((Posting chapter nine in here instead of a link, just in case Wordpress is being  and I just feel like doing it this way, I guess.))
Chapter Nine: Forty Days
A cold hand grabs my jaw and forces my mouth open. I can feel a cold liquid run down the inside of my throat.
The woman with dark hair is once again in front of me, "I can kill you over and over again until you tell me what I want to hear."
"And--that...would be..." I stammer out.
"Who are you?"
"I ….don't know."
"Oh yes you do, it's in there, buried deep into your soul and I will bring it out."
The lady backs up a few feet. She raises her hand and instead of pulling me off the wall like before, I begin to feel a tug in my right wrist. I can feel the bone move under my skin.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because I want you to remember and simply telling you who you are will not work."
I can feel the bone in my wrist breaking.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Ozma. Does that name ring a bell?"
"No, it doesn't."
"Okay."
The bone breaks and I scream in pain. The bone is still moving under my skin and I can feel my skin ripping. In seconds my skin rips open and the bone files out and falls inches from Ozma's feet.
"This is me being gentle on you. I will ask you for the last time today. Who are you."
".............."
"Then so be it."
I can feel a pull in my chest, as blood from my wrist drips onto the cold dark floor.
This is Day One...
There is a tug on my sternum. A broken wrist is one thing, but my sternum, this could actually kill me! And what did Ozma mean that she could kill me over and over again to get what she wants? The liquid that they forced me to drink earlier. Could some mixture be cable of keeping me alive through this?
The pain is unbearable as I can feel the skin on my chest begin to tare. All I can think about is wanting to pass out to get away from the pain. I then hear a pop and I feel nothing. All I can see is darkness. There are no sounds to be heard. Is this death?
I then take in a deep breath and open my eyes. My chest feels fine, the same goes for my wrist. Was it just an illusion?
There is a puzzled look on my face as I look over to Ozma, who is just standing there.
Without saying a word I can feel the bones in my legs move.
"Look, I don't know what you're trying to get out of me! I don't know anything."
Ozma says nothing and continues to pull at all of the bones in my legs. I try to bang my head on the wall, but the chains restrict me from doing so.
Then I hear a familiar pop sound.
I scream. Loud. Hoping that someone can hear me so they come save me.
My legs are a broken, bloody mess, my breathing is rapid, and still I’m awake. Hot tears are now running down my face.
Ozma raises her hand and pulls it back, which pulls me out of my chains and thrusts me to the opposite of the room. My face is smashed up against the wall and I can feel blood coming from my nose. Then there is a tug at my spine. I thought the pain from my legs being broken was bad, but that’s nothing compared to this. I can feel each individual vertebrae being pulled out of my body.
Day Two...
I can't count how many times that I died yesterday. It felt like every time a vibrate was taken out, I died, only to wake up again to feel another one being pulled out. This went on for the entire day.
The door opens and Ozma enters, she dark eyes shining, as if she's enjoying every minute of this.
"Who are you?" she asks for the first and last time today.
"..............."
"This is how it's going to work: I will torture you everyday with a new form of pain until you tell me what I want to hear. You will eat once a week until you tell me what I want to hear. Understood?"
I say nothing.
There is a loud ringing in my head. Once again my arms are chained to the wall, so I’m unable to cover my ears. It takes me a few minutes to realize that the sound is in my head and covering my ears would do nothing to stop it.
"It would be so much easier for everyone if you tell me who you are," Ozma's voice isn't in my ears, but in my mind. "I could just torture your friends, but I have other plans for them. Did you know that your friend Kyle already knows who you really are. I wonder why he's kept it from you, it could have save you from all of this pain."
Before I had the time to fully compute what Ozma has told me, random imagines begin to flood my mind. All of death and pain of the people that I know and some that I don‘t, but the sense of familiarly is there. My heart and head both begin to pound as all these painful thoughts are thrown into my mind. Are these images fake or of possible futures? Who does this Ozma lady think I am? Someone powerful? Able to stop her or to join her? To protect these people or be the one to cause their pain?
Day three had me in a coffin for the entire day. I didn't even see Ozma that day. Her guards came in, pulled me off of my wall and then tossed me into a coffin.
Day four was electric therapy.
Day seven I ate.
Day eight I was thrown into an ice bath for the entire day.
By day forty, I was starting to get used to all of the torture. Deep down, I started to use the pain as fuel. By now I knew that if I wanted to get out of this place, that I would have to do it on my own. No one knew that I was here because Ozma had made a clone of myself. It must be a very convincing clone to be able to fool everyone like this. Of course, the only person who’s really known me the longest is Miles. I doubt fooling the others took much effort.
The door opens and once again Ozma enters. I still have no clue who she is and what her plan are. All I know is that she still wants me to answer the same question that she asks every single day.
“Who are you?”
Today is the day that I actually say something, “The one who’s going to kick your ass once I get free from here.”
Ozma smirks, “Is that so?”
“Why don’t you let me down from here and we can find out together.”
Forty days and I feel like I’ve changed into someone else. Deep down, though, I knew something was missing. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something was missing. Perhaps it’s that something that Ozma is looking for.
“That won’t happen, so I’m sorry to disappoint. Is there anything else that you would like to tell me?”
“Can you get better food around here? If I’m waiting a week to eat, the least you can do is feed me something better.”
Ozma sighs in frustration and walks towards the door. She leans over and picks up a flamethrower.
“Hey, I was wondering when we would get to fire. I think it’s the only element that you haven’t used on me yet.”
Ozma points the flamethrower at me. It must really tick her off knowing that instead of breaking me, I end up making fun of the situation. It’s not like she’s let me die yet. Each time that I would actually die, I would spend a few minutes in darkness until I’m pulled from it and back into the world.
She switches the flamethrower on and the flames instantly begin to burn my skin. I take a deep breath in and prepare to die, again. There’s a pause. I can feel the flames and they hurt like hell, but I’m not dying. Not passing out. Nothing. I’m fully awake, as my skin, I look down to my arm and my skin is fine. No burn marks, no melting. There’s pain like my skin is melting away, but it’s not. I decide to close my eyes, preying that will speed things up. I can see the flames through my eye lids. My fists begin to clench as I start to pull on the chains. The flames cease to hurt and instead are making me feel a hundred times better.
Then I begin to see images and flashbacks that I’ve seen before in my dreams. Things that I’ve done and the person I was. I pull harder on my chains and I can feel the wall start to give way. I can know hear a popping sound over the sound of the flamethrower. The same popping sound that I heard when the robots attacked the mall that Miles and I were in so long ago.
Ozma switches off the flamethrower, “Who are you?”
I smirk. Ask me that two months ago and I would have told you that I was Jennifer, a fourteen year old teenager from South Florida. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
My fists are still on fire as I pull the chains out of the wall. I burn the metal from my throat and ankles next. Dropping to the floor, I slowly straighten up, cracking my back and other bones along the way.
I still feel like I’m me, but with an added bonus. I can remember parts of my past life now and some of the things that I went through back then. It feels like my soul has been finally unlocked and added to my current personality.
Finally, I look up to Ozma and smile, “My name is Anya and as I said before, I’m the one who’s going to kick your ass.”
I place my hands together with open palms facing Ozma. I take a deep breath in as I release a fire spell. The force of the spell pushes me back into the wall and Ozma through the door and out into the hallway.
That’s something I will defiantly need to get use to.
I push the rumble off of my legs and stand. Walking out into the hallway, I’m unable to find Ozma anywhere. A few feet down and to the right of me I can see several guards with their guns pointing at me.
There is a pause before I hear a command over the radio signaling them to fire, it was Ozma’s voice. Why would see have her guards fire on me if she was the one who was trying to wake me up all of this time? It didn’t make any sense, unless she wants to test me.
I can hear the popping sound again, but it’s closer now, almost on top of me. Shaking my head, I turn my attention back to the guards and the bullets that are now coming straight for me. It feels like everything is moving in slow motion as my fists reignite as well as my feet. I raise my hand and use the heat to melt the bullets.
These are just guards, I can’t attack them with my newly discovered powers. It’s not their fault that they’re taking orders from a demented lady.
I call out to the group as they’re reloading their guns, “I don’t want to hurt you, but if you do that again, you’ll give me no choice. Just tell me where Anzak is.”
I want nothing more to go after Ozma, but if Anzak is apart of this, then I had to find Miles and Kyle.
The young men pause in mid reload as Zar-Q appears from the group.
“Where is Anzak?” I ask again.
“Why?”
“I need to find my friends and take care of this impostor of mine. Now tell me and then get out of my way.”
Zar-Q takes a few steps towards me, “Listen, I’m on your side and I can explain it later to you.”
“On my side?” I laugh. “You’re the one that chained me up on the first day. You’re the one that told me that this has to happen. I was tortured in there for several weeks, if not longer and now you’re standing here telling me that you’re on my side? I don’t even know what side I’m on to tell you the truth.”
“I know,” he says, with his head down. “I don’t know what I can tell you right now to make you feel better, but I can take you to Anzak and your friends. And I can tell you what I know once we get off this planet.”
My eyes squint as I try to hold back the tears. He knew? He knew what Ozma would do to me that first day and yet he did nothing. I try to hold back the emotion as this isn’t the time, “Take me there.”
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Nice use of the new smile.
