Page 84 of Their Chosen

He was always so careful to keep his abuse confined to areas that others couldn't see, which meant my lower back and thighs. I inhaled deeply and tensed in expectation of the first burn, hoping that he got what he needed sooner rather than later.

As he pressed the tip of the cigarette to my skin, I bit down on my lip until it bled, keeping the cry of pain from waking anyone. Tears ran down my face as I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to hold them back.

I knew that he enjoyed this, seeing my pain, my fear, but I couldn't help my reaction. “That's a good girl. Nice and quiet like,” he cooed in my ear as he took another drag from the cigarette and caressed me, making me feel disgusting.

My skin crawled, and I knew I would be taking a long shower to scrub my skin raw as soon as I could stand it. It usually took a few days for the burns to heal enough to tolerate the water. Until then, I would feel dirty. It was something I had become accustomed to.

My eyes still shut tight, I felt his fingers skim the waistband of the thin shorts I was wearing, dipping below the band before tugging them down. Out of habit, I lifted my hips. If I fought him, it was always so much worse. Better to give him what he needed. By doing so, the torment would end that much sooner.

Tears leaked from my eyes as my backside was exposed to him. The vulnerability this position put me in was done purposefully to ratchet up my terror and weakness. I felt the cool breeze on my skin, and it felt wrong. He was leering at a part of me that was supposed to be a gift, but he was taking it by force. Stealing my innocence along with satiating his own needs.

His large, calloused hand cupped me, a finger sliding along my slit as he dragged his hand away. Leaning over me, he exhaled smoke into my face as he dipped a finger inside of me. I shook, fighting the urge to push him off and run far, far away. Anywhere but here. But if I did that, that would leave Nikki as the only one left in the home. It would mean that he’d steal her innocence too, and I wouldn’t allow that to happen. Only one of us should have to suffer this torment.

He wheezed out a laugh as if he could hear my thoughts and delighted in the fact that I was willingly letting him touch me. In reward, the butt of his cigarette pressed down into the tender skin just under my cheek, along the inside of my thigh.

This time, I did cry out, shaking from pain as I smelled my own flesh sizzling from the hot embers. It shot through my nerve endings, and I jerked away instinctively, but he leaned over my lower back to pin me in place. His hand reached down again, this time more forcefully, spearing his fingers inside of me painfully as I sobbed silently. I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take. If he continued, if I didn’t find a way to get Nikki and I out of this, he would surely break me. Something I’d never come back from.

“Rhowyn?” I heard Nikki call out to me. My heart raced at the fear that she was about to come in here. I didn't want her here. She needed to run. But I knew how this was going to end.

She always came to me when she had a nightmare, cuddling up in bed with me as I held her and soothed her fears. I tried to protect her in every way I could from the dark world that we lived in. Sadly, she had already been exposed to too much as it was.

The door creaked open as she walked in to find me sprawled on my stomach with Jim leaning over me, the burns evident on my back and thighs, my sex exposed to her view in the dim lighting.

“What are you doing?” Nikki asked angrily of the man who tortured me, indignant on my behalf. She shouldn’t be. After all, I allowed him to do this to me. Let him touch me where no parental figure should. I wasn’t worth her concern because I chose this.

“It's okay, Nikki. Go back to bed. I'm okay,” I pleaded with her. Begging her to just leave before he got any ideas of dragging her into the room and subjecting her to the same pain.

“But he's hurting you, Rhowyn!” she exclaimed as she rushed to me.

“You really should have listened to Rhowyn, Nikki,” he said as he grabbed Nikki's arm in a bruising grip.

She had never been subjected to his torment before, but I could see the moment he decided to include her. His leering gaze traveled her budding teenage body. At fourteen, she was finally coming into her curves, which were no longer hidden by the baggy hand me downs.

In her spaghetti strap shirt and sleep shorts, she was showing him too much skin. He took a drag off his cigarette and exhaled it into her face as she coughed. He laughed at her discomfort.

Fuck. This wouldn't end well. I was frozen in fear as he ran a hand down her face before she slapped at him. “Please don't hurt her. We'll be quiet. Won't we, Nikki!” I begged both of them.

He turned to face me, but I didn’t look at him, too busy pleading with Nikki to be quiet. Instead, she spat at him. He jerked her in anger, and I knew that he was about to fly into one of his rages.

He wiped the spit from his face. “Now why would you do something stupid like that, little girl?” He didn't expect an answer as he backhanded her across the face and let her fall to the ground.

He laughed at her as she cried out. “Please, Jim. She doesn't know any better. Please, she'll be good. She learned her lesson. Just let her go back to bed,” I tried pleading with him again.

I was sitting up now, my shorts and underwear back in place, the burns all but forgotten in my fear of what he'd do to Nikki.

“Oh, I don't think she's learned just what happens to nosy little girls who don't know their place.” He leered at her on the ground, still crying from the slap, a bruise already forming on her face. “But she will before I'm done. And she'll be quiet because if she isn't, then I'll tie her up and make her watch as I hurt you.”

“No. Please,” I begged him. Nikki finally stayed quiet, her fear at the situation finally sinking in and ramping up her survival instincts.

He turned to me and hit me, causing me to fall back in my bed, hitting my head on the frame. “Shut up, girl.”

The next time I woke, he had tied Nikki up and was burning her, worse than he had ever burned me. She was fighting him too much. I put a hand to my head, pulling it away when I felt the wetness there. I stared at my fingertips that were covered in my own blood. No wonder I was woozy, and my vision was blurry. I must have had a concussion.

Nikki's cry pulled me back to the torture he was inflicting on her. My anger and fear clawed at my throat as my pulse picked back up and my head throbbed. I stayed quiet, not wanting him to notice me as I glanced around the room, trying to find a weapon of any kind to make him stop.

My gaze landed on the pocketknife he kept clipped in his front pocket, and I debated whether I could get to it before he stopped me. I decided then that I would do anything to make him stop hurting Nikki. Even if I failed, his anger would be directed at me. I knew I could take whatever he dished out.

I sat up slowly, trying not to draw his attention, my head swimming, and I prayed that I could keep my balance. Nikki's eyes were drawn to me, and I shook my head, indicating she needed to keep quiet and not draw his awareness to me.

---