Page 33 of Boy of Ruin
Ever.
When they ripped me away from Sid, I’d been blindfolded when they put me in that car.
And it wasn’t until I was clinging to Lazar, my fists clenched around his dress shirt, my head buried in his chest, that I realized it had been nearly ten. Fucking. Years. Since I’d been outside.
I cried harder.
He’d shoved me away, held me at arm’s length, his eyes trailing up and down my naked body, covered in blood, his lip curling in disgust.
I knew I smelled bad.
Looked bad.
I knew my head was so, so fucked. But under the full moon in that night sky, on the private street, I didn’t care.
I was free.
Free.
He had dropped his hands from me as if I were diseased. He stepped back, jerked his head to a black Lincoln pulled up on the curb. “Go.”
That one word.
I went.
Then I was inducted.
In the darkness of the cave, I close my eyes, forcing myself not to think about that. The initiation. It wasn’t proper. Just…pain.
My mouth goes dry, and my bones ache.
My face burns, thinking of their humiliation.
Their taunts.
How it hurt.
I clamp my hands over my ears, rocking back and forth, humming softly, a way to drown out the memories. A habit I took up in that…cage. I sleep that way, in my own big, empty house. Sitting up, against the wall. Rocking.
For a while, here in the cave, it works to calm me.
My mind goes blank. I lean my head back against the rocky wall, drop my hands to my knees and keep my eyes closed, hoping to sleep the next three nights away.
I grew used to that in the Forgues house.
But just as I feel like I’m nodding off, drifting away into that bliss of nothingness, I sense someone beside me.
At first, I think it’s in my mind.
That happened all the time in the cage. I made friends with dozens of people. Lovers. Parents who cared. Sid even came to see me.
I had it all inside my head.
So, I don’t even open my eyes at first. But then I hear a clinking sound, smell something like smoke.
My eyes fly open and my breath leaves me in a rush as I flinch, startled by the sight of someone kneeling beside me, a small flashlight positioned against the wall opposite me in the tight space, illuminating Lucifer from behind, that hood over his head casting his features in shadow, a bandana around his throat.
He has demon eyes.
