Page 14 of Vengeance of Childhood Proportions

I paused. That last bit was louder. And something about it had my ears ringing. I put down one of the gloves, having only halfway gotten it on before I heard him talk.

I walked over to the sink where I got one of the buckets of water that are prepped there. Sometimes it just makes life easier to have the water handy without needing to wait for one of the buckets to fill.

Sam shouted and then wailed when I threw the water onto his face. I heard John wake at the noise and immediately start to moan as his own pain registered.

“What the fuck did you just say?” I demanded, tossing the bucket unceremoniously towards the sink.

Gasping and spluttering water, Sam opened and closed his mouth several times before he was able to speak clearly. “Please. Please, stop. We’re sorry. We’re all so sorry. We didn’t know. We were kids?—”

“You didn’tknow?” I repeated back, my voice loud and harsh. “You didn’t know that sticking your penis inside a bound girl waswrongbecause you were just akid? You were old enough to know where to put it, Sam! You just didn’t ask forpermission!”

I wasn’t sure if the liquid coming down his face was only water or tears too. His face was scrunched like he was trying to cry, but I was fairly certain he was too dehydrated for that. “We’re sorry?—”

“You’re only sorry because you’rehere! What the fuck have you ever done in your life, Sam, that would prove to me that you’ve been sorry since the day you and your buddiesgang rapedme? Were you aware I got pregnant? Not only was I forced togo to schoolwith the boys who raped me, but I gotpregnantby one of you. My depression made me lose the baby!My baby!At fifteen, I was forced to grasp the fact that I’dkilledmy baby because I couldn’t handle the shit inside my head!”

I scoffed, shaking my head. “But you’re ‘sorry’. Well, Sam, I’m afraid it’s too little, too late. If you were truly sorry, you would have confessed to your crimes instead of caring more about playing a fucking hockey game.”

“I’m sorry…” His voice was getting lower, more slurred. “I’m so sorry, Hailey.”

I froze. My hand was outstretched, reaching for the glove I had yet to put on. My ears started to ring and I felt a flush under my skin like I’d been standing in the sun for too long.

Slowly, I pivoted on my heels to face Sam again. “What the fuck did you just call me?”

His eyes were blinking slowly. He was running low on energy and I was about to lose him to unconsciousness again. I ran over to the sink, grabbed another bucket, and threw it on him again.

Sam roared out in pain, trying to sit up but the straps on the table held him immobilized. “I’m sorry!” he shouted, coughing. “Hailey, I’m sorry!”

I dropped the bucket. It clattered on the cement floor, echoing like a gunshot.

Hailey. FuckingHailey. My heart was hammering and I thought for a moment I was going to throw up.

I walked right up to Sam and grabbed his chin. I forced his head towards me, gripping him hard. “What the fuck did you just call me?”

His cheeks were pinched between my fingers, but I heard him clearly. “Hailey. That’s what Christopher said your name was.”

I dropped his face like he’d just spat acid at me. Hailey. I couldn’t breathe. The fuck? I’d been doing all of this, torturingthem forfive weeksto exact my revenge, and they thought my fucking name wasHailey!

I ran over to John, who was whimpering out his pain as he tried to gather the strength he needed to stand on the stake again. His face was about a foot above mine, but I didn’t care. I kicked the stake out from under his foot, not giving him the option to stand anymore.

He cried out as he dangled from his wrist.

“What the fuck is my name!?” I demanded of him.

John was shaking his head, either too distracted from the pain to answer or he didn’tknowthe answer.

I screamed!

They obviously remembered assaulting me. As soon as I’d stepped into the bunker that first day, they knew. Christopher, Sam, and Andy had recognized me before John and Amber had. John had also been unconscious at first, exhausted from trying to break free of his cell. I tried to think back over the last five weeks. Had any of them said my name? They’d said Jason’s but had only remembered him as ‘Janitor Kadeer’.

But none of them had saidmyname.

They’drapedme. They’d forced themselves into my body in the most heinous, humiliating way possible and they didn’t even know or remembermy name! I’d gone to school with the lot of them since preschool. There’d only been around a hundred of us in our graduating class.

And they didn’t knowmy fucking name!

I didn’t remember picking up the knife. I didn’t remember carving my name into Sam’s body over and over again. I didn’t remember cutting off his genitals and shoving them down his throat.

I hadn’t experienced a blackout haze like that in years. I’d honestly thought Jason had cured me of them, but apparently we were both wrong on that front. When he came down thestairs of the bunker hours later, I was a bloody mess in the corner of the room. None of it was my blood, but it still must have been a shocking sight.

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