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<p>“Princess, open the door! Princess!” </p>
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<p>Ahana’s brother banged on the door with a fist before turning to face Jenni, Ahana’s roommate, who was on the verge on wetting her pants. Henrique’s hand brushed through his hair in frustration, disheveling it in the process. </p>
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<p>“Where was- What exactly happened, Jeanine?” Jenni hated her full name but she wasn’t about to tell him that. Henrique was naturally intimidating – he has this don’t-mess-with-me aura that makes Jenni cower in front of him. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. “What did you say she was looking at?”</p>
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<p>“Well, I- she was looking at some family and something in her just snapped. I’ve never seen her like that. She- it was like-”</p>
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<p>“And you? Why did you take so long to call me?” He was now glaring at Kai who chose to remain mute because he really didn’t have a death wish. Whatever he had to say was going to infuriate Henrique. “Kick down this door.” He ordered Ghost and Hiro then moved away from the door. It didn’t take much effort. Within seconds, the door was down and Ahana’s bedroom was infested with all four men and one Jenni. </p>
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<p>Henrique looked around and the rushed to check the closet then the bathroom and there Ahana was! He came to a sudden halt at the sight in front of him. His heart clenched. Ahana lain on the floor looking weak and lifeless. This wasn’t Ahana, he thought, whatever she saw was something big. Henrique ran and knelt beside her slightly tapping her cheek to wake her up. He whispered her name softly. Slowly, her eyelids fluttered open,</p>
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<p>“Henri?” She whispered, trying to differentiate reality from imagination. She wasn’t sure if she was dreaming or her brother was actually there.</p>
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<p>“I’m here, Princess.” That was all it took for Ahana to lunge at Henrique, locking her arms around his body hugging him tightly. She started to sob but that soon changed into something else entirely – Ahana’s chest heaved as she let out the most inhumane, vicious cries. They were coming from deep within her. </p>
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<p>Witnessing Ahana breakdown like this, Jenni whimpered and covered her mouth to stop herself from crying out loud. Kai swallowed down the lump in his throat. Ghost’s face showed no emotion.</p>
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<p>“I hate this.” Hiro said to no one in particular and stormed out of the room. He’d always loved Ahana, even though he didn’t show it.</p>
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<p>“It’s okay, Princess. I’m here now, everything will be alright.” He said patting her back gently, letting her cry out her pain. Henrique wasn’t a soft to anyone else in life except Ahana. He’d always had a soft spot for her. After her cries had died down, he lifted her up ceremoniously and carried her out of the house to their car. </p>
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<p>He put her at the backseat of the SUV and got in after her while Hiro got to the driver’s seat and kicked the engine to life before driving away. Kai and Ghost said their goodbyes to Jenni and got in the other SUV then followed Hiro.</p>
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<p>A few hours later, all of them arrived at the DE ARMAS’ mansion. Henrique carried Ahana again to her bedroom and into the bathroom where she put her down and filled the bathtub with warm water.</p>
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<p>“Get in. You stink.” Ahana almost laughed. “Hiro will be right outside to help you with anything you need.”</p>
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<p>“Why? I don’t need a babysitter.”</p>
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<p>“Yes, you do.” And he was gone. Ahana slowly stripped out of her clothes and bathed. She hadn’t taken a bath and nor had she eaten in three days because she had no energy to. Moving around or doing anything seemed like a tedious task to her. She wrapped a towel around her and got out of the bathroom after a few minutes. Hiro was leaning by the wall beside the bathroom door, his arms folded and legs crossed at the ankles.</p>
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<p>“You alright?”</p>
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<p>“Your English is appalling.” Ahana said walking into her closet.</p>
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<p>“I guess you are.” He said looking at her luscious legs and swallowed imagining them wrapped around his torso. He wanted nothing more than to be inside her, to hear her moaning and screaming his name. But if Henrique knew he was having these thoughts about her, he probably would skin him alive. Literally. </p>
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<p>“You look better than you did earlier.” Ahana didn’t reply. She changed into her pajamas and walked right past Hiro to the dining room where she knew Henrique would be.</p>
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<p>Kai had ordered in food for all of them since the cook wasn’t available. Their arrival had been unexpected and so all their workers were away. Ahana took seat a between Kai and Ghost and Hiro sat across her. Henrique sat on his seat like a king at the other end of the table.</p>
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<p>“Are you going to tell me what happened willingly or you want me force it out of you?”</p>
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<p>“It wouldn’t kill you to talk politely, you know.” Ahana replied nonchalantly.</p>
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<p>“Talk.” She understood that tone very well. Everyone else remained mute as Ahana swallowed hard and began talking.</p>
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<p>“I saw my mom.” It went eerily silent for a second. No, more than a second. They all stopped eating and looked at her. She continued. “She was with her new family. With her new man, the man who stabbed and killed my dad. They were- they were happy, laughing their hearts out as if the world was theirs.“ She gritted her teeth as she spoke.</p>
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<p>“Does it still hurt as much?” It was Hiro who asked.</p>
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<p>“Yes, I think it always will.”</p>
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<p>“What are you planning to do?” Henrique asked. But he already knew. Henrique knew Ahana so well he could tell what she was thinking with a single glance at her.</p>
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<p>“I smell blood.” Kai spoke for the first time since he sat down, then took a sip of wine from his glass.</p>
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<p>“Lots of it.” Ahana’s reply was prompt. Henrique paused and glared at Ahana,</p>
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<p>“You will not do such a thing.” His face suddenly softened, “I want you to move on, Princess. Your mother has been dead to you for a long time now there is no use going after her. Forget about the past and focus on school and painting.” He concluded.</p>
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<p>“You cannot make me forget what I went through, Henri.”</p>
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<p>“I’m not trying to make you forget your memories, I just want to lift you out of them. My decision is final, you are not going to do anything much less do it by yourself.”</p>
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<p>“I can, and I’m going to. What’s the worst that could happen? Me being hurt? Guess what, I’m well acquainted with pain at this point. So you don’t-”</p>
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<p>“Ahana!” Henrique roared. He was getting angry now, but so was Ahana.</p>
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<p>“This has nothing to do with you so you have no right to say anything nor do you have any right over me or the decisions I make. Just as I have no say in what you do. Or do I tell you what to do and what not to do when you’re out there killing people like they’re bugs?”</p>
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<p>“Do not cross the line, Ahana.” Hiro warned her in a stern monotone.</p>
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<p>“The line is meant to be crossed, Hiro.”</p>
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<p>“Calm down.” Kai spoke calmly but Ahana snapped at him,</p>
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<p>“Don’t tell me what to do!” Henrique hit the cutlery off the table with so much force it smashed on the tiled floor. No one flinched though, they all saw it coming. He pointed a finger at Ahana as he spoke,</p>
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<p>“You will not do anything to anyone unless you want to be chained to the pillar again, in the dungeon.” Ahana’s mouth went wide,</p>
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<p>“You wouldn’t do that!”</p>
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<p>“Try me.” And he walked away, seething in anger. Ahana leaned back on her chair and folded her arms.</p>
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<p>“I feel like flipping this table.”</p>
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<p>“God, you two are so similar, it’s like you’re real siblings.” Kai commented then sipped his wine. Ahana stood up and walked towards her room.</p>
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<p>Ahana spent the whole night researching about her mother’s new family. By the wee hours of the morning, she’d found all the information she needed to get her revenge. She slept around four in the morning only to woken by an angry Henrique at seven. He banged on the door then walked into her bedroom.</p>
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<p>“Get up.” She groaned then turned and pulled the blanket over her head. Henrique snatched it and threw it away. Ahana sat up agitated,</p>
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<p>“What the hell is it now? What do you want?”</p>
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<p>“You talk to me like that again, I will cut off your tongue and feed it to my dogs.” Ahana knew that Henrique didn’t make empty threats. Ghost is missing a finger on his left hand because he didn’t take Henrique seriously when he told him he’d cut it. She mumbled an apology. “Why aren’t you taking your pills?”</p>
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<p>“What?”</p>
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<p>“You get thirty tablets in this capsule…” He showed her the bottle of pills in his hand and Ahana inwardly cursed. “And they are twenty eight even though you got them two weeks ago.”</p>
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<p>“Did you count them?” She suppressed a giggle. “Really?”</p>
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<p>“I had Kai to do it and do not try to deviate me from the topic, Princess. It won’t work.”</p>
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<p>“They make me dizzy and... tired.” She wasn’t even putting any effort in her lies. She yawned then got up and snatched them from him. “I’ll start taking them, I promise.”</p>
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<p>“Princess,” He sat on the edge of the bed and held her by the shoulders, pushing her back down. “I want you to get better. Those pills are one way to help you heal, so please take them on time. I hate seeing you like this. It makes me feel like I lack in taking care of you.” His voice had gone soft. Ahana nodded as if she was paying heed. Henrique stood to leave. The mess on Ahana’s desk caught his attention. “What’s that?”</p>
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<p>“Research. It’s an orderly mess, okay, so don’t touch anything.” Her reply was prompt so he immediately knew what the research was about.</p>
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<p>“I thought about what you said. You can do it, I won’t stop you.”</p>
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<p>“Really?” The surprise and disbelief in her voice wasn’t to be missed. Henrique nodded briefly. “Princess promise?”</p>
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<p>“Princess promise.” He repeated and forced out a small smile. He really didn’t want her doing this but them going against each other have never proved to be good. “You better do it right. Kill them properly.”</p>
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<p>“Yes, sir. You don’t have to worry. La primera parte es muy fácil.” The first part is very easy, she told him.</p>
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<p>“Your Spanish is improving.” She smiled, fighting the urge to punch a fist in the air. It was hard to get a compliment from Henrique. So she felt proud. “Make your bed. And come down for breakfast.” And he was gone.</p>
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<p>Ahana freshened up, got changed into black sweatpants and threw on an oversized hoodie because it was a bit chilly. She then went to join the boys in the kitchen where they were trying to make breakfast.</p>
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<p>“When are you going back to Puerto Rico?” She asked, walking to the refrigerator.</p>
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<p>“Good morning to you too, ma’am.” Kai teased and Ahana sent a look his way. “Well, your brother thinks you need babysitting so we’re going to be here for a while.” He told her as she drank milk from the carton.</p>
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<p>“Well, you can tell him I don’t need babysitting and you don’t need to be babysitters.”</p>
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<p>“How about you tell him that yourself?” Ghost asked. She put the carton back in the fridge and made small talk with them trying to distract them as she secretly moved to the knife rack. She looked to make sure no one saw her as she slid a knife out of the rack and put it into her hoodie. She winked at Hiro when she realized he’d seen her. Then she was gone.</p>
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<p>Ahana broke into her mother’s car in the driveway of her house and waited at the backseat. There was no lock the girl couldn’t open. Breaking locks was second nature to her and it was no so surprising since her brother was a thief. Henrique could steal milk from a cup of tea so Ahana breaking in a door was nothing. Ahana looked around in awe. </p>
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<p>So she was with this man for his wealth, she thought, but was all this worth killing her father? She ducked down when she saw her mother approach and get in the car then she leaned over and placed a knife on her neck just before she could start the car. The knife was so close that if she made a slight turn of the neck, it would slash her jugular.</p>
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<p>“Good morning, you aberrant wench. How have you been?” Lorna’s eyes went wide and then they were suddenly filled with fear, and shock. “I take it by the look on your less than average face that you know who I am.”<br>“Ahana!”</p>
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<p>“Yes, it is I. The daughter whose father you killed.” Lorna’s eyes went wider. A lone tear fell from her left eye. “Oh, you didn’t know I knew. Well, I was there, dear mother.” She said the last word with so much disgust. “Drive.”</p>
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<p>“I’m s- sorry. I didn’t want to-“</p>
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<p>“Drive.” Ahana spoke with gritted teeth and pressed the knife harder onto Lorna’s neck. “Trust me, you don’t want to know what will happen if you don’t start this car right now. Or do you?” With trembling hands, Lorna kicked the car’s engine to life and Ahana directed her as she drove.</p>
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<p>“Wh- what do you want from me? I told you I didn’t-“</p>
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<p>“Turn left.” She took a left turn and Ahana leaned back on the seat and relaxed. “No one talks about how trauma permanently changes us. But the more frightening truth is that you never really get over it. Even if you tried. Even if you wanted to.” A tear fell but she quickly wiped it away. “At best, you grieve and make some kind of peace with it but even a minor life disruption pulls you back into the abyss.”</p>
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<p>“Let me tell you exactly what happened that day, Ahana, I swear I didn’t-“ Ahana interjected her again,</p>
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<p>“One more word from you and you’ll be on the staircase to hell, you hear me? Turn right.” She did as told and drove towards a harbour. There was a person here and there but most of them would just mind their own business. This was where Henrique took care of his business so they knew Ahana and they knew that it was best to not get involved in the De Armas business. “Get out.” Lorna stepped out of the car and Ahana followed.</p>
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<p>“Ahana.” She was seeing her clearly now, face to face. “You’ve grown up so much.”</p>
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<p>“Where did you think I was all these years?”</p>
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<p>“I thought maybe the child services-</p>
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<p>“Child services!” Ahana burst out laughing but it wasn’t comical. “I lived on the streets, mom! I was sold into prostitution – bought by and had by different men every day and every night when I was just fourteen. I was forced to do all different kinds of drugs, and that was all because of you!” Ahana screamed and cried pointing a knife at her mother. “And do you know, that was just a sneak peek into the life I was living.” She breathed out and she calmed down a little bit. “It all seems so unreal sometimes, in my head, that my mother killed my father. I’d tried to think of it all as a scary, devouring nightmare but even when I woke up, the nightmare would still be there.” She sniffled.</p>
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<p>“Ahana...”</p>
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<p>“You know, mom... I can still see and hear it. The sound of the knife as it sliced his flesh and claimed his life, the pain and fear in his eyes, the blood as it oozed from his body, your despicable voices... I remember everything.” Her voice had gone hoarse as she cried.</p>
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<p>“I didn’t kill your father, Ahana, Richard did. If you say you saw what really happened then you’d know that.” Ahana looked at her in disbelief and scoffed. She wiped her tears then quickly grabbed Lorna and pressed her hard against the car,</p>
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<p>“Richard may have been holding the gun, mom, but you are the one who pulled the trigger! Just as he may have been holding that knife, but you were the one who stabbed dad with it. You’re the one who handed it to him in the first place. Now, this isn’t all what I came here to talk to you about.” Ahana moved further away from her, “My hobbies don’t include murder but they will from now on.”</p>
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<p>“Wh- what do you mean?”</p>
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<p>“And when I’m done with you, you and your little family will associate my name with pain, hurt and with fear.” She seethed.</p>
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<p>“No, leave my family out of this, please. Just- just kill me instead.”</p>
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<p>“A horror movie needs an audience, mom. You should be here to witness everything.”</p>
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<p>“You can’t do this, Ahana, this isn’t you...”</p>
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<p>“You have no idea who I am, dear mother. This is the me you created. Now I’m the type of person who’d kidnap a person I love. So just imagine what I’d do to the one I hate. And this is just the trailer.” Her whole face morphed into a grim smile as she moved further then threw the knife she’d been holding at her mother. Lorna shrieked as the knife chopped the tip of her ear. She cried and held it as it bled. Ahana walked away whistling a tune.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/monochrome-photo-of-woman-behind-leaves-2049171/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Photo by Sam Qeja from Pexels</a></p>
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