50
“Have I taught you nothing?” Erix asks mockingly as he stalks towards me. His head bent slightly forward, making him like absolutely manic
I tear my eyes away from him, looking towards the ground. My knees are aching against the cool stone as I kneel, my head hung low, where it’s been since they took Abigail from me.
Again.
“Don’t you remember that this is not how assassins act?” He hisses at me, voice changing from the mocking tone he bore moments ago.
I slowly turn my head up but not fully. I stare through my brows, up at the man I’ve known almost my whole life.
“Fuck you.” I spit out at him.
Erix smiles slightly but shows no teeth.
“Is that any way to speak to the man who raised you?”
I drop my head back down, not wanting to acknowledge his existence any longer.
Looking every part the fallen assassin he believes me to be.
Before I know it, he rushes forwards and cups my chin, hard. He twists my jaw as he forces me to look at him.
Not wanting him to win, I divert my eyes to the side, towards Hidale who is smirking in the corner.
“Enjoying the show?” I sneer at him.
He doesn’t answer but his smirk drops.
“Look at me!” Erix commands and shoves my face harder towards him.
I still keep my gaze away, never once meeting his eyes.
He laughs a cruel laugh. “You’ve always been so stubborn Maeve.”
“I’m glad that I still amuse you.” I say, sarcasm dripping from my tone.
Erix shoves my head back, I feel a sharp pain run through the joints of my neck as he pushes away from me.
Erix’s movements start to become wild and frantic, his body tensing and untensing, his breathing uneven.
I know this means he’s turning into the person that he becomes when he doesn’t get what he wants. The thought brings a slight smile to my face.
“Something funny?” Erix demands, arms flying out beside him, like he can’t control them.
I shake my head and look down at the floor again.
I want them to leave me the fuck alone.
“You should know that your behaviour demands punishment.” Erix spits the words at me.
I know that, I always knew.
But I also know that it never mattered what I did. Just like it won’t matter what I do now.
Erix always found a reason to punish me and I knew that being back here, in these four stone walls would bring me just that.
Punishment.
I wait patiently, not lifting my head. There’s nothing to be done and there’s no use fighting him.
The first blow comes only a second later, an uppercut right to my jaw slamming my head into the wall behind me.
I lift my head and finally look into his eyes as my vision starts to blur. I see the wild eyes I knew would have returned.
“Psychopath.”
I spit the words at him, knowing they’ll elicit a harsher response but I don’t care.
Erix stalks towards me, eyes growing more and more frantic. His hands curling into fists and releasing, over and over.
When he finally reaches me, he knees me in the face and I hear a crack that vibrates through my skull.
The all too familiar sound of my nose breaking. The pain is thick and commanding. But it’s nothing compared to the pain of seeing grown up Abigail, especially with a blade to her throat.
The kicks to my chest come next and I buckle over, clutching my body and pushing my nails into my palms.
The position I’m in brings back memories that I’d rather forget. My nails bite my skin harder, to push them back into the depths of my mind.
My palms start aching from the scars reopening but it’s a welcome distraction from the blows that keep coming.
I use my arms as a shield to project the most painful areas of my body.
I don’t know how long it lasts.
How many days, hours, or minutes.
All I know is pain, racing through my body, my blood and my veins.
The feeling all too familiar, like a sick welcome home.
I don’t count how many blows to my head or body he gets in before I start to lose consciousness.
I am always thankful for this part.
I allow my eyes to roll back into my head and take me safely into the darkness.
My body doesn’t feel like my own when I wake up surrounded by the all too familiar cold dark cell.
I can’t see but I know there’s no one in these walls with me.
Erix always leaves me here to rot in pain when he’s done.
It’s normally a good thing, as once he’s gone, I know I’ll have a few days of peace.
But this time I don’t know.
This time is different.
I roll onto my front to try and pick myself up from the cold stone but stumble back down with a hiss.
The hot searing pain in my wrists and all over my body is too much to bear.
Defeated, I groan and roll back over, staying down, flat on my back. I lay there motionless, waiting to either heal naturally over the next couple of days or for if they send a healer.
I hope for the former, as the healer generally means he’ll be back for more.
The pain flowing through my body is so strong and consistent that I can’t even begin to feel where it starts and ends. But I know it was my wrists that stopped me from sitting up.
As I’m laying on my back, I groan as I reach one arm slowly across my body to examine my wrist. It’s still surrounded by metal but it’s not the tightness that’s causing the excruciating pain.
I check the joint, slowly moving it either side as I cry out and curse silently at the sharp pain that follows. My wrist is definitely broken.
Tears run out of the corners of my eyes and I don’t have the energy to stop them. They feel hot and thick against my surely bruised and swollen face.
It hurts to cry and hurts even more to lift my hands up and wipe the tears. So I don’t bother, I just lay there and let them fall silently from my eyes.
The door to my cell opens abruptly and my eyes fly towards it. Widening ever so slightly, unable to go further with all the welts and swollen skin around them.
I wasn’t expecting them back so soon.
Candlelight illuminates Hidale and Erix faces and my heart starts beating harder than it can manage at the moment.
The sweat forming on my skin stings my open wounds.
The cuts that were caused from his boots or his rings.
Fuck, maybe both.
My body trembles in response.
It’s too soon. I don’t think I can take another beating, I won’t survive it.
They walk in slowly and sit down in front of me. I am trying my best to mask my terror but I can’t. I don’t know what to expect anymore, I don’t know what will follow their visit.
And I am too broken to even make a move to defend myself. I’m just laying here, on my back, utterly helpless.
My stomach churns and threatens to release any content remaining.
“Relax Maeve.” Hidale says with his hands up.
“We’re here to tell you what your mission is, to prevent what happened to you, happening to your sister.”
“Or worse.” Erix adds and my stomach drops further than I’d ever thought possible.
I’ll do anything to save Abigail from this.