10. Chapter 10
Chapter ten
Lance
“Leave him alone! He’s sick!” Gatlin screams as someone yanks the covers off of me. I’m groggy, barely able to crack my eyes open to see what’s happening. My skin feels like it’s on fire, but I’m shivering at the same time.
Blaine and Mathis, our half-brothers are in my room. Blaine is currently holding onto Gatlin as he struggles to get free, and Mathis is standing beside my bed sneering down at me.
“Well, maybe he wouldn’t be sick if he wasn’t sneaking off to suck the dick of the preacher’s son. Fucking disgusting.” Mathis replies as he tosses the blankets toward my feet.
I close my eyes, trying to recall what he’s talking about. Everything is scrambled and nothing is making sense. Did I suck Anderson’s dick? It seems familiar. We did hangout, but after we ate dinner, everything else is fuzzy. I can’t remember.
“I don’t remember that happening.” I groan as I struggle to roll onto my side. My back is fucking killing me, and the bed sheets are soaked in sweat.
“It doesn’t fucking matter if you remember it or not.
The preacher caught you on camera, dumbass.
” He says as he grabs my shirt and drags me up until I’m sitting.
Well, barely sitting. I don’t even have enough energy to hold myself up.
“Mom is pissed, so now you’re going to pay the price for embarrassing her. For embarrassing us.”
“He’s too sick! Take me instead. I’ll go!” Gatlin cries out as he tries to break out of Blaine’s grip again. My stomach immediately tightens like I’m gripping it between my fists. There’s no way in fuck I’m letting him go down there.
“No. Gatlin… I’ll go. I’m just gonna sleep the whole time anyway. I don’t have the energy to do anything else.”
“Lance, please… you need to eat and drink. You’re sick.” Gatlin pleads as he eyes me worriedly.
“I’ll be fine,” I promise as I struggle to push myself to the edge of the bed. I have no idea how I’m going to carry myself down the stairs right now, but I don’t really have a choice. If I don’t go willingly, then they’re going to take Gatlin instead, and I can’t let that happen.
Mathis tucks his hand under my armpit and yanks me to my feet.
“You’re fucking disgusting. I’m going to need a shower after this.
” He mumbles under his breath as he practically drags me over to the door.
I’d be embarrassed if I had the energy to focus on anything other than putting one foot in front of the other.
Gatlin has finally calmed down, no longer fighting against Blaine as he watches me hobble to the door.
Blaine gives him a pointed look before he releases him and comes over to help Mathis lead me down the hallway.
I can hear Gatlin’s footsteps quietly echoing off the tiles not far behind us.
He’s going to worry the whole time I’m down there.
I would be willing to bet money on the fact that sometime in the middle of the night he’ll be making his way downstairs to check on me, even knowing that if he gets caught, he’ll be fucked.
It’s not like I can protect him right now; I can barely keep my eyes open.
I stumble as we round the corner, my weight pressing into Blaine who glances down at me remorsefully.
He’s always been the nicer of the two. We don’t get many chances to talk to each other anymore, but he doesn’t understand why they treat us this way either.
We didn’t choose to be born. It wasn’t our fault that our father decided to have multiple affairs and wound up with us.
It’s not our fault that he had to pay off our mothers just so that he could keep his name out of the media.
It’s not our fault that they chose to rip us from our mothers, raise us as their own, and keep us in hiding our entire lives.
We didn’t ask for any of this. Blaine knows that, he sees what’s happening here, but Mathis…
he’s his mother’s son, that’s for damn sure.
To her, we’re nothing more than a constant reminder of our father’s infidelity.
We can’t do anything right. Gay? Appalled.
Not religious enough? Abomination. Disappear?
Furious. Stay within sight? Disgusted. She’s never happy unless one of us is in the basement, because she knows that the other one won’t wander very far without the other.
It’s how she controls us, how she bends us to her every whim.
She takes advantage of the fact that I’ll volunteer myself in Gatlin’s place every single time, and she knows that she can convince Gatlin to do anything she wants by offering to let me out as payment. It’s an endless cycle.
I’m eighteen now, and I could leave any time I want, but I can’t.
Not only am I sure that their mother would track me down, but I can’t leave Gatlin here alone.
There’s no telling what they would do to him.
As long as we have each other, we have someone advocating for us, fighting for us.
If I left without him, I am willing to bet that they would shove him down here for doing something menial and forget that he was down here.
He would die in this filthy, depressing pit of despair and I’m not letting that happen.
Just a year and a half left and we can leave this fucking place. Together. I’ll find a way.
Mathis reaches up and unlocks all the bolts on the basement door before he shoves it open.
The eerie squeal of the neglected hinges pierces the silence between us.
It sends a chill down my body that would probably give me goosebumps if every inch of my skin wasn’t already covered in them.
I swear that sound will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Blaine pulls his arm from underneath mine and steps back just as Mathis shoves me forward. I stumble over the transition, nearly tumbling down the stairs and into the darkness, but I manage to catch myself with the banister. Barely.
“Have fun,” Mathis taunts sarcastically before slamming the door closed just inches away from my face.
I flinch back instinctively, trying to avoid being hit by the door.
The sound of the locks engaging on the other side of the door is one that I’ve grown familiar with, but still, it never gets any easier to hear. To fathom.
Why do they do this to us? I just can’t understand it.
We’ve done everything they’ve ever asked of us.
Hours of etiquette training, social coaching, self-defense classes, home schooling, music teachings, weapon trainings, we’ve done it and passed all of it with flying colors.
We’ve passed every test they’ve ever given us with higher marks than both Mathis and Blaine, so none of it make sense.
Gatlin and I have been perfect children, and still, they treat her kids like they’re made of gold.
Maybe that’s a part of the problem. Maybe their mother is mad that the blood running through our veins isn’t hers and we’re still superior to her kids in every way.
I manage to force myself down five stairs before I finally give up and collapse to the ground.
I just don’t have the energy to go down another twenty-five stairs right now.
I’ve been down them so many times that even in the blackest of nights, I could run down them without a worry in the world.
I’ve known exactly how many there are by heart for longer than I can remember.
I turn around, propping my arms on the steps above me so that I can rest my head on them instead of the filthy ground. I don’t even have time to fret about the reason I’m down here, or why I can’t remember anything they’re saying happened, because I’m asleep as soon as my eyelids flutter closed.
The telltale screech of the hinges causes me to jolt awake. I glance up the stairs but the glow streaming through the open door blinds me. I raise my arm to block out some of the light, but it’s still painful to look at after being in the dark for so long.
“Don’t, Gatlin. I’m fine. Go back to bed.” I demand.
I’m not certain how long I’ve been locked down here, but something seems off. I don’t feel sick anymore. In fact, I feel perfectly healthy. It seems like I’ve had a shower and eaten recently too. I don’t understand what’s happening and none of this is making sense.
“Does your brother come to check on you regularly? I’d hate to have to punish him for that.
” She hisses sarcastically. I can’t help it; I cringe at the sound of her voice.
She’s the last person I ever want to be around, but especially when I’m down here.
She never has anything good to say, and she certainly isn’t here to check on me.
Once my eyes have started to adjust to the light, I glance up at her.
Blaine stands behind her with Gatlin draped across his arms limply.
I immediately scramble to my feet and bolt up the stairs.
I reach out frantically, offering to take Gatlin from him.
Blaine gently transfers him to my arms, his entire face lined with worry.
“We don’t know what happened to him. We found him this way.” He offers worriedly as he looks down at him again.
“Why didn’t anyone take him to the doctor?” I ask as I glance back and forth between them. It only takes a second for all the pieces to fit together. His mother is wearing some fancy silk gown, and Blaine is dressed in a perfectly tailored suit.
They’re too busy to deal with Gatlin.
She raises a single eyebrow at me, probably wondering how I’m such an idiot even though I’ve already figured out the answer.
The chances that they would take him to see a doctor on a normal day are pretty slim, but when they have something to do?
Forget it. Not in a million years. He could be bleeding out on their marble floor, and they’d sooner call a maid to clean up the mess than bother fetching an ambulance for him.
“There’s an auction tonight,” she says casually as she looks down at her pristine nails in boredom.