Chapter 22 - Scarlett #2
Poppy picked at the threads again before she pulled the sleeves over her hands and sat back.
“I was born and left on the steps of an orphanage in the middle of the night,” she started.
“The orphanage was overflowing, I didn’t know what new clothes felt like or burgers tasted like.
We ate grits for breakfast and peanut butter and jellys for lunch and dinner.
We slept two to a bed, no matter the age or gender.
Whenever they got a new kid, they just bunked them up with whoever had room.
“The only thing I ever had for myself was the cardboard box I was wrapped up in. My crib was shared, my bed was shared, my clothes and shoes were shared. My virginity was taken when I was 7 by a 14-year-old I had to share a bed with. My complaints were met with dismissals and eventually,” she shrugged, “I learned to like it. I had anger issues, um…” she cleared her throat and waved her hand almost dismissively.
“Sexuality issues, abandonment issues, you name it. I probably should have been put on medication, but,” another shrug.
“No healthcare. Never been to a dentist or a gyno, not until just before I met Az.
“The years between getting out and meeting Az were spent on the street. I taught myself how to survive. I fucked for anything but fun. You know, a place to sleep, a shower, food, money. It’s funny because I actually worked at Royal Knights.
For a few years. A lot of the girls there came from similar situations, you know.
I felt…normal there. We worked for the same goals. I didn’t feel so…out of place there.
“Anyway,” she inhaled deeply and sighed.
“I started working at Royal Knights, when I turned 19. I know it wasn’t legal age, technically, not for that place at least, but none of the girls are.
We lied on our papers and Taliss allowed it, knowing that we had nowhere else to go.
So, I was working there for a while, and when I turned 21, I got into some trouble with a customer, a stalking situation.
I fucked him, he became a little too attached, so I fought him off, ended up killing him.
Malachi found me in the alley, trying to clean off the blood in a puddle.
He said he watched me, saw potential, next thing I know, I’m going through the program, being trained on Azrael, he said I seemed like I could handle him, and the rest is history. ”
I searched her eyes, mulling over her story. “Do you consider it rape? C.O.N.S.I.D.E.R. I.T. R.A.P.E?” I spelled it out to her, not wanting her to miss even a single letter.
She repeated the letters to herself before shrugging.
“Looking back on it now, yeah. Of course, it was rape. I was just a kid. He was a teenager, but still old enough to know better. But back then?” She shook her head.
“I don’t know. I remember it feeling strange, unnatural, at first, and then it started to feel better, and then I experienced my first orgasm, which looking back, wasn’t a great one, but it was still good.
It felt nice. And I think I thought that if I could feel like that every time, then maybe the uncomfortableness of it would be worth it. ”
I leaned back in my chair, remembering how it had been back when mother had first gifted me to Thomas, how terrified I had been.
I remembered how I had grown up believing in their laws, thinking that despite the fact that I was uncomfortable, that I was doing God’s will. That their praises were enough.
I thought that ‘pretty little thing’ was a compliment.
My eyes lifted back to hers and I shook my head, hardening my expression. “I think I hear you now,” I signed, hearing Azrael’s quiet hum in the background as he repeated my words to her.
My heart skipped a beat, but I had a point to make, so I kept my eyes locked on her face, even when she looked behind me.
“When you were a girl, you believed your purpose was to serve that boy. When you left, your purpose became to survive. Whatever means necessary. When you met Azrael, your purpose became to hunt. Even though you didn’t understand him, you sought him. ”
I straightened my spine and lifted my chin. “You and Azrael always compare your game to the game of cat and mouse, but have you ever stopped and wondered about the roles? Who was the cat? Who was the mouse?”
Her eyes flicked to mine, her brows lifting slightly as if she had never considered it before.
“Felines never stop and wonder what the mouse feels or thinks or believes, they only hunt. You are the cat, Poppy. Your purpose is to hunt. To capture. To devour. Azrael has been caught. Your game may be finished with him, but there is always another purpose to find. You don’t need to understand him to understand that. ”
Without waiting for a reply, I used the cane and pushed myself to a stand, turning to face him.
He stood several feet away from my chair, his face expressionless as he looked me over from head to toe. The darkness in the room only made his eyes glow.
Was I damaged to him now? Was I less because I had been shot? I could still hold my own, I was sure. Put the knife back in my hand and I would finish Carl off without hesitation.
“The bullets only pierced flesh,” he explained to me.
“Just under the surface of your skin. They’ll take time to heal, but not as long as it would have been had you not been so quick.
You were hit three times, the first only just barely skimmed your neck, just below your ear.
You were bit by the slide on your hand from grabbing Red’s gun.
A small cut. It’s already started to heal. ”
I searched his eyes carefully, feeling the emotions growing under my skin, well in my throat as the reality once again settled within me. I was shot.
Carl and Marcus shot me because I belonged to him. Because I was his Claim. “Will this be how it always is?” I asked, letting the cane fall against my thigh. “Them trying to kill me because I belong to you?”
His throat bobbed, his eyes growing dark. “Until they remember who I am.”
I let him see the anger then. The anger that was burning my insides, the fear that brought tears to my eyes. I let him see it all. “Then let them come. I am not just some bitch you picked up on the street. I am me, and I will kill them all.”
A slight smile touched one corner of his lips. “I never would have allowed you to leave this world.”
It came out as a threat, but my stomach flooded with butterflies at the words. My fingers itched to touch him. I shifted on my feet only to wince and instinctively reach for my thigh. It was irritating, the pain. “Is he still alive?”
“He was when I left. Would you like to see him before he dies?”
My eyes hardened. “Very much so.”
He smiled and stepped to the side. “After you.”
I could feel him behind me as I headed for the elevator.
The doors opened and we stepped inside, Poppy nowhere to be seen.
She must have wanted to give us time. I appreciated that.
I had no idea what I was walking into down there, but I knew that it wouldn’t be pretty.
They hadn’t just attacked me, they had attacked the others too.
I didn’t remember hearing any other gunshots in those woods, but maybe I had forgotten something.
Maybe someone else had gotten hurt. Maybe those that remained were paying the price for hurting our family.
The second those elevator doors shut, I was rushed.
Taken by such surprise, my cane fell from my grasp, my hands going up, pressing into Azrael’s chest. He immediately slowed, his fingers gently grazing over my jaw, tilting my head up until my neck was craned trying to look into his eyes.
His lips were parted, his eyes blazing, his face inches from mine.
He didn’t say anything, he didn’t move a single inch, he just stood there, guiding my chin, staring into my eyes, at my lips, while my body shook in sudden need.
I swallowed, melting under his touch, my fingers digging into his chest. He had worried. I could feel it in my soul. Azrael had worried about me.
My ghost had felt worry. For me.
I truly disliked guns.
The elevator dinged far too soon, and without hesitation, Azrael stepped away, picked up my cane, and handed it to me just before the doors opened.
I gripped my cane tightly, my head spinning. I wish he would have kissed me, but I wouldn’t push it. Not yet.
I righted my robe and started my slow walk out of the elevator and down the hall, the smell of copper and the whimpers and screams filling the space.
I was still tired. Still a little dizzy, not quite feeling like myself yet, but I knew I would soon recover fully.
Once my mind was back, once I regained full control over myself, I would train harder than before.
I never wanted to be shot again. Not ever.
It was easy finding the room they had put them all in. Every shackle was covered in blood but only three still held people.
There was blood splattered all over the floor, the walls. All three people were whimpering and sobbing, their clothes, or what was left of them, soaked in blood.
A white dog splattered in blood started for me from where she had been laying on the ground, chewing on a severed leg, her nostrils flaring.
The dog had been there the day Poppy and I fought, I remembered her disappearing into the woods after Olivia, a ghost herself.
She was always by her side. Loyal to a fault.
I wondered if Azrael would ever get me a dog. I think I would very much like having one.
“The P.I.P is wearing off again,” a familiar voice said. “Do you want to dose them again or wait until…” Her words slowed when she turned away from the bloody worktable and saw me through the swinging bodies as Lucy sniffed me from several feet away.
Olivia was splattered in blood too. She had it on her face, in her hair, across her clothes, but her eyes were bright, and when she saw me, her smile was even brighter.