"No it can’t be, it must be a misunderstanding." I was so sure that my friends were not going to betray me.
"I’m sure my friends would come to rescue me" I whispered to myself.

The Nightmare

The same nightmare reappeared every night, the nightmare of my father violently abusing my mother. They didn’t notice but I was there watching everything silently. My parents had an argument over silly things as always. But it never got so serious that my father would turned violent. My mother accused him of cheating on her. My father got angry and pushed her against the wall. He forgot there was a nail in the wall and that pierced through my mother's body and she stood there for minutes while blood was running down the wall. My father ran away in shock. I ran to my mother. I tugged at her dress asking her what’s wrong over and over again but she simply stared at me...
I was too young at that time to know what was happening. My mother stood at the same spot for a few days, I always went to her to give her food but she always refused me by not saying anything. But one day a neighbour visited and screamed at the sight of my mother. It was then that I realized I no longer had my mother with me.
Now I am living alone here. I have so much free time that I develop a hobby of inventing things. Recently I invented a phone by myself. I was not lonely, I did have friends. Cool friends I would say. I met them in a bar when I was feeling emotional and lonely. They bought me a few drinks and that’s how we became friends. They always kept me busy with partying so I was never alone because of them. Whenever I felt lonely or had a nightmare they were always there for me. They were my family.
But it all changed because of a parcel that I was asked to pass to Jaycus. I didn't think so much as they had done so much for me and I wanted to return the favour. When I reached the hotel, I went to 2nd floor to deliver the parcel. When I got there I saw a laundry man and I decided to ask him about the room of Jaycus. But he started acting weird and asked me to open the parcel but I couldn't since it wasn't mine. Secondly, it was strange for a laundry man to ask so many questions.
I didn't bother to answer him. I continued to walk and he continued to follow. I started running and found the room, I knocked and a few people came out – they were police officers as they described themselves. They got me and told me "you're under arrest for smuggling drugs" while putting handcuffs on me. I tried to explain but they were not listening. The laundry man was a police officer as well and I noticed that he tore my parcel and was investigating some powdery thing in it. I was shocked.
'Is this a trap?" I said in shock.
"No it can’t be, it must be a misunderstanding." I was so sure that my friends were not going to betray me.
"I’m sure my friends would come to rescue me" I whispered to myself.
Back in the police station, the police was forcing me to give my friend's name, they thought they were involved as well but I didn’t give any name. I was being tortured for days but my friends didn't come yet.
But I am sure they will...
* * *
"What are these weird nightmares I’m having all of a sudden? "I said in fear. “I remember something like a girl in a dark room. But it was too blurry. Next time I’m going to draw them, after all I am an artist.” I said proudly.
"Dad is going to bring some new paint brushes for me." I was so excited.
“Cassio, I got the brushes you liked," dad said.
I rushed down to my dad.
"Finally now I can start sketching the nightmare which I have been having for the last few years."
Today I dreamt a clear picture of the room where a girl was tied up to a chair and there were weapons like knife and I could hear her scream. There were a few guys whose face I couldn't identify but I could feel they have a connection with that girl. They were talking about revenge. The girl had many scars on her body.
But I suddenly woke up so I didn’t know what happened next. I took out all the new brushes and the paper and started to sketch the situation. The reason I was doing this is maybe it would become a masterpiece one day and I also wanted to know the reason why I was the only one having this kind of nightmare! I couldn't put everything into the sketch but I still managed to draw out something. I told all this to my dad. I showed him the girl's sketch although it wasn’t finished. But he suddenly looked shocked. He held my shoulder tightly.
He asked impatiently "Where did you see her?"
I replied “What’s wrong Dad?” You know this girl?"
He didn't answer me, I started to tell him about the nightmare but this made my dad angry. He just told me to ignore all this. My dad just went away. I was wondering what happened to dad.
But I guessed maybe he was too worried about me because it’s quite weird and not normal. I knew no one took their dreams as seriously as I did. I was so excited about this project, my friends had praised me for my courage of using the nightmare as my way to success. I did feel encouraged when they said that. I couldn’t wait for my next nightmare. The following night I had the nightmare again and this time the girl's face was clear. She looked so familiar although it was just a dream. Usually I wouldn’t remember the dream when I woke up but for this particular dream I could remember every single detail. I still remembered the pain and the torture that happened to the girl. It made me speechless. She kept on calling a name which I thought I had heard from dad, or maybe not.
I had already drawn the background from my previous dream and now I finally got the chance to draw the girl. I showed it to my dad again and I didn’t know why I saw tears in his eyes. Maybe he liked my drawing a lot. But he got a bit too emotional and wanted me to take this matter seriously. He wanted me to find the place where my dream took place. How was that even possible? I observed the picture carefully and noticed that I did know the place, I didn't recognise it before since it looked messy in the picture. It was an abandoned place for a few years. I decided to go there and investigate.
So I reached there and it smelled bad, maybe it was locked for many years. It was quite a huge place. I really thought looking for evidence in such a place is a bad idea. I came alone because my friends would think I was stupid to go to a place that I saw in my dreams. I went in and saw spider webs covering every corner of the walls. It was disgusting. There were broken windows and I saw something that made no sense to me.
There was a chair... with a skeleton on it...
I remained silent, shocked to see my dreams came to reality. Was that really “the girl”? I took steps forward and saw that the skeleton had the same clothes. There was also a table, the same one from my dreams. There was dry blood on it. Seeing this made me feel sick. I wanted to get away from the place. I ran to the exit but tripped over something covered in dust. When I blew away the dust it was a phone. So I ran away with the phone.
I finally reached home and told all this to dad. I told him that girl was already dead. My dad was dumbfounded and he hugged me and started to cry. I didn’t know why! Maybe he was too worried about my safety.
He hesitated to say something, so he changed the topic and I suddenly realized I had the phone that I found there. I gave it to my dad as it wasn't working. He was good at fixing things and I hoped he would fix it. Maybe through that phone I would get the answers to my question.

This time I didn’t want to sleep, maybe the girl would come again. A few days passed and my dad had already fixed the phone. I didn't sleep well these few days but finally when I did, I saw all the faces of the people who tortured the girl. But I didn’t dare to sketch them out, I was just too scared. Suddenly dad came with tears rolling down his cheeks and he gave me the phone. I found so many videos and I thought that girl had captured all the important moments of her life. I saw a video where the girl was sitting in the jail and suddenly her friends came and she was recording everything.....
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I just knew you guys would come to rescue me. One of her friends said, “You have to co-operate with us, we are here to help you." It made me so emotional to see someone actually care for me, unlike my dad. They managed to take me out of jail and they took me to an old building which I had never been to before. It was really old and it were closed for the last few years. When we reached there, they held me so tight and pushed me to a chair. I screamed, "What are you guys doing to me? This is hurting me.” They ignored me and tied me up to a chair and they took out some weapons and put it on an old and broken table. This made me scared. I didn’t know what they were up to.
Suddenly John started to scream and he started to blame me. "Our business is ruined now just because of you April. We just gave you sample work. All you had to do was to deliver a parcel. But you end up in the police station and we are sure you have mentioned our names."
"But I didn’t! So... this means you didn’t rescue me. You trapped me!"
"That's right.” John said and took one of the knives. He came near me and put a cut on my arms.
"Stop it please. I considered you all my family!" I tried my best not to cry in front of the people who wanted to hurt me. "You just used me!" I said and John cut my arm again. They kept on torturing me and I fainted.
After a few hours I woke up and I wondered why I had gone through so much torture since childhood. First my dad tortured my mom and me, and then in the jail I was tortured as well, and now the one who I considered as my family. What had I done? Why all this torture to me? John came with his friends again. He was holding a glass of water and he threw it at me. My wounds started burning I realised it was actually salt water. I started to shake and they laughed at me. They tortured me again. I couldn't even breathe. My body couldn't bear the pain. I felt dizzy and could not hear much, they kept hitting me with hockey sticks and knives. I felt my body fell. It’s time to leave this torture behind...
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I felt bad for the poor girl. She was tortured till she died. All these happened for a reason. The nightmares that I was having, the phone I just found. I knew there was a connection with me. That girl April also mentioned her family. I think this all is happening just because of her dad. I felt really angry towards her dad. Thank god she left her dad or else she would have faced an early death.

I decided to do that girl justice so immediately I contacted the police and told them everything. At first they seemed to think I was fooling them but later when I showed them the evidence, even they were shocked. I gave them all my sketches and the phone.
The girl's body was removed and buried, and all the people who tortured her were caught. I felt relieved. I told my dad after all this because I didn't want him to worry about me. But then he started crying and hugged me tightly. He said sorry again and again. I asked him what happened but he hesitated again.
"I’m sorry son."
"For what dad?" I said, holding his hand.
"I can’t live with this guilt; I have to tell you the truth.”
"What truth?" I got impatient. What was he talking about?
“The girl is your step-sister, April… I’m sorry I hid the truth from you for so long but her mother died because of me but I didn't mean to kill her, I loved your mother so I cheated on her and left April when she was very young... when you showed me the sketch, I recognized her immediately. But I was afraid, I couldn't lose you... I’m sorry." he said, taking a deep breath.
I was speechless. I took steps away from the murderer whom I called dad. I was heartbroken.
I decided to leave; I blamed him for all the torture April went through because a dad should protect his children no matter what. I could never believe someone's dad could be that cruel but what my dad did was unacceptable.
But I looked back before leaving. “Would you have done the same if it were me?"
Written by Khan Sahira & hina