Page 28 of The Sweetest Note

Forcing myself to inhale, I remind myself that my career being lit on fire by my own label isn’t a priority at this time. I stare at him, refusing to say anything because he hasn’t asked me a question. My hip aches from the cuts he’s made but also grounds me.

He shrugs and punches me in the side. “Ah!” I gasp. Rules don’t mean shit to this man, as he just enjoys hurting me. Licking his lips, he tries again. “You’ve been portrayed as a whore, and you seem to be in a relationship with two men you regularly fuck. Is it accurate to say you’re addicted to sex as well?”

At this rate my body quickly will be black, blue, and bloody. Gasping, I shake my head. “Not a whore,” I wheeze. “I don’t do drugs.”

“Liar!” Mr. Xav screams in my face, cutting my shirt off my body and ripping it off. “You were found with large amounts of drugs in your system when you were brought here, higher than a kite, and hallucinating that you were speaking to your mother. I am not entirely sure if the drugs caused the hallucinations or if this is newly developed.”

I merely shake my head, whispering quickly, “I don’t know.”

Grinning evilly, he sweeps his arm to cut up my right leg again and slice my stomach twice. “You didn’t give me any new information, so you didn’t follow the rules. Tell me, do you suffer from depression, Miss Lennon?” The only sound in the room are my breaths as I breathe through the pain racking my body, feeling my blood run down my skin.

Mr. Xav is back to being achingly polite, but he ruins it as he digs his thumb into one of the cuts on my stomach. Mewling in pain, I nod. “Sometimes,” I cry out and he nods. At this point, I don’t know if there is a right or wrong answer to his questions.

“Since you are addicted to sex, the orderly Collymore has been asking to see you, and I figure he can help in your treatment. Dr. Bennet gave you to me as a present, and I want to see how far I can push you until you begin to retreat into your mind. You’ll soon find though that won’t be an escape, because I am going to make your mind and memories a funhouse of horrors. It’ll be glorious,” he says, throwing his arms up happily. There’s blood on the knife and on his fingers, and it flies everywhere in the sterile, white room.

Idly, I watch the color spatter, mesmerized by it. Blinking, I force myself to focus back on my captor. Mr. Xav frowns, grabbing a penlight to shine it into my eyes. Wincing, I start to turn my head away but he grabs my hair to hold me still. “Close, close, but still some spunk to you,” he mutters.

I don’t understand what I’m ‘close’ to and I shiver again. It’s freezing in this room and I can hear a dripping sound that makes me wonder if it’s my blood or water. The door opens and I look over without moving my head, stiffening as Collymore ambles into the room.

“Oh, you’ve already started on the pretty little flower. Her tits are fucking fantastic, and so damn perky. I call dibs to cum on them if you won’t let me fuck her,” Colly leers with a smile.

My chest feels tight as he comes closer to me, and Mr. Xav releases my hair. “So, I have one more question for you, pet,” he says.

My attention isn’t on him and Mr. Xav doesn’t like it. I see his hand coming before I can flinch.Smack. My cheek hits the platform hard from the blow and I whimper. “Bad, bad girl. You’ll pay for making me lose my temper. I wasn’t supposed to mark you. Fuck.”

Blood fills my mouth because I bit my tongue, making me gag. I’ve seen Ror and Turner fight enough, that I know I have to spit or it’ll make me puke. Struggling, I choose to spit at my abusers to get the bloody saliva out of my mouth, and am rewarded with Colly punching me in the stomach. “Oh fuck,” I groan, tears steaming down my face from the pain.

“Oh goody, tears. This is the fun part,” Colly says, idly wiping my bloody spit off his shirt and making more of a mess. “I fucked my hand thinking about you today, but then I remembered hearing you had a sister on the news, so I pulled up TikTok videos of her performing. Goddamn is she a smoke show,” he grins.

I know he wants to make me upset, and I’m torn between scoffing at him and terror. Collymore is depraved and there’s no one to reign him in. The realization makes me shudder as I release a sob. “There, there,” Mr. Xav says with a small chuckle. “I promise to keep Colly on a short leash for as long as you behave.”

The knowledge that I’m responsible for my little sister’s safety is disheartening. I can’t even save myself, so is the only way to save her to give up? So much responsibility lies at my feet, but I promised myself I’d always keep the people I love safe, no matter what. Layla is one of those people as my best friend, my only one really.

Colly reaches out and grabs my breast, kneading it roughly, making me wince in pain. This doesn’t suffice for him, so he twists my fucking nipple, making me scream. “Fuck, stop, please,” I beg.

Cutting and punching were a walk in the park, but my nipples are so sensitive. Colly grins, leaning forwards and licking my tears. “So pretty, but not nearly broken enough. We are just getting started, aren’t we, Mr. Xav?”

The man in question grins, nodding. “What do you think of the little whore’s diagnoses so far? We found a few more things to dig into during therapy, but this is more of an intake, if you will.” The way Mr. Xav says this makes me think we have very different views of what psychiatric treatment should look like.

Colly shrugs. “She has an issue with authority,” he muses. “Isn’t that oppositional defiant disorder or some shit?”

I’m surprised he even knows that as my mouth drops open in surprise. “Colly is enrolled in school to become a therapist,” Mr. Xav explains. “His classes really just make him more of a pain in the ass because he thinks he knows everything, but in this case he’s right. How do we treat ODD, Colly?”

Collymore’s eyes fog over as he thinks. “Uh, uh…fuck, I swear I know this one,” he mutters. “Behavioral modification?”

A wide smile forms on Mr. Xav’s face that approaches almost giddiness. Colly’s answer is absolutely wrong, but I can tell Mr. Xav will accept it because it fits his twisted narrative. “Absolutely. How can we curb Miss Lennon’s depraved desires and delusions?”

My love isn’t depraved!I want to scream. I bite my tongue as Colly fondles himself over his pants. “We fuck it out of her?” he asks.

Mr. Xav rolls his eyes, handing him a scalpel much to my horror. Grinning, Collymore takes it and I can’t talk as he opens his pants, pulling out his cock. “I’m gonna need a little lube,” he mutters to himself, cutting deeper than his mentor did right under my breasts.

Struggling, I shake my head. “No, no,” I whimper.

Mr. Xav drinks in my fear as Colly coats his palm in my blood. “Have you ever been raped before?” he asks.

Forcing my eyes away from Colly’s veiny dick, I focus on Mr. Xav. “No,” I tell him, shaking my head violently. “Never, ever. Please don’t do this!” I scream.

He shoves his blood streaked hands in his pockets with an apologetic shrug. “Play along, and we’ll see how far this gets. Have you ever had anal sex?”

---