Prompt #10: Coward: Aesa Locklair
(Missed Prompts #8 & 9 due to life shenanigans, lets see if I can pull this one off, doing one for Aesa since you guys haven’t gotten to see much of her. Under a cut for violence and badness theme along with this one being really long. Not for the faint of heart.)
For most of what she could remember it had been dark in her world. She knew there was a happy life before Hasan had taken her family. She had a vague sense that they had a good life, maybe they hadn’t had much, but it had been happy. There was a foggy memory of her father smiling while her mother was baking something. There was a small house. She remembered a stuffed moogle toy she had. That was all the fragments she could pull from before they had been taken aboard the ship.When she was older her father told her that they had been tricked by the man. He was supposed to give them passage to their new life, to a new home, but instead Hasan had taken all their gil, taken away their lives.
Her father had never been a very strong man. He could never get enough air, and sometimes his breath would stop working. She didn’t know much about it, but she knew some of the mushrooms that grew in the cavern made it worse. Her mother would make medicine out of some of the wind aspected crystals in the cavern. There weren’t many, and oftentimes they would end up corrupted by the strange machina, but somehow her mom always found a way to squirrel some away for her father.
Her father had taught her to make herself small and not stare at the men when they came. To not draw anyone’s attention. He made her promise to try to hide and live as long as she could. Her mother had taken a knife and cut off all her hair to make her look like a boy. She didn’t like her hair being short. She missed having long hair. That was, until she saw what happened to the girls who didn’t cut their hair. She never saw exactly what happened. She just knew it was bad. They would curl up on themselves and cry. She hated it there. She hated all the crying at night. The wailing of people, then the men who came to silence the noise.
Her father died first. They sent him to dig in the cavern, the dust and rocks had been too much that day and he collapsed. Her mother hadn’t been around to give him the medicine, and the mean men had beaten her father and told him to get up, but he never got back up. People died all the time in Hasan’s operation. He brought in new people. Some of them tried to escape, those died too. She was pretty sure she would die there one day like the others, but then she would see her dad again, and they would be free, so it wouldn’t be so bad.
Her mother was never the same after her father died. She tried to be strong, but Aesa would hear her sniffling and crying at night when she thought the girl was asleep. Her mother had known a lot about medicines. The mean men made her treat the people who had been hurt or got sick. Aesa tried to help. Mostly she just fetched things for her mother. They used charcoal a lot. People would get desperately hungry and eat the mushrooms, but the mushrooms made them sick. Her mom had warned her that they were poisonous and would make her sick and no matter how hungry she was, she shouldn’t eat them. Her mom would make them drink the charcoal all crushed up in special water. She tried to explain it to Aesa, but it was too hard for her to understand. All she knew was that it made them sicker for a while, but then they lived through it. The ones that didn’t drink the black water always ended up dying.
One day they came and dragged her mother away. She didn’t know why, but she did as her father had told her and made herself small when they did. Her mother never came back. She found out later her mother had tried to kill Hasan. She had used her medicines to try to make him sick and die. Someone said she had tried to poison him, but Aesa didn’t really understand poison. Maybe she had given him the mushrooms. It hadn’t worked though, maybe someone gave him the black water. He had killed her for trying.
After that Aesa was alone. There were other kids there, and some of them were mean to her. They called her a coward for hiding all the time. Dared her to try to run away. She knew what happened to the people that ran away though. It was the same thing that happened to everyone, but maybe if she hid a little longer then she would live a little longer. She missed her parents and wanted to see them again, but she had also promised her father that she would try to be small, try to stay out of sight, and try to live. Was it cowardly to do what her father said? She didn’t know, but she knew that keeping a promise was important. They made her work, thinking she was one of the boys. She had to carry heavy rocks, and other equipment where the mean men needed it. She never looked up at them, always made herself small, and always did what she was told.
One day she was hiding and saw them drag in a woman. This one wasn’t like the other ones they brought in. She was clawing and fighting the men. It took so many of them to try to drag her along. Aesa watched from behind a set of crates as the woman crushed one of the men’s noses with the back of her head. She was beat up badly, and bleeding from everywhere. Aesa was sure she would die like the others. Then Hasan came to greet the men. She couldn’t hear what he was saying to the woman, but she spat in his face and tried to lash out at him. She looked how Aesa imagined wild animals would look from the stories her mother used to tell her. The woman was dragged away, not towards the workers quarters, but further in to where Hasan stayed. Back to where no one was allowed to go.
Aesa had been so surprised by the woman that she hadn’t paid attention to hiding. One of the men that was bleeding stood up and looked over, spotting her head leaned out from behind the crates. “Oi! Ya ain’ supposed t’ be ‘ere!” She had tried to run away, but he had caught her by her hair and yanked her up. Hasan had turned to see what was going on then gave her a smile that made her feel cold all over. “Bring her. I think I have a use for her...” Aesa realized it was probably going to be the day she died. She broke her promise to her father. She hadn’t stayed hidden enough. Would he be mad at her when he saw her beyond the veil of the dead?
They had taken her into a room with nothing in it. Just an empty cell and tossed her in. Eventually they came and gave her a little water and bread. They told her that Hasan had a plan for her so she had to eat. She did as she was told. They dumped a bucket of cold water over her head to wash away some of the dirt and soot from the cavern. She had shivered until she had finally dried off. She didn’t know how long she was in the room. It felt like forever.
Then Hasan came and spoke to her. He scared her. She shook and tried to stare at the ground, but he made her look up. “If you are very good, and do exactly as I say then you won’t be hurt. You will get good food, and new clothes, and if you do your very best I might even make you one of our crew. How does that sound, little girl?” Aesa just nodded, not knowing what to say. Then he took her with him to another room to fetch one of his crew members. You could tell who was one of the mean men, because they all had the same marks on their faces. After they fetched the man, who looked a bit like one of the rats they had crawling in the cavern, they went to another room. This one had a big metal door with Machina controlling it. Aesa had seem some machina like this. Her father had told her it was very old and very powerful. That it was what Hasan was after and that she shouldn’t ever touch it. Hasan pressed on the metal and it opened the door to the room. Then she followed him and his rat man inside.
The woman who had seemed like a wild animal was in the room, she looked dead. Her eyes were closed and she hung from chains. She was bleeding even more than before, but Hasan waved to the Rat Man, and the Rat Man pulled out a staff then waved his hands over the woman and Aesa saw the glow of magic start to heal her wounds. The woman woke up and that was when Aesa noticed the mark on her face. It was just like Hasan’s mark, but it was a different color. His and his mean men’s were all red. Hers was black. Aesa didn’t know what that meant. Was she one of the mean people too? The woman tried to lash out at the rat man, but she couldn’t move much. Hasan spoke to her quietly, “Uh uh... tsk tsk... wouldn’t want to upset our guest would you?” He motioned to Aesa who tried to shrink down on herself. Make herself small again. The woman’s dark eyes fell on the girl and it was the first time Aesa saw her look afraid. It was only for an instant, and she tried to cover it up, but Hasan had seen it. Was the woman afraid of her? Aesa didn’t think she was very wasn’t scary. She wondered why the woman was afraid of her, but she stayed quiet.
Hasan waved to the Rat man again and he walked over and grabbed Aesa by the back of her shirt and held her up off the ground. She couldn’t help it, she was afraid and she started to flail and squirm. Hasan turned and shushed her and she held perfectly still. She knew she had to always listen to the bad men. If you didn’t listen to the bad men, then bad things happened to you. The rat man tied her to a chair in the room. It was uncomfortable, but it didn’t hurt. She hid her face behind her hair, but she watched from beneath the dirty strands. The Rat man left the room, and shut the door behind him. It was only the three of them now. Hasan had gone up to the woman again, and this time she didn’t lash out at him. She didn’t look like a wild animal anymore, but she still held her head up high and looked him right in the eye. “Now, Aeritria.... You are going to pay for everything you’ve done... and if you fight your punishment, then she’ll get your punishment instead. Do you understand now? I’ve won.”
The woman sucked in a breath through her nose, “I didn’t do anything to you Hasan... I thought you were dead. If I had known you weren’t I would have taken you with me. Then we both would probably be drowned and dead, but I didn’t do anything to you. I didn’t leave you on purpose. We were children!” Hasan hit the woman hard. She didn’t fight back and she didn’t cry, “No, you left me to die. Everything is your fault. It was you who killed all of them. You are the reason for it all. You promised we would run away together and you left me there to die with an axe in my skull.”
Aesa didn’t understand what was going on, but then Hasan started to really hurt the woman. Aesa tried to look anywhere else. She had seen the others get beaten up before. She didn’t like to see it. She could hear Hasan though, “You will cry and beg for my forgiveness... or I’ll make her do it in your place.” The woman hadn’t made a sound all the times he had hit her before. After he said that though, she did. Aesa didn’t like the sound. It sounded wrong. It didn’t sound like the people in the cavern. She didn’t like their sounds either ,but this didn’t sound right. It lasted so much longer than in the cavern too. Eventually Hasan stopped and strode across the room to Aesa, “Good girl. You did very good. Now you are going to stay here. I will be back later. Don’t try to move or escape or mess with the ropes. If you are very good, and stay where you are, then next time I won’t make you wear them.”
Aesa just nodded quietly and waited for the sound of the door to shut. She looked up and saw it was just her and the woman and then she started to cry. This was worse than the caverns. The woman was all beat up and bleeding again, but she spoke softly to Aesa, “Its alright... this isn’t your fault. You just have to be brave alright? Be brave and do what he tells you to do. I know you can do that.” Aesa looked up at her through bleary eyes and shook her head, “All the boys say I’m a coward... cause I hide from the bad men.” The woman actually laughed, and Aesa stared at her confused. How could she laugh here? “Those boys are cowards. You are very brave. Its smart to hide. My name is Aeri... whats yours?” Aesa looked up at her, now more curious than afraid, “Aesa...” She paused then looked at the mark on Aeri’s face, “Are you one of the mean people too? You have a mark like them.” The woman seemed to consider it, “Sometimes, but not the same. When I was very little the bad men tried to keep me too... but I got away. Its why my mark is different. Its because instead of being mean to good people... I’m mean to bad people.” Aesa thought about it a moment, “Is that why Hasan is so mad at you?” The woman shook her head, “No, he is mad at the world... and blames it on me. It will be alright though. Can I tell you a secret?” Aesa considered it for a long moment, “What if Hasan makes me tell him?” The woman took a slow breath, “Then tell him, but only if he makes you.” Aesa nodded then, “Then yea....” Aeri smiled at her through a crimson busted lip, “We won’t be here for long. People are coming to rescue us.. People who are much scarier than Hasan and his bad men. When they come.. we’ll take you with us so you don’t have to be around the bad men anymore, but only if that is what you want.”
Aesa took a breath and felt her stomach fluttering. Getting away from the bad men? Was it a trick? She didn’t know. No one was scarier than the bad men. She must have looked skeptical because the woman laughed again. “Just be brave, Aesa. You don’t have to believe me now. You’ll see. I believe enough for both of us. Just do everything you are told. Be brave and be strong. It will be okay.”
Days passed and Aesa started to doubt the woman’s scary people would come. Hasan had fed her, given her water. Even untied her and gave her a place to sit and sleep in the room. It was only a pile of blankets, but it was better than being tied to the chair. Over and over they came in to heal the woman, then make her hurt again. The woman never really cried. She made all the sounds Hasan wanted to hear, but Aesa knew the difference between the cries in the cavern and what this woman was doing. As soon as Hasan was gone again she would smile and talk to Aesa as if she hadn’t been beat up and hurt a lot. Aesa thought that maybe if this woman could be brave, then she could be too. Maybe the people wouldn’t come, but she could be brave for the nice lady. She tried to save some of her food for the woman. When Hasan had gone she had snuck over and fed Aeri the food she had saved. Aeri had told her not to, but she wanted to be brave too. It made the woman smile. One day she got caught though, and Hasan punished her by taking away all her things. She didn’t mind though. The blankets smelled funny anyways, and she was used to sleeping on the ground.
One day things were different. A loud clanging noise filled the air. Lights flashed outside the room, and she could see out the little window that the mean men were running places. Aeri burst into laughter, “I told you they would come, little one. Now go, sit where you are supposed to. I imagine Hasan will scurry here quickly.” Aesa listened to her and sure enough Hasan came with some of his men. The men grabbed Aesa and held her hostage, but she tried to be brave like Aeri was. Then she saw the scariest man she had ever seen. He even had horns like an animal and he was trying to tear through the door. Hasan tried to hurt Aeri more, but now she didn’t cry or make those noises. Now she was laughing.
Somehow the scary man managed to open the door...but then she saw a much smaller woman with him. She looked like Aeri, but she had blood all over her. She seemed hurt, but not enough for how much blood was soaked into her clothes. She didn’t seem like a wild animal though. She seemed more like the ice queen from the stories her mother used to tell her. Cold and hard and scary, but smooth like silk or ice.
Aesa had never seen Hasan look scared, but now he did. He looked very afraid. Aesa tried to make herself as small as possible, but one moment the mean men were holding her, the next moment she was free of them, and the woman who had seemed like an ice queen was there with her and speaking to her softer. Hasan had gotten away somehow, she hadn’t seen how, and the scary man with horns had stopped being so scary. He had freed Aeri and was giving her hugs and kisses and being so careful with her and she was pretty sure he had cried in relief, but she couldn’t see very well. The woman introduced herself, and then, just like Aeri said, they all left. All the people in the cavern got to leave that day. All except the mean men. Hasan left too, but Aeri promised Aesa that she would find a way to make sure he didn’t hurt more people anymore. Aesa promised herself that night, while she was curled up in the bed next to Aeri that she wasn’t going to be afraid anymore. She was going to be brave and strong, that way no one could call her a coward anymore.
(Mentions: @invalmos-kha & @waitingrose )