Beyond The Smoke

Chpt. 12 Snide Moth, Smokey Flame

"So tell me," Eveline asked casually, throwing another dart to plunge itself into my back. I winced, hissing in pain. "Did you miss me?"

"What's there to miss?" I shot back, knowing full well that snarky remark would take me nowhere but under. I could feel a death glare frying it's way through the back of my head as her heels clicked on her way towards me.

"Well I'm f.ucking sorry, care repeat that?" She snapped. I was in no mood to even look her way tonight, but I had to. So, I'd stick to being an a.ss. This is one way to get myself killed.

"I said, what is there to miss?" She was fuming at this point, clutching to my chin and forcing me to look directly at her, which I already was.

"Don't. Talk. To. Me. Like. That." She backhanded me straight across the face, leaving a sting as a painful reminder. "Worthless piece of sh.it." She stomped back over to her original place, driving another thick needle trough the flesh covering my back. This is, apparently, one of her favorite pastime activities. She had a target drawn into my back, which she aimed at.

"You know, I'm a great shot." She praised herself.

"And that's a very big target." I replied with the truth. It would be hard to miss the hand drawn target she placed on me.

"Well then, would you like me to prove myself? I bet a target over the heart ain't easy to hit spot on." Her threat was far from empty as she flung yet another at me. I in took a sharp breath through gritting teeth, blood dripping and pooling slightly on the floor. I had to stay as still as I possibly could manage, otherwise the darts lodged into my skin would move beneath it, agitating it further. I have absolutely no clue why I would be mouthing her off this much, knowing it would bring me nothing but pain. Yet it's all I've been able to do at the moment. With so much pent up anger, I could only keep my mouth shut for so long. The time I spent with this lunatic was absolutely torturous, but I had to take it. I had to. I had made the wrong choice in trusting this b.itch, and I knew it all too well now. There was no way of escaping this deal, except going through it.

"Look at you. Sitting there, chained and helpless, just letting me pelt you with darts. You're pathetic." She snickered, launching yet another sharp piece of metal at me. "Worthless." The pain was searing. The needles weren't thin at all, but they were sharp, allowing them to cut in easily.
This same process went on and on, one insult after the other. How this had her sexually frustrated, I didn't know, but it was killing me. By the time the assault on my back had ended, I could estimate a good twenty or more were pierced through me, blood dripping down them. With my forehead against the wall, I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding as her heels clicked my way once more.

"So, princess, since you're bold enough to talk sh.it to me, this will not be any less painful." She whispered into my ear, causing a shiver to run through me. Not the good kind either, not at all. With no warning, one of the darts was ripped out. I bit into my lip hard enough to draw blood, suppressing a scream that wanted to escape. One by one the metallic pins left my skin, leaving an open hole to bleed.

"I'm surprised they didn't hit bone, you're so skinny." She chuckled darkly, and I guess it was true. I did have muscle, yet not as much as I'm sure I should have with the amount of work I do at the dock. The insults just wouldn't stop, though. She continued on and on and they echoed in my mind. It shouldn't matter to me, why should I care of her opinion? Why did it stick to my mind? My train of thought was yanked to a stop as I felt a sharp sting flow down my back. Instead of removing one of the darts, she pushed it in further and forced it downwards, slicing open a large gash. I gasped, clutching to the chains for something to hold onto. The area was heated and stung like a bi.tch, blood pouring down quicker thank before.

"I shouldn't have to ask you a f.ucking question more than once, let alone four times." She growled into my ear. I had to bite back every and anything I wanted to say to her, biting my lip and squinting my eyes shut in order to remain calm. She repeated it over, ripping open a second gash along my back. I Held my breath, awaiting the moment it would end. Thank god I heard her stand, walking over to my side. She grabbed a hand full of my hair and yanked my head to face her.

"Hold your tongue around me, or I'll break you." She slammed my head back to the wall, and I dared not move. The chains that dug into my wrist were removed, much to my surprise.

"Get the f.uck out." Her heel dug into my stomach quickly, shooing me off. Weakly, I stood and made my way out as quick as I could, pressing the button on the side of the wall that would alert someone to come to my aid, and in came Allan.

----
"Ow, f.uck." I inhaled sharply, cursing at the pain cleaning the wounds was causing. Allan had come to my aid and brought me over to the others, well, the ones who weren't...busy.

"Sorry, sorry." Allan mumbled, continuing to dab at the lacerations. It stung reeeallly f.ucking bad. We didn't have any consumable alcohol up here, for some odd reason, so I didn't have anything to dull the pain.

"Are you sure we don't have any alcohol up here?" I asked exasperatedly as the cloth sponged my raw flesh.

"No, there isn't-"

"We've got a joint here though, if you're interested." Sean interrupted Allan, taking a drag of the joint. I considered it for a moment, but shook my head.

"N-nah...it's fine." I mumbled back.

"It don't look fine, but whatever. Just an idea." He passed the joint onto Dani, who had been ignoring me since I took up the offer. She was pissed and I couldn't really tell why. I didn't do sh.it. My cuts were pretty deep, apparently, and the bleeding was hardly slowing. It hurt to move at all and I was getting a headache. After a few minutes of trying to tough it out, I had finally caved.

"P-pass it." I stuttered. Sean just nodded, seeming to understand. From what I understood, he had Eveline before, so he knew the pain. He handed the joint to me and I pinched it to my lips, taking a deep breath of the intoxicating smoke, coughing a bit, and passing it on. I'd only ever taken something that heavy once in highschool, and it it was only one hit. After a few more, I felt relaxed and at ease. The pain had subsided to a numb pinch, with a small sting, but it wasn't half as bad as it had been previously.

"Luke! Earth to stupid!" A high pitched voice got my attention. I groaned in reply. "What do you hear when I speak?-don't answer that. I said it's done. Only one of them needed a few stitched, considering that, you're good. You're gonna have major scarring though." Allan went to put the items he used to fix me up away just as I got the joint passed to me.

"Thannnnks..." I mumbled, dragging the word out. I felt lightheaded, slightly dizzy, and there was a buzzing feeling, or noise? I couldn't tell. But all noise in the room was sort of muffled and it felt like I had to focus to pick up on the conversation.

"Hey, Lukas?" I heard my name being called faintly, so I looked up, searching for the source. "Sorry man, it's kinda heavy but that's all I had." I'm guessing it was Sean, but I just turned my attention to the ceiling, muttering something even I couldn't understand. "Have you even had one of these before? Or anything for that matter?" I shrugged, not interested in the conversation. I wondered why he seemed pretty sober, but then I remembered he'd skipped multiple times to pass it to me.

"Why the f.uck did you give it to him anyway?....not even...." I tried to focus on Dani, but she was blurry and I was only able to pick up on bits and pieces of what she'd said. And this went on for a while, until something she said had caught my attention.

"I did warn him, he went with Eveline anyway!" A female voice exclaimed, startling me. I felt a sudden wave of dread and loss flow freely over me. It confused me to say the least, and I felt like I was making a mistake, like I was doing something unbelievably wrong. I felt helpless, vulnerable, panicky, and that terrified me. There was one way to get rid of that, so it took it. I snatched the joint from Sean and inhaled as much as my lungs could hold without tearing, exhaling my worries. The smoke thinned in the air and disappeared, and so I took another breath, and another, getting rid of it all.

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A/N: I'm reaaaaaalllyyyy late, I know, I'm sorry. I hope you've enjoyed this! As you can see, the drugs have started...yeah...
So...

Comment, vote, whatever ya want.

-H4lt