Neha | COMPLETED 2020

Chapter 15

The world froze. Not a creature dared to move in that second. The terror ran through Asaliah like glass in her bloodstream, tearing her apart from within. The woman would have sworn her heart skipped a beat in that moment in time as she stood there, holding Neha and staring into the man's drunken eyes.

Her breath became shallow as she gasped for air, every muscle in her body trembling with fear. The man opened his mouth to speak as he began to pull her away from the door, "Come with me, beautiful-"

Asaliah let out an ear-bleeding scream of pure trepidation. "No!" she spat struggling to pull away, "Let me go, you son of a-"

The man dropped her wrist and slapped her flat across the face with such force that Asaliah dropped Neha to the floor. Her pale, delicate skin turned black and blue as the rest of her body tensed. She had not been prepared for that blow, so she was not able to push the pain away. Instead, she just stood there in painful suffering, the terror still eating at her from the inside.

"What is going on-" Neha said, squinting as she fell out of her dream of the memory and into reality.

"Run, Neha, run!" Asaliah screeched, her voice cracking as she called, but it was too late, the drunken man grabbed hold of Neha's hand as well, throwing his bottle to the floor.

The bottle hit a wall and shattered in a disarray of glass and liquor. "Listen here, darlins'," The man grinned, revealing his rotted teeth, "You don't get to just come into my house without receiving proper punishment. I don't know what you want but I need to make sure you two will never come back," he grinned, his breath making Neha and Asaliah want to gag.

Asaliah was shaking so hard now that Neha feared her delicate frame might collapse. Neha still knew very little about the situation, yet she had picked up one thing. The two girls needed to get out of the house, now, before the man could do anything. By the way he was eyeing Asaliah, Neha was pretty certain she knew what her punishment was going to be from the man if Neha did not get her out.

Her mind may not be able to think up lies in a rush, yet for some strange reason, she could think of a way out no matter how many fears attempted to blur her mind. The idea came so quickly and easily that it felt as if she had almost been in this exact situation before.

Neha gazed into the man's eyes, burying her gaze through his eyes and into his soul. Her gaze burned through him without letting go. There was something in his eyes that she did not fear and when she spied it, she knew she could fight.

Neha took a deep breath, thinking the idea through once more and then gave her all. Within a split second, she dived under her own arm, taking her body one way but twisting the man's wrist which dug into her skin the other.

The man cried out in pain as he let go of her arm. "Asaliah!" Neha cried, "The mind!" she shouted in the Kellestri language. As soon as the words left her lips, she herself was surprised. The child had never learned that yet there was no time to get lost in thought, not now that is.

Asaliah understood and tensed, clearly taking all pain from her body by focusing on something deeper. In doing this, she clung onto the railing to the stairs and Neha stood ten feet away on the other side of the room.

In doing this, the man could not reach Neha without letting go of Asaliah and she knew the man would much rather keep the seventeen-year-old Asaliah rather than the fifteen-year-old Neha. However, the man was still not pleased with the thought of Neha getting away.

She could see his eyes burning with rage, yet she knew this was nothing compared to what she had to do to get Asaliah out of here.

Neha, staying just far enough away, walked around the two of them and into the kitchen. She took a deep breath before she did so.