But I’m Remington Jameson.
The devil’s favorite plaything.
And that is not my life.
All my stunt does is cause my uncle’s fist to connect with my collar bone instead of my face, sending a splintering pain through my chest, squeezing at my heart like a clutched fist.
And I’m still clutched between two sorry excuses for men, no closer to my freedom, or their deaths.
One of the goons holding me decides to punish my attempt to escape by shooting me in the top of my left thigh, taking a little more of my strength. I scream as the bullet pierces my flesh and my uncle takes the opportunity to stick his fingers in the bullet hole, forcing a fiery hot pain akin to molten lava to skate down my leg.
The knife at my throat digs in a little more and I know if I don’t do something soon, I’m going to fucking die before I get the chance to save Henry.
When my body inadvertently falls backward, one of the goons feels the gun I have tucked in my back and makes quick work of tossing it to my uncle, ridding me of my last weapon.
“When will you learn, Atom? You’re fucking nothing!” My uncle screams, roughly grasping my chin in his hands, forcing me to look him in the eyes.
His angry words, his slowly draining composure, leave traces of spittle across my blood-stained face, as he continues to berate me, punish me. All of this because I dared to escape the pits of hell where he sold my body when I was a child.
My screams were his profit. The blood between my legs was his legacy. My pain was his reward.
My freedom would be the death of his empire. Something he’s made sure I fully understand that he’s unwilling to give up.
“You’re a warm fucking hole, bitch. The men here would happily fuck any hole you possess. Including this one.” He digs his fingers in my gunshot wound once again, ripping the torn skin, even more, pulling another scream from my throat.
Just like he always has, he smiles at the soundtrack of my pain, growing more confident in himself, the longer he can prolong it.
“You do realize that I could slice you open and still find someone willing to pay me so that they could fuck your gaping wounds, right? I wonder how many holes of yours we can fill at once. There’s enough of us here to do a little experiment, don’t you think?”
I try to jerk out of the tight hold these sick bastards have me in when all five men start laughing at the prospect of raping my bleeding body. They’d fuck a corpse if it was warm enough, I have no doubt.
I shudder in fear when I realize that nothing short of my uncle’s command is stopping them all from lowering their zippers if my uncle created enough space in my body for them all to get a turn.
One of the men in the back steps forward as if volunteering for the experiment my uncle mentioned. Through the blood smeared in my eyes, and tears begging to break free, I watch the bastard grab his dick through the outside of his jeans.
A white-hot rage that I’ve never felt before consumes me from head to toe when I notice the wet blood covering the crotch of his jeans. Blood that I know matches the blood smeared all over my body from holding my best friend in my arms as she was fighting against death.
“You!” I growl in a voice so low, so animalistic, that I don’t even recognize it as my own.
“What about me, Atom?” He mocks, showing me that he too noticed how much that nickname still gets to me.
“What did you do to her?” I scream the rhetorical question, knowing I will puke my guts up if he goes into details about his assault.
“I got her to call you, didn’t I?” He puffs out his chest as if he’s proud that he raped my best friend until she broke. “Sounds like you’re next.”
The smile that spreads across his lips has my blood running cold in an instant.
“Her screams were the most satisfying I’ve ever heard, could you believe it?” The man asks, taunting me even more.
The goon holding the knife to my throat leans in and whispers in my ear, dragging the blade lightly against my skin as he does. “Her Daddy cried like a little bitch when we forced him to watch.”
My eyes find Henry’s across the bar and focus on the tears that are streaming down his face. His pain over the recent memories of his daughter scorching their way down his defeated face.
“You sick fucks will never be half the man he is.”
The comment is met with a fist colliding to my throat, knocking the wind out of me. They all laugh around my sputtering, my body helplessly searching for oxygen.
“I promised them that the sounds of your screams would taste better than hers.” My uncle taunts, as he nods his head at the man that tormented Liz.
The deranged man steps forward, reaching for his belt as he does so, taking slow steps in my direction.
Every memory, every nightmare, every pair of hands that ever violated me, takes over my brain. A kaleidoscope of trauma sucking the air from my lungs as I realize in this moment, that I’ve fought the losing battle. Nothing I say, nothing I do, will be enough to stop them from dragging me to the pits of hell right along with them. There are too many of them and I can't do it alone.
Alone. Always fucking alone.
Never by choice, always by necessity, but that doesn’t seem to make a bit of difference now.
My body begins to shake as the reality of my situation sinks in.
“Boss, we got company.” One of the men in the corner by the front entrance shouts.
“Is it the cops?”
“No, I think they’re customers.”
“Go take care of them.” My uncle barks.
The scummy man who was undoing his belt quickly rights it as he and the other goon head for the exit, leaving me with my uncle and the two sick fucks holding me. I internally sigh in relief that I get to go at least one more minute in this world without my body being defiled.
Again.
Realizing for a moment that my uncle is slightly distracted with sending his goons outside, I take what might be my last chance, and use what little strength I have left to put a plan into action.
I put all of my weight on my injured leg, the pain so intense that it forces me to bite my cheek so hard that I taste blood. I raise my right, uninjured leg, and kick my uncle in the balls as hard as I can. His screams cause the goons to momentarily loosen their hold on me, shocked and wondering what just happened.
I take immediate advantage of the opportunity. Using all the force I can muster, I throw myself down on the ground, breaking the hold the assholes have on me, falling to the bloody floor with an audible thump.
I quickly scramble to where my gun lays about a foot and a half out of reach, refusing to give in to the pain that begs me to stay still, to keep from injuring myself even more.
My hand closes around the grip of the gun just as one of the men reaches out to grab my leg, trying to pull me back into his clutches. I manage to wiggle my top half around just enough to shoot him. I smile when I realize it was the bastard that cut my throat. The bullet hits him the shoulder, sending him stumbling backward before he can drag my body back to his.
I fire off another shot, piercing the second goon somewhere, but can’t tell where before he buckles.
God, if you’re real, if you’re out there, please let them be dead. For once, just be on my side.
I try to stand, on shaky legs, pain ripping through my injured limb, making it shake underneath the weight of trying to hold me up. I turn toward my uncle, ready to fucking end this shit once and for all. But my uncle played this entire day in exactly his favor. For the first time since I ran, he found a weakness he could exploit.
He knows that Henry means something to me.
He knows that I care more about his life than I do my own.
That’s why as soon as my gun is pointed at him, I see that his gun is pointed at Henry’s bleeding body, halting me from pulling the trigger.
“Let him go!” I scream.
My uncle laughs,
like the sadistic fuck that he is, as a searing pain hits me in my calf, causing me to buckle with the unexpected pain.
The goon that I couldn’t see where I shot him just moments before, and clearly didn’t kill, sinks a knife into my calf just before he punches me in the wound, tearing a scream from my throat. Before I even have a chance to react, he pulls my legs out from underneath me.
My face slams against the floor, knocking the wind out of me, sending my gun sliding across the floor once again.
No, no, no!
He crawls on top of my back, pinning me in place as my uncle makes his way to me.
“Just like old times.” He chuckles, kicking me in the side as he approaches.
I cough and sputter, reeling from the pain caused by his steel-toed boots. I know for damn sure he just broke at least one rib, probably cracking several others.
Thanks for not having my back, God, you self-righteous prick!
The men around me laugh, and I can hear Henry’s screams muffled through the tape as he tries to beg for them to stop hurting me. Between the hits, the stabs, the gunshot wound, and now the ribs, Henry knows our chances of getting out of here are dwindling. Even with only three men left in here, the others outside, I’m not strong enough to do this on my own.
I look up at Henry, a goon now standing directly behind him, and tell him with my eyes how sorry I am that this is happening. He shakes his head, refusing to accept the truth that’s laid out in front of us.
We’re both going to die in here.
And there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
I can’t save us.
I’m struggling to break free of the hold the monster on my back has on me, but his entire body weight is crushing me, grinding my bones into the ground. I feel the blood running down my leg, pooling around me and seeping through my clothes.
Mingling with Liz’s blood…
I hear gunshots erupt outside, and I faintly hear voices, but can’t decipher what they’re saying, as my jeans start to fall away from my body. The man on top of me continues to hold me down as my uncle roughly cuts and rips my jeans away, barring me to the both of them.
I try to slam my legs closed, tears burning my eyes the whole time. I’m bucking, kicking, anything I can do to try and escape. My chest burns as I attempt to heave in air, but the weight on top of me restricts me from breathing properly.
“Noooo!” I choke out, screaming, begging, pleading.
“Shut up!” My uncle screams, punching me in the stab wound on my leg.
“Fuck you, fuck you! Get off!” My breaths are coming in shorter, more painful. I’m losing too much blood.
“Oh, I plan to.” He taunts, gripping me between my legs.
Gulping in air burns like a lump of hot coal being shoved down my throat as the pain in my chest amplifies the pain everywhere else. Each breath makes the wounds on my body pulse, pushing my blood out faster and faster.
But I don’t stop fighting. I don’t stop bucking, kicking, swinging my head side to side as if it will help get me out from underneath the poisonous mountain on my back.
“I’ll kill him, Atom. I swear to God I will.”
I still and look up at the sound of a gun being cocked. I see the man behind Henry now has his gun pressed to the back of Henry’s skull, just waiting for my uncle to say the word so that he can take his life. Take him from me. Take him from Liz.
This is how they plan on getting me to submit to their terms, how they expect to force me to let the monsters win yet again. I cry out, bucking as much as I can, refusing to allow him to rape me again. I spent too long fighting off the demons to just willingly let them take over again.
The man on top of my back slams his fist into the side of my face. Once, twice, three times, silencing my screams and momentarily blinding me.
My uncle pulls on my panties and I can feel the fabric biting into my skin. It’s the last bit of resistance, of safety, that I have left as he tries to pull it free from my body.
“Stop fighting me, Atom!” He screams.
The memories of all the hands, the pain, assaults me as I feel my panties break free of my body, leaving me vulnerable to the monster who haunts me every time I close my eyes.
The man on top of me grabs ahold of the back of my neck and slams my face into the ground, reminding me that I have zero control right now. I see stars immediately, crying out when I feel my uncle’s hands in between my legs.
I’ve spent years promising myself that I would never let him or any of those other bastards touch me ever again. But here we are. Here’s the moment where I swore I’d never be in again. And yet, I can’t do anything to stop him. The weight on top of me is just too much. There’s no escaping.
My uncle grabs me by my hair, forcing my head up, holding me in place so that I have no choice but to see Henry as he cries for me.
“You either let me take what I want or I kill him while I make you watch. What’s it gonna be, Atom?”
I close my eyes, dejected that I can’t run from this.
If it’s me or Henry, I will choose Henry every time. I will not let him die just to save myself. I’ve lived through this hell once, maybe I’m strong enough to live through it again.
Or maybe that’s just the lie I tell myself so that I can hold onto the last scrap of hope I have of saving Henry.
“I’m so sorry, Henry. I love you, I’m so sorry.” I sob.
Henry shakes his head, wailing through his taped mouth. Using his dwindling strength, with a knife in each thigh holding him in place, he fights to try and get to me. Fights to try and save me.
But he can’t.
We both know it.
My uncle laughs, knowing he’s finally won. The game of chess is finally ending. The evil king wins.
He takes my silence as his opportunity and thrusts his fingers roughly inside me, scraping my insides with his jagged nails. I wince as I feel myself tear in certain places.
Tears leak down my face, my stomach churning as I hear his belt buckle being torn open and zipper being pulled down. I wish he would just kill me and get it over with. I just want the pain to go away.
“That’s right, you filthy little bitch. I knew you secretly coveted my cock. You’re bleeding pussy is crying out for it. Blood has always been my favorite choice of lube.”
His words make my skin crawl and I clench my jaw as hard as I can, trying my best to swallow back the vomit currently coating my tongue.
My worst fear when I was a child, trying to be brave, was that my lack of screams would make the monsters think I enjoyed their torment. With the blood I know is covering his fingers with his evil and torturous ministrations, I know that’s exactly what his fucked up brain is telling him.
He removes his fingers and I let out a breath for the momentary reprieve from his assault. The moment I feel his dick touch the outside of my legs, aiming for my core, I can’t hold back the vomit any longer. With a violent trajectory, I puke all over the floor, damn near suffocating in it when my face is shoved back to the ground.
The man holding me down while my uncle prepares to rape me rubs my face in my own puke before he rips my head off the ground and forcibly pulls my eyelids open just as my uncle instructs me to look up. My eyelids are heavy, my whole body losing strength as I bleed out on the bar floor from the numerous wounds they’ve taken turns inflicting me with.
I see Henry through my tears and just as I’m about to open my mouth and apologize again, my uncle bends down to my ear.
“I lied.” He whispers.
The goon behind Henry pulls the trigger. As the world stops spinning and everything around me seems to slow down, I scream out as I watch Henry’s blood and brains splatter all over the bar, ending his life right before my very eyes.
“Noooo!” I scream, choking on my sobs. “Noooo!”
Henry’s head slumps forward, but I can still see the blood dripping off of him until his body goes completely still
.
The image of him dying just a few feet away burns its way into my mind as I continue to scream. My uncle laughs like the psychopath he is just as he lines himself up at my entrance.
“Just kill me, please.” I cry, begging them to just end it. “No more, please, just kill me already.”
A gunshot goes off in the room and I’m grateful that I will be dead before the new memory of him raping me again can ever take hold in my consciousness.
In some fucked up way, this means that I still won. It’s a small prize, knowing that all the other people I love are safe. If they knew about the others, they’d be dead by now. That much I am sure of.
I hate that Liz got hurt and that Henry had to die, but I know it wasn’t in vain. He died so that no one else had to, even if he’ll never know it. He has no idea how many lives just got saved with our deaths.
I welcome the darkness as it begins to creep in, knowing that the only reason I didn’t feel the pain of wherever the bullet just tore through me is because watching Henry die has officially made me numb.
As I wait for unconsciousness to take over, the man on top of me slumps over, draping across my body, pinning me in place beneath his weight.
“You must be James.”
It’s the first time I’ve heard my uncle’s name spoken out loud in over a decade. A name I refused to ever speak again. Giving your monsters names gives them power. I refused to be a part of his power any longer.
Brody’s voice is muffled through the weight of the man on top of me, but my uncle’s grotesque dick disappears from between my legs when he hears his name coming from Brody’s lips.
I let out a sob of relief, immediately closing my legs and tangling my ankles together in hopes to keep myself from being violated again. Feeling the blood from my wounds leak down to my ankle, I send a silent message to Henry, letting him know that I’m coming. It won’t be long before our souls are united, looking down on those we love until they join us again one day.
“And who the fuck are you?” My uncle asks, disdain dripping from his words.
I hear footsteps shuffling all around, but I can’t see anything that’s happening. I feel like I’m suffocating, being smothered by the body crushing me under its weight, fighting off the darkness that I welcomed just seconds prior.
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