Africa, Northern Somalia, Puntland Province, Boosaaso.

Amid the trivial prayers of the dawn prayers, Sophia Montella woke up from her nightmare, propped herself up in shock, wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, and then gently kissed the cheek of the fragile baby in her arms, carefully lifted the thin blanket, and got up.

With the crackling of the firewood and the whispering of the changing of the guard, she walked barefoot to the edge of the room, stretched out her thin, scarred arm, and drew a small asterisk on the corner of the earthen wall with a small stick.

On this narrow earthen wall, countless identical symbols have been drawn so densely that it is almost impossible to tell how many there are with the naked eye. This is the only way for Sophia, who has nothing to do and wears only a ragged old dress, to count her days, and only she knows clearly that she has crossed 435 of the same symbols.

It's been 435 days.

As a former "freelance journalist", Sofia recklessly traveled to Somalia, known as "the most dangerous country on earth", a place more than a year ago with a passion to report and help the people of this land of deep suffering.

But she absolutely could not have predicted that she would unfortunately become one of them~. She was kidnapped, beaten, and even after that, she was held in this dilapidated mud hut.

"Thank you Lord for giving me the courage to forgive, which is more important than any treasure in the world, and my life can go on because of forgiveness. I will continue to look up to it and keep moving towards it. Yes. Right now. I'm still fine. It's fine......"

Sophia knelt silently on the ground, her lips constantly making small prayers, calming her mind. She is not religious. However, every morning, before getting up, she has to do a set of "forgiveness" rituals to forgive these people who are hurting her, and forgive herself who is reckless, imprudent, ignorant and fearless and falls into pain.

These days in Bossaso are for Sofia. It's like a nightmare that loops over and over again, with no end in sight.

In the early days of her abduction, Sophia was still very strong-willed, and in addition to trying to master more Somali language, she occasionally asked her kidnappers to teach her some Arabic, hoping to give herself a reason to persevere, hoping to one day be able to escape from this terrible abyss.

But soon, an even more terrible nightmare came.

The kidnappers demanded a ransom of $2 million from her family in Canada.

By this time, Sophia had finally despaired, for the simple reason that her family simply could not afford the money. Officials refused to pay the ransom. And she is not affiliated with any specific media organization. She tried to explain to the kidnappers that it was impossible for her to come up with the astronomical amount, but the kidnappers were not convinced. Probably they think that Caucasian families are rich.

As a result, the beatings became more frequent, and the kidnappers began to beat her regularly, believing that by torturing the woman, they would be able to urge her family to pay the ransom quickly. And then there is a succession of evil deeds.

In order to protect herself, Sophia chose to convert to Islam, hoping to exchange it for the kidnappers' own kindness.

Because the Qur'an forbids Muslims to rob other Muslims of their money, but the kidnappers ruthlessly told her that this was a "special case".

The Qur'an also forbade it, but the kidnappers told her that it was a "special case".

What made Sophia even more desperate was that during these more than four hundred days, there was always an endless stream of visitors, who visited every few days, sometimes some old men with white beards, sometimes some children in their teens. Presumably the secret envoys of the nearby tribes who brought the news here, or the local paid herdsmen, who turned a blind eye to the kidnapping and turned a deaf ear to Sophia's pleas for help, but everyone was curious about the tortured female hostage, staring at her as if they were watching an animal in a zoo.

There was no intention of saving her.

These people who she came across the ocean with great enthusiasm and wanted to save them did not care about the more miserable themselves, they were insensitive, and there was even a hint of ridicule in their indifference.

She had tried to escape, but although she was locked up, the kidnappers were not tightly guarded. Unfortunately, because they are not in the city, the nearest village is more than ten miles away. Even when she fled to a nearby mosque, the locals didn't bother her in the slightest. Perhaps because of the fear of retaliation from the kidnappers, or perhaps for other reasons, they quickly informed the kidnappers, and after being captured by the captors wielding submachine guns, Sophia was subjected to even more terrible torture.

In the toughest times, she even thought about suicide. However, soon a sudden accident stops her and she becomes pregnant! After being beaten many times by these kidnappers, Sophia actually began to conceive a small life in her womb. The appearance of this little life rekindled Sophia's desire to live and gave her the courage to support her.

She built a pavilion in the sky for herself, and her little life is the most precious treasure in the pavilion. In this pavilion, she can gather with all her family and friends and eat whatever she wants.

"Maria...... Dear Mary......"

Sophia caress the little girl's forehead worriedly, full of love and concern. To express her blessings and hope for her daughter, she named her little girl Maria. But this holy name does not seem to have a protective effect, because of the lack of adequate nutrition and the harsh, poor living conditions, little Mary is always riddled with diseases.

"Smack!"

The door of the hut opened from the outside, and two kidnappers with Kalashnikovs came in with curses in their mouths and kicked Sophia to the ground, and then one of the red-faced fellows bowed his head and played with little Maria twice with his palm, stared at her sick appearance, looked up and said a few words to the other kidnapper, who quickly took little Maria in his hand and walked out.

"Nope! No! Please, don't take my child, she's alive, she'll live! ”

Although Sophia was powerless to stop it, she already knew Somali and Arabic well, and she had already heard the clues from the few words of the conversation between the two.

These thugs who deserve hell!

They actually felt that Little Mary would definitely not live, and it would be a waste of food to keep it, so it was better to take it away. Although she didn't say exactly what to do, she still felt a strong sense of unease in her heart, full of foreboding, and rushed up and grabbed the arm of the red-faced kidnapper, trying to make him change his mind. (To be continued, please search, the novel is better and updated faster!)