Once upon a crime.
Let bygones be bygones
That morning, I was kind of more assertive. I decided I was to pierce the mystery that made suddenly Kaia, Kala and Kamla so distant.
No more hugged, it was hard to hold to their hands. And when I was, it was cold as death itself.
All three were sleeping in the other bed, even if I asked to be cuddle or to be comforted.
They were moving faster, and with almost no noise.
So, I was puzzled. No less, no more.
As I summed up my breath and courage to demand them an explanation, Kamla looked up to the wall, beaming and declaring out of the blue:
"Someone is coming, Someone is coming!" made Kamla all excited.
I tried to hug her, but she avoided me again. I sigh.
She looked at me.
Suddenly, I felt that the room temperature was getting lower.
I was alone with Kamla as a few second prior to this, we were all there.
"Soon I will be able to go too." She declared.
"Kamla, you are worrying me." I replied. I was shaking and I tried to reach to her hands to hold them.
"Don't forget Kara. She is in the cupboard since the last three days. She may died also if you forgot her." Added Kamla.
I felt a wave of sadness getting into me."'Died' also? you mean…"
"We just stayed with you so Mother doesn't kidnap another girl. So you escape, as we promised to you."
"But I saw her torturing all of you. You …I never got you were gone."
She winks with her nose wrinkling up like they all did so often, but Kaia after Mother broke her nose.
"You saw what we wanted her to see. You're still alive…Kaia and Kala too. Though not here in that room and soon to join me."
"But they were there, not a second before?!" I protested as well as questionned.
I heard the sound of the firearm being charged and cranked.
Kamla turned her head to the door and, as suddenly that I was left alone with her, now the three of them were there, teaming up around me.
"Downstairs, girls. Everyone moves downstairs." Called the mother."Don't wait till I get you out of your rat nest by myself."
We obey. I followed, in battle inside of me. I tried to touch them during our walk, but they kind of found a sure way to escape my grip. I felt warmth approaching them, so my hand expected touching a surface of some sort.
I start thinking back of all that happened. I wanted to pinpoint when each of them went. But all the remembrances of the days I lived here were intertwining with no particular order. I remembered more of the impression of never sleeping, always being tortured and beaten and always being sat at that table. I was unable to know what happened before what. I just know I was there. I was still there. I touched myself to make sure of it. Yes, I was there.
We arrived downstairs and Mother made us took a line aside the wall.
"They wont take you, our daughters. Not after all the effort we put inside each of you to learn you to be superior human beings." She said softly, tears pouring down her eyes. She was resolute, no other word suited more to the tone and stance she was displaying.
My heartbeat slowed. Curious since I was frankly scared. I could have screamed, like you do going down in a roller coaster. That was doing the same thing to my tommy.
All the girls looked in between themselves. The gun's nose was waving in front of us.
"You forgot Kara." Makes the disfigured Kaia. Her tone sounded like she was disappointed that Kara was not amongst them. That was not out of her normal behavior. Just the tone used was more assertive, less fearful. Like if she was disinvolved. She pressed aside me.
"You are right, Kaia, our love. Our first gift." And Mother moved toward the cupboard. The fire arm still pointed at us, she pried open the compartment.
"Get out there…" she made.
One feet got out, then the other. She was too slow for the taste of Mother, so she held the fire arm upward, time to clutch to Kara.
"Runs!Now!Out!" shouted Kala.
Something made my leg starting in a race before I even realised it. I sprinted out the house where I was expecting meeting a locked door. I ran and ran and ran till a body halted my race. I reconized the odor right away. It was Ilario.
"Maataa!I want Maataa!" I blared out.
"We are not in a movie." He states softly. Ilario hoist me up in his arms, cuddling me close, bringing me toward the set of ambulances. "We don't bring parents on a scene like that."
"You thought I was to be d…" I began, but:
"Pow!"
I heard something a bit like some pop-corn bursting open and hitting the lid of the cauldron. I started squealing.
That was a gunshot, everyone was repeating it.
Before I had the time to realize, Ilario had hid, with me, behind the big wall of one ambulance.
He hugged me tighter, casting a worried glance toward the advancing squad. One man shrugged at him before returning his glance away.
"Kala!Kaia!Kamla!Kara!" I lamented, pointing to the farm house, to the home I was in for so long. I thought all was over. All of them had perished.
People started twirling around in a bizarre scene. The approach the building carefully.
I wailed again for Maataa. Which made Ilario grabbing his cellular.
"Rizpah, please. Yes…"
There was a silence for a moment. I tried to push on his big belly to see better what was happening to the 'scene' like he called it.
"Allo. I got someone for you…" he then said, placing immediately the phone on my hear.
I heard:"Allo?" It was Maataa voice.
"Maataa!!!" I yowled. I knew it was her, I recognized her. I was thrilled. I thought so much I would have forget all of her. In my excitement, I must have kicked Ilario, he really had to sit. But he didn’t let go on me.
"Haley!!!!" she yelled back. I heard a noise, before she talk again, she was announcing it to all the office behind her: Sef, Saira, Dante to name only those. It was long like she had the whole town to thanks. "Haley is on the phone. They found her they found her!" I heard a major hoot. I had to place the phone far from my hear. Then her voice came again, soft with caring. I was so warm to hear her again.
"Where are you?" she asked.
I looked around…"I don't know. Behind an ambulance."
"You are ok, someone is looking at you?"
"Ilario got me in his arm. When I'll see you. I want to se you right now!" I goaded her with my tearful intonation.
"Pass me Ilario, Sweety. We'll see us soon, I promise."
"Love you!" I declared with two kissing sound.
"Same Haley…same."
And I give the phone to my holder.
He talked a bit with her, but I was truly distracted. There was a clamor developing behind. Something was happening.
Ilario put me on the ground delicately, and he walked a bit to see better. Only, I followed him like a shadow, holding to his knee cap.
"Return behind the ambulance, Haley…" He said, interrupted. He patted my head behind him, using himself like a shield and standing in an alertness way, gaze on the farm door.
The door opened up, gradually.
The wave of the squad stopped their advancement.
Ilario took me again in his arms, covering me up totally.
Perhaps they were expecting Mother, like in the movie. But soon after, I felt a squeezed on my hand. I looked down.
"Kara!!!"
I was so happy, she was there. She had ran so fast, none of the people there had the time to shoot nor reacted.
"I promised Kamla to not left you behind." I told her as Ilario let me down. He was astonished.
"There is more little girls?" he questions as the other people were processing in the surrounding.
"Was…" I answered, holding to Kara hand.
She emitted a sound. I frowned. I never really heard her emitting more than whimpers. She opens her mouth.
There was no tongue!
I hugged her.
"Was?" inquiry Ilario while kneeling aside us. He patted my back and examined Kara.
"We were five." I articulated, hugging to Kara.
"I don't think they 'are' no more." I sorrowed.
He nodded.
"Clear!" I heard several men and women saying from everywhere. The clatter of it almost hid the "Suspect down and under control!"
They got Mother out the home. A man was carrying her out. She was crying and whining like we did so often, folded on herself.
"You wont have any of them. We all kill them. You wont have them."
Passing by us, she got white and moaned more.
"We failed!We failed! The five are there, standing there. You will suffer. You will not be understood by those ignorant! You will regret no more having us."
We heard not all of her delirious comments, they put her into a van that shortly drove away.
I was seized by horror, realizing she had not shot at herself, I feared a moment for Kara. My gaze got on her and I brushed all her clothes, each strand of hairs.
"What are you doing to her?" Makes a woman that joined Ilario. She was in running shoes and jean, but very elegant and tall. Taller than Ilario, at least.
"Checking her up, she can't talk. Haven't you heard the gun shot?"
Kara shook her head, pointing to the house. I sighed again, relief.
"I am glad it is not you that has been shot. But who was?"
She answer by pointing at her then one aside.
We soon had been taken apart, but Kara seemed to not mind this time. Her eyes were flickering. She appeared to be tired. In need of a warm bath and some deserved rest.
I came to comprehend, listening to the adults aside me that we survived a war to would have changed us forever. But of course, they were chatting on a low tone and not directly addressing us. Like if we were unable to acknowledge any of their mumbo-jumbo. I almost started to believe Mother was not that far away from the reality. They won't be able to understand. They lived not what we did. I instantly felt having Kara along for the rest of my life will be more than a gift. It will be a need to fulfill. I had difficulty to rest on the cot while I was tested and checked for anything the paramedics requested before taking us away.
"I will see you at the hospital." I said, knowing by instinct that it was where they were taking us.
I saw then, the men getting out with two other of us. I didn’t know if it was only their bodies. I cried lot.
Maataa was so happy to see me when I arrived at the Children's Hospital.
And daddy was there, too, cuddling her.
"You know, angels are not all white and blonde." I told them. "I met three of them very cool, with long black hair and dark colored skin."
Maataa smiled."I am glad they were on your path, then."
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