Page 75 of Amnesty

I didn’t want to know any more. I didn’t want to hear. The thought of any of this shit happening to either of them made me want to puke.

“I don’t know.” Amnesia’s voice wobbled. “That’s why I’m asking.”

Sadie tilted her head and studied Am. “You don’t remember anything?” she asked. “That’s what everyone says.”

“If I did, I wouldn’t be asking to relive it all over again!” Amnesia exclaimed.

“Am,” I said softly.

“I’m sorry,” she said, directing the words at Sadie. “I know how hard this is, and I know you probably don’t want to relive any of it either. It’s just…”

Sadie watched her. “Just…?”

“I need to know.”

Sadie leaned back against the pillows, set aside her coffee, and pulled her knees into her chest. I watched with trepidation as she wrapped her arms around them and stared ahead, as if she were seeing nothing but what was in her mind.

“I was the first.” She began, low. “He scooped me out of the water one night and locked me in a bedroom in their house. I spent the first few days screaming and begging him to let me go. I would hear arguments somewhere in the house. Yelling… a lot of yelling. Sometimes screaming. One day, he came inside and dragged me through the house. At first, I thought I was going home, that he was tired of my screaming and was going to let me go. Instead, he threw me down into the hole in the ground, shut the door, and locked it. I heard people searching the island, people calling my name. I screamed for them. I screamed so long I lost my voice.”

“Sadie,” I whispered.

“He came back when everyone was gone, told me I was his and this was my new home. He, uh… beat me… Raped me and then chained me up, naked.”

“He never let us wear clothes,” Amnesia murmured.

“Only when he let us out,” Sadie answered. “I don’t know how long I was down there. I couldn’t count the days because it was always dark. The only times he brought me up out of the hole, it was dark outside. I fought back at first. Tried to escape. Each time, he beat me. Raped me. Sometimes he did, uh, other things…”

“You don’t have to tell us,” I said, my voice savage.

“She needs to know,” Sadie echoed.

“It’s okay,” Amnesia said, her face pale and withdrawn.

“I don’t know how long I’d been there, a long time, though… Maybe a year? Or more. I, um… stopped bleeding every month. I stared getting sick, throwing up a lot.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” I said and jumped off the bed, pacing.

“What was wrong?” Amnesia asked naively. My sweet, innocent Am.

“She was pregnant.” The answer ripped out of me like a roar. “He got her pregnant.”

Amnesia covered her mouth with her hand.

Sadie nodded, that blank look on her face. “It took him a while to notice, but when he figured it out, he was mad. So mad. He said it was all my fault, that I knew better than to get like that.”

I wasn’t sure how much more I could hear. How much more I could take.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Am said, trying to comfort Sadie.

“Maybe it was.”

I groaned.

“I can go get Dr. Kline. Maybe you should talk to her and not us. She can help you. She helps me.” Amnesia pushed up from the chair and leaned over to set aside her drink so she could go get a doctor.

Sadie moved suddenly, lurching forward and grabbing Amnesia’s wrist. She cried out in surprise and tried to jerk back.

“Don’t you want to know?” she intoned. “Don’t you want to know how you got to the island?”

---