Chapter 3
Thank you Linneagb for reviewing, "Love it or hate it," is the British Marmite campaign, I personally think it is disgusting but I have a friend who loves it and eats it with everything.
Thank you Candy-Apple14 for reviewing
Thank you Cookie05 for reviewing
Also I used the ages given by Zebralover4578 in Not Alone Anymore, though I did transfer Sam from year 9 to year 10 for various reasons.
WARNING SOME OF THE ABUSE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER MAY BE RATED M, IF YOU THINK I SHOULD CHANGE THE RATING TELL ME IN A REVIEW OR BY PM.
On Arietta's second full day in the mainstream care system she found herself being questioned intrusively.
What if she didn't want to remember everything?
Answering their questions meant facing the truth, something Arietta Tara Rosenberg wasn't planning on doing. Ever.
Xxx
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Tyler asked, she considered, she could tell them she was the 14th child of the family and last time she checked she had at least another 14 younger siblings as well.
"I have lots," she told them in a monotone.
"How old are they?" Kitty asked,
"I have lots," she repeated, her monotone bordering on robot.
"So where do you come from?" Tyler asked, sensing that Arietta wouldn't give them the truth any time soon.
"I was born in Beijing, I've lived there for the majority of my life."
"It must have been so cool to live in Beijing," Frank commented,
"it was," Arietta lied.
Well come on. Like she was going to tell them that she more or less grew up on a rubbish heap with a sheet of aluminium as a roof. Admittedly it wasn't actually a rubbish heap, she had once heard someone call it a Shanty Town but to her it didn't matter what you called it. It would always be a dump.
"Do you play any musical instruments?" Kitty asked, "Erin, Rick and Sam play the guitar,"
"ooh snap," she told the tiny girl, well tiny from Arietta's point of view, "I also play the violin which is my favourite instrument. I also play the piano, bass guitar and drums but I could probably play most instruments that aren't wind or brass,"
"why not wind or brass?" Tyler asked,
"because I'm not very good at blowing," she replied grinning.
"You into any sports?" Frank asked,
"I'm more into running, I have terrible upper body strength," she informed them,
"opposite of Sam, Sam is on the school basketball team and plays county softball."
"You should try basketball," Sam told Ari, "you're tall enough and to be honest the team is desperate to find to new members because for some reason it is hard to find girls above 5'7 who are willing to play basketball for the school team."
"How tall are you exactly?" Kitty questioned,
"5 foot 10 and a half, too tall to be a model,"
"I'm 5'9," Sam piped up,
"perfect height for a model and you could pass for one too," Ari commented, smiling as Sam blushed furiously and tried to hide behind her blonde hair.
"So what sports do you like Frank?"
Xxx
"Why are you here?" Sam blurted out, everyone turned to stare at the girl.
Shit, Arietta thought to herself, what could she say to them? She couldn't tell them the truth, she wanted to forget not remember.
"Sam, that's a bit rude," Frank told her awkwardly, the others looked away embarrassed.
"Don't Frank, it's all right, but, to be honest, I don't really want to tell my life story to a group of people I've just met. You seem nice and... that but... it's just too early," Arietta told them truthfully, after all her terrible ordeal had only ended 3 months ago.
To her chagrin Kitty scoffed at Arietta's words but tried to disguise it as a cough. Arietta had had enough, it was a miracle she didn't punch Kitty, after all Kitty had managed to take all her anger out on the new girl for no obvious reason. Most people found Arietta's story unbelievable, unbelievable because how could a girl who had been through that much could wake up. Smile. Eat breakfast. Smile. Be the focus of verbal abuse. Smile. Live life. Smile.
Arietta had gotten so use to smiling that she found herself smiling constantly. Fake-smiling of course. Arietta Rosenberg couldn't even remember what a real smile felt like.
Kitty had seen the smile, mistook it for genuine and because of her "real" smile knew that Arietta's past couldn't have been that bad. Because of course you can't live life with a smile on your face if you have seen darkness, the worst in the world.
So Kitty laughed at Arietta mistaking the violinist for naïve, vulnerable and sheltered from the shit of life and it was a miracle Ari made it to the haven of her room.
FLASHBACK
"You don't know pain," the man yelled, his booted foot collided with Arietta's stomach, she lay on the floor, defeated. She had no tears left to cry.
The pain had burned her insides out, like the strongest type of poison. The poison had killed her humanity, leaving an empty shell.
An empty shell lying in their own piss and blood.
"You don't know the pain I have felt, you don't know what pain is," he took a deep breath and walked away before stopping picking up a package of some kind. Arietta couldn't make out what it was despite her eyes being attuned to the dark. He made his way back over to Arietta and crouched down beside her, he held the package above Arietta's face.
It was a bottle of some kind filled with blood. "This is her blood," he told her, "what happened to her was your fault," Ari tried to shuffle away but before she had gotten any distance at all he had grabbed her leg, forcing her to stay still. He slapped her across the face, "whore, if I am talking you will listen to me, is that clear," she looked at him, her eyes telling him it was clear. "Say yes, whore," he yelled at her, she tried to speak, no words came out.
"I was going to leave you alone," he told her, "but if you won't do what I say I will have to punish you."
He tipped her head back violently, he plugged her nose, forcing her to breathe through her mouth and as she opened her mouth, he started pouring the blood down her throat.
She choked, she gagged, she tried to spit it out. He kept pouring and she ended up swallowing quite a lot of it, and what she didn't swallow ran down her body, mixing with her own blood, like paint on a palet.
When he was finished, he laughed and walked away.
Her body took matters into its own hands and she started throwing up the blood and fortunately was able to roll onto her side to stop herself from choking on her own vomit. But other than that she was too weak to move so she ended up lying in her blood, her piss, her vomit and if that wasn't bad enough, Mia's blood too.
"It was my fault," Arietta Rosenberg couldn't help but whisper.
