Page 7 of Penance

Despite her trembling, she turns sharply, gliding as gracefully as a ballerina through the living room. Her silver sheet of hair fanning out behind her like glittering streamers in the wind. Huxley follows behind, stopping in the middle of the living room. Lala steps around the kitchen island, dropping to the floor behind the counter. Huxley glances back at Kacey who shakes his head. Looking between the two of them, I’d say they’re really fucking concerned. I don’t understand the dynamics here, who evenisshe to them?

All anyone needs to know is she’smine, it’s been written in the stars since the very moment she was born.

Lala stands back up, something in her hand, her eyes gliding over me like I’m not even here. It hurts like a sucker punch to the gut to be dismissed so easily by her. The dangerously sharp splinters of my heart puncture my chest. And I find myself stumbling towards her.

“Lala,” I say with a frown of confusion, Ineedher to look at me, acknowledge me properly.

“DO NOT CALL ME THAT!” she screams, my feet stopping dead in their tracks, her entire body shaking with rage.

The glint of metal in her hand catches my eye, a knife.

Noticing the same thing as me, Hux and Kace both step between us, shielding me from her or her from me?

“Kacey, get me a chair, I need itnow,” she says shakily.

Her words barely above a whisper. He rushes to the other side of the room, returning instantaneously with a wooden dining chair.

“Do we have rope?” she questions as Kacey places the chair between us.

Less than twenty feet stands between us, and even after all these years separated, I’ve never felt further away than I do right now.

“Rope?” Kacey asks and she shakes her head.

“Never mind. We don’t have time,” Lala says quietly, almost to herself.

Her body still trembling, her chest heaving for breath, she drags the chair back, sitting herself in it. She still looks so beautiful, even through her desperate despair. She’s so fucking beautiful. I need to touch her. I need to run my fingers over her pale skin, trace every swirl of ink with my tongue. I need to be reacquainted with the girl I so desperately love. Every fucking part of me was made for her.

Planting her left hand over the arm of the chair, she flips the knife open with her right, a long, fine switchblade. She studies the steel blade for a moment, looking between Huxley and Kacey, she smiles. It fucking cuts me that she looks at them like that. But her lip curls, her dimples deepen, and her smile becomes something else. Something wild and manic, desperate. And then she’s thrusting the blade into the air, slamming it down through the back of her hand with all her strength. The blade daggering all the way through her hand and the wooden arm of the chair. Essentially stabbing her in place, she grits her teeth through the pain and the most awful sound I’ve ever heard -with an injury like that- fills the room.

Silence.

Pure fucking silence.

She makes no sound, the fact that she’s just daggered herself to a chair should have anyone screaming with pain. I should know, I’ve tortured people using similar tactics, but I have never once witnessed anything so unsettling in my life.

It’s the actions of a true psychopath.

What the fuck happened to you?

Like a wave of calm has suddenly washed over her, her breathing starts to slow as she watches her hand drip thick crimson onto the old carpet. She leans back in the chair, dropping her head back, her chest expanding as she takes slow even breaths, regulating her breathing.

“What the fuck did you do?” Huxley snarls at me.

I frown at the accusation.

“You’re not serious? I didn’t fucking doanything! I just came home!”

I back away from him, running my hands through my hair. Pacing in a tight circle, I breathe deeply through my nose.

“Sweetheart, talk to me,” Kacey placates. dropping to his knees in the floor space between us. “Can you tell me what’s happening right now? What’s going on inside that pretty head of yours, beautiful?” he asks Lala gently.

His shoulders sagged, oversized body trying to look small, less intimidating, submissive.

I grit my teeth, hearing him call her beautiful, not that it’s not true, obviously, anyone with eyes can see just how fucking perfect she is. But hearing it fall from his lips in a way that only familiars would speak makes my jaw pop as I clench my teeth so hard, I could snap a tooth. I swear to god they better not be fucking. Kacey can get anyone he fucking wants but he can’t fucking have her, she’smine. I just need to reclaim her. I never lost her, not really, we were just separated for a time. But fate is a cruel mistress and she kept us apart alongtime. Too long.

“I can’t do this, this isn’t fair,” she brings her face forward.

Tucking her chin, looking at him with sad eyes, this girl is fucking hurting and I can’t do anything for her because she doesn’twantme. I remember a time when I wasallshe ever wanted.

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