Free Captive- Veiled Desires by Clarissa Cartharn

squatted back down. She swiped a piece of bread into the puddle and put it into her mouth.
    Her tears ran down her face as she chewed through her bread. The door opened and his footsteps came rushing towards her, hard and heavy.
    “What do you think you’re doing?” He jerked her away from the mess on the floor.
    She shook him away stubbornly and squatted back on the floor.
    He tried pulling her away again. “Stop it! I’ll get you another plate.”
    “Let me go!” She flailed her arms at him.
    He grabbed them and she screamed, “Aaaahhhh! Aaaahhh!”
    He dropped her arms and she scrambled towards the food again, eating off the floor.
     
     
     

     
     
     
    He sat beside her quietly on the cold and hard floor. His legs grew numb but he continued to wait patiently for her to finish.
    He wrapped an arm around one knee as he watched her. She was traumatized. She had been bound and gagged all the way from Kashmir to Paktika, and then relocated here to Kandahar. She never would have imagined she’d be experiencing this side of life. If she felt like she needed to abase herself for the guilt she was feeling for putting herself in this position, then she should be allowed to do so. It was the kindest hand he could offer her at the moment. After this, she had to pick herself up. She had survived all this while. He was certain she could endure what was coming as well.
    Her hands were stained with food as they sat dangling over her knees. Her eyes were withdrawn and spacey, completely incognizant of the fact that he was with her.
    He reached out and picked up the now empty plate, keeping an eye on her as he did. Would she fight back just as she had done earlier? But her arms hung loose by her side, her face absent of any reaction or emotion.
    He stood up and placed the plate back on the table. He gave her one last glance before stepping outside the room.
     
     
     

     
     
     
    A young woman rushed into Adam’s bed room, clicking her tongue with disappointment. She rambled something in her language and then knelt down beside Nora.
    “Come. We go. Clean,” she said, dramatizing with her hands.
    Nora glanced up at her through her tear-glistened eyes, barely registering what the woman was saying.
    “We go,” the woman repeated. “Bathroom. Clean.”
    She picked Nora up by her underarms and helped her to her feet. Another woman bustled in, carrying two buckets of water and headed directly into Adam’s bathroom. They shouted directions at each other as they passed by.
    “My name, Husna,” the young woman said. “She…” She indicated at the other woman in the bathroom. “She name, Saba. What your name?”
    Nora didn’t answer, preferring not to hear them. She walked robotically into the bathroom, obeying them in silence as they stripped her off her clothes. Husna sat her down on a short-legged stool while Saba poured water over her head. They chatted wildly with each other as they lathered and then washed her.
    Drying her to the best they could, Husna pulled a colorful, beautifully embroidered [10] perahaan over her. The dress fell luxuriously below her knees.
    The young woman then held up a pair of pants. “ [11] Tunbaan . You wear.”
    Nora glanced at the beige pants and then walked out of the bathroom in an automated daze. The women stared after her in disbelief. Obviously, they had never seen a woman dare walk around in a perahaan without its pants. Her feet and ankles were exposed to every lustful man in the house. If she walked out as she was, even the great Adam might not be able to save her.
    They raced after her, begging her to wear her pants. But she sat on a chair by the window, tucking her feet under her, staring out of it instead. Finally, after long lengths of failed coaxing, they decided that she would be safe in Adam’s bedroom and began cleaning up the food stains on the furnishings and the floor.
    They soon left her alone again, locking the door behind them. Nora laid her head on her knees,