Frida pov.
Sartana owns pretty much all the land here not to mention all the gold and salt mines making her stinkin rich. She's also one of the most feared people in Miracle City because she's trained in the art of voodoo. She once turned a man into a snail and stepped on him. Oh and um there's one more thing you should know about her. She's my mom. But I'm sure I'm adopted or something because well she's...she's literally a skeleton with no skin or organs so how she was able to give birth to a blue haired baby is beyond me. Yes you heard correct I have blue hair, why you ask? I have no idea one of life's great mysteries I expect. Anyway not only is my hair blue but for some reason Mom won't let me cut it in fact she used voodoo to make sure that my hair could never be cut by anyone except her. So my hair is ridiculously long, it covers my back and trails a little. Try putting a comb through that. That aside it's not exactly easy being the daughter of an dictator sure I live in a mansion and I'm given everything I want, well almost everything. I'm not allowed to leave the mansion and I'm not allowed to have friends so you can imagine how lonely it was growing up.
The closest thing I get to the outside world is Mom's garden. She loves that garden and I don't mean love it as in it's a hobby I'm talking about she looooves it. She talks to the plants, goes ballistic if someone touches her plants. Creepy but it's how she is. According to her I'm the only thing she loves more than that garden but I doubt it. Anyway the entire garden was protected by a twenty foot wall made of solid concrete. For as long as I can remember I've always wondered what was over the wall. I remembered the first time I asked her that.
I was six years old and I was climbing one of the trees in the garden when a got a glimpse of a small house on the other side. Being a klutz I fell out of the tree and while Mom was fixing up my skinned knee I said.
"Mom what's over the wall?"
"Nothing dear." She said. "Just barren land."
"But I saw a house."
"That's just my pesky neighbors."
"We have neighbors? Hey maybe they have kids I can make friends with. Can I go-"
"No!" She snapped.
"Why not?'
"Because I said so and that should be enough."
"But-"
"I said no! Now put it out of your mind and don't ask again or I'll forbid you from going into my garden."
So obviously I dropped the subject because I couldn't risk losing the only freedom I had. I never asked again but it never stopped my curiosity. Today was my twelfth birthday and as expected I got a gift from Mom which was a jump rope this year and after that I spent the whole day by myself. I sat in the garden on my swing and began to sing my favorite song. I had known it for as long as I can remember and it usually made me happy when i was sad, lonely, or bored.
"My dearest one, my darling dear I know that you must go.
So while you are away my love, my pain will only grow.
My tears will fall and cries shall break each day while we're apart,
but thought of you and your return is safe inside my heart.
I'll wait for months, I'll wait for years, I'll wait for eternity.
Because I know one day my love you will return to me."
I'm not sure where I heard it because Mom wasn't really a good singer so I figured I made it up myself. One of the weird things my mind does to me another thing that it does to me is that every year on my birthday I would have this weird dream. It was about a family living in a small house. There were five members: A large man, a petite woman, two little girls about maybe three or four years old, and a baby. They were all laughing and singing and all that happy stuff but I didn't know why I always had those dreams. But the one I had this year was different, this time Mom was there and so were her minions. They attacked the man and the woman and Mom ripped the baby from it's mother's arms and took it away. The father was held down and beaten by the men while the mother started screaming and crying.
As I skipped rope with my gift I noticed that there was a reap and garden sheers nearby. Looking at them I thought of an idea, I took the shears and cut the end of my jump rope and tied the the reap to it. With hair as long as mine I had learned a thing or two about knots. One it was good and tight I had made my very own grappling hook. I threw it up several times and several times it fell down until finally it hooked onto the top of the wall. Once I was sure that it was safe I climbed up the rope until I finally reached the top. There was plenty of land but there were also people working on it. Now I knew that Mom had workers but they looked more like slaves to me because they were all dirty and wearing tattered clothes. Some of them were in chains and being beaten.
I decided to investigate so climbed down on the other side and began to look around. I saw two older boys playing and decided to introduce myself, maybe make some friends.
"Hi." I called out smiling but for some reason they all gave me dirty looks. "Can I play?"
"Why don't you go back to your mansion?" One boy snapped.
"I'm sorry did I do something wrong?"
"Yeah your mom makes us work everyday while you live like some royal!" Another said.
"She does?"
"Yes dummy! Where have you been?!"
"Nice hair! Does it hurt if we pull it?" He said tugging it hard.
"Ow!" I said. "Cut it out! Stop it!"
But he didn't, soon all of them were pulling and yanking on my braids. Then out of no where a clump of mud hit the first boy in the face.
"Hey leave her alone!" The mud that had been thrown by a boy my own age. He looked just as dirty and beaten up as the others. He had dark brown hair and a slightly smashed up face.
"Get lost Manuel!" The one who had pulled my hair said. "Or we'll break your teeth like we did last time!"
"Joke's on you those were baby teeth so they'll grow back!"
"Oh yeah? What about permanent teeth." He said cracking his knuckles.
The boy called Manuel took a handful of dirt and sand then threw it into their eyes.
"Ahh!" They shouted. "You little rat!"
"Hurry come with me!" Next thing I knew he grabbed my hand and pulled me along as we ran from them. Then we ducked into a barrel and hid until they were gone.
"Works every time." He chuckled.
"Thank you for stopping them." I said.
"No problem but you better avoid them because they'll hit girls."
"Seems like they hate me."
"Just ignore them, their brains are the size of beans. So what's someone like you doing out here?"
"Well I wanted to see if I could make friends."
"Hate to break it to you but not a lot of people around here are friendly."
"Why is that?"
"Because we spend pretty much everyday working for the pain in the neck."
"Sartana?"
"You know her?"
"She's my mom."
"You're joking."
"No."
"But she's...Ewww and you're not."
"I think I'm adopted."
"So what's with the hair?"
"Don't ask."
"Hey Rivera boy!" I heard a man shout. "Get over here now!"
"Coming." Manuel said. "I'll be right back, wait here."
He left, he sure was nice. Made me wonder if we were friends. Sadly however I would never know because of those henchmen spotted me. Quickly I ran, if Mom knew I went over the wall I'd be in trouble big time. Praise God I was such a good runner and that Mom's men were so stupid so I lost them but in my haste to get away I accidentally bumped into a woman carrying several buckets of water.
"Oh dear." She said at the spilled water.
"Oh sorry." I said.
"That's alright." She said.
"I can help you get more if you want."
She was a frail looking woman with brown hair and blue eyes. She kind of reminded me of someone but I couldn't put my finger on it.
"Thank you." She said. "But really you should just go on I'll be fine."
"You sure?"
She picked up her buckets and started to walk away.
"Yes but thank you for kindness um...I'm sorry young lady but what's your name."
"Frida ma'am."
At the very moment those words left my mouth she dropped her bucket and turned around. She looked at me like she had seen a ghost, tears were starting fill her eyes.
"F...Frida?" She raised a shakey hand to my cheek and touched it so softly that it was as if I would break if she didn't. "Oh my God...You look so beautiful."
"I'm sorry do I know you?"
"She...She never told you did she?"
"Told me what?"
"Frida...My name is Carmela Suarez, I'm your mother."
At that moment my heart stopped and my face lost color but then again it shouldn't come to a complete shock to me after all I always suspected that I wasn't biologically Sartana's kid but it was so weird when the suspicions were confirmed.
"You're my what?"
"I'm your mother. Do you remember the song I used to sing to you?
I'll wait for months, I'll wait for years, I'll wait for eternity.
Because I know one day my love you will return to me."
Sweet merciful father of all that is good and holy she was my mother but if she was my mother then how did I end up with Sartana?
"I...I don't understand."
"It's my fault." She sobbed. "I craved corn flowers so I made your father steal them and Sartana made us pay the ultimate price!"
Corn flowers? What was she talking about? But before I could ask her another thing I felt El Oso Sartana's big ape of a body guard pick me up. My mother grabbed El Oso's arm.
"No!" She begged tearfully. "Don't take her! She's my baby! Don't take my baby again!"
Again? What did she mean again? Then I watched in horror as El Oso knocked her to the ground then dragged me back inside where Sartana waited for me.
"What were you doing over the wall?!" She screeched. "I told you never to go over there!"
"Who's Carmela?" I asked ignoring her question. She looked at me like she had just been caught in the act of murder. "Is she my mother?"
"Who told you that?"
"She did! Is she?"
She didn't anwser for about five minutes.
"Yes."
"Did you take me from her?"
It took her even longer to answer that one.
"When your parents were my neighbors." She said. "Your mother was pregnant with you when they first moved here and she had developed an unusual appetite for my corn flowers. So every night your father snuck into my garden and stole some of them this went on for awhile until one night I caught him. I would've killed him on the spot but he got on his knees and begged me not to, promising me anything if I spared his miserable life."
Typical, Sartana and her twisted deals.
"So I told him alright I want the infant in your wife's belly. Naturally after hearing my terms he tried to take back what he said I told him it was too late because he had already given me his word so it was a done deal. When you were born you your parents thought they could be sneaky and hide you from me but when you were a year old I heard you crying one night and I took what was mine. I raised you and over the years I learned that due to the hundreds of corn flowers your mother ate you had blue hair."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"You're...You're sick! Twisted! Insane!"
"Is that any way to talk to your mother?"
"You aren't my mother!"
"Apologize this instant! Or you will regret it!"
"No!"
Dumb move because the next thing I she threw dust in my face and when I woke up I was in a tower. There were no doors just one window and the tower was fifty feet tall so I couldn't jump. I was trapped.