Shocking Secret

***"How is everything I've heard... real?"***
This piece of *Evie and Mya* literature is outdated and is scheduled to be rewritten or tweaked in the future. Please note that some events currently depicted will be heavily altered or removed when said content is updated. Read at your own risk of discombobulating the series canon in your head!
And spare yourself from Av's old writing, please.

## Shocking Secret

### Director

Potato Flakin

***Shocking Secret*** is the third episode of *The Adventures of Evie and Mya* in Season 2, and the thirteenth overall.

## Synopsis

During an unexpected visit to Amira's house by Winter and Mya, they discover a horrifying and heart-wrenching secret.

## Content Warning

*This episode contains extensive violence, emotional/physical abuse directed toward a child, and some blood, which viewers might find unsettling.*

## Transcript

*The episode opens at Pinelake Park.*

Winter paced the park grounds, waiting for someone to appear. It was finally a weekend away from school, and she'd been looking forward for two days of peace.

"She has to be coming. She has to be coming today," she remarked. As much as she loved Evie and Mya, she felt the need to talk to someone else.

Suddenly, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. *Yes!* Walking toward her was her best friend, Amira Fleckenshire. She immediately ran forward to hug her.

"Hey," Amira said cooly. "I can't stay for long today. My aunt is in a car nearby. She needs me for work."

"I understand. Ugh, you won't believe what's been up recently. Shetani has been making school life hard. Preventing us from leaving the classrooms and banning dyed hair... Luckily, I stood up to her, along with Evie and Mya. She reversed them."

"What a person," Amira groaned. "Although I'm homeschooled, I would try helping in any way I could."

"Thanks, Ira. Mind if I call you that?" Winter said.

"Sure!" Amira said brightly. The sun shone on the single purple streak in her hair, making it glimmer. *One of the rare times I'll escape the place I live in.*

The two sat together for a long time, talking about various subjects. The sun began to head downward. Amira had moved closer to Winter. She felt as if she had a great friend beside her to confide in. It was like she could just be here for a little longer...

Then her aunt began beeping her car - a sign that she needed to go home.

"I... I have to go. See you around, I guess," Amira said. She sped off in the opposite direction of the Piney Woods.

Winter looked at her. It was like Amira didn't want to return home, and she seemed to be a bit unenthusiastic compared to earlier. Curiosity burned inside of her. Something seemed to be up with her - personal turmoil? Whatever it was, Winter couldn't help feeling a little curious about her friend.

**SEASON 2, EPISODE 3 - SHOCKING SECRET**

*Scene cuts to a beautiful evening outside Mya's house.*

"Is Winter going to be home soon?" Mya asked.

"Yeah, probably," Evie said. "For now, it's just me... And you." Her hand slid over to grasp Mya's.

"Aww, look at you being sweet!" Mya joked. Her girlfriend had a tough exterior, but she was pretty soft in more personal moments. "I'm glad it's just us." She leaned over to kiss Evie.

Just as her lips were about to touch her cheek, a person appeared.

"Hi guys! I'm back!"

Startled, Mya yelped at the sound of Winter's voice, and Evie blushed embarrassingly. "Hi, Winter. How was your day with Amira?"

"Pretty fun. She's a great friend. Heck, she even offered to help us when we need it!"

"Now that's someone we can most certainly count on!" Mya cheered.

"Also, guys, I noticed something was weird about Amira. She didn't really sound that happy going home with her aunt. Sure, personal life sucks sometimes, but I'm curious as to what's up."

Evie was thoughtful. "Well, let's see how it pans out. Just *chờ đợi* for now. After all, didn't we have a similar experience with you, Mya?"

Mya gulped as if she was just given a death sentence, then laughed. "True, true!"

"Hey girls, it's getting late!" That was Mya's father.

"You should get going, Ev. I'll see you tomorrow for another Sunday!" Mya said, "C'mon, Winter."

*Cut to the next day at Pinelake Park.*

Evie scribbed on a notepad with a pen. "Alright, I'm making a list of things we can't do at school with Shetani around. No eating in class, no gayness, no music so far."

"It'll probably turn into Krakatoa in the future," Mya muttered.

Winter sat near her adopted sister, looking around. Her eyes instantly brightened when she looked ahead of her.

"Psst, guys. Amira's coming!" She saw Amira in her signature gray sweatshirt stepping toward them. However, she seemed emotionless as she sat down a few feet away from them quietly.

"Hey, Amira," Winter greeted. "What's up?" She didn't get a response.

Evie joined her. "Hey Ami, if I can call you that, what's going-"

She paused. Something on Amira's face caught her eye. A scar stretched from her cheek to her chin, and it looked like she got it just yesterday.

Her cheek was also dappled with bruises.

"Amira, what **happened** to your face? How did you get that scar?" She asked.

"It was an accident, that's all. I don't want to talk about it."

"You sure?" Winter moved up right next to Amira. Her ice-blue eyes were lit with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied. "Honestly, my aunt does believe I was born clumsily."

"You didn't appear clumsy the day I first met you or in Evie and Mya's story."

Amira looked flustered. *You don't know what I've had to go through, and I can't tell you. She'll hurt me.* "I'm just clumsier these days, that's all."

A car horn suddenly beeped.

"I have to go. Bye, guys," Amira said unemotionally.

"That's unlike her," Winter whispered to Evie and Mya. "Usually she's not so blunt and unhappy. Something tells me that something's wrong."

*Cut to a one-story house.*

"**YOU**!" A voice screamed.

Amira sat up in her bedroom, fear instantly lighting her face. *What the? What does she want from me?*

Her aunt flung open the door. "Just what do you think you're doing laying around in bed with those useless papers? You should be up and WORKING! That was ***too*** close, young lady. Hanging around those freaks at the park. You should be staying home! Do as I **say**!"

"But... You didn't want me! Why are you doing this to me? Why do you just use me and manipulate me?"

Her aunt approached her until she was almost in her face. "Watch your mouth, slave. Don't try starting anything behind my back, because I'll make sure that none of your precious little self is left *unscathed*..."

Amira stood up, trembling and crying. "Why can't you let me go? Can't you see I want to live my life? Just... Just stop so I can be happy and free again! Don't you care about me at all? Don't you love me?"

Suddenly, her aunt slapped her on her scarred side of her face, knocking her onto the ground. Before Amira could scramble away, she was pinned down with her aunt's foot. "What are you doing to me?" She wailed.

Her aunt didn't respond. Instead, she was dragged out of her room by the back of her short, brownish-black hair. She felt herself scrape the polished hardwood floors as she was thrown into a freezing stone room.

Amira wanted to scream, but was too shaken up to do so. This was the place where she was tortured, starved, beaten, whipped, and harmed into submission. She knew this all too well.

"Please... What do you want from me?" She asked, tears dripping onto the floor.

"Giving you some medicine so you learn to never disrespect your master!" Her aunt pulled out something Amira didn't want to see - the whip that she was frequently hit with.

She was slammed up against the wall, and Amira thought she could see stars in her vision for a brief moment. A heavy *clink* sound was then audible.

Amira was now chained to the wall by her collar. She was left unable to run from her aunt's choice of torture.

She watched as the whip rope was flung up, and then pain seared through her face as her aunt dealt her blow after blow after blow. She tried escaping in vain, only causing her aunt to laugh while she flung the whip at her like a maniac.

This was her way of feeling pleasure and happiness - and this was Amira's way of feeling pain, sorrow, revulsion, and despair.

Finally, after what seemed like way more than two minutes, she was let go, and unchained from the wall.

Amira sighed in relief, but before she could completely exit the room, her aunt crept up behind her. Amira's eyes widened while the irises shrunk. Her aunt wrapped the whip rope around her throat and pinned her against the wall. She felt herself choking and becoming light-headed.

She was too weak to call out. She felt her life slipping out of her like sand in an hourglass. Her throat hurt, and it was stained wet with her tears. The feeling was suffocating.

Finally, she was let go, and she fell to the ground, rapidly gulping in air. She thought she would pass out.

"Let **THAT** be a reminder as of why you don't mess with your master," her aunt snickered. "If I don't see you working tomorrow... I'm not gonna relax until I feel pleasure in your pain."

Amira gulped, and squeaked, "Yes, master." As her aunt left the room, she stood there, tears dripping down her face. *Why can't I leave her? What have I done to get here?* She eventually ran back into her room, shutting the door and hurling her broken self into a purple blanket. She cried for almost an hour straight. *I don't get why I can't end this already! What's wrong with me?*

Amira never thought of anything else but the torment and abuse that day. No one had ever loved her, and no one would ever will. She was just an object, a dog, a slave. Nothing more than that. She was an unwanted teenage girl, with permanent hidden scars left by trauma.

She felt like a freak.

Worst of all, she was stuck with a devil.

The next day, Winter sat on a brick ledge across the street from Pinelake Park, along with Mya. The two were trying to do a thing that hadn't yet manage to accomplish - planespotting.

"Okay, these planes are heading to Spokane. Let's see if we can find any. Clear day, nothing much happening," Mya said.

Winter glanced up at the sky, not hearing a thing. "I don't hear anything, Mya. Must be a quiet day for the Washington avgeeks."

She heard someone jogging nearby, but kept looking. "Hey, I think I got one!" She noticed a small propeller aircraft gliding by.

The person jogging got closer to her. Winter still didn't pay attention.

"According to this radar, a big one should be coming our way."

Suddenly, the jogger slammed into Mya, but Winter caught her before she impacted the ground. "Hey, pay attention to where you-"

She stopped. The jogger she was warning to be cautious was *Amira*. And from the looks of it, her eyes were raw from crying.

*Oh god.* "Something's wrong, My. I know it. Let's go!" She and Mya quietly followed in the direction she was heading. Mya presumed she was returning home - but why was she upset about it?

They followed her for a long time until they saw Amira enter a one-story house. They quietly crept across the street.

"Let's stick together, in case we have more on our hands." Winter instructed. Both took to the right side, and Winter listened carefully. *What's up, Amira?*

She glanced through the window. It was too dark, but a feeling told her that she was walking around a room in fear.

Suddenly, Winter picked up a low, gritty voice. "**Where were you**?"

Winter thought her heart would stop beating.

"I went out. That's it... I just needed some air!"

"I warned you not to disobey your master, *slave*! Look at how pathetic you are. Disloyal brat. You should have stayed instead of goofing off... Otherwise, I would have considered lowering the bar."

Winter couldn't see what was going on, nor could she identify the voice, which seemed muffled. Her heart was racing faster than a cheetah on a chase. She wanted to protect Amira, her best friend. But she couldn't.

Then, she felt the back of the sun hit her forehead. Its rays shone right through the window. And that was when Mya and Winter saw the person who was speaking to Amira.

If they thought they hadn't felt more horrified now, hearing the conversation, or ever in their life, this changed it.

Winter thought she had just been thrown off a cliff.

A woman with devilish blue eyes and hair the color of a bleeding heart was speaking.

Winter covered her open mouth with her hand. She knew this person very well. All too well. A person who had tried taking away what had made her special, a person who clearly had a distaste of her kind.

Someone who longed for power and control, who lusted for it at every twist and turn.

Principal Shetani.

*Shetani* was the aunt of Amira, and her true colors were shining brighter in the light.

Then Winter and her sister remembered that Shetani had just said "Master." Winter remembered the scars on Amira's face.

"She's forced to play the role of a slave!" Mya whispered. She was shaking with fear and revulsion.

"Ow, stop! Let go of me!" Amira wailed of all a sudden. She was in obvious pain.

"No, you fool! You useless waste of space! Dead to me! You deserve a fitting punishment... You don't deserve this house."

Shocked, Winter noticed that Shetani was dragging Amira to the other side of the house, her arm wrapped around her neck. "You're going outside! If you want to act like a broken animal, you can be a broken animal outside. I'm tired of using you for the day."

She thought she had been shot in the heart. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. *I'm not leaving without seeing how she is.* She crept to the fence that surrounded Amira's backyard, and peered through a hole. Just in time, she saw Amira being flung out.

She landed in the dirt, dust flying up. She moaned in pain, and her eyes looked swollen. A small trail of blood trickled from her mouth, most likely from a bitten tongue.

Winter's heart ached for Amira. She remembered how bad Daniela had treated her - but this was on a whole new level. Winter thought she was going to be sick. But there was no time to lament now. She called to Mya.

"Mya!" She came running up in an instant.

"This is darker than I thought. This isn't just a power-hungry principal we're dealing with - we're dealing with an abusive, manipulative, unloving, and toxic aunt as well."

"That Shetani is pure evil! Making Amira into her slave for her own pleasure. I don't want to say it, but she's even worse than Daniela!" Winter said, no regret in her voice.

They crept up to the fence again. Winter began talking. "Okay, Mya. I'm going to try talking to Amira. You stand guard in case Shetani gets suspicious and comes out."

"Aye-aye, sister!"

Winter crept along the fence, peering over. Amira laid on her side, shivering, her gray sweatshirt and hands covered in dirt, her chin stained with blood. What had happened to her at the hands of her abusive aunt was disturbing, and worst of all, she was making her feel like she had no one to talk to.

Shetani had been using blunt abuse and manipulation to bend Amira to her will.

And it was working. Amira didn't appear to have felt loved for a long time. She could do nothing but be beaten into following commands blindly. She was forced to stay and never leave - and Shetani would go above and beyond to make sure she would suffer when she was disobidient.

"Amira!" Winter whispered. Suddenly, the brown-eyed girl perked up in fear, seeing her friend. She staggered over to her, shaking off dirt. "Winter, get out of here before my aunt sees you! You're gonna get hurt! Go! Shoo!"

"Ira, don't worry. I'll be fine. Mya's with me."

"Why did you follow me? You're going to get hurt if you stay!"

"Because I care about you! I noticed your odd behavior lately, so when you jogged past us, Mya and I decided to follow you. Then I saw your aunt confront you. I know she's Shetani now. Your aunt is a manipulative, abusive person who has tried bending the rules in her favor. She's a liar, nothing more than a harbinger of destruction."

Amira looked up at her with wide eyes. "You came here because you wanted to see if I was alright? You... You care about me?"

Winter nodded. "You're my *best friend*, Amira. Now I've seen Shetani's true colors. She doesn't even love you like a true aunt would love her niece. Your parents and grandma are on a business trip and don't even know about Shetani's dark side. I want you to be safe, Amira, and I came to let you know that you'll never be alone. I'm always going to try and be here for you."

"R-R-Really?" Amira quietly asked. She felt an electric feeling shoot through her - though she couldn't identify what it was. She felt it was positive, though.

Using a small mound of dirt, Winter reached her hand over the fence. "I come from a dark past as well, Ira. You're not the only one." She looked into her eyes, which began to shine brighter. Winter smiled warmly - and her like of Amira began to grow even more.

Amira was dumbfounded. She reached over to hold Winter's hand gratefully. She looked a little happier now. "Thanks... But go. Now. If Shetani sees you, she's going to do something... Something twisted."

Winter nodded. "Mya, let's get out. We need to tell Evie what happened." She began walking away, but as she did, Winter shared a very friendly glance with her before she and Mya faded out of view.

Amira laid back down on the dirt. *Winter cares for me. Someone cares for me! And she's just like me!* She began to feel an urge to rebel and break free - but alas, it faded. She needed to stay and be loyal to Shetani, or she would be punished. There was no point.

But another feeling crept through her, clear as day.

Amira wanted to see Winter again - and soon. She felt a tug so strong to be with her that it was irresistable.

*Cut to Pinelake Park at night that day.*

Mya and Winter had just explained the heart-wrenching scenes they had noticed regarding Amira. Evie looked like she had been to various dimensions and had been muttering to herself along the way. Finally, she spoke up clearly.

"That red-headed evil freak!" She spat. "First, she thinks banning same-sex relationships is fine. Second, she tries bending the rules to her will. And now we know that she has been abusive and controlling towards Amira, who is her niece. *Giết tôi ngay đi*!" She looked distressed.

"There's a bright side to this, though," Mya said. "Amira originally thought no one could ever see the pain she's been through, but Winter convinced her otherwise." She winked at her adopted sister, who smiled. "I mentioned that I had a horrible past too. She learned she wasn't alone, and never will be again. I honestly swear I saw a light in those beautiful brown eyes flicker."

"Hey, you like her!" Mya teased.

"*No I do not*!" Winter said defensively. "She's a friend. I care about her. But I'm not engaging in a full on romance, Mya. *No*."

"Anyways. We now know what we're dealing with. We have to find a way to stop Shetani from taking over everything - and to get Amira out of her living situation." Evie said.

Winter looked up at the stars, seeing the last bit of the moon before it would disappear the next day. All she wanted was to see Amira again and be by her side.

She felt a tug to be with her best friend - and it was something she couldn't ignore forever.

In fact, all she wanted in the world was to see Amira - and she felt a strong tug in her heart that night. Her best friend, someone like her, needed her.

## Cast

* **Mae Whitman** as Winter
* **Zoe Saldaña** as Amira
* **Dakota Fanning** as Mya
* **Peyton Elizabeth Lee** as Evie
* **Trent Garrett** as Patrick
* **Jessica Walter** as Shetani

## Trivia

* This episode was originally titled *State of Disturbia*.
* "Chờ đợi" means "Wait" and "Giết tôi ngay đi" means "Kill me now" in Vietnamese.
* It is revealed that Shetani is Amira's aunt, and has been abusing her for a long time.
* When Evie advises Winter to wait, she mentions a similar situation with Mya. This is referring to when the latter struggled with her bisexuality in *There's Something About Mya*.
* Mya mentioning that Shetani's list could turn into Krakatoa references the 1883 eruption of that volcano.