The Hill's

NIA.

The dark room

"SHE'S IN HERE", I heard a voice say, hearing footsteps echoing my direction. It hurt trying to open my eyes and my head was spinning. I was in pain all over my body, especially my arm from being injected with something. I couldn't move. The rope that tied my hands at the back restricted most of my movements, sinking through my skin.

The footsteps drew closer by each second, and my heart tightened in my chest. I was struggling to breath, the gag over my mouth was suffocating me. It was so dark, there was really no difference between having my eyes open or not.

The door opened, and light from the other side of it crept through the darkness until it reached where I was sitting. I could make out two silhouettes at first walking along each other before making out a third standing by the door, sounding like it was a woman the more she addressed the two men walking towards me before departing. They stood over me for a little while, their voices started distorting around me because I felt dizzy and under the influence of a drug.

"She's lovely, isn't she?", a man knelt in front of me and I could only see wrinkles of his aging face. "Lesley is going to love her"

The other man chuckled, cackling

"Keep an eye on her for a while"

Who are these people?

The older man walked out, pushing the door behind him but it didn't close shut. The remaining one just stood there, observing me for a little while bending to his knee besides me and removed the gag from my mouth.

"Who are you?", I quivered almost immediately, even though my jaw felt stretched and worn out. "What do you want with me?"

"You're one of us now, Nia"

My heart started hammering against my ribcage. I felt like my blood running cold, and yet I was breaking a sweat.

"How do you know my name?"

"You don't need to worry about that", he said, reaching behind me and started loosening the rope around my hands. "This is your new home"

"What do you mean?", I asked, feeling short-winded with every word he spoke. Everything about this conversation was alarming. "Why did you bring me here?"

"So many questions, you did seem like a talker", he did that irritating chuckle again. "You're better than the others, all they did was cry"

Others?

"What the f*ck are you talking about?", I uttered loudly, and his eyes widened a little in surprise whilst growing a revolting grin on his face.

"Foul mouth you have there, Nia", he said. "You don't want to continue with that over here, you might get yourself in some trouble"

My eyes drifted to the door as soon as my hand were unbound. I don't know what awaited on the side of it but it was a risk I was willing to take rather than just sitting here and getting no answers.

He never saw the swing coming, it was more than an upper-cut when he raised to his feet and I jabbed his chin as hard as I could. Adrenaline pumped into my limbs and flight responses were activated instantly. I ran, despite the strains in my thighs and arms I bolted across that room. I was so close, I could see the outside...

He grabbed me, and locked me in a bone crushing grip away from the door. I struggled and fought him. He turned me around to face him before feeling an open hand blow across my face as retribution. The slap took me by surprise, my eyes watered and the ringing in my ears was immediate. My vision blurred as I dropped to my knees and fell face first.

Warm liquid slid down my philtrum and dripped over my mouth to my hoddie and ground. Despite not seeing properly, I pushed my body up regardless to crawl toward the light. I wasn't sure which was this one, the one I was running towards minutes ago or the eternal one because it was over.

His hands locked on both my ankles and I was dragged back into the middle of the dark room again. Seeing how his demeanor changed as soon as I turned over, I backed away from him in a desperate measure to get away. His eyes turned cold as he wiped off the blood that was coming out of his mouth from his chin.

"You're going to regret that", he pulled me to my feet and threw me against the wall. Gravity wasted no time hauling me to the ground, and the sound of my bone cracking echoed around the room. I laid there lifeless, with my mouth hanging open and scared to move. The pain was antagonizing, I held myself from making a sound as I cried. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

"There were plenty before you who got smart with me, and we're walking above them as we speak so don't f*ck*ng try me"

What?

"What the hell is going on here?", the older man was back, his voice seemingly angrier than before. "I leave her with you for five f*ck*ng minutes and you've already broke her arm?"

He barked, witnessing as I whimpered in battle to get up from the ground with one arm locked over the other. I didn't want to look but I could see a bone poking out my skin and I sank to the ground in defeat.

"She punched me!"

"She's not yours to hit, Charlie!", he screamed back. "You know better than that, d*mn it!"

Charlie huffed out a sigh, before lowering his face. "I'm sorry, General"

"You will be", the old man scooped me up in his hands as carefully as he could and glared at Charlie before turning on his feet. "You'll be punished for this, trust me"

The General walked away from Charlie, leaving him in the dark room, and my head dangled from his arm. I was feeling a lot of emotions all at once, blending with the exhaustion, hunger and somewhat the numbness after being slapped and trashed against the wall like that.

"I want to go home, please", I whispered, and The General's lips twisted into a sly smile.

"But, you are home my darling. We've been waiting for you a long time, Nia", he said, draining what was left of my strength before slipping into unconsciousness.

I hope my family finds me...

There was a warm cloth pressed against my forehead. My eyelids opened, quickly and darted around the room in horror as I realized I had been moved from the barn into a spherical room. The person sitting besides me froze, and our eyes locked. A foreign feeling passed through me when I realized the resemblance he shared with The General, as they shared the same square face with a gentle jawline. But this peculiar individual had the thickest layer of eyelashes around his small, dark brown eyes and a discolored scar on his chin that drew obvious attention from his fair, tanned skin completion.

"Who are you?", I croaked out, shifting uncomfortably in my spot only to see my arm wrapped in a sling, explaining where the throbbing pain was coming from. The boy swallowed nervously, before rinsing the cloth in his hand and started cleaning the blood on my face.

"I'm Lesley, but you can call me Les", he said in deep, graveling voice. "I'm here to take care of you"

"I don't want to be taken care of, I want to go home"

"This is your new home, Nia"

"Can you stop saying that?", I said quickly, growing impatient. "It's infuriating because this is not my home, you took me from it"

"I know", he mumbled. "I apologize for that, and for you getting hurt like this. It won't happen again"

"The only way it won't happen again is if I get out of here. No one has to know about this, I'll forget it even happen granted I have one call...just one ", I begged, sounding even more desperate the more I talked.

"We're isolated in the middle of nowhere, there's no coverage here", he said, quelling my hopes of getting help. But of course he'll say that so that I just give up and not fight, not a chance in hell. "No one will be coming to safe you here, Nia. You can only save yourself. The sooner that gets into your head, the better"

A tear slid down from hearing those disheartening words from him. Was this the end of me?

Was my life was over even before it started?

"Am I going to die?", I lips quivered, and he hesitated for a second before stretching out his hand to continue wiping my face.

"No", he shook his head. "I can't guarantee much at the moment but you are safe with me"

"Those are just words, Lesley. They mean nothing"

"It seems like it now, but once you and I are married-"

"What?"

His face fell when he realized I had no idea what he was talking about. "You're here to be my wife, Nia"

My jaw dropped, suddenly feeling overly anxious.

"I don't want to marry you", I said. "I don't even know you"

"That's just how things work around here"

"If you let me go, I swear I won't tell anyone", I begged, feeling the pressure of speech so that I can make my case and convince him to let me go. "I'll tell my family I was running away from home, I won't even tell the police"

"I don't think you understand what's going on here, and that's okay", he dampened the cloth in his hand again. "So far, there's no escaping this place. I've been trying to ever since I was twelve, I have scars all over my body to show for it"

He stood up and raised the hem of his T-shirt to his shoulders, turning to show me all the scars and scabs covering his back. I grasped in horror, the scars screamed years of abuse due to how dark they were.

"Violence is the only language this family understands", he sat down again, wiping my face one last time and dropped the cloth in the crimson water again.

"What happens if I refuse to marry you?"

He leaned back on the chair, and breathed out a sigh. "They are going to kill you, and find me another you"

NIA.

The wedding day.

IT TOOK seven weeks for my arm to heal and for me to take the arm sling off. Everything here was improvised, I didn't even see a doctor let alone take any pharmaceuticals for the pains. The General presented me with home remedies everyday, and I actually wished he got the mixture wrong one of those days to result in my death but no, the man was that good.

With the arm sling out of the way, it meant Lesley and I were soon to be married...whether I liked it or not. Turns out he wasn't kidding or trying to scare me when he told me I would get killed if I said no. There were graves on the far end of the homestead to prove it. I couldn't believe my eyes when I counted close to twelve of them buried underneath the pile of soil. Four of those graves belonged to defenseless young girls who had their lives ended too quick because they said no, which was regarded as being disobedient