Page 172 of Ashes

I’d gone to my knees willingly, ready to just fucking die.

I didn’t deserve the next breath my body forced me to take.

I hoped they killed me and turned me to ash so I could join my demons in hell.

Ashes’s boot caught my face, breaking my nose. The blood gushed out as Church cracked a rib.

Finally, the torment stopped, and Church fisted my hair and brought my head off the ground.

The beating I’d endured didn’t even touch my sins.

I knew my brothers.

This wasn’t the end.

I’d endure far more.

“You fucked up,” Church said, his voice trembling. “I loved you, Sinclair. You were my brother. My best friend. I’d have done anything for you. You fucking knew that.YOU KNEW IT! YOU SAW ME DO IT!”

I wept softly as he shook my head. I could barely see through my swollen eyelids.

“All I wanted was a family. All of us. With the girl we loved. You just couldn’t do that, could you?She’s not fucking Isabella!” He slammed my head into the ground. “We could have had it all, but you fucked up.” He slammed my head into the ground again.

I was going to throw up.

I was in so much pain.

“You did the one thing you feared,” Church said softly. “You tore us apart. Well, guess what? Now you’re fucking alone. I want you to fucking punish yourself for this after tonight. I want to see what we meant to you.”

He released my head, and it banged back to the ground before he landed another kick to my guts.

I knew I could have fought back, but I didn’t. I let them punish me, and I’d continue to let them do it.

I deserved it. I deserved all of it.

I didn’t ask how they knew. I was scared to know.

I laid there as Stitches grabbed rope, praying for death.

A moment later, they were pulling me by my feet across the cold cemetery ground and placing me on something hard and painful. I’d lost my shirt long ago during the initial beating where they beat the shit out of my face with their fists. I’d taken it off to wipe the blood from my nose.

They stretched out my arms out wide before lashing my wrists with the rope to the hard wood I was on. Before long, my feet were bound and tied.

Stitches came to my side and leaned down, his lips at my ear.

“She was raped. In the facility. Men watched as she was fucked, Sinclair. They made me hold her down.They made me,” his voice cracked. “Fuck you. Forever.”

I wept softly as he backed away and left the night sky above me.

Crucified for my sins.

It seemed fitting.

Ashes kneeled beside me next as the sky spun above me.

“In case you’re wondering how we found out, she told us tonight.Sirena.She fucking told us. Guess you should have just killed her to keep your fucking secret, prick.”

I wept harder.

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