Page 3 of The Rise

“Was it mine?” he growls.

“Fuck you.”

“Was it mine, Lana?” He roars this time. I laugh. Fuck him. I’ll never tell him shit, not a single fucking thing. He squeezes tighter and tighter until I can’t breathe. I don’t even try to fight him. My instincts to fight back have all been depleted. I don’t care anymore. I don’t care if I live or die.

He knows as much which is why he releases me at the last minute before I pass out. I cough and suck air into my lungs before I lose it. I lunge at him, punching and hitting.

“Why don’t you just do it? Why don’t you just finish me?” I scream at him. I hate it when they do this. Take my breath and then give it back. Why not just end me? Why not just finish me off?

“Stop, Lana.”

“No! You’re all fucking cowards! You take me there, you show me the darkness, and then you pull me right back into the light. I don’t want to do this anymore!” I cry as I keep punching him. When he’s had enough, he grabs me, spins me, and pins my body against his.

“You’re not allowed to die, Lana. That’s why!”

“But why not? I don’t want to do this anymore,” I finally break down and sob. My heart can’t handle it anymore. My mind is breaking. I’m breaking.

Gabe holds onto me and I don’t know why. If Ray came in here right now and ordered him away, he’d go. He claims to care about me, but he doesn’t. None of them do. I’m a tool, something they use, and that’s all I’ll ever be until someone bigger, stronger, more powerful comes and takes these bastards away. One day it’ll happen, and I’ll fucking laugh the whole time. I’ll sit back and watch as they kill every single one of them.

“Let me go,” I tell Gabe. He doesn’t. He holds me tighter as if that means anything. It doesn’t, I don’t want his touch. I don’t want anything from him.

“You can’t leave me, Lana. That’s not how this works.”

“How what works?”

“Any of this. I can’t be here alone,” he tells me.

“Why not?”

“There are days when it all becomes too much, and you’re the only hope I have left,” he admits to me, and my heart nearly breaks. He could leave. He could walk away from this, but Ican’t. And I’ll never be able to. There’s no way around it. This is my life until the day I take my last breath.

I shove out of his arms and walk over to the sink, grabbing a towel to dry myself before moving into the room and getting dressed.

“Where are you going?”

“I have to check on the kids,” I snap.

“Lana, you just lost the baby. You need to rest,” he argues. I laugh in his face.

“Do you really think Ray cares?”

“No.”

“Exactly. Leave me alone, Gabe,” I sigh as I stuff my feet into my shoes and go back into the bathroom to find a pad.

Chapter 3

Hunter

“I don’t know, man. I’m not much for vacations,” I say as Rylan stares at me.

“What the hell do you mean? Everyone wants a fucking vacation, Hunter.” Rylan and I have become closer over the last few months. Finding out we were half-brothers was a shock to everyone except me. I always knew. How could I not?

Everything was okay until my mother met Stan. That motherfucker took her in, gave her what she wanted, and then beat us. That’s why he’s dead today by my hands. And there’s no looking back for me.

“And leave all this?” I ask, throwing my arms out wide and motioning around Chaos.

“Hunter, come on. It’s a week’s vacation. You’re not going to miss shit just taking a week off,” he tries to reason with me. He’s probably right. “Besides, I’m sure you can find some bitch to chain up for fun,” he adds with a laugh.

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