Page 1 of Never Fall for an Angel

I’m drifting in a sea of open water.

The tide is strong, carrying me away from land. Away from people. There’s nothing but me and the endless blue ocean.

Waves roar around me, lapping over my bare flesh, but the cold doesn’t bother me. Not anymore.

“You fucking deserve this, bitch,”hegrits under his breath, growling as he thrusts inside me. The pain is blinding, like hot coals melting me in two until I’m nothing but a mass of burnt flesh and blood on the stained mattress beneath him.

His knife cuts my skin. The ache is unlike anything I’ve ever felt. Cold, hard steel against my skin being flayed open, like flames lapping at my broken flesh.

He digs in deeper, carving the brand they will remember me by. Five little letters arranged to destroy the person I was before I was brought down to this basement.

Where am I?

Whoam I?

I scream behind the dirty gag in my mouth, but nothing comes out. No sound reaches my ears. Tears seep from my eyes, blood oozes from the cuts littering my body, and the man between my legs? He couldn’t be happier to watch me die.

And everyone will remember me as the girl who never screamed despite my voice rattling the rafters in this cold, decrepit hell.

“Mmm . . . you look so pretty covered in all this blood.”

My stomach turns, bile rising in my throat, but I can’t vomit. The sensation gets stuck in my lungs, drowning me until I feel my head tightening, the room spinning in circles around me.

My vision goes, and all I can think about is my mother.

What will she say when she learns what I’ve become? Will she ever know?

Will they find me, or will I rot here in this purgatory, my spirit lingering to watch my body decay until there’s nothing left but bones and matted hair on broken concrete and a dirty mattress?

Please . . . I say, but the sound doesn’t come out. Not that it matters. Pleading won’t save me.

Nothing can save me.

“You love this shit, don’t you? You like being used like the whore you are?” A hand connects with my cheek, but the pain doesn’t register. I’m full of pain. His slap means nothing. “Your pussy’s fucking soaked. You just had to fucking do it, didn’t you?”

That’s all I am, right? Pussy for a man to use until he’s decided he’s done with me. When he’ll either kill me or leave me here to bleed out.

Why am I not dead? Why am I still breathing? Was the act itself not enough? When does this hell end?

I hope my mother doesn’t cry. I hope she knows I didn’t mean all those horrible things I said to her. That in my last moments I couldn’t stop thinking of her. Of my brother. My sisters . . .him.

God, don’t let me think of him. Don’t let him know what became of me after he left.

My vision blackens at the edges, the waves pulling me under, and I can’t breathe. The pain fades. The light above me blends into one striking white light. His grunts fade, leaving a ringing silence that hums in the air.

I blink up at the sun above me, feeling its warmth on my skin. That is . . . the sun? Right?

White fades to black. The hum fades to nothingness.

And that’s when I learned silence is the loudest sound in the universe.

Is . . . this it?

Is this what the end feels like? A flash and then . . . emptiness?

Am I dying?

God, I hope so.

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