A Dark Lesson pt. 6

That peace did not last long.  The darkness before Amanda’s eyes flickered, a white hot flash, and then she was back in the one place she hoped she would never see again. 

She was back in that dungeon. 

There were other women there, women just like her, women who had been spirited away without warning.  She was alright, at least for now, but some of the others…

A woman wailed, her hands ripping at her already tattered clothes.  Her face was pale, smeared with mud.  She beat her fists on the ground, crying out for release.  Seemingly out of nowhere two hooded figures appeared next to her. 

“She wants her freedom,” said one.

“Should we give it to her?” asked the other.

“Oh, I think the child should be the one to grant her that,” answered the first. 

“No.” The woman’s eyes went wide. “No, please, I’ll be quiet.” 

“But we can give you freedom,” said one of the hooded figures.

“Freedom from pain, suffering.  We can free you from this wretched existence,” said the other.

“Freedom from all existence,” cackled the first. 

The seized her arms, dragging her to her feet.  The woman thrashed, kicked, tried to break free, but she was too weak, and those figures were too strong.  Amanda could remember that.  They were inhumanly strong. 

There was a flash, a jump in time and memory.  The room was the same, but the woman from before was gone.  Several other women had vanished as well.  The remaining… prisoners, sat silently, resigned to their fates. 

How long had it been now?  How long had they been trapped in that damn cell?  Had it only been a few days? It felt like months. 

A hooded figure entered.  The women, Amanda included, froze. 

“Do I really scare you that much?” This one’s voice was different, new.  It was soft and feminine and young.  It was also not as cold as the two from before.  “Hunter and Gatherer have done a number on all of you.  Don’t worry, I am only hear to supply food and water.  I have no desire to… free you.”

The women didn’t relax. 

Amanda watched her recede into the darkness again, and when she returned she held a bucket of water in one hand, and a sack filled with what Amanda could only guess was food, in the other.  She placed both at the entrance to the cell, and then stepped back. 

“It isn’t much, but it’s all I can manage,” said the figure. “If those other two had their say, they would just let you starve.” 

Her voice sounded familiar.  That wasn’t part of the memory, though.  That was a new revelation, a revelation made not from Amanda’s past, but her present.

The hooded figure reached up one hand, and began to push her hood away.  Amanda leaned forward, trying to get a better look at the face behind that hood.  It wouldn’t matter though. She wouldn’t see it.  She could already feel the dream fading away from her.  The dream would only give her hints, not answers.  Not clear answers. 

That voice, though.  As she was pulling out of the memory, and back into the present, real, waking world, she recalled it again.  She had heard that voice not long ago.  She had heard it whimper and scream.  She had heard that soft, feminine, almost childlike voice speak to her not as a prisoner, but as a potential protector. 

She had heard that voice say a name. 

Debbie.