REMETA: TrappedD
anika and Sally were oblivious of the looks the townspeople gave them as they strode to Baski’s place.
As usual, they were in a world of their own. Danika supported Sally most of the time because Sally was still recovering. It easily winded her when she walked long distances. They rested every few moments. At one point, Danika started urging Sally to hop on her back, so she’d piggyback her.
“Never.” Sally was adamant when she refused. She wouldn’t even hear of it.
“Sally. I don’t want you to get more hurt because—”
“I’ll be fine, my princess. I can’t get on your back. You’re my princess, and I’m—”She looked horrified and shook her head. “It’s never happening.”
Danika stared at the stubborn tilt of her chin and took a deep breath. “You’re my best friend now, Sally. You’re not a maid and I’m not a princess. We’re slaves and best of friends.”
“You can never be a slave to me, my princess,” she stated firmly.
“Sally. Just let me piggyback you.”
“Never.” She paused and smiled mischievously. “I can piggyback you if you’re tired, though.”
Danika pursed her lips in disapproval and talked to her some more, but Sally refused. She gave up. They started walking again.
The people passing them witnessed the argument, and it surprised them. They watched Cone’s daughter and her former personal maid bicker like close friends, and it stunned them. Privileged people never had such a relationship with lowborns—no matter what. So, as they watched the two women, they didn’t know what to make of it.
Sally and Danika finally arrived at the door of Baski’s house and knocked. The door opened and Baski stood behind the door, looking flustered. Her hair was a mess, and a little blood perched on her cheek, looking like a scratch.
“What are you both doing here?” she asked, her voice stiff. She did not seem to be in a friendly mood.
Sally shifted uncomfortably on her feet. “Um, we wanted to come for herbs. You know, my wounds. And, ahh… my princess… she also needs some, too.”
“You both can come back later. I’m quite bus—”
A high-pitched scream rang out from inside the house that startled Danika and Sally, but Baski didn’t react at all because she was used to it.
Another scream came. And another. And another.
“What’s happening to her?” Sally asked, horrified. Even as she edged into Danika, her heart was reaching out to Remeta.
Baski shrugged. “It’s food. She doesn’t want to eat, but it’s normal. Don’t think much on it.”
Danika watched her. The woman did her best to sound unaffected, but she could have sworn that the older woman was very close to tears. Her shoulders were stiff, her back ramrod straight in defense.
“Look, you both should go back to the palace. I’ll be there in the evening and I’ll make the herbs. Or you can go over to the medicine man’s hou—”
Another scream came again.
Danika stepped forward. “Please, Baski. Let us in.”
“Why?” Baski glared at her with so much hate in her eyes she almost took a step back. “The wounds your father made weren’t enough? Why do you want in? So you can inflict more damage?”
She flinched. Danika understood the woman’s anger, so she didn’t say anything. She lowered her head in shame and guilt.
Sally stepped forward. “Please, Madam Baski. You can take all the time you need inside with Remeta while we wait for you in the sitting room. We wouldn’t mind. Just let us in.”
Baski opened her mouth to say something else, but the sound of a glass breaking inside followed by another scream had her eyes widening with horror. She whirled around and started hurrying into the house. “She’ll cut herself again!”
The door was open, so Danika and Sally followed behind her. They followed her to the bedroom at the sound of another scream, but they remained at the door.
The bedroom looked like a war zone. Clothes were scattered, chairs upended, a mirror broken, a glass cup shattered on the floor, bedsheets lying on the floor. Remeta was nowhere in sight.
“Meta? Please come out and eat,” Baski said in a thin voice, looking around. Her eyes searching.
Silence met her request.
“Please?” she pleaded. The woman looked dangerously close to tears.
She kept saying the word ‘please’ and it was tearing at Danika’s heart as they stood by the door watching…waiting.
Finally, a head of dirty blond hair slowly stuck out from behind the wardrobe. She took a peek at her mother. “I’m not hungry,” she whispered, her voice hoarse from screaming. No one could see Remeta’s face because her hair covered it.
Baski shook her head miserably. “You’ve not eaten in three days, Meta. Please!?”
The girl let out an empty laughter. “I’ve gone five days without food several times. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”
“I’ve not forgotten. How could I forget?” Baski blinked back tears.
Danika shifted uncomfortably. It was obvious that they referred to their time enslaved.
“But we’re no longer in slavery. You must try to eat; you are skin and bones,” Baski urged on.
The girl shook her head vigorously and started scratching her wild, dirty blond hair. “I can’t, I can’t. No food, no bed. No food, no bed, no food, no bed, no food, no bed, no food, no bed.”
As she started reciting those words, Baski really did burst out crying. “Oh, Remeta; what am I going to do with you?”
The girl kept on reciting those words, obviously withdrawing into herself, trapped in another world.
Baski turned and walked past them out of the room. Danika blinked back tears as she followed her, but Sally was openly weeping, unable to control herself.
“What does she mean by ‘no food, no bed’?” Danika couldn’t help asking.
Baski turned and her eyes held Danika’s. “Cone fed her very well before he took pleasure from her body on the bed. It could have been Cone; it could have been any guard; it didn’t matter. Most times they fed slaves before sex because they’d laugh about the fact that they didn’t want to sex an animal only to release into its corpse.”
“Oh, Creator!” Danika could no longer hold her tears. That was so inhumane. Every day, there was another reason for her to hate her father. How could he ever do things like this? How could he be such a monster?
Baski nodded and started walking away from them. She was doing her best to detach herself from it all. “She doesn’t want to eat because she fears what will follow. No matter how much I try to get her to understand that she’s finally safe, she doesn’t believe it. I’ve tried to get her to eat. It doesn’t matter; she won’t.”
She finished the last word by slamming the doorof another room in the small house. Leaving Danika and Sally alone in the sitting room.