Hell

Nylon strings vibrated with the swaying rhythm of Verónica's coin. The released tension played a different note each time. They sang drowned harmonies that couldn't be expressed in any other way.

The softness harshened. The humming grew into reverberating echoes coming from her chest. The tip of her fingers burned while the other hand rushed to move up and down until…

"Verónica! Shut up for a minute for God's sake."

Her hand slapped the strings mute.

"One more knock and I would've left with your food."

The woman outside the room opened the door to throw a small bag of chips through the narrow gap. She quickly closed the door again.

"More chips?" said Verónica. "It's the third—"

"Stop complaining. I won't cook today; be grateful I didn't forget about you. It'll be enough for the rest of the day."

The woman's step faded into the distance.

Verónica dropped the coin on the desk and rested the guitar against the side of it. Her feet, scarcely covered by torn socks, stood on the freezing unfloored foundation of the room. She crouched to grab the bag of chips, stood back up, and threw it at her desk.

She sat down again and curled her legs up on the chair. The warmth of her body quickly got rid of the cold in the wood of the guitar.

The coin caressed the strings without rhythm. She tried to find it for minutes, to no avail.

A notification on the screen in front of her made her eyes rise. The ringtone soon tickled her ears. She didn't hesitate to tap the green button to answer the call.

It took a couple of seconds for the doctor's camera to reveal the everlasting dark circles under his eyes. His gentle smile and chubby physique portrayed the opposite feeling.

"Good evening," he smiled. "How have you been this week?"

"As good as always."

He stared at the camera.

"I can get food delivered—"

"I'm fine. Really."

He remained silent again. He then strengthened his smile.

"I don't usually call without asking beforehand, but something important happened. Do you remember the article about your condition I published a month ago?"

She hummed and nodded.

"A scientist contacted me this morning about that. Ah… I suppose you know about the CTCT disease."

"I doubt there's someone that doesn't know about it."

"Well, this scientist is the one who first documented the disease. She shared articles that convinced me that your condition is a mutation of the disease. I feel dumb for not connecting the dots sooner," he laughed nervously.

"It's not like any of it makes sense. And you're a doctor, not a scientist. It's a miracle you've found this much about it in your free time."

"Yeah…." His smile weakened. "I didn't tell you then, but I published the article hoping that someone better prepared than me could help you. I don't have the knowledge, the equipment, or the time to keep doing so. Even if I convinced a bigger institution or the government—"

"Don't sweat it, Doctor. I understand."

His smile returned. "So, this scientist has all the resources to achieve something I could never achieve. She could find the cure for your condition and possibly the disease."

Her eyebrows raised. "Really?"

"Really. There are two caveats, though. She might've been one of the people responsible for these mutations. If not, then they've accelerated their growth. That happened almost thirty years ago and she hasn't worked on the disease since then."

"That's… worrying."

"I know, but she's so confident about this because someone else has a similar mutation to yours. However, it pushes people away instead of pulling them closer. She believes that working together will lead to crucial discoveries, whether good or bad."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that you're stepping into uncharted territory and should expect the worst."

She sighed. "What's the other caveat?"

He took a moment to answer, "The tests have to be done in person."

"I can bear with it if there's a chance I'll stop being a freak. And she's used to working with someone that has a similar condition to mine, so I don't see the problem."

"The problem is that the institution and the laboratory are in Japan."

"Japan? That's… on the other side of the world."

"It is."

"That means I'd have to stay there until the tests are done."

"It does."

"That means I'd be as far away from this hell as possible. I would've said yes sooner if you told me that first."

He chuckled. "I knew you'd say that."

"It sounds too good to be true. What's the catch? Do we have to pay to go and stay there with our own money?"

"Not at all. She'll take care of everything, even the permits."

"Permits…."

He sighed. "The catch is that you're underage. You'd need signed permission to travel overseas, stay in another country for an indefinite amount of time, and be an experimentation subject."

"An experimentation subject?"

"Sorry, the scientist kept saying that and it slipped out. Let's stick with doing tests."

What if they were heartless monsters too? Was escaping the hell she lived in worth the risk?

She took a deep breath and exhaled.

Of course, it was.

"What do I need to do?"

"The scientist has already sent an agreement to obtain all the required permits. You'll print a copy in Japanese and another one in Spanish. Your guardians have to sign both. After that, scan them and send them to me."

"I can do that."

His smile disappeared. "Verónica, please be very careful."

"Don't worry, I will."

"I'll be waiting for your message."

She tapped the red button to hang up.

Two files appeared in the chat seconds later. She downloaded them and gave them a quick read before printing them with the printer in the room.

Yells came from outside just as the second sheet of paper came out of the tray. They continued as she held the doorknob. She didn't want to, but turning it was one of the last steps to become free. To become a normal human being.

She pulled the door open. The yells became clearer and louder, and so did the baby's cry.

"Lazy cow, that's the only way to describe you!" the man yelled.

"Says the alcoholic asshole who disappears every night and returns smelling like whores in the morning! I should've left you years ago."

"Do it, then. Do it now."

Verónica said, "Stop arguing."

She swore she was loud, but it wasn't enough to stop the quarrel. Instead, the baby's cry grew louder.

"And where would we go?!" the woman yelled.

"'We'? Who said you'd take Kevin with you? He stays."

"It's already bad he'll grow up without a fatherly figure, but leave him with a wretch who wastes all his family's money on alcohol and prostitutes? Unlike you, I care about my son's future."

"Ha! If you care so much, why don't you ask the dick you suck next door to be his fatherly figure?"

The woman opened her mouth but no words came out.

The man laughed. "You thought I didn't know? Hiding your sins behind God doesn't make you a better person than me. It doesn't stop you from being a slut."

The woman raised her open hand.

"Stop!" Verónica yelled. "Kevin is crying."

The man raised his finger as he stomped toward her. The stench of alcohol pierced her nostrils from the other side of the dining room.

"You're old enough to know not to stick your—"

He wouldn't stop getting closer. She stepped back, maintaining what she thought was a safe distance, but he was too fast.

The magnetic forcefield around her pulled the man toward her. It did with such force that he knocked her onto the floor, taking all the oxygen out of her lungs.

"My finger!" the man screamed. "Get away, you freak!"

"Get… off me…."

He yelled at the woman, "What are you standing there for?! Help me!"

She snickered before grabbing a broom and extending it beside the man. He grabbed it with his free arm to help him stand up while Verónica used all her strength to crawl away from him.

She turned around once the forcefield stopped pulling him. Pain stabbed her chest as she glanced at the man's wrongly bent finger.

"You broke my finger, you freak!"

He walked to the sink in the kitchen and opened the faucet to wash it.

The woman glared at Verónica as she stood up and recovered her breath.

"As much as the scumbag deserves it, it doesn't take away the fact that you're a monster. You're a demon sent by Satan—"

"I didn't choose to be this! I didn't choose to be abandoned by my parents! I didn't choose to be adopted by two heartless pieces of shit! I didn't choose this life! I would've ended it already if it were up to me."

"Why haven't you done it, then?!"

"Because that's what you want! You adopted me to make money using my condition, but as soon as you realized how incompetent you were to take advantage of it, you made my life a living hell. You know what? I'm not like you. I'm willing to make your life easier."

A frown appeared on the woman's face.

Verónica slid the two sheets of paper on the table toward her.

She grabbed them. "What's this?"

"The way to get rid of me. Sign them and you won't see my face for a long time."

She read with the crying baby and the running water in the background.

She then laughed. "You think we're gonna let you go for free? What's there for us?"

Verónica clenched her fists. "You fat greedy bitch."

"What did you call me?"

"Fat greedy bitch."

They glared at each other but neither moved a muscle.

"Want me to say it again? Because I'll do it with pleasure. There's nothing you can do to me. You can't even get close."

The woman's hands shook more and more until she slammed the agreement on the table. She took a pen out from the antique drawer beside her.

"You want us to sign this? Fine."

She did so in less than five seconds.

The running water stopped.

"I'll gladly sign them to get rid of you," the man said.

He grabbed the pen from the table with two fingers and signed the agreement among groans. He took longer, but it was done.

The woman grabbed the sheets of paper and threw them at Verónica. They flew halfway through.

Verónica approached them. The man and the woman had no choice but to back up into their room.

She picked up the sheets of paper. Then, she glanced at the crying baby in the cradle.

"I'm sorry you had to witness that, Kev."

She turned around and walked back into her room. Tears threatened to come out of her eyes, but she wasn't going to give her soulless guardians the pleasure. Instead, she scanned the agreement at once and sent it to the doctor.

"Wonderful," he messaged back. "I guess you want to leave as soon as possible."

"Yes, please."

"Got it."

Fortunately, the scientist was just as eager to begin, so Verónica only had to wait one day.

She took half an hour to pack the few things she owned into her backpack. She didn't care about leaving any of her stuff behind, except for her tablet and her acoustic guitar, which she had to carry in its case.

She was ready to leave by the time the doctor arrived to pick her up at three in the morning. She stepped out of her room and stared at the door of the master bedroom. There was only one thing she didn't want to leave behind, but she couldn't do anything about it.

"I'll come get you out of here as soon as I become normal, Kev."

She turned around, stepped out of the house, and closed the door.