Page 1 of Vengeful Valentine

Prologue

Silas

Silas’s head jerked back at the force of the impact.

Positioned on his knees in a pile of grits as his foster father wailed on him. The grains dug into his skin in a painful way that he was not unaccustomed to.

They were in his “bedroom.” It was a small room that he shared with his three other foster siblings, Hawk, Ace, and Ashmine. Hissiblingswere all on their knees too, but they were just on the grits. They were not being beaten senselessly, not like he was.

“You stole”–punch–“my fucking”–punch–“beer.” Hisfatherspit vitriol at him. His beady eyes unfocused, his wiry hair hanging in a greasy curtain, his belly bouncing with each impact.

Silas didn’t argue. He didn’t disagree. He didn’t tell the asshole that he most likely drank it in a drunken stupor.

It wouldn’t change anything, except maybe distract the man. Maybe shift his attention to the three Silas was trying to protect.

Instead, Silas focused on the floor below. On the uneven wooden panels that were peeling back. On the way, the grits had shifted and were now spreading across the rest of the room.

I have to clean this up again. Don’t want Ashmine to step on it in the middle of the night.

To his left, Ashmine sniffled.

Silas stiffened as the blows paused.

“What’s thatchild? You don’t like me beating on him? Are you volunteering?”

“She’s sick,” his foster brother, Hawk, cut in, “with a cold.”

“Oh, are you saying I don’t take good enough care of you kids? That I got her sick?”

Silas didn’t react, that was all this man wanted. Areaction.

“Jerald! Get down here!” Their foster mother’s voice pierced the uncomfortable silence and saved Hawk from misspeaking.

“Clean this shit up!” Jerald, their foster father, sneered, shoving Silas roughly onto his back before staggering towards the door.

From this position, Silas could see when Jerald paused close to Ashmine,too close.

“You won’t be a child forever, will you?” Jerald bent down licking the side of her face before stomping the rest of the way out of the room.

They all remained still as he thudded down the steps, and none of them moved until he made it the two floors down to his wife.

“It’s fucking time,” Ace snarled.

Silas didn’t move as Ace shifted haphazardly to his feet, pulling Ashmine with him and wiping her face with the back of his hand. All it served to do was dirty her cheek, but even still, Ashmine leaned into his touch. Wrapping her small arms around him as he tugged them to the bed.

Jealousy prickled along Silas’s nerves.

She was their latest foster sibling. She had been with them for two years.

But it only took three days for her to become one of them, right after she had taken her first beating.

He moved a fist to his chest, applying as much pressure as he could manage. But his joints were stiff, his body sore. Jerald had put more energy into this beating than normal. Silas felt as if he were tethered together by willpower alone at this point.

Not much longer, and then we can leave. Escape this life. But what if it’s too late?

Silas lifted his other arm up, the puzzle piece around his wrist jostling. Ashmine made one for each of them, and she wore one as well.

Friendship bracelets,she had explained.

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