Page 101 of Science Project

FIFTY-NINE

NICOLE

“Dad, please,” I cried, trying to shuffle to my feet.

He gripped my hair tighter and continued to drag me across a hard and cold concrete floor. I kicked my legs to stay upright so his grip on my hair wouldn’t fucking rip out every last strand that I had. But with my hands tied behind my back and my eyes blindfolded, I had trouble doing much else.

“I’m going to fucking kill you!” a man shouted inside the room. “Don’t touch her!”

When Dad dropped me, I landed with a thud on my side. I moved back and forth in an attempt to roll onto my stomach and push myself up to my knees, but a weight was suddenly pressed against the backs of my thighs, forcing me still.

Since the night Akio had found out about what Dad did to me, the abuse had only become harsher. And I just took it because I couldn’t find it in me to fight against him any longer. Akio hadn’t come to save me, like I’d hoped he would.

But I had a bad feeling that something was wrong because … he hadn’t been in school.

Hands traveled up my sides to my bra. Dad yanked it down and made my breasts spill out of them. Usually, Dad stayed home and let his buddies have a go at me, but tonight was different, and I tried my hardest not to fear why he had blindfolded me.

“She’s pretty, isn’t she?” Dad said. “I spent a lot of money to make her look this way.”

My lips trembled, but I kept them closed.

“Let her out!” the man roared again. “Don’t you fucking touch her!”

The voice sounded so familiar, almost like Akio, but since that night, everyone sounded like him to me. It was my imagination playing tricks on me, taunting and tormenting me for falling in love with him when my life was doomed to end in one way.

Death.

“Nicole!” the man said again, this time softer. “Nicole, I’m here. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“You’re a fool, Akio,” a woman said.

My chest tightened, and I lifted my head a few inches off the ground as Dad slipped his hand into my panties. I couldn’t see through the blindfold, but … but he … was this really him? Was he here?

I inhaled sharply, smelling the salty air, and moved my head from side to side, trying to find him through the faintest of black outlines. A tear slipped down my cheek, and I dropped my head again, not wanting him to see me like this.

He probably hates me.

“Nicole,” Akio shouted, “it’s me.”

“Akio,” I whispered.

Dad punched me straight in the jaw. “Shut the fuck up. You’re hearing things.”

Lips trembling, I tasted blood and lifted my head in the direction of Akio’s voice again. I didn’t know what or who to believe. If Akio was really here, why would he sound so soft, so heartbroken? Why wouldn’t he be mad at me?

“I’m going to fucking kill you,” Akio sneered. “Don’t touch her!”

Dad wrapped one arm around the front of my throat and lifted my body off the ground, enough for him to finger my cunt for whoever the hell was in the room for us. Inhuman sounds—those I had only heard a hero make in anime—echoed throughout the room.

“Akio,” I whispered, desperate for it to be him, “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing for you to apologize for,” Akio said.

A sob escaped my mouth. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Sorry that I hadn’t told him sooner. Sorry that he had seen what he saw. Sorry that I’d ever gotten involved with him. He deserved so much more than me. “I’m sor?—”

Dad hit me harder this time.

Stars danced in my dark vision, and I blinked my eyes a few times, my blindfold loosening around my head. My arms slackened as the pain shot through me and more blood pooled in my mouth.

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