“Mum!” The man pushed him away, and Luke crawled under the kitchen table.
“You whore! You could never obey so now you will pay!” Luke watched as the man punched his mother over and over again, while she was on the floor, trying to fight him off. When she finally stopped fighting, he kicked her in the back. Luke was so terrified, he wet himself.
The man rolled her over and yanked up her skirt. Then he unzipped his pants. Luke watched him brutally rape his mother. At the time, he didn’t know what was happening. He just knew his mother was being hurt. He found enough courage in his tiny five-year-old body to run out the side door, and out into the woods behind their shack.
Luke knew the man must have killed his mother. He stayed out in the woods through the night, terrified that the man would find him. He didn’t sleep, but listened to every sound around him.
When dawn came, he walked back to the house, hoping to see his mom making eggs and toast for him for breakfast, like she did every morning.
The tiny shack was empty. There was a large bloodstain on the rug where he saw the man kill his mother. Luke sat down in the chair at the small, beat up dinette set. He saw his new car broken into pieces on the floor. The tears flowed from his eyes, thick and heavy. He was alone, and didn’t know what to do. There was no family, friends, or father for him to go to.
There was a soft knock on the side door. Luke was terrified, but when he saw it wasn’t the man from the night before, he decided to answer the door. “Hullo, sweet boy. I heard that I might be able to find you here. Are you alone?” Luke nodded his head at the gentle woman, while he wiped his face. “Why don’t you come with me? I have a nice place where you can live. We have nice soft beds, clothes, and toys for boys like you.”
“But my mum…”
“Oh, sweet boy, she isn’t coming back.” The woman held out her hand, and Luke looked around the small shack. “Come on now. We don’t want to miss out on that nice soft bed, do we?” He looked at the woman, then looked back at the house. With his mother gone, there was nothing left for him. Before he decided to leave with the woman, he grabbed the only picture he had of him and his mom off of the refrigerator. He jammed it in his pocket, and left with her.
-November 2014-
Henry lay still while he stared at the ceiling. He fought his emotions because he knew that if Elaina woke up and saw him upset, she would want to talk about it. That wasn’t something that he wanted to do. He decided to take another long pull from the bottle of whiskey. Then he placed his hands under his head again.
As the scene played back in his head, he could see how and why he thought his mother was murdered, but he wasn’t so sure anymore. He shook his head, and his memories went to the first time he met and defended Sophie.
-June 2000-
All the recruits were standing in a line against the white concrete brick wall, including Luke. Roger was inspecting everyone Gunther had brought in from the orphanages and picked up off the streets. He stopped at each individual recruit and commented about their physique and structure.
Roger made it to Luke. His lips curled up into a malicious grin. “Well, well, well. Glad to see you decided to show up.” Luke stared right back at Roger. He chuckled. “Oh, I can’t wait to work with you, Luke. I have been waiting for this for a bloody long time.” He let out an evil laugh, and proceeded to the next recruit. Luke worried that he made the wrong decision. The man seemed like pure cruelty, and he pissed Luke off.
“Fuck you,” Luke growled. Roger stopped and turned back around.
“What did you say, lad?” Roger waited a mere second and grabbed him by the throat, dragging him to eye level. “I asked you a question!”
“Fuck…you,” Luke growled again. Roger threw him against the wall. He wasn’t afraid. He had been in enough fights to know that he could take on some big contenders. He knew he was probably in over his head, but he didn’t care. What did he have to lose?
Roger got in his face again. “I will say this once, and once only. We clear?” Luke didn’t respond. He just continued to glare into Roger’s cold, dead eyes. “You will obey, or you will pay for your trespasses against me. When you disobey, I take it personally.” When Luke didn’t respond, he walked on to the next recruit.
Luke stood tall, staring down Gunther, who was standing off to the side. His bright green eyes bored through him, but he refused to look away. Gunther’s jaw was tight, and he could see the muscle twitching along his snarled upper lip.
A girl’s scream broke the icy river that was forming between the two of them. They both looked down the line. Roger had a young, tall blonde girl pressed up against the wall. His hips were pressed into hers. She fought him, trying to turn her head as he held her face.
“I’m going to enjoy this one, Gunther. Well done. You shall be rewarded.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” Gunther replied in a monotone voice. The sight of a girl about to be abused set Luke off. He instantly remembered a man beating his mother.
“Back off, you fucking psycho prick!” Luke yelled, venomously.
Roger looked at him. “I thought we had an understanding, Luke. You’re to keep your mouth shut, or you will earn a day tied in a chair, getting your arse beat.”
“If that’s what it takes to keep you away from her, you sick son of a bitch!” The girl looked at Luke like he was mental. “Leave her be!”
Roger chuckled. “You trying to play the hero here, lad?” Roger stepped into Luke, but he stood strong and tall against the disgusting man. “You feel you failed when your mum was in the same position, so now you need to step up? Such a bleeder.”
“You don’t know shit!”
“I don’t, do I? You have no idea how much I know, and I would suggest you keep your filthy mouth shut, just like your mother should have!”
Luke hauled off and punched him. He clipped him pretty good, causing his lip to split open wide. Gunther grabbed him and threw him against the wall.
“Get him out of here. Now! Take him to the room and tie him up. We will have a chat a little later!”
“Yes, sir.”
Gunther dragged a wild, flailing Luke off into a dimly lit room. He saw there was a large window-sized mirror on the wall across from a metal chair. He wondered if it was a two-way mirror. Why else would there be a mirror like that in a room?
Gunther tied him to a chair good and tight. His wrists were bound together behind him with plastic zip ties, and his ankles were bound to the chair legs. They were biting into his skin, causing him to bleed.
Luke continued to stare into the mirror. He wasn’t going to give up. If there was any chance that Roger was behind that mirror, he was going to stare at him until he could no longer.
Next, a bandana was tied around his mouth, gagging him. Luke bit down on the gag. Gunther stood in front of him and smirked. “I suggest you keep your mouth shut from now on. I’m sure this is going to teach you a hearty lesson.” He wrapped a bandana around Luke’s eyes, tying it so tight that he saw stars in the darkness.
Luke sat there, seething, but unafraid.
“Take care, Cock-up.” Gunther patted him on the shoulder, then left the room.
About an hour later, Roger came in and beat him semi-unconscious. When he was finally done, he ordered Gunther to take him to his dorm room.
Gunther cut his ties and dragged him to his room. He tossed him through the door and slammed it shut. Luke lay on the floor, unable to move. Then he heard bare feet pad up to him.
“You alright, mate?” Luke groaned. He felt large, warm hands untying his blindfold and gag. Once he could move his mouth, he began coughing up all the blood that had collected in the back of his throat.
His eyes were still unfocused, leaving his vision useless.
“Christ, mate. They beat you good.”
“Yeah,” Luke choked out.
“Let me help you to the loo so you can get cleaned up. My name is Gabriel, by the way. We’re roommates.”
“Luke.�
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“I gathered that from earlier.”
Luke groaned as Gabriel helped him to his feet. “I’m going to be sick.” Gabriel quickly ushered Luke to the stark, white bathroom so he could throw up.
After several violent vomiting cycles, Luke passed out on the cold, white tile floor.
-November 2014-
Elaina moaned in her sleep, and it brought Henry back to reality. He rolled over and curled up behind the love of his life.
“I love you so much,” he whispered in her ear. She moaned again, and snuggled into him. He would do anything to keep her safe and unharmed, no matter what pain it caused him. He wished he could have done the same for his mother. He nestled his face into her long black hair, closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 25
I
woke up at dawn and felt a cool body wrapped around me. I opened my eyes and saw Henry’s bandaged arm wrapped around my waist. I smiled. He was so relaxed and seemed to be resting peacefully, which was unusual for him. I had no idea how he survived on such little sleep. As I laid there watching him rest, I couldn’t think of anything else except that I had my Henry back.
I saw he had removed the bandages from his hands. They looked sore, though. I ran my fingers over his fingertips. He groaned, and held tighter. For one enjoyable moment, I forgot about how crazy and fucked up my world, our world, had become.
When I rolled over, I looked at all of his wounds and scars…the bandages around his arm and chest, his bruised face, the crooked nose, and the cut on his lip. I stroked his face and began kissing his wounds. He battled valiantly for us. Knowing that I almost lost him made the hair on my body stand up on end. Or maybe that was just his chilled body pressed against mine.
I felt closer to him than I had in a long time. And now that I knew his and Sophie’s story, I felt like my love for him had grown even stronger. He had done some amazing things, and he had some terrible things happen to him. I could never let this man go, ever…even if he was some crazy, fucked up, crossbreed freak.
He opened his eyes, and the sparkle of emerald green took my breath away. I was a sucker for such brilliance.
“Good morning, my black-haired beauty,” Henry said in his sexy, raspy voice as he reached up and stroked my face with the back of his fingers.
“Morning, hot stuff. Your eyes… They’re really green again.” I smiled as he leaned in and kissed me. Oh, how I had missed his lips brushing across mine. I couldn’t believe I had pushed him away for so long. I returned his soft kiss with a more aggressive one. I laid my hands on his muscular chest, rolled him over, and pushed his lips open with my tongue. He hissed, and pulled back, grabbing his lip.
“Oh no! I’m so sorry!” His cut had opened again. “Shit. Am I going to get infected now?”
“Is it bleeding badly?” He ran his tongue over it. I got a closer look at it, but was careful not to touch it.
“No. It looks like maybe it’s just a crack in the dried up scabby area. But I don’t see any blood. Let me get something for you.” I jumped out of bed, and ran into the bathroom. I opened the cabinet and found a tube of lip balm. I ran back in and sat down next to him. I rubbed his lips with it, taking care that I didn’t hurt the already sore part.
“Thanks, love. That helped a lot.” He slowly sat up.
I sat in front of him, checking his wounds. His body was ravaged by Kellan not that long ago. It was beyond difficult to watch it happen. I was thankful Thomas had the wherewithal to shoot the son of a bitch before he killed Henry.
Henry claimed that he was feeling better, but I knew him better than that. Physically, he was trying to play the tough guy role, but I knew that, emotionally, he was an absolute wreck. I was glad that Sophie volunteered to head back to Henry’s apartment to grab the rest of the supplies.
My leaving in the dead of night was simply not a brilliant move by me. I had no idea why I thought it would be a great idea to leave on my own but, at the time, I felt that I had to. Although, in some ways, I was glad I did it because I was able to hold my mother and do my best to comfort her through her last breath.
There was a soft knock on the door. I jumped up out of the bed and opened it. It was Sophie. “Hey,” I said. Henry waved from the bed, holding onto his lip.
“We’re almost ready to leave. Thomas is drawing now.” Then she looked at Henry, seeing him holding his lip with his fingers. “What happened in here?”
I blushed a little. “I kissed him a little more than I probably should have.”
“Alright, then.” She blushed a little herself. “So…we will be waiting downstairs.” Then she waltzed off, still in those high-heeled shoes. I would have broken my neck ages ago.
“Well, we should probably go down and say goodbye to them. And you, my sexy man, need to get another fix.” He tried to smile, but winced. I kissed him on his cool, stubbly cheek. His eyes danced around my face.
“I will be down in a minute,” he said.
“But they’re leaving soon, and you really need to…” I sounded like a whiny child.
“Love, I can’t go down like this.” Confused, I looked at him, but then noticed where he was pointing. He pulled the blankets back and his soldier was standing at full attention. “Still thinking about your kiss,” he smirked. “And much more.”
“Oh, my god, Henry!” I threw his pants at him.
He was still laughing when I walked out of the room.
***
“Morning, sunshine.” Claire turned and smiled at me as I jogged down the stairs. I ran over and hugged her. Then I began to cry. “Hey, hey. It’s fine.” She pulled back. “We will be fine. You’ll see.”
“I hope so.”
“Try not to worry too much. Okay?” I nodded. “Is Henry coming down?”
“Yes.” I sniffled. “He’s still a little slow when getting up.” I was trying to put his rather personal issue out of my head. The more I thought about it, the more it tempted me. I needed to control myself, though. With no birth control around, we needed to be careful. It wouldn’t be wise to bring a baby into the fucked up world that we now lived in.
If we did get pregnant, would our baby be like Henry? Was it just luck that both of Sophie’s kids were normal? There were so many questions that needed to be answered, but I was unsure if Henry or Sophie had the answers that I needed. How could we move forward without having any sort of real answers?
“Hello? Are you in there?” Claire was waving her hand in front of my face.
“Uh, yes.” I blushed. “Sorry. Lost in thought.”
“I asked you if you wanted to eat something. I found a great stash of goodies in the cellar. I forgot your mom canned so much.” My heart ached again.
Claire held up a bunch of jars full of tomatoes, peaches, salsa, pickles, my mom’s famous apple butter, and a huge box of crackers. My mouth watered.
“There is a ton of stuff down there. The whole cellar is packed.”
I looked up and smiled. I mouthed, Thank you. In all the madness, we completely forgot to go down and see if there was anything useful. To be honest, I didn’t want to go down there. I didn’t want to relive seeing my mother in that state.
Henry came down the stairs, partially dressed, carrying a half-empty bottle of whiskey, and headed straight over to me. Where the fuck did he find that? He wrapped his cool arms around my warm body. He looked beautiful, even when he was bruised, battered, and bandaged.
“Better?” I asked him in a sassy sort of way.
“Mmm…,” he groaned in my ear. “Not until later.” He kissed me on the cheek, uncapped the whiskey, and took a swig.
“I meant your lip.” I shook my head when he took another drink from the bottle. I couldn’t understand why he wanted to drink so early in the morning.
“Oh, right. Yes. That’s better for now…until later.” He winked at me. I had to change the subject.
“Here. Let me help you tighten up that bandage, and help you with your shirt.” He hissed as he
held his arms out like he was crucified. He still had the bottle clutched in his hand.
I took off the metal clips and unwound most of the bandages. His chest was still so many different colors. He frowned when he saw me shake my head. I rewrapped him, and carefully helped him put on his t-shirt.
“Oh, look!” I showed him the array of deliciousness that Claire found. “I have no idea why we didn’t think to go down to the cellar. I forgot she canned like a prepper. I’m so glad Claire thought to look. I was getting tired of cheese crackers and cardboard-flavored chocolate chip cookies.” Henry smirked, then looked at the jar that I was holding in my hand.
“Is that her apple butter?” He set the whiskey bottle on the table. Everyone looked at it as if was an elephant in the room, but no one said a damn word.
“Why, yes it is!” He snatched the jar out of my hands and popped it open. Sophie walked over with a spoon, smiling. He dug into it, not even waiting for a cracker.
“Mmm. Oh, love, I forgot how good this is.” He winked at me. Was he insinuating something? It had been a little while since we had been together, but it hadn’t been that long. I raised an eyebrow at him, tossing him the box of crackers.
He chuckled a little. “Not exactly toast, but it will do.” He sat down at the table. It was like Christmas for us.
“It’s nice to see the two of you back to your old selves.” Nick was standing in the kitchen door, smiling and sipping on his mug of blood like it was a cup of coffee. I smiled and then shuddered, knowing he wasn’t drinking coffee. Henry nodded at Nick.
I wanted to move away from him, but since I had decided that Henry and I were in it for the long haul, I needed to learn how to deal with the blood intake, no matter how much it grossed me out.
“Gather round.” Henry waved everyone over. “Let’s get the plans finalized. Give me what you have already.” I cracked open a jar of tomatoes and a jar of peaches. We gorged ourselves on my mom’s hard efforts while we talked. It was like she was taking care of us from the grave.
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