Unending Nightmare

         In a lone cell two frail girls slept huddled together on a stained mattress set atop a rusty metal bed frame. The older, maybe sixteen years old, lay with her arms protectively encircling the younger, who had a faint, comfortable smile on her gentle face. She radiated innocence; her rosy cheeks and pale hair belittled her surroundings.
         Her guardian, though older by about five years, shivered often, as though having a nightmare. Under her voice she uttered dark words and a possible name, though nothing was discernable. The darkness of her hair contrasted sharply with her ashen skin; her manner was that of a haunted animal. Her flesh was marred with bruises and cuts, and for unknown reasons, her right hand was attached to a bar of the bed by a corroding set of handcuffs.
         The light of the cold moon began to pour into the room through a high, barred window, causing shadows of things that did not exist. Together the girls slept, one smiling at a pleasant dream, the other cringing at some mysterious horror not yet revealed.

         “Daine.” Ashley frowned with concentration while guiding her hand carefully across the concrete floor. “Did you have a good dream?”
         The older girl, stretched across the bed with her hands folded behind her head, closed her eyes painfully. “Yeah,” she said after a pause. “Yeah, I did.”
          “Really?” The small child grinned. “Great! Tell me ‘bout it, please.”
         Daine resentfully reopened her eyes, then turned her head to stare at the bed across the tiny room, which Ashley had decided to ignore in favor of company while she slept. She continued to will her mind to dig up an endearing memory that could give them both hope. One hand strayed from her matted hair to rub at the wrist chained to the bars.
          “I dreamed about my mother.”
         Ashley stopped doodling across the floor with the piece of rock she had found the day before. “Really?” she asked honestly, raising her eyebrows to enunciate her surprise.
         Daine nodded absently, unaffected by her own lie. “Yeah.”
         The little girl resumed her playful illustration. “Daine, do you think we’ll see our moms again?”
          “I’m not sure.”
         Ashley turned to stare at her friend, her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth, as it tended to do when she had an idea she was nervous to share.
          “How ‘bout you and me be moms?”
         Daine snorted. “What?”
         Ashley continued to draw, listing to one side as she kept her eyes between the bed and the floor. “You can be mine, and I’ll be yours.” She ducked her head shyly against her chest. “I’d make a good mom.”
          “Listen, Ash, you don’t need to worry ‘bout that now. We’ll get out of here soon.” Daine slid off the bed, only a bit awkwardly, and knelt on the cold floor. She tucked her unrestrained hand into the tattered remains of her pant’s pocket and procured a bit of rock she had been hoarding for days.
         Thinking of something to draw, Daine studied the scene of animals with large eyes, flowers, and a tiny village Ashley was creating, when she was struck with a simple, needed idea.
         Straining for a better position, she traced a large, slightly lopsided heart next to Ashley’s project.
          “Ash.” Daine’s voice was firm. “You see this?”
         The little girl glanced over at it. “Yeah.”
         Daine tapped the picture with her free hand. “This is our heart. I’m gonna cross it and make a promise that I won’t ever leave you. I’ll always protect you. Got it?”
         Ashley broke out in a wide grin, then scooted across the floor in order to begin decorating the seemingly simple gesture of love.
          “Yeah, Daine. I got it!”

         The place was dark and still, as it had always been. Without change. But then, the door to the girls’ small prison opened as soundlessly as the night, and three forms emerged from the darkness. They approached the small cot the girls shared, both sleeping deeply. One dark figure, recognizable as a woman, readied as though to grab the small child, while the others, males, prepared to seize Daine.
         One man’s hand shot out and grabbed Daine’s mouth, almost smothering her, while his other hand went around her throat. The girl’s eyes snapped open, and she regarded the figures with fear and hatred. Before the woman could yank Ashley away, Daine’s free hand sought the small girl’s arm. Ashley’s eyes were wide with terror, her mouth slack and silent.
         The man holding Daine’s throat released her mouth and hit her until the girl was forced to loosen her grip. Ashley was hustled to the other side of the room, then thrown callously onto the unused bed.
          “No,” gasped Daine, as she struggled to free herself. The second man grabbed her unrestrained arm and held it above her head, while the other intruder struggled to secure her flailing legs.
          “No! Please, leave her alone,” Daine sobbed, pulling at the handcuff, slicing her wrist on the cold, unrelenting metal. The man holding her legs snickered, then backhanded her across the face. Through blood and tears, the girl saw little Ashley being held down on the bed by the woman, while one of the men grappled with something on his belt.
          “Bastards!” Daine shrieked hysterically, jerking her body harder than it deserved. A red haze settled over her vision, the hatred and sheer terror she felt seared her heart and made it more difficult to breathe.
         The man left with her tried to quiet her, but she resisted , yelling and swearing, pulling and kicking. He uncuffed her hand, and she felt her doom was imminent.
         With a wild burst of adrenaline fueled fury, she broke free, spurred on by the cries of the little girl, and launched herself at the man whom had just freed an evil looking knife from its sheath.
          “You fucking bastards! Leave her be!”
         The older girl slammed into the assailant, dodged the knife, and whisked the sobbing Ashley off of the bed and onto the gritty floor. Diving down and pulling the child beneath her, Daine twisted up against the wall, tucking Ashley between it and her.
          “Get out here!”
          “We ain’t done with you yet!”
The men laughed and jeered as they kicked at Daine, aiming their sharp boots at her legs and back.
          “Daine!” sobbed Ashley. “Stay with me!”
          “I will- will!” Breathlessly hugging the girl to her, Daine cradled Ashley, holding her head in her hands.
         The kicking ceased. “All right. We’re done playing.”
         The woman soundlessly leaned down to grab Ashley’s feet, only to be met with a ferocious kick from the little girl that sent her reeling.
         One of the men grabbed Ashley’s hair and dragged the screaming girl from Daine’s embrace.
         Lunging after the child, the older girl was grabbed and hauled to her feet by the other man. He threw her down by the closed door and kicked at her mercilessly. Daine was forced to curl into a ball, feeling the blows numbly. A sickening crack and some of her ribs were splintered.
         Crying out in fresh pain, Daine was grabbed by the hair and pulled upright. The man dragged her back to the bed. Ashley’s screams penetrated her swimming mind, and she struggled still.
          “No,” the woman snarled, “put her back. She’ll stay for this.”
         Kicking, only half conscious, Daine was forced back to the bed where she thought she’d experienced this nightmare before, but just as a very bad dream.
         Drifting out of consciousness, the girl could feel her wrist being restrained once again, though in a moment, it would be worthless. Ashley’s cries penetrated her clouded brain.
          “No…” Tears of helplessness coursed down her cheeks and unrestrained sobs made the pain of her broken ribs unbearable.
          “Please, no…”

         Silence.
         The room was dark, but for the faint moon beams that penetrated the clouds.
         The tiny room was empty but for two still bodies lying on twin metal beds.
         One of the bodies slowly turned her head weakly, consciousness returning to her like a bitterly cold wind. She struggled to open her eyes, then scanned the room slowly, searching for the attackers. There was no sign of them.
         Her eyes focused on the other bed.
          “Hey,” her voice was hoarse and grating. “Ash, they’re gone now…”
         There was no answer.
         The older girl strained to hear, but the beating of her heart would not slow enough for her to make anything out.
          “Ashley…”
         The clouds parted, revealing the figure lying on the other cot. The little girl’s eyes were closed.
          “Ashley…”
         The moon began to set, slowly panning down the cruel, dark sky. Its beams of light cut through the darkness of the room, revealing the little, pale girl lying facedown on the cot. Revealing the blood covering the mattress…
          “Ashley!”
         The small figure stirred.
          “Hm.. Daine? What is it?”
         The older girl choked on her surprise.
          “Ashley? Are you okay?”
         Patiently. “No, Daine. Not Ashley. Tiara.”
         Daine felt the room around her constrict.
          “Not Ashley?” she whispered.
          “Not Ashley.”
         A moment before panic could set in, the older girl suddenly nodded. The line between the nightmare in sleep and the nightmare of now were defined.
          “Oh, that’s right. Tiara. Are you okay?”
          “Hm? Yeah, I’m fine.” The little figure stretched in the moonlight, reaching her arms towards the flaking ceiling. What Daine thought to be a puddle of blood had actually been the young girl‘s fiery red hair, which shone darkly in the cold light. “You were making a lot of noise in your sleep, so I moved. Did you have a bad dream?”
         Daine rolled on the mattress, gingerly touching places she was sure had been gaping wounds just minutes before. None of the injuries on her body were new; her ribs seemed to be intact, her face was not swollen. She closed her eyes, smiling wanly as she felt a warm body slide beside her on the mattress, and gave up the night to sleep.
         The two girls snuggled against the chill of darkness, one cradling the other in a mother’s embrace, the other sleeping soundly. The older girl cringed every now and again at some horror in sleep, while the younger sighed happily in a land far from her reality.
         The moon continued to light up the room as it made its journey towards morning. During its course, it illuminated an old, dried puddle of blood, which had covered half a shakily drawn heart, creating the illusion that it was bleeding.