"What happened?"
"I made the wrong choice. I thought that I was invincible. I didn't think I would get hurt. I never considered the fact that..."
"That?"
"I never considered the risk that I was taking. I did not think about coming back from the mission, alone."
"So what happened?"
"I got over myself. I realized that I never should have left D.C. I never should have..."
"Did your father know?"
"No."
"Would it have mattered?"
"I don't think so."
"So what happened?"
She swallows hard, and takes a trip, back to the dessert. She recalls one day, to him.
July 18th, 2009-
She lays on the floor, in the dirt. She hears the door open, and looks up. She watches as her tormenter opens the room. He moves towards her. She tries to push herself off the ground, into a sitting position. Her muscles are too weak. She just lays on her side, completely helpless.
"Get up!" he demands.
She says nothing, does nothing. She just stares at him. It wasn't her life that she feared for. She wasn't afraid to die, but... his voice interrupts her thoughts.
"Get up, or I will give you a reason to stay down there."
She tries to get up, but she can't. She watches in horror, as his boot comes towards her.
"Don't!" She shots.
The sound of her voice gets his attention. She still had a little bit of fight left in here. He would fix that. He draws his foot back, to kick her. Her hands fly in front of her stomach. She stares up at him. "Don't!"
"Don't? Why not. Give me a good reason not to."
"I..."
"You what? You want to go home? You're tired of being here? That is too bad."
"I am not asking because of that."
"Why are you asking?"
"It's not me that I'm concerned about."
"There is no one else here," he points out.
"No..." he moves towards her swiftly, pulling her off the ground onto her feet. He points to the wall behind her. She stumbles backwards, until she is leaning against the wall. He points to her shirt.
"Let me see."
"See what? There is nothing to see."
"Now!"
She lifts up her shirt. He scrutinizes her stomach. She was right there was nothing to see. There was no fat left there. She had used up her fat stores rather quickly. Quicker than he had expected. But why?
She swallows, and tries to stop what is about to happen. She feels her breath hitch, as she is kicked in the rib, from the inside. He watches her closely. Her glance falls to her stomach. He looks too.
"That looks like a foot," he comments.
She looks away, and answers, "It is."
"You're pregnant?"
"I won't be after today, will I?" she responds.
His lips twitch into a devilish grin. "I think that you will."
She looks at him questioningly.
"Food is scarce. It will probably die inside of you."
"And if it doesn't?"
"It won't make it to term, not in this environment. Your body can barely sustain your own life."
"What are you going to do?"
"If it comes, too early, I will let it. I will let you watch it gasp for air, and die. And if it is born healthy, if by some incredible miracle it makes it to term I will rip it away from you. You will spend your last days on earth, knowing that you caused an innocent child that pain. That will be more than you can handle."
Tony's eyes don't move from her face. He takes a few seconds to digest the information she has revealed to him, and then he poses a question. She looks at him, knowing he won't be satisfied, until he has all of the answers.
"Were his predictions right?"
"Which one?" she responds.
"Any of them?"
"Yes?"
"You lost..." he guesses.
"No," she shakes her head, holding back tears.
"No?" he questions in horror.
She shakes her head, and blinks away tears.
September 1st, 2009
This was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, but all she felt was pain and misery. This was not the way that a life was supposed to begin, no matter how short lived. He sits in a chair, in the corner of the room. He watches her, with a smile. Each time she grits her teeth in pain, he laughs. She is drenched in sweat, and blood, and dirt. The moment comes, and she watches as a silent baby is ripped from her body. She watches silently. The baby remains motionless. Ten weeks too early. There wasn't a hospital for hundreds of miles. Even if by some miracle, the baby ever took a breath, it would never make it. It's first breath, would surely be it's last. She stares at the angelic, lifeless face, of a baby, with dark hair, and no future.
"Why did you stop there?"
"That is all I remember. I passed out, after that. I do not even know how I survived."
"You gave birth in..."
"No."
"No?"
"He wanted me to live through childbirth, so he could continue to torture me. He took me to a nearby village. There was a group of terrorists there, who had kidnapped an American midwife, so that their victims could continue to live, and be raped, and give birth to their heirs. Women are far and few between, so they tried to keep the ones they had alive, so they could continue to torture them."