Yours True LY

I sat there in complete darkness as the pungent odor of wood rust, fish and urine filled my nose.

The unending skin contact between me and the sixteen year old girl beside me didn't affect me and I didn't bother shifting away because there was no space.

My legs were numb and my eyes were heavy and hot, my head was throbbing and I could feel a dull pain on my shoulder from where I was violently slammed against an array of drums. My whole body hurt but my heart hurt more.

I tried to keep my mind blank and my thoughts away but it became more difficult each passing second as I grew more anxious and scared. I wasn't scared for myself, I was scared for my parents and my brother, especially my brother.

I blinked, trying not to let the tears that had welled up in my eyes drop.

I couldn't help but think of all the horrible things they could be doing to him and it hurt even more because I knew he wouldn't be able to do much for himself or even defend himself. I felt my heart drop as the possibility of him being dead crossed my mind.

And my parents? I could only wish they were not dead and that at least one of them was with my brother.

Someone close to me sneezed violently and I felt cold droplets fall on the side of my face. The noise from the person sneezing had startled me and had temporarily drawn me away from my thoughts but then the girl beside me started crying.

I could remember what she looked like. She was my brother's classmate and one of those who was nice to him. But despite her “nice nature” I didn't really like her because it seemed to me like she was doing so much in order to be loved and accepted by everyone.

But all that didn't matter anymore, we were both in danger. We were all in danger with no idea of what was ahead of us.

We were all captives of war, and our lives meant nothing to our captors. The only thing we would ever mean to them was a few extra change after they've sold us.

At that moment, I couldn't help but think of what would become of me. The only reasonable conclusion was that I would be sold to work for the rest of my life, or worse, killed for some kind of sick entertainment.

Once again, I cursed Sona in my heart for bringing us so much pain. And I blamed my country's leaders too. They couldn't do anything to stop the war, they tossed the citizens and soldiers in grave danger by trying to prove a stupid point when they could have avoided the whole thing with a reasonable discussion. Yet, they were the first to fly their families to safety while they let the rest of us rot and suffer in the hands of the cruel Sonians.

I couldn't get the memory of the war out of my head, buildings blowing up, blown up bodies littering everywhere, crying babies and mothers, the agony in the screams and the blast of the explosives as they killed more people each second.

By the end of the war, I was long separated from my family and I was roughly picked up, thrown into a bus and taken to the captives camp where more people were killed.

I remember being taunted and beaten up by the female soldiers before we were separated according to our gender and ages then transported to the port where we were forced to board ships to Sona, the country where the worst fate awaited us.

I think it took us a whole week to get to Sona. I couldn't keep track of day or night because the place they kept us in the ship was completely dark. The only time I got to know what time of the day it was, was when the door was opened and the soldiers threw rice cakes wrapped in banana leaves at us.

Not many people picked it the first time as we were all still grieving, but I did, knowing that everyone would soon go hungry and would start fighting for food.

I didn't want to pass out or die of hunger on the ship. I had no idea what life had in store for me but I was not about to give up.

The second time the food was “distributed”, almost everyone fought for food as many were already faint. I managed to get my hand on another rice cake but I couldn't eat it because I was dehydrated and my throat was perched. Eating the rice cake would make me want water even more.

After what I suspected to be a week, the door to the space they kept us was opened and the soldiers started to drag people out. I couldn't even stand on my own legs because I was short of energy and my legs were numb due to lack of blood circulation. I was dragged out of the space by a male soldier.

It was past midnight when we got to Sona, and the moon was shining in its glory, unbothered by whatever war had just happened.

Some bodies were carried out and laid on the deck of the ship. They were dead.

My mind was immediately drawn back to my family and I wondered if they were dead too.

The rest of the transportation throughout the day was a haze as my mind was clouded with thoughts.

I only came back to earth when the truck that was transporting us hit another, causing everyone in the truck to jerk violently. The drivers of both trucks argued for a while till our driver drove off and finally stopped in front of a massive building with colorful neon signs everywhere.

I raised my head to read the bright red neon sign on the building and the name echoed in my head even though I didn't say it out loud.

Luther King, it was a brothel.