He flicks his cigarette at me and walks off. I crawl to the blanket and lay there as I feel the tenderness that is my nose. I cringe at the pain and try to cry but can't again. I surrender and curl up into a ball and force myself to sleep. Time passes as I go in and out of sleep. Finally after hours or days or weeks, it feels like, I get up to eat the slop and to pee in the corner. When I get back to the blanket the bowl has been replaced by a dirty mug of water. I gulp it down and sit down on the floor with my legs crossed. I want to pray to ask why this has happened to me. Did I somehow deserve this punishment? What did I do wrong? Why me?
I was a Christian at one time. But like most things, I grew out of those beliefs. I went to college to better myself and found a great job in my field. I was becoming successful and figured it was time I ventured out and found someone to spend my life with. Someone that would support me and love me and give me children to raise and to show them how to be better people than maybe I was. Instead I met the charcoal man, Mr. Abaddon, and was shone that evil can happen to anyone, including myself.
Such a harsh lesson to learn. A date, a drink and then I'm waking up in a strange place. No memory of the night before. Naked in a bed that's not my own. My clothes thrown without care around the strange room. Naked and alone. My body used and stolen by someone that I trusted.
Then I'm led into a limo and brought here. To this desolation. This hell run by demons. No escape. Alone.
"You're not alone."
The voice startles me and I frantically look to find the source. Standing outside the bars of my cell is my brother and sister wearing white robes and staring down at me with warm smiles.
"We're here to help," they say simultaneously. I find the strength to stand up quickly and rush to the cell's locked doorway. I reach out for them but I can't quite touch them with my shackles still on my wrists.
"Don't try or they will know we're here," my brother tells me. My sister however walks over to me and touches my nose. I close my eyes from the bright light that emits from her finger and open them to see her standing over by my brother again.
"Your nose and injuries are healed. We can't stay but you're shackles are unlocked and so is the door. Escape is up to you. Everything is up to you. Good luck sis," my sister says as her and my brother disappear before my eyes. I reach out for them again and my wrist shackle falls to the floor with a loud clank.
Adrenaline and fear take over and I take off the rest of my shackles and rush for the door. It creaks open as I run out and grab a torch. I push down my panic and run down the hallway and up the stairs to the top of the ship's deck. I come up out of a hatch to see the seven doing various duties around the ship as rain pounds all around me.
Lightning flashes long enough for them to see me emerge from below the ship. Gluttony is the first to make eye contact and he yells "grab her" to the others. Envy is the fastest it seems, as he reaches me before the others. I stand my ground and use the drowned out torch as a baseball bat. I swing and connect right at his left temple. He crumples to the ground and I drop the now shattered remains of my torch.
I run towards the front of the ship to stay out of their reach but I'm not fast enough. They dog pile me to the ground and try to restrain me. I retreat back into my mind as they pummel me with punches and kicks. I have to find a reserve of strength. Everything is up to me. I have to save myself. He took from me and now I have to take back what's mine. I have the strength to keep rising. Everything is up to me.
Suddenly a light wells up inside me. I don't try to keep it in but instead do my best to fully unleash it upon these bastards. I clinch my fists and open my eyes and like the Hulk I unleash my full fury on them. They fly outwards from me and either land hard against the ship or fall into the black, murky water.
I look down at myself to see me glowing like a miniature sun. The remaining four demons are scrambling away from me. With fear in his eyes Lust stammers out, "You were broken. You don't fight back. You just lay down and take it. You aren't capable of this! You are nothing!"
This time it's me who's smiling as I look up into the sky and let all of this new found inner light out onto the ship, onto the demons and onto the storm surrounding us.
When I open up my eyes again I'm falling downwards to the ocean floor. I hit the water and start sinking like a rock. I struggle to find the strength to swim upwards but my arms refuse to work properly. I can't drown after escaping from that hell. I can't. It's not fair. My lungs burn from the lack of oxygen. I want to scream for help. I can't. My world goes black.
***
Sunlight blinds me as I gasp for air. I violently cough out water and feel sand on my legs and hands. I look around to see who saved me and see only myself. I'm beautiful in my restored white dress. More so than I believed myself to be.
"Hi sweetie. Are you ok? I saw you fall into the water after you stopped them so I came rushing out to save you. Really though, you ended up saving me. I thought after I was raped that I couldn't go on. My life was over, I told myself. Depression took hold and I believed suicide would be better. He got away with it and so I figured it was all over. I'm sorry I let them take you. But you showed me there's still a life worth living for. Worth fighting for. Worth giving everything for. Worth loving for."
She holds out her arms and I walk over to her. We embrace and for a moment I feel complete bliss. Then everything around us goes white.
***
I finally wake up in a hospital bed surrounded by my family and friends. Worry and sadness turns to joy as they see that I'm awake. I cry as they hug and kiss me. I thank whomever might be watching over me for keeping me alive for another day. For not letting the darkness take me. For not letting me take my life. I let their love wash over me. Heal me. I'm not broken. I'm not nothing. I'm alive and strong and determined to take back what was mine. To forgive. To live. To begin again. To keep rising.
The End
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