Chapter Fourteen
The thud was disturbing.
The crunch.
The splat.
The silence that followed.
My eyes are zeroed in on the old man that lay awkwardly and unmoving on the stained concrete floor.
“Pray, boy, all we can do is…pray.”
The strangers' haunting words crawl up the ladder of my now rigid spine, a deadly spider skittering across the nape of my neck, sinking its fangs.
He was trying to tell me something, his words carrying what felt like a sinister omen, or a violent truth, or perhaps, both.
I’m bent over, elbows resting on my jittery knees, chewing on my thumb as I watch his arm twitch when shuffling comes from the other side of the bars.
A cough follows a group of cacophonous laughs. One higher, one deeper and one breathier. I don’t turn to look at them; I keep my eyes to the concrete floor.
“He’s at it again,” One of them sing-songs, and I shiver at the glee that cords through his tone.
How many times has this old guy been here?
How many times has he run himself into the same wall?
What point was he trying to make?
I’m pulled from my thoughts when I hear a tap against the iron bar next to me. It follows clanging keys and a screeching that claws at my ears.
A lock opens, then another creak.
“Keller, get your ass up.”
I recognized the voice, and I waited a moment just to piss the jackass off.
My eyes remain on the old man sprawled on the floor as I push to my feet. His shallow breaths lift his chest, his limbs still jolting sporadically and erratically.
I take two steps toward the opening, pausing when he blocks the way.
I bite the inside of my cheek, raise my chin and meet the gray-slate glare of Officer James.
He was just as smug and ugly as his son, but perched a few feet taller with mirthful eyes that looked down on me.
And I knew it was an attempt to intimidate me, but I had never been intimidated by cowards.
“We aren’t going to have this problem again, are we?” he asks.
I can’t help scoffing only for a fist to cut it right off.
Familiar knuckles land among the mess he and his son had made of my ribs earlier. And he doesn’t stop until I’m curling over, and he’s satisfied with the weakness he sees in me.
I’m cutting my tongue, my breath fumes through my nose as I battle the raw agony his fists leave behind, forcing myself to rise.
My hard eyes don’t meet his, and yet, he finds the space to speak.
“I suggest you head home.”
I don’t move.
I wait, shoving my hands into my pockets.
I knew he wasn’t done yet, assholes like him and my dad never were.
Officer James takes a step forward, temple to mine, voice low.
“Take your freedom as my condolences.”
His words slice the skin from my bones.