Shining among Darkness

By
WingzemonX

Chapter 22
A miracle

When Lily Sullivan received that intense blow in her head, she felt as if everything was shaking inside her, and that hospital room began to spin around her. She only felt pain for a few seconds. Then it quickly dissipated, or possibly her body simply became unable to feel anything. The space around her became blurry, her eyes closed slowly without her being able to prevent it, and then everything dissolved and disappeared.

She would not know until later the total hours she had been unconscious, but she sensed from the beginning that had been several. In all that time, she dreamed nothing, or at least nothing worth perpetuating in her memory after waking up. This moment occurred first with a penetrating smell of alcohol that entered to her body through her nose, causing it to be irritated and then also her entire throat. The girl's blue eyes flew open, and that was followed by a moderate cough as a reflex act. Her first instinct was to pull her hand to her mouth and nose, but she found herself surprised that she couldn't move either of them, and when she tried, her wrists hurt.

It took a second or two before her mind cleared enough to be aware of her condition. Turning her head, which was slowly starting to hurt but for the moment was tolerable, towards her right hand, she saw that it was handcuffed to the old headboard of the bed tubes in which she apparently lay before waking up. She then turned her gaze to her other hand; this one was also handcuffed in the same way. She pulled with a little of violence, but only ended up hurting her wrists more.

The pain in her head, especially on the side of her face, became much more intense.

"You woke up, little princess," she heard a little voice singing along the side of the bed, making it turn in that direction.

The person who had spoken, the same one who had taken her out of the hospital and very surely had placed her in that place, put a piece of cotton on the bureau, bathed in some medicinal alcohol so intense that even from her position she could smell it. Surely with that, she had woken her up. The other thing that was in the bureau was not unnoticed by her, next to the used cotton: a black gun that seemed quite familiar.

That girl who had presented herself as Esther before her, then turned also in her direction, smiling broadly. Although in the beginning, Lily was totally defensive, her condition changed when she saw her captor, so much so that she had a strong start that was impossible to hide. It was the same girl, of that Lily had no doubt: her features, her eyes, her complexion, even her voice, everything agreed... but something had changed. Her face had several wrinkle marks on it. Under her eyes, she had a pair of marked dark circles, and traces of makeup still not completely removed. And when she smiled... when he smiled at her, she showed a series of yellowed and old teeth ... She had her black hair in a ponytail, and was wearing only a white tank top, something loose that exposed the white skin of her arms, his thin neck (with strange and nothing graceful scars on it), and part of her flat chest.

It was her, the same girl from the hospital... but at the same time, she seemed to be a totally different person. She didn't even look like a girl.

All this unbalanced her too much, especially because she had just woken up, and the pain in her head was increasing, already touching the intolerable limits. And she may add another hurt that suddenly became present: her leg. She tried to remain calm as much as possible and looked quietly around her. She was still wearing the hospital gown, although, underneath it, she could tell that her right leg, the one that caused the pain, was wrapped in tight bandages. The bed she was in was for a single adult, and had a relatively clean white sheet, except for some blood stains under her leg, which she supposed were hers. Behind her back were two individual pillows against which her body rested.

Lily paid more attention to the rest of the room. It was small and square, with an old tapestry with floral pattern. In front of the bed was a table with an old-fashioned television of enormous size, turned off. On each side of the bed was a bureau with a night lamp, which at the moment were the only source of light on the room. Over her head, she managed to see a ceiling fan hanging, turned off, just like the three bulbs it had included. To the left was a semi-open door that she assumed was facing a bathroom. And to the right, another closed wooden door that was surely the exit. There was not a single window in any of the four walls. There was an armchair in a corner, and a chair next to the bed, and that was basically all.

"What is this burrow?" The girl in handcuffs muttered disgustfully. It seemed to be some kind of old hotel because everything looked form pas years, but not careless or dirty.

"It's a safe place," the other girl, or whatever she was, informed him, sitting in the chair beside the bed and crossing her legs. At that moment, Lily noticed that she was not wearing pants. Under her baggy shirt, pink panties appeared, apparently new, because of her bright colors. "Safe, secluded, and, above all that, discreet. Look: Help!" She shouted suddenly with great force, raising her face to the ceiling. Lily was startled by the sudden scream. "Help me! They are killing me! Aaaaaaaaaah!!"

Esther screamed with such intensity, apparently using all the power that her throat was capable of producing, and enough to make Lily's ears hurt. As abrupt as she had begun to scream, she stopped the same way. Then she got silent, her eyes looking sideways around, and a mischievous smile on her lips. Once the echo of her shout left... nothing replaced it. The whole room, all around them, was utterly silent.

"You see?" Esther snorted, letting out a small laugh. Lily's gaze hardened. She immediately understood what she wanted to show her with that unfortunate act. Esther leaned fully against her chair and crossed her arms. "It's incredible what you can get in this world when you have enough money. And for some reason, someone is willing to pay a very, very good to meet you."

"Who?" Lily released sharply. "Who sent you for me?"

Esther shrugged, not erasing her smile. She enjoyed being in control, that was more than evident.

"I'm not sure. Well, I know his name, and with a little investigation, I discovered more about him. Still, I don't really know who he is..." Esther hesitated a little as if she had forgotten what she was going to say. She looked thoughtfully to the side for a moment and then turned back to her as she stood up from the chair and leans on the bed. "But that is a boring topic. Let me see how you go..."

At that moment, she extended her hand to Lily's face, and the girl deliberately wanted to take it away from her. But, because of her position, it was not something simple to do, so Esther managed to take her chin and turn her face entirely to her side. Esther took a careful look at the purple and red spot that encompassed the area of ​​Lily's left temple and eyebrow, part of her forehead, and even a little of her cheek. It looked ugly, but in the afternoon, it looked much worse.

"Yes, the blow of your face is going good," Esther pointed out calmly, further altering the little girl.

"My face?" Lily snapped, confused. "What did you do to my face?"

"Nothing we can't solve with a couple more days of ice and makeup," Esther replied wryly.

Suddenly, Lily yelled and tried to pull her body completely towards Esther, and if she hadn't been stopped by the wives, she would have finally thrown herself at her. While her wrists clenched and irritated, she faced her captor a few inches from her face. Her eyes are filled with a rage so genuine and voracious that she had never been allowed to actively demonstrate, even in front of her parents. Possibly, she had never met someone worthy of deserving it.

"You have no idea of ​​the great mistake you have made," Lily murmured, her voice resonating gravely and inhumanly, and like a loud echo echoing in the walls. Esther looked at her calmly, without a blink to this action. It won't help you to have me in handcuffs. I don't need my hands to torture you a thousand times in unimaginable ways until there is nothing more than an imitation of you. And the only thought you can formulate congruently in your mind will be the desire to die..."

Even when she stopped, her voice continued to rumble for a few more moments as if it made the walls tremble. Esther watched her silently during that entire period before. Then, out of nowhere, she let out a loud laugh of mockery that perplexed the Sullivan girl.

"I'm sorry," the stranger murmured as she contained her laughter. She then extended her left hand and placed it on Lily's forehead, pushing her back so that she was again against the bed. Later, Esther walked to the table where the television was. On one side of it were two white plastic bags. She took one of them and returned to the bed, all with a rather casual and uninhibited bearing. "Yes, from what I saw, I guess you could do that. But let me point out some implications

That you may not have considered, dear."

Esther placed the bag on the mattress, next to Lily's injured leg. She rummaged with her right hand in it, taking out after a while a red and white pack of cigarettes, and a disposable lighter. She opened the square packet, took out a cigarette from it, and placed it between her lips.

"One, you are handcuffed, and the key is not in this room, for safety," she said confidently, making four unsuccessful attempts before the lighter managed to keep her flame burning, enough to light the tip of her cigarette. She gave a small mouthful of smoke, which she let out almost immediately with a much more relaxed expression. "Two, you have no idea how to get out of this room, or where exactly we are. And three," she extended her hand with which she didn't hold her cigarette to Lily's leg, squeezing it just a little but enough for the little girl to let out a scream of pain "you have a bullet lodged in your leg, and this wound really looks ugly. How long do you think you can walk with that until someone finds you? If anyone finds you, because, as far as you can know, we could be in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, in an underground bunker, or across the street from the police headquarters; who knows?"

She approached the bureau on Lily's right side, where the gun was. Lily couldn't avoid looking at that sidelong gun, and Esther also noticed.

"Sure, I almost forgot," her kidnapper exclaimed with an almost overreacted surprise. She took the weapon with her right hand and leaned back over her hostage, sticking the tip of the weapon's barrel against Lily's soft cheek. Lily looked at her sideways, totally silent. "And four, another thing you can get with money is many, many bullets. And as you saw, even with your tricks, I know how to use them, especially now that I have you entirely still on one site. And don't hesitate it for a second: I don't care about the money or the information you worth; I won't restrain myself at the idea of ​​make some pretty holes in that pretty little head. You would not be even the first naive girl to whom I do it."

At that moment, she smiled at her, with that grotesque way and those dirty teeth, causing her entire face to take on such an intimidating aspect that she was possibly not even aware of. It was as if it were merely natural.

Esther turned the revolver off her face. With her other hand, she took the ashtray that was also in the bureau and approached again where she was only a second ago. She placed the gun and the ashtray on the white sheets and dragged the chair so she could sit right front Lily's thigh.

"So, summarizing the issue," Esther muttered as she settled down and dropped some ash from her cigarette on the ashtray. "If you try something like what you did on the hospital, you'll end up dead or rotting in that bed for weeks before someone finds you. So, shut up your fucking mouth, stop pretending to be so rude, and let me heal your leg."

Before Lily could completely process that last comment, she noticed how her captor began to take more things out of the white bag. She did not recognize everything, but could see gauze, bandages, alcohol, iodine, a package of surgical gloves, a new scalpel, a cotton package (seemingly open), long and pointed surgical tweezers, among several other things.

"I would have wanted to let you sleep longer, but I need you awake for this," Esther commented with amazing naturalness.

"Are you crazy?" Lily snapped, scared and indignant. "I've to go to the hospital."

"And where do you think I just got you out with so many troubles? I'll just take out the bullet, clean the wound and bandage it. If I had damaged something important, you would have already bled to death. So, in addition to be a little bitch, you're a lucky one."

Lily took a deep breath, staring at Esther and totally corroded by anger. She tried to analyze her situation as quickly as she could. With her shouts, that girl showed that they were far from anyone who could listen or help her. Or the site, despite its appearance, was somehow anti-noise. Without being sure, she had to assume it was the first option. Yes, she could try to use her powers and manipulate her to release her and get out of there. However, it was right: she wouldn't go very far with that leg. She also believed her when she said that at the first sign of using this tactic, she would use that gun in her. She already did it once, what would stop her from doing it again? She could assume the risk and think she was boasting when said she wouldn't mind killing her if necessary, based on the fact that she hadn't done so until then, and is even worried about healing her injured leg. However, Lily didn't know how far she was willing to go without necessarily having to kill her. If her captor was half determined like her, it would be quite far.

From any side, everything seemed to indicate that she was in her hands. That didn't mean there wouldn't be a way she could manage, but she simply didn't see it at the time. The situation did not frighten her if she was able to feel such a thing. What it caused in her is anger, much anger, and frustration. Lily could not believe that anyone, whoever they were, could have reduced her to that condition: a helpless girl in her absolute mercy without having any control over it. Only someone else had caused her that uncomfortable and overwhelming feeling: Emily, when she started driving her car as deranged without caring to die herself to finish all. But now she seemed to be in a much more precarious situation than the day before, because Emily, until a certain point, was still predictable. But now, not even try to read her thoughts was enough to understand what that lunatic thought, as if her entire head was filled only with static from an old television.

Esther sat on the chair, and with small scissors, she began to cut the bandages that wrapped Lily's thigh, causing little pain.

"At least you've done this before?" Asked Lily clenching her teeth and looking away. Esther looked at her sideways with a mischievous smile.

"Sure, but never to another person," Esther answered, and Lily released a small silent curse upon hearing that. "But it should be easier. But I also bought a saw, so we can finish it faster if you want."

The girl turned to see her totally alarmed, her eyes wide. Esther laughed slightly mockingly.

"I'm just kidding," she said somewhat mischievously. Apparently, Lily was possible to feel a little scared after all.

Esther finished removing the bandages. Under them, against the wound, she had placed a rectangular dressing, which apparently had done its job well in stopping the bleeding. When she removed the dressing, Lily felt small pulsations of pain as she exposed the wound. It was practically a circular hole in her white skin the size of a coin. Her leg was so thin that it seemed strange that the bullet had not crossed it entirely. Some blood came from the wound, although lesser.

It was time to get to work.

Esther took two pillows from the floor and placed them in a pile under the injured leg to keep it somewhat elevated. The movement, again, caused the girl to exclaim a groan of discomfort, although she tried to hide it more this time.

"I really think we started off on the wrong foot, Lily," Esther said. "Can I call you Lily?"

"Screw you," the girl said without looking at her.

"It does not matter." She then took the bottle of hydrogen peroxide and poured part of it right over the wound area, causing Lily to almost jump out of bed. Then, with a clean cloth that she took out of new packaging, she began to clean the wound and all around it. "I'm afraid that we'll spend a lot of time together in the next few days. So, it will be better to start over. As I told you, my name is Esther, and that's how I like to be called. And I'm not your enemy, and I wasn't looking for you to hurt you. All this was your fault. If you had been a good girl, we would have left there without a problem, and I could even have bought you an ice cream."

Lily grimaced at her comment. Esther then took the iodine bottle and, with cotton, began to place the dark liquid around the wound. Again Lily winced a little.

"While I do this, what do you think if I tell you a story?" Suggested Esther with good cheer.

"Do I have a choice?"

"You'll like it, it's a funny story. It's a long, long time ago, about a girl like you, but born a little differently." Once she finished placing the iodine, Esther opened the package with the latex gloves and began to put them on; they were obviously too big for her small hands. "Her mother died just the day she was born and was taken care of by her father, a mean, ruthless and heartless man, who also hated her. He beat her tirelessly during the day, and at night... he did worse and more painful things with her." Lily suddenly put more interest in the story, though she tried to hide it. "She should hate him for all that, but she didn't. In fact, she developed a very special fixation for him... a fixation that no one else could understand, but which for her was pure and good."

Lily made an image in her mind of what she might be referring to, and it was hard for her to know if it disturbed her or indeed seemed... interesting. She had always had a particular fixation with that kind of thing, not very typical of a girl of her age.

Esther took another breath from her cigarette and then placed it back in the ashtray next to her. Once with the gloves on, she took two surgical forceps, some to keep the wound open and others to explore and find the bullet. She placed the first ones on the left hand and the others on the right. Inserted the tweezers and opened the wound as much as possible, causing an uncomfortable sensation in her "patient."

"As the years went by, this girl noticed that her body wasn't developing like the other girls. Her height had stagnated, her breasts didn't grow, and she never had her first period." Esther introduced the second clamps slowly into the wound. If Lily had had her hands free, she would have pressed the sheet tightly between her fingers. She really hoped she knew what she was doing. "And it was then when a doctor, among so much irrelevant medical talk that just gave a shit, dared to tell her on his face like a spit, that she would never grow up, and that she would never be a woman. That..." She suddenly gave a wry laugh, "created a certain short circuit in the head of our protagonist, which in fact was not quite right before that anyway."

Her tweezers touched a specific point inside the wound that made Lily's body shiver, and the kid let out a loud scream of pain. She quickly turned to see her, remarkably irritated.

"That must have been a nerve," Esther commented with notorious normality, without taking her attention from her work. "I think I'm close... What was I saying? Oh, yeah. A little after that, her father stopped being interested in her. Apparently, he was bored by her childish body, squalid, and without grace. He no longer even had an interest in hitting her. And then he got another woman; tall, voluptuous, wide hips, breasts like melons, thick red lips... everything she would never be. The little girl had to listen every night how his father fucks that whore in the next room, who groaned like a hungry bitch and shouted obscenities like prayers to heaven." Her tone took a grim feeling that even Lily had to admit that it intimidated her a little. "Until she could no longer. One night, while they both slept, naked, sweaty, and dirty, wrapped between the sheets, she entered her room with the sharpest knife in the kitchen and... Well, let's say the whore would not groan again with her throat sliced."

Lily's eyes narrowed a little. Was that "story" real? Or was she just trying to scare and bend her? Her instinct told that it was the first option, but more than scaring her, she was really unable at that moment to hide the fascination that all this caused in her. Of course, she would have preferred her not to say such things while doing all that with her leg.

"She didn't want to hurt her father," she continued, "but he looked for it, just like you. He woke up, tried to take the knife away, and she defended herself... one time... and another... and another until her hand got tired..."

Suddenly, a small metallic jingle was heard. Lily didn't really listen to it but felt it. Esther smiled, satisfied. He moved the clamp a little groped until she thought she had it. Then slowly removed the clamp from the hole. If perhaps the bullet was covering an artery, then she was about to receive an abundant stream of blood on her face, and then there would be nothing she could do for little Lily Sullivan, other than leave and let her bleed in peace; maybe she could be a bit pious and blow her brains and do it all faster. But again, luck was on the qualities of the little girl, because as soon as Esther took out that piece of the lead, whole and almost without losing her form, no more blood spilled than expected.

"Good, here's the little bastard," Esther exclaimed triumphantly, raising the bullet a little above her head to see it against the light. Lily also sighed in relief.

Esther placed the bloody bullet over the sheet to the side. She then took the hydrogen peroxide (but not before taking her cigarette and sucking it again) and cleaned the wound again.

"The story just gets worse from here on out. She had to wander everywhere to avoid ending up in jail, or in an insane asylum. At that time, she had to survive with the only thing she knew how to do: satisfy the most disgusting and vomiting desires of the perverts, who had no qualms about venting them on a little girl... or on someone they thought was one." Once she cleaned the wound, she placed a new dressing over it, covering it completely, and then went on to bandage it, also with a clean new bandage. "In the way, she had to use a knife, gun, or her own hands again to get rid of more men, including some clients. But in the end, she was found and put in an asylum."

She tightened the bandage, although not in an uncomfortable way, and secured it with two clasps.

"With this, you'll be fine for now," she said eloquently. She then took a rectangular box of pills from the pharmacy bag, and a more similar one, but red. "Take these every twelve hours for infection, and these others every eight to deflate and cushion the pain."

"Untie my hands, and I do it," Lily replied neutrally, which gave Esther a small smile.

"Nice try."

Esther walked to the bathroom, and Lily could hear the faucet in the sink opening for a few moments. A second later, she returned with a glass of water in one hand and two pills, one white and one pink, in the other. She sat on the bed next to her, and without saying anything, pushed the two tablets in her mouth before she could even think of refusing. Then approached the glass to him, and the girl had no choice but to accept the water to pass them, causing a sharp attack of cough, and part of that water was poured on it. Her caregiver ran a cloth over her lips to dry it.

"Surprisingly, she was calm in the asylum for a while. She even felt safe and comfortable there. There was a very handsome doctor who she liked. He reminded her so much... to his daddy." A smirk smiled on her lips, revealing her battered teeth again. "He was very kind to her, and she felt butterflies in her stomach every time they talked. But when she tried to show him what she felt for him, getting between his legs to apply all her mastery of the streets with no cost, the scoundrel rejected her. And she didn't take it very well. I don't know who comes up with a pen when interviewing someone... you know, a little crazy. Rookie mistake, I guess. But it looked very well stuck in his neck."

"My God," Lily said, not precisely frightened by the comment, but somewhat surprised.

"Don't play to be the little saint, that at ten years old, you aren't a candidate for the honor roll, are you?"

She stood and walked to the TV table, more specifically to another bag that was next to it. Apparently, it wasn't from the pharmacy, but Lily could only see that it had a green logo on her side. Esther took something elongated from the bag wrapped in colored paper. She returned to the chair on the side of the bed, and sat down quietly, crossing her legs. Upon unwrapping what she had in his hands, she revealed that it was a sandwich of white bread, apparently turkey breast, lettuce, and tomato. She took a small bite, noticing much satisfaction for that act.

"Our protagonist fled from that place," she continued, telling between bite and bite of the appetizer, "and then was picked up by a kind family who thought, like everyone else, that she was a helpless girl on one side of the road. They decided to help her, welcome her, and make her pretend to be her daughter to bring her here, to America. Not to make the story so long, that didn't work out very well either. Her new daddy also did not willingly accept her affection, so it all ended with some fire... no, let me fixed it: a lot of fire." She let out a loud, almost unhinged laugh, though it was cut almost immediately. "The third would be the charm... or, perhaps fourth? It doesn't matter. Eight years ago, the girl managed to be adopted by another lovely family, with a beautiful house, a handsome new dad, and two lovely siblings. But the mother was... quite suspicious and jealous. She didn't like the idea of ​​sharing daddy's affection, so our protagonist wouldn't either."

"Let me guess, did she kill them all too?" Asked Lily wryly.

"No, but she tried," Esther replied between chuckles. "Are you hungry? I know you are."

At that moment, she placed her half-eaten sandwich right on Lily's chest, in a position she could see it with trouble, much less reach it with her mouth. The girl simply looked sideways, but Esther remained indifferent to this and concentrated more on finishing her story, as well on her cigarette.

"And that ended even worse than the previous times," she muttered slowly, exhaling smoke as she did so. "Have someone broken your neck? No, of course not. It's a funny feeling. You hear a loud crack. But not in your ears, but in your whole body, as if all your bones vibrate. And then there was the water, the cold water as you have no idea, going through every inch of skin as if it was hundreds of needles. But this feeling was appeasing as she sank deeper into that lake. Until everything was silence and darkness..."

Without even turning to see her, Esther retook the sandwich, and now she brought it close to Lily's lips enough. The kid was disgusted with the idea of ​​eating that thing, but the truth was that she was hungry. She didn't know how much she had been unconscious, but it had definitely been enough, so she just ate a little while listening to her.

"And the story would end there, but suddenly... the light came back," Esther exclaimed in an almost melodramatic tone. "Her lungs filled with air, and she could feel again. Her body was out of the lake, lying in the snow. Even her own blood and mucous were frozen in her face, her neck barely hurt... But she was alive. And yet her mind was a little more lucid, you know?" A wide illuminated smile was drawn on her lips as if she was seeing the most beautiful gift under the tree in Christmas morning. "She could see things with a little more clarity. And for a long time, she was convinced that God had forgiven her, and had been the recipient of a beautiful miracle. She could imagine Him extending his omniscient hand from the heavens, to get her out of that ice because He loved her... like all her daddies."

She kept smiling for a while longer, but as the seconds went by, the smile faded. Now her expression was more similar to as if she had opened that gift, and inside it had only socks, shoes, or anything else except the toy she longed for so strongly. Esther breathed once more of her cigarette and then raised her hand a little to the front to contemplate it. It was the same hand in which a few days ago she was stabbed with scissors, and yet there was no mark on her skin."

The tone of the story became somewhat more somber, even more than during any of the past moments that merited it.

"But our protagonist very soon realized that this had not been precisely a divine miracle. And that perhaps it was not God who pulled her out of that lake that night, but something... more..." She pulled the sandwich from his hostage's mouth, and she ate again from it. Her eyes pointed at that moment towards the wall, but in reality, they looked at the absolute nothing. "I have always wanted to know what happened at that time, and because now I am as I am." Apparently, she had stopped expressing herself in the third person, what Lily supposed meant the story was over. "And everything seems to indicate that you'll be the key to discover it, you and the other girl that I must also find. Thanks to you, I can finally know the truth... so in one way or another, I will have to take care of you a little more."

She turned slowly toward her and smiled broadly in a way that perhaps in another kind of circumstance, someone might consider "sweet."

"Don't you think it's fun?"

Lily looked at her stoically and calmly. She no longer looked annoyed, at least not on the outside. If she had to guess, she would say that she was possibly analyzing in silence, either herself or everything she had just said.

"How old are you exactly?" Lily suddenly asked in a stern voice. Esther smiled funny.

"Really? Of all I just told you, is that the only thing you can think of asking?" Lily shrugged impassively, and Esther laughed again. "I think you and I will get along very well."

"I don't think so," Lily replied hoarsely.

"You'll see. I can be much nicer than I look." Then she leaned against the chair and took another bite of her sandwich. "I can only give you a couple of days to rest that leg. After that, we must go."

"Where?"

Esther thought a little while chewing her last bite of appetizer.

"To the north," she replied simply, "to an island called Moesko. To look for the other brat."

END OF CHAPTER 22

Author's Notes:

—A significant part of Esther's background story narrated in this chapter is based on what was seen in the movie Orphan (2009). However, some additional data were given about it in interviews but were not added to the film either due to lack of time or to be quite raw. Here I also gave a personal interpretation to these events, which I hope has been well.