Page 271 of Vile Boys

But I ignore him.

THWACK!

Each strike is harder than the previous one.

“On.”THWACK. “Your.”THWACK. “Fucking.”THWACK. “Knees!”

I bite my tongue out of sheer pain to keep myself from screaming.

“Are you so eager to hurt? Is that it, boy? Do you enjoy it when I whip you?”

THWACK. THWACK. THWACK.

Droplets of warm blood roll down my back.

I nearly cave. Nearly.

But I will not give him this fucking pleasure. I fucking won’t.

His voice makes me want to lash out. “Kneel.”

“I don’t bend for a coward who can’t even face his own fucking son while he mutilates him,” I growl back.

He grunts like a beast. “Then you are no longer my son.”

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

The strikes are so harsh and painful that I can barely take it anymore, but I must. I made my choice. I have to stick with it. For her. For that little bit of good that’s been injected into my life, however fucking small, it’s worth surviving for.

But at what cost?

THWACK!

The crack on the whip on my back makes me close my eyes, my knees unsteady as I suffer through the pain in both my body and my mind.

But I refuse to fucking fold, and if this is going to be the end of me, then so be it.

“I don’t want to be your son,” I say through gritted teeth. “You make me wish I was never born.”

My father pauses and rasps, “Maybe I should’ve killed you long ago.”

CRYSTAL

Caleb throws what looks like all the guns and weapons they have in their arsenal into the back of his car.

“Are you sure we need that much?” Blaine asks. “We’re only three people.”

Crystal gulps. “I think I only count for a half, tops.”

“Darling, you have that all wrong,” Blaine says, and he chucks me a knife in a way that could’ve stabbed me, but I manage to catch it. He winks. “See?”

Sighing, I tuck it into my pocket. “Isn’t there a side entrance we can take to get in without getting in danger? There has to be an easier way than this.”

“Nope,” Caleb replies, throwing even more in a box. “Torres has every exit guarded, and he probably knows we’re coming because he’ll force Ares to talk.”

“And then he’ll tell those Bonesmen all about us,” Blaine adds.

I shiver in place. Ares saved me and then killed those people for me.

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