Chapter Fifty
Quinn - Present Day
I toss and turn as whimpers escape me. My brain is on a loop. New information is funnelling into it like a jumbled puzzle with pieces missing, and it’s down to my mind to unjumble it. I fucking hate jigsaw puzzles.
A foot connects with my ribs, and the crack echoes through my ears. Breath eludes me. If I were aware of my surroundings, I would say the foot was encased in steel toecaps. Every breath feels like splinters lodged into my lungs.
“You stupid little slut, all you had to do was lie back and take it.” A distorted voice comes from above me.
The cold concrete digs into my shoulders as I rock from side to side, trying to turn over in an attempt to crawl away, the sharp pains spreading through my layers of skin until I almost feel numb.
HA! HA! HA! WHAT A FUCKING LOSER!
FLOPPING AROUND LIKE AN OBESE WHALE.
GET UP PIGGY, GET UP.
My knees sting, pain radiates through my joints, and I can feel the warmth of blood as it trickles down my legs; a stark contrast as it’s absorbed by the tops of my socks until it becomes cold, and I notice one of my trainers is missing, and my toes throb.
My eyes are squeezed shut, unable to blink away the blur to figure out just how many people surround me.
“You’re such a little bitch. Why do you have to ruin everything?
Why can’t you just fuck off!” A female voice shrieks, startling me.
I know that voice. Before I have a chance to place it, a fist slams into my nose and blood spurts everywhere.
It’s in my mouth, my throat, my eyes, and fuck me, does it sting.
My whole body reverberates against the ground.
Goosebumps skitter across my skin as they prickle from the spike in adrenaline.
“P-p-please, please, why are you doing this? Who are you?”
The sound of a cackle rips through me, and my soul shatters beyond comprehension, my blood running cold.
No, it can’t be. She wouldn’t, would she?
She would because you’re a cunt.
“Millie?”
The blows stop. I chance the opening of my eyes again. The girl I suspect is Millie stands in front of me, a blurry shadow, screaming into the void.
“Fuuucccck! You told me she wouldn’t know it was me, that she wouldn’t recognise my voice!”
Blinking away the blood until my vision becomes somewhat clear.
For the first time since they’ve stopped kicking, all four of them look at me, their eyes piercing my skull.
Even through bleary eyes I can see their black bandanas with white embroidered skulls partially covering their faces; three of them are tall, obviously men, but the fourth is petite.
Short and skinny, the colour of her hair is unmistakable.
The bright red, dead straight hair, enhanced by the pillar box red dye that I’ve helped her top up for the entirety of our adult lives: How To Be Inconspicuous Lesson 101.
One of the three men stands off to the side.
He’s not out of breath, his stance is normal, and he’s not within reaching distance, which makes me think he doesn’t want to be here.
His head is on a swivel like he’s on edge, waiting for someone to stumble upon us.
But the other two’s chests are heaving. Like they’ve gone ten rounds with Anthony Joshua and got KO’d in the first round.
They both have T-shirts and jeans on, and the veins on their arms bulge as their hearts race.
Now, usually I’d find that a turn-on, but in this moment, it seems kinda inappropriate, don’t you think?
The way their faces are covered leaves the top half exposed, and two pairs of brown and green eyes stare back at me, shivers rolling down my spine from the menacing stares.
One face, the one the brown eyes belong to, has distinctive tattoos—tattoos I recognise—a black and white boa constrictor, the kind of snake that coils around its prey and suffocates it instead of using its venom.
I think that’s quite appropriate in this moment, because if you were to ask how I’m feeling, I would say, I’m quite literally suffocating.
Like a lightbulb comes on—what a fucking idiot, it’s Dane!
The green eyes next to him don’t even resonate with me.
Which should tell me everything, considering how many people there are.
You would think by process of elimination, it would be obvious, but it’s like I’m stuck in a chokehold, and it’s those bright baby blues that pierce my soul.
I’d know those eyes anywhere. They belong to the person whose eyes sparkled with tears as he told me how his best friend and my very own baby brother had brutally assaulted me.
An assault I have no recollection of despite the hours of trying to provoke my memory.
He told me about how my best friend had been videoing from the sidelines, holding me down and cheering on the man she loves—my brother.
Another secret I never knew. Millie and Eric are a couple and have been for years, apparently.
Some may ask how I’ve managed to live in the same house as him, be around them, and to those I would say clearly you’ve never experienced the rage of revenge. The devastation of knowing that something was happening to your body but never being able to mentally remember.
My breaths heave. “Millie, why?”
Because you’re a whore, duh.
“Because you couldn’t just let us be happy.
You make him fucking miserable. You suck the life out of everyone around you with all of your illnesses and all of your problems. You stole my parents' time and attention away from me! You’re exhausting, Quinn.
You’re the equivalent of a fucking succubus, but without the happy ending, and I don’t want to do this anymore. ”
“So instead of just ending our friendship, your plan is to what, murder me?”
“Now that’s an idea, come here.”
It’s tiiiiimeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
She reaches down to grab me, pulling me to my feet. Sharp pain ricochets around my body from the injuries I already have, stabbing me in my ankles, and for a second, I think one of them may be broken.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Keelan shouts, taking a step forward before making eye contact with Mr Green Eyes.
Something in what he sees has him stopping dead in his tracks, the consequences of helping me clearly outweighing the risk of saving me.
And the penny drops. Mr Green Eyes is my brother.
“Getting rid of the fucking evidence! This way, no one will know she was beaten before, and it will just look like an accident.” Millie laughs at my attempts to struggle, which are feeble, to be honest. I’m drained of energy, and I don’t have the fight left in me.
I don’t have the desire to fight. I thought life had prepared me for betrayal.
Even without knowing all of the details of everything that had happened.
Between my parents, Millie, and my brother, I didn’t think anything else could touch the sides.
Until now. Being raped by my brother and his best friend while my best friend is watching is one thing. It’s another for them to kill me.
I bet you loved it, bitch.
As I take in my surroundings, I realise where I am.
Not far from my brother's garage, there’s a dual carriageway with a roundabout at each end and a derelict alleyway that no one uses.
It’s notorious for speeding, for accidents.
People die at this junction, often. People also get assaulted here, a lot more fucking often.
Maybe today’s our lucky day!
It’s dark and cold. Rain falls from the sky, settling on my skin, the kind of rain that falls softly but drenches you, making you cold to the bone.
I have no coat on, the same T-shirt and jeans I left home in—now with rips and blood soaking them—and my belly is exposed, along with my bra. How the fuck did I get here?
“Eric, stop her! How are you just gonna let her kill your only sister? It’s always been us.
I love you. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done; you’re my brother, we can work through this.
” I don’t even believe the words that are coming from my mouth.
They taste sour. Like they could curdle at any second, like gone-off milk.
The only thing I’m thinking about is survival.
Which is fucking ironic because all I’ve wanted for the last twenty-one years is to die.
“Well, Sis. I don’t love you. She’s right. It’s all about you. The older you get, the more you turn into Mum, and I can’t afford to have two of you in my life,” Eric snarls.
Keelan attempts to talk, “Quinn, I’m sorry—” His voice triggers the flashback of him telling me what they had done to me.
It flickers through my mind, but it’s glitchy.
Like when you used to connect a camcorder to the TV to watch a home movie, and it could never stay static.
I gag, and Millie jumps back. I heave so hard I could swear my stomach is about to exit through my mouth; I take my moment, pulling myself to my feet and try to pull my arm from her grasp, but as I take my second step, I’m yanked back by my ponytail.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going, bitch?
” Eric’s breath dances across my neck, the bitterness of his sweat seeps into my nose, and it takes everything in me not to eradicate the contents of today's dinner in his face.
“Shut the fuck up,” Eric bellows. “We wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for your big fucking mouth! It was supposed to stay between us. A bit of harmless fun between friends. But no, this prick has to have a conscience.”
“Harmless? You call raping your sister harmless?” Keelan's voice is loud. Firm. He’s not backing down.