Changing the Past

Warning: This chapter contains topics discussing rape and abuse.

Kaia looked at the dress she wore with disgust. She hated how, even though the skirt practically swept the ground, it still didn't feel like it was covering her enough, she hated how her hair couldn't cover enough of her face, she hated everything about what she was about to do. It brought back too many memories she'd rather forget.

But this is for Aliya and Max. She's willing to do anything for them if it would mean that they got to be happy.

She covered her face with a mask and walked into the crowd, careful not to look them in the eyes. With trembling legs, she entered the pub her father used to hang out in.

Walking there she could feel the gaze of the men on her but she had her mind on a specific person. A certain overconfident blue-eyed man.

How would she recognise him if everyone looked like slobs of meat with eyeballs? Simple.

She only sees those that have exchanged their lifespans like that and he always boasted of his natural looks. So if he wasn't lying and if her theory is right, she'll be able to recognise him.

And there he is. She ignored all the other men that tried to talk to her and walked right up to the man, pretending to be lost. Even with a mask on, she could see that he took an interest in her.

"What are you doing here, little girl?" He bent down to her and she pretended to be scared, but her flinching was real. "Don't be scared. Want some candy?"

She shook her head and stepped away from him.

"Don't go. Are you looking for your daddy? I'm a friend of your daddy. Want me to take you to him?"

Kaia stopped in her tracks, a smile coming in her face under the mask. She tried to hide it with a curious expression.

He's using the exact same tactics he used to lure her before. Predictable.

She walked close enough for him to see her eyes clearly and then bolted out the door. She stopped and waited right at the door. If her prediction was right he would follow after her like he did that night.

And there he was, right on time.

"Hey, why did you run? Don't you want to see daddy?"

Kaia took out the paper in her pocket and wrote on it in awfully scribbled handwriting. "You'll really take me to daddy?"

"You can't talk? That's ok. It's better even. Come I'll take you to daddy."

He picked the girl up and took her through a series of twists and turns, to a room in the alleyway. Kaia had already told Dorran to keep an eye on her location. If she sent him a ':)' he should get the police.

She touched the phone in her bag and held onto the man's hand, trying to calm herself down. He took her up to a secluded area, where a small dingy room was at the top. He had told her that her father was there.

Her body trembled with the memory flashing in her mind, one step at a time but she willed herself to enter the room. The same room so many children and women got hurt in. A small room with just a bed and many wooden boxes in it.

Their screams still ring fresh in her head. She shook it, willing herself to focus.

She heard the door slam behind them as the man walked closer to her. Kaia backed to the wall, her hand in her bag.

"Sorry, little girl. Daddy doesn't seem to be here. Why don't we play for a while?"

He leaned towards her until his face was inches from hers. His breath burning against her skin.

"You know, you have the prettiest blue eyes. I wonder who you got them fro-"

Screams filled the room as the man covered his eyes. Kaia held the blood-soaked blade in her hand as she stared at the man screaming. She cut him across one eye, his other eye still saw her.

"You little -" His hand landed on the switch and with a sinister smile, he switched off the lights.

Kaia stood there clutching onto the blade, she couldn't see anything nor could she hear anything until she felt something grab at her leg and pulled her down. She lost her bag in that struggle as he pulled at her skirt and shirt, tearing it. He clawed at her leg as she made another slash in the dark, cutting his face, and just missing his other eye.

He screamed again, louder this time while Kaia scrambled up. She groped around in the dark for her bag, while the maniac continued to scream at the top of his lungs.

Finding the bag, she pulled out her phone and sent ':):):):):):)' to Dorran. Just then she felt him grab her hair and flung her to the other side of the room. She crashed into a pile of boxes, sharp pains came from her side as she rolled onto the ground.

She reached around her to find the blade as he came on top of her. Warm liquid dripped onto her face as he stared down at her.

"You've been a real pain in the neck, you know that?"

He wrapped his hands around her throat restricting her breathing. Kaia reached around her for anything she could use to hit him as she struggled to breathe. His laughter continued to echo in her ears and her hand touched something.

Grabbing the broken wood in her hands she gave one strong struggle and swung it to his head, implanting it in there with the nails still embedded in it. His hands loosed on her neck as his body fell to the ground with a 'thud'.

Kaia gasped for air, feeling it fill her lungs. She slowly sat up and looked at the silhouette of the man's motionless body.

You'll never hurt another child ever again.

She spat at him.

The door burst open and the lights switched on. Men in uniform entered the room with guns, shouting something incoherent. They wore masks that covered their entire face which Kaia was so grateful for. She threw up too much the night before already.

They paused when they saw Kaia slumped on the wall, with her torn clothes and bruises. Then their gaze fell on the body on the ground, a pool of blood where he lay.

One of the men checked to see if he was still alive or not. Some of them inspected the room, relaxing when no one else was found.

"Clear!"

"Kaia!"

Dorran ran into the room despite the men's protests. He looked in disgust at the man lying there, a broken piece of wood sticking out of his head.

He was even more horrified with the state Kaia was in. She kept trying to stand and make her way to him but she fell to the ground every time. He made his way to her and covered her with his jacket. Fortunately, it was too big for her so it covered her entire body.

"What happened, Kaia?"

"Check my lifespan."

"That's not what's important no-"

She grabbed onto his sleeves and begged with her eyes. She looked so desperate, Dorran couldn't say no.

"Nineteen years? No way. From two to nineteen?"

Kaia became elated when she heard him say that. She tugged onto his sleeves, "We have to go. Now."

"Where now? Kaia, I'll pay all your medical bills if you would just say hospital. Please."

"Excuse me miss, is this yours?" One of the men hands her a bag and phone.

Kaia nodded and smiled gratefully at him. She then took the phone and wrote down the name of a hospital.

"A hospital? Good. But why this one?" He looked suspiciously at her.

"We have to hurry. I'm losing c-." Kaia gripped onto him as she fell forward. Black dots clouded her vision.

"I got you. I got you." He picked her up and walked out the door. Her body's felt too light, this can't healthy.

He met the chief at the door and spoke to him. "Take care of everything here. Do not let anything slip."

"Yes, young master."

Kaia stared out the window to the town. People laughing and dancing without a care in the world. She touched the glass, accidentally staining it with her blood.

"Kaia. Your hand."

She quickly pulled away and tried wiping the stain with what's left of her shirt. Her hands and body still trembling.

"What are you doing?"

He grabbed her hands and saw the wounds that ran along her palms. They must have gotten cut when she was either searching for her bag or when she fell on the boxes.

He tore a part of his shirt and wrapped them around her palms. "Take care of yourself. Not the window."

Kaia looked at him and signed, "When I asked you to come, I didn't expect an entire police force."

"I panicked. You sent so many smilies I didn't know how many people to bring or how serious the situation was."

"I thought I asked you to just call the police to that place. I would have had time to sneak out then." She explained.

"I was just worried, ok? I've just seen bad things happen to people I care about."

"That would explain the reaction to the man's body." She teased.

He smiled. "I've seen worse. But next time, please be careful. Ok? Even Caitlyn and your other friends will be worried about you and don't worry, they work for my family. They aren't going to be spreading unnecessary information out there. If they know what's good for them."

Kaia smiled at him, "I don't know how to thank you."

"Thank me by being more careful."

Kaia nodded, even her friends would be so angry with her if they found out what she did and what had happened.

Her phone vibrated startling her from her thoughts. It was from Max.

"Kaia.

Sir and ma'am aren't doing very well. The doctor doesn't believe that they will survive any longer than tonight.

Aliya is at a Faith's house, I told her that she will come to visit them tomorrow. I don't know if they'll even see tomorrow.

They'll survive, right? They're all Aliya has for a family. She told me to take care of them. I don't think I can.

I'm sorry. I don't know why I texted you, it's late, you must be sleeping now.

May you dream of stars tonight."

Kaia typed back.

"They'll survive."

We're almost there, come on. Hurry up.

Dorran looked at her from the corner of his eyes. She agreed to go to the hospital a little too easily. She has something planned up her sleeves.

"I know you're not planning to let me just get you admitted. So tell me what you're going to do, we'll do it while Alex registers you in the hospital."

He smirked at Kaia, who looked at him in awe. Ran knows what it feels like to want to do something so badly while everyone else is against it, even if it's for a good reason.

This is the least they can do for her for coming so late when they promised that they had her back.

♣

Kaia insisted on walking by herself into the hospital, barefooted. When they entered in, Kaia pulled Dorran with the little strength she had left to a room on the second floor.

Room 437.

She burst into the room to see Max fall to the ground. He fell off his chair when the door burst open.

"Ouch. What was-" His eyes widened and he sprung to his feet when he saw all the cuts and bruises on Kaia's body as well as her torn clothes. "Kaia. What happened? Who-"

She weakly pushed past him and went to the bed. Aliya's aunt and uncle laid there, two separate beds but the same critical condition. Their heartbeat slowing down on the heart monitor.

She blinked her eyes twice and saw their rapidly decreasing lifespan.

She looked at Dorran and nodded.

"No. No way. Not now." He protested. "Do you have any idea of how painful it is? You're still hurt as well. Why not wait until tomorrow?"

"There is no time. They die by tomorrow."

"Kaia."

"Please. If you don't do this then everything I've been through would be pointless. Please."

"What's going on here, Kaia?" Max is mad now. "I agreed to be patient but this is too much. Why are you this hurt? What's happening?"

"Max. I want to ask you to be patient just for one more night. I'll tell you tomorrow. Ok? Please. Just tonight."

Seeing her plead with him like this, so painfully, Max couldn't keep insisting.

"… fine. Tonight. First thing tomorrow you tell me."

"Tha-"

The beeping of the machine drew their attention back to it. Their lifespans have reached a week in just a minute and it continued to decrease.

She turned to Dorran and nodded again, he sighed. "You're a handful you know?"

He pulled up his sleeves, showing the trinket tattoo. "Uh. You." He called Max. "You might want to be ready."

"Why?"

"Unless you want Kaia to fall into the ground and get even more hurt."

"Wh- fine. Fine" He stood beside Kaia as Dorran flexed his fingers.

"This is going to hurt." He shoved his hand into her chest and golden numbers came out of Kaia like ribbons, her mouth open with a scream stuck in her throat. Those numbers landed on the uncle and got absorbed into his body. Then he touched the aunt, the same thing happened to her.

Once that was done, Kaia felt all strength in her body disappear as she fell. Max caught her before she could hit the ground, holding her limp body as gently as he could.

"I got you. I got you."

She felt her vision started to fade but she needed to know if it worked. She gasped at Dorran, barely able to lift her arms.

"Hey, she's calling for you," Max called to Dorran, whose attention was entirely on the two.

"It's worked." He turned excitedly to them, taking her hands in his. "It worked. You can rest up now."

Kaia gave a tired smile as her vision turned to black.

September 20: Someone touched me today. I never felt so dirty before. X

September 21: Aliya's aunt and uncle died in an accident. X