Aᴘʀɪʟ 21, 2020
Within another week, Alessia—
"Alexa."
. . .yeah, sorry. Alexa goes from thin to slim. She's being fed properly and taken care of. She looks at Petro weirdly every time he brings her food although she's thankful. She hasn't gotten used to asking for a bathroom break during her talk sessions with the man and will sit stiffly until he notices she needs to go. This kind of normal treatment is alien to her and, as much as he gives her options, she doesn't ask for anything, unless it's answers and reassurance she needs.
"Sir." She whispers, lifting her head to acknowledge Petro.
"Are you ready to give me details of your one year disappearance?"
"You could've asked at any time. It doesn't bother me." She says, tilting her head at the man.
Petro isn't used to this. From what she's obviously been through, he had the thought that she'd be traumatized, but every time he prods her cautiously, her simple responses are kind of scary, causing him to be even more cautious. She is like a ticking time bomb. She could be. . .who knows? She's way too calm. . .
"Okay," he frowns unsurely, "go ahead."
Her intense silence afterwards is deafening. They are both in her new bedroom; her, sitting at the edge of the bed, opposite the pillows and he, seated in a sofa facing her. Petro looks at everything but her, waiting for her to snap out of whatever trance she's in now, remembering that she had done this multiple times in the passed week.
His eyes flit to the white, transparent curtains, hanging by her unopened glass window, hovering over the bed's headboard. He glanced at the untouched stack of story books he had placed on her empty dresser by the bathroom door. He stares down at the cream, fluffy carpet beneath his gray socked feet and her pale toes, pointing down from the bed.
"He promised me if I spoke, he'd let me go." She begins and he looks up at her, seeing tears rush down her cheeks to her chin. "That's all he wanted, but I was never one to talk, since every time I did so, I got myself in trouble. I was always beaten rashly by my mother. I never went to school, so my English was bad, more reason to keep my mouth shut, but I learnt quickly from all their fussing." Then, she proceeds to tell him more than he asked. From the very beginning of her mother's harsh parenting which never diminished her love for her, passing her wish to die but never by her own hands, to what happened behind the restaurant where the story ends.
Petro didn't expect to have found someone so used, done and broken. All the kids he picks up are either homeless, runaways or suicidal, maybe all at once, but none of their stories can compare to hers. He notices that her tears are streaming endlessly down her face and he asks her, "Who's he and they?"
"Sebastian Gonzales and his close circle."
"Alexa, you're crying."
"I know."