Page 91 of Volatile

I don’t have any control over my tongue and grit, “Fuck. You.”

He fucking promised to never raise a hand to us again when we moved away from our parents. Never to lie or force us to do shit. He promised that we’d have everything that we want, that we’d be fucking safe but the pain in my leg is proof that was bullshit. The one person I’ve hurt the most by being a cunt is the one who comes to my defense as his daughter punches him in the ribs. His hand doesn’t loosen around my throat, but it creates enough distance for her to push her body between us. Her tone is serious and she’s fucking tiny, barely coming up to my chin and protecting me.

“He’s not wrong, let him go.”

There’s no anger directed at me. She’s a psycho and slaps me in the mouth when I shout her name but now she’s fucking calm?!

Vlad looks down at her with his hand flexing around my neck and I continue being a dickhead, so he doesn’t allow the shit back into my head.

“Yeah, let me go,” I say then drop my voice to a whisper, “like you let her go.”

Everyone’s face is filled with rage, and he ignores his daughter as he lifts me higher. My back slides up the wall and my toes don’t touch the floor as he tightens his hand around my throat. I’m struggling to breathe.

Fuck it, if I’m going to die why not today? It’s as good as any and at least I’m at home, not chained in some cunt’s murder dungeon. Or watching my girl be attacked.

Anger and pain mix together erupting from my chest.

I couldn’t fucking move.

I saw their fucking boot kick her in the stomach so she was laid on her back. All their taunts about how they’d break her to get initiated into some sick cunt’s little club scream over the sounds of anything in front of me.

The image is right in front of my eyes, and I swing, trying to disperse it. My fist doesn’t hit air though, it connects with a jaw and my body is jolted as there’s a scream.

“No. Get off him!”

I can’t recognize the voice as my body rocks and pain erupts throughout my face, physical pain. Finally sweet relief that isn’t removed by anyone coming to my defense.

My body keeps fluctuatingfrom hot and cold. The smell of hay and horse shit makes me throw up for the fifth fucking time and I turn my head in time to stop me choking on it. I don’t even have the energy to break the cuffs on my wrist that are keeping my arm attached to the bar. Fucking cunts. They couldn’t beat the shit out of me. They had to fucking choke me out and lock me in this shithole stable when I can barely stand. I was fine earlier, my knee stopped hurting until I remembered everything. Now, it’s throbbing, and I can’t think about anything else.

My dickhead brothers are nowhere in sight and there are no guards on this end of the property from the small opening in the boards. There’s hay stuck to my back from how much I’m overheating, and I can’t even sit up as footsteps get closer. Hay and vomit are a worse combination, but my body is wracked with shivers, and I shake uncontrollably. The window opens revealing faces I won’t look at: Dani and Vanya – the only two people who have tried to speak to me. My girl hasn’t even come down. I left her alone when she needed me, again.

“I don’t know who you became or what you said but you fucked up, Tali.” Dani lays on her guilt trip as though I don’t already feel like death.

They keep doing this shit, coming with food when the smell alone turns my stomach and trying to get me to speak other than asking them to get me out. I’ve learnt that they’re not going to unlock the stable doors, so I remain on my back as I stare at the knotted wood lining the roof. She sighs to herself when I don’t say shit and says something useful. “Stasi isn’t eating, what’s her favorite food?”

“Chicken,” I croak. “With sweet honey broccoli.”

She fucks off and I’d take her disappointment over Vanya’s. She doesn’t stop staring at me, her contacts aren’t in so there’s no one on this side of the property at all with her need to wear them in front of the guards. She walks around to the doors, instilling hope in me until it rattles, and she curses. “For fuck’s sake.”

But she doesn’t leave, and the doors pull as she climbs over the wood and drops down to her feet in front of me. There’s a smile on her face as she stand opposite me. The towels we leave for when Viktor hides out in the stables are piled in her arm and she moves around me, wetting the cloth in the trough.

She drops it over my vomit and tilts her head to the side as she stands above me and asks, “Do you want me to wipe your face?”

Her question doesn’t get an answer and she sighs, dropping down to a squat and wipes my face. She might only be a year younger than me, but she’s still my niece and I don’t need her cleaning up after me.

It helps though and she shows I’m weak as fuck as she sits me up.

Once she’s happy with the position she’s put me in, she sits opposite me cross-legged and takes out a bottle of water that was wrapped in the towels. She pushes it towards me, and her voice is low, contemplative.

“Sometimes when you hurt, you have to make other people hurt. It’s like you need them to because nothing else makes sense.”

Oh fuck, I’ve made her research emotions with my dickhead comment. I look up at her with an apology that isn’t enough, and it doesn’t leave my tongue. “Why are you sitting with me?”

She should hate me and start her torture but there’s a softness in her eyes.It carries into her voice, and she plays with the dried-up strands on the floor. “You were nice to me before we were family and Stasi is upset, she’s always been nice to me.”

My girl’s upset. Stasi who doesn’t give a fuck about anything, even herself, is fucking upset, sad enough for the emotionally inept to notice. My mouth opens without anything to say; I can’t ask how she is when I’ve got an answer, upset. Sad. Showing her emotions freely but it’s not her choice. She’ll hate me for being a weak cunt and not saving her.

Vanya doesn’t have that issue as she keeps talking while staring at the hay between her fingertips. “I’m sorry you had to be around Rowan’s friend because of me.”

---