Rebirth: Revenge of the Abused Daughter

Confusion and Sonia Becker

My vision is blurry by the time I open my eyes. But I can sense that... I am NOT in the hospital. Groaning because of my headache, I grimace at someone's shouting.

"Sonia!" a teenage girl says to me as my vision slowly clears up.

She's wearing a ragged old gray dress, with my still blurry vision I am confused but sure that the girl is wearing a dress cut out from the Elizabethan era or something.

I focus on looking at my surroundings and at the same time knowing my current situation while my head is still hurting so bad. I feel like someone is hitting the back of my head with a brick as I can still feel my head pounding hard into my skull.

Ugh. Did the accident make me into a mush? Not just my head is hurting but also my body, wait. The accident!!

Then suddenly it hit me like a strong hand just slapped me on the face. The car accident and ME saving that old woman and that little boy in the street. Groaning as my intellect is coming back to me slowly; I remembered my current situation as I hear that voice again.

"Sonia, I thought you are going to leave me as well. I am sorry I was so late coming to see you from our meeting place. You almost died, I thought you died.” the little girl maybe about 12 years old cries and a guilty expression breaks my heart. Then I see her kneeling beside me on the dusty floor hitting her head as she drowns in tears.

I look around the place to see that we are somewhat in a rundown house looking like a storage house with holes and old ruined walls.

"Are- are you okay now Sonia. Please answer me. You have been unconscious for almost 3 days. I tried my best to tend into your wounds and look after your mother. I am so sorry. Look at what they did to you.” the little girl said crying.

The girl looks so young but the way she speaks shows me otherwise. She sounded like a matured woman… or shall I say forced to mature. Oh my god! What the hell is happening!? Why is my whole body aching and my head feels like a drum is pounding in it. I try to move out from the makeshift bed made out of hays to look clearly where and what is happening but I can't move a muscle! tick! tick! tick! The loud sound of dripping water in that bucket behind the girl is making me insane.

‘What THE… where the heck am I?’ I mutter to myself as I look around.

I try to let her see me as I flail my hands around like I'm drowning. But it's to no avail. She closes her eyes and just kept on crying, she looks so miserable.

“I am so sorry, Sonia. They are so evil to do this to you and your mother. How can they stoned you to that cliff and didn’t even bother looking for you down the riverbank? It is a relief that I came in time before you got carried by the river flow.” the girl starts to cry as I just look at her thinking what is she talking about, I died in a car accident right?

The heck girly! Look at me! Stop whatever you’re doing! Look, blood is now flowing down your face! Are you insane to even hurt yourself? Wait…… is this some kind of a play? Her clothes, the place I am in that I am slowly clearly seeing, and that old wooden table in the middle just near where I am laying. Those old wooden planks as flooring and that nasty smell of old dump place. This seems like a play or acting in a movie. Wait! Am I in a movie set or something? The crying of the little girl is making me feel so confused.

"S- stop! Ple- ease st-op!" I finally say the words out of my mouth. I tried earlier but my throat is dry. That's why my voice cracked when I told her to stop. Not just that but my voice… why is it different?

The girl finally stops. Her teary eyes and bloody face break my heart more. I can see her dizzy and painful state as she is still kneeling towards me.

"Wa- water please- please." I tell her which made her get up immediately.

I watch her as she steadies herself for a few moments before she moves. Getting the ugly looking and ruined cup made of stainless or something, the girl pours the water from a vase-looking container that looks like made of clay but cracked and has this c***k on the mouth into the cup she is holding then carefully handing it to me. I thought that the cup will be so rusty inside but when I look in it… it looks clean, so I quickly drown the water then handing it back to the girl. She quickly refilled it then handing it back to me. We did this until I almost emptied the container.

"Sonia- Sonia, are you fine now?" Her worried eyes look at me.

“So- Sonia?” I utter and I didn’t recognize my voice, I am about to reach for the cup again when I see my hand that looks so foreign to me.

“Sonia? Sonia, are you okay? You are acting awfully weird.” the girl said as I look at her in confusion.

She is the one who is weird with her French accent and the way she is dressed. Why is she calling me Sonia? Wait, I think I am dreaming again. I might wake up and realize that I am still jobless and that I can’t return home back to our Province until I have one. I look back at the girl wearing that ragged dress that seems to be cut out from those dress lower rank ladies during the historical dramas in England and then looking down at my body. What THE…… I am also wearing the same kind of dress commoners or poor people wears during the 18th century in England. I am wearing something brownish with torn and holes that are just sawn. WAIT! My body feels so different. I look at my hand. Did- did my hands shrunk? Why is my skin color so different from my usual brownish skin tone? They are so pale, not to mention full of wounds and bruises. My body to… what is happening? I might be really dreaming. HOW have I become THIS small when I am way too fat? Did I just shrink? Looking at where I am I have the slightest idea that I am somewhat in an old abandoned house made of woods. Thinking this might be a dream I keep on shaking my head then look at the girl just to see her confused look.

Sighing loudly, making the girl beside me startled and her worried eyes are now big with un-shed tears. Raising my hand, I try to make her calm and hoping this scene will fade soon like my usual dreams that I have to wait for few moments and it will change like a slide show presentation. Waving my hand back and forth I try so hard to think of possibilities seeing that it seems like I am in a reality and not a dream. It only confuses me as to why I am here and to where is this place? I must be dreaming.... as usual.

"But- but Sonia... about what happened." Her hesitation bothers me a little since I just want her to be gone for the time being. I want to think things out.

"I am sorry, if it is possible can we talk about this later. Can you give me time to rest first and get my head clearer? It feels like it is about to explode.” Saying that word I see her look so confused and surprised.

Knowing that I won't be persuaded by her, she just nods then exits the room giving me one last look before she sighs and leaves. I finally relax when I heard the door closes. My guts tell me that girl is someone I should really know very well... and I trust my guts. Actually, this whole place is suspicious. Yet... oddly feels like not any other dream I ever had. I look at myself and to my hand then tried pinching my leg just to feel pain. It is official… I am not dreaming.

“Where on earth am I? I remember… I remember that I died… or I think I did but the accident that can be possible. Why am I not in heaven yet? Where is this place?” I ask as I look around while rubbing my aching forehead. Closing my eyes and falling back on the bed, I try to recollect what had happened.

It was another day of not finding a job even after two years. I was eating my lunch when I saw this little boy and an old lady with a grocery bag crossing the street. I was about to help her out as I was already out the door but there was a car that's rushing to the street like its street racing. Then I ran with all of my strength, pushed back the old woman, and saved that little boy but got hit by the oncoming car.

Then somehow I am here like some magic voodoo or something.

Everything seems suspicious, like how am I here. That old woman I swear I see her smile before I blackout.

‘That seems to be so creepy. Tsk. What the hell is happening!?’ I utter to myself.

All the thinking is making my head hurt more. And so..... I subconsciously sleep. I was awakened by a loud sound of something dropping on the floor. When I open my eyes I swear I feel like I am still sleeping seeing that wrecked state of the place I am in. I slowly get up feeling that pain in my body. I slowly stand hearing that scream coming outside the house. I look at my body just to see my leg on a bandage. I walk towards a broken shard of mirror and look at my reflection just to be surprised and nearly dropping on my butt.

“Who- Who is that? THAT… is NOT me. What the heck is going on?” I said in a panic as I walk to where I drop the mirror shard and look at my face again.

I am so pale and with bruises on my cheek and there is this cut on my forehead. My hair is long and until my waist, it is silky black and a little wavy. Despite the bruises and bandages in my body and under this shabby thick Victorian ragged dress I am wearing I can say that my body now is like any smoking hot drop-dead gorgeous body of ladies I commonly see on the TV. This is not my body. What happened? Did I just transmigrate or get reborn into someone else’s body? WHAT IS THIS?

“What do you mean? I told you Sonia is not here. She hasn’t returned for 4 days now. I am alone in here.” I heard the loud voice of that little girl I heard before.

I walk towards the closed door with some holes dragging my wounded leg as I walk towards the door. I slowly peek into the hole just to see the girl with her back on me and some police that is wearing those usual clothes worn in England long ago that I have seen in the movies. My eyes went into that catchy carriage far from the police. I see 2 ladies inside the carriage wearing pink and white Elizabethan dress that look so fancy and I see in the movies like Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Height. That fancy dress is worn by noblewomen of a higher status. I look at those two ladies with their fans in hand and they keep fanning their faces. The girl in pink is probably in her 40’s and the girl is like in her 18 the same age probably to this body I am in. The look on their faces speaks danger and arrogance.

“Then can we look inside.” one police said.

“But I told you… she is not here. I am here alone.” the girl said but the police are determined to get her out of the way.

I already have the idea that the girl doesn’t want them to know that the Sonia they are looking for is not in the house. Come to think of it the girl called me Sonia when I awakened. Does that mean I am Sonia? I heard a yelp from the girl and when I peek again I see how they push her on the ground as they walk towards the door. This situation tells my guts that it is a big danger… with my bruises and wounds, this is something I can’t deal with yet. I immediately look around the place to where I can hide. I went into a wrecked room just to stop seeing a woman lying on the ground and she looks so terrible. She is wearing the same clothes as I am wearing and there are wounds and bruises on her face as well. I heard the door being forced open a couple of times.

“What is this? Why do I feel weird in my chest just by looking at this woman?” I ask as I immediately pull the woman up carefully and then pull some planks on the floor and I sigh in relief seeing a wide space on the floor. I push the unconscious woman below before I walk in and return the planks I had taken off then I heard some footsteps.

I look into the spaces of the planks and I see those police and those women still holding their fans as they walk in with the look of disgust on their faces.

“There are no people here ma’am. Are you sure those people you are looking for are alive and stole something from you?” the police ask the women as I still peek.

“Yes, I assure you they did. They are our maids and they stole some pieces of jewelry before they disappeared.” the woman in her 40’s said as she fans herself.

The police leave the room to look for clues as those ladies look around.

“See I told you, mama’. She is no longer alive. Her body must be floating somewhere in the river. The problem is that mother of hers, Helen. Where might she have hidden if not with Elena?” the girl in her 18 whispered to the older woman beside her as she fans herself.

I can picture that certain proudness and evil in their eyes. By their conversation, it seems like they did something bad and evil. I look at the girl’s face when she suddenly leans close to the floor and just a few meters from where we are she can see us if fate goes against us. She is looking into the blanket where the woman I am hiding with was sleeping a while ago. I can clearly see the girl’s face now. Then suddenly… my head begins to hurt really bad as if it is breaking apart. I have to cover my mouth not to scream as loud or it will give us away. What is going on with me? What is this?