Temptation 2

12 - madden

I lay on the concrete floor. My body has become numb to the coolness of the basement, my skin has permanently turned a light shade of purple and I'm pretty sure that with all the blood I've lost over these days, I'm going to die soon. Adam and Trey typically leave me alone. But like today, he gets bored when he's alone.

"Hello sweetheart." He steps up and lays down beside me. He pulls my hair away from my face and kisses me on the lips. "You look cold, let me warm you up." He undresses himself and takes me into my arms, sliding me over to his chest. I'm so tired, I can't fight anymore, so I don't. Trey found the gun possibly days or hours ago, I don't even know anymore—he took the gun from under me and pointed it at my head. "I should really kill you," he said. He knew he couldn't do so he resorted to kicking me continuously until I was unconscious. When I woke up, I couldn't move my body; even the slightest twitch brought tears to my eyes.

"Guess what sweetheart?" Trey says. He waits for my reaction, but I don't even blink. "Quiet today? I miss those screams." He waits again for a reaction, but I don't give him the satisfaction. "We're going to be facetiming your boyfriend and you can do all the talking." I throw myself out of his arms and against the wall. "Good, you're up." Adam announces his presences. He hands the phone to me and shows me the paper in his hands. "You'll read off this, if you go off script, I'll let Trey put a bullet through your thigh." I nod in agreement and hold my own, now fully charged cellphone. I hit the video button and wait for Hero to answer. It's Tom instead and he raises a finger to his mouth to stop my surprise. I gulp down my worry that maybe Hero couldn't handle it and he's gone back to drinking but he wouldn't risk that, not with me missing. "Hi baby," I say. Tom's mouth moves, but its Hero's voice coming out. "Hi Madds. I miss you, my girl." A tear slips from my eyes, and I smile through the pain. The sound of his voice brings me back home, in his arms. I'm quickly torn from those thoughts when Adam starts waving the paper behind the camera. So, I do as he says, "He wants you to meet him at your mother's grave. Bring flowers and show some respect." I gulp down some saliva, trying to help my dry throat and then look down at Tom. This is going to kill Hero but I'm just all out of gas. "Don't do it. Don't give him any more money." Instantly, the gun gets shot and I scream in pain. Trey grabs the phone from my hand and instantly hangs up; he didn't even look so Tom's face went unnoticed.

I told Hero not to look at me last time and he remembered for this time. He was probably behind the phone, facing a wall hearing my voice and giving me his. If I saw his face on the screen, I think I might have broken down. I'm weak and I am so tired. I don't know how much more abuse I can take. With Noah, he'd hit me, punch me, scar me; emotionally and physically and I thought I was tough enough if this happened to me again but I'm not. The yelling and the blows are just slowly killing me, but I know I'm going to die. It's inevitable. If I see Hero's face, hope will burn in my chest, and I'll want to keep fighting so I can have his lips on mine again but I'm shutting down. So, Tom on the screen, trying to smile and hide his worry is a blessing. They were best friends before I came along and I get that Tom can't control his feelings; Hero and I can't either, it's how humans work. In a way, this whole situation is a good thing because I hope they can keep each other, even when I'm gone.

"You stupid whore," Adam spits on the ground beside me. Tears spill from my eyes that I can't control. I press down on the bullet hole in my thigh, biting down on my bottom lip, drawing more blood. Great. My body can afford more blood loss. Adam squats down to my face and pinches my cheeks between his fingers and thumb. "I will get my money and you will die here. Once I'm done with you, I will bury you in the woods so fucking far from his radar, he will never find your rotting corpse. You underestimate my son sweetheart. He loves you and he won't stop until he finds you and when he can't; he will meet you in hell." Adam and Trey leave me there with a bullet hole in my thigh and I'm bleeding out. I've accepted the fact that I'm going to die, no matter what. I wasn't going to say anything else off that stupid piece of paper. Either they shoot me, and I bleed out and die or they beat me to my death. I'll take the bullet, it's a faster death and that's where I am at now.

Hero doesn't owe this man shit and maybe Trey would have ended up on a different path if he wasn't raised by Adam. I thank all the stars in the sky that Hero avoided that. Adam's right though, Hero won't stop looking even if they get what they want out of him and he burries me like he's promised. Hero will look for as long as his heart can handle the pain and when it becomes too unbearable, he'll meet with his demons at a bar.

I wipe the tears off my face, smearing blood on my cheeks from my legs and look around me. There is nothing for me to stop the bleeding. I've got no clothes, no weapon...nothing. I push out all the thoughts of my potential death which will come soon if I don't act quickly so I start screaming Adam's name. As I scream and scream, probably driving them both absolutely insane, my throat burns. Finally, he comes stomping down the stairs and shouts "WHAT!" "Call him back. Tell him you want the rest and another fifteen thousand more." He starts laughing, uncontrollably, so I wait him out. I'm coughing up blood, I know I don't have time much time, but his voice brought me that little bit of hope and Adam's little speech gave me motivation. I need to same myself, to save Hero. "Give him an hour," I continue, "You are right. If I die, Hero will keep searching but I'm dying right now and if you don't ask for every fucking cent before I croak, you will get nothing. Tell him to pay up." He looks down at me, kicking my bleeding leg. "What makes you think he will do it?" With every fibre in my body, I left myself off the ground, perching on one leg and meet Adam eye to eye. "Because you bring me to see him. One. Last. Time." I cough more blood. He seems it along my lips, but I continue, "I'm leverage. You need to take me there, get the money and then you can shoot me right in front of him." He turns to leave, "Let me call him." He stops in his steps and turns around, tossing my phone at me. I catch it in the air and look up at him, "You have ten minutes. Savour your last moments." He turns and continues walking up the basement stairs, keeping the door open at the top so he can still hear me.

I hit his contact so quickly and he picks up on the first ring. "Hero? Please, is it you?" "Babygirl," he chokes out. Fuck he's hurting, I just want to hug him. "Bring all of it. Can you get another 15 thousand?" "Mads?" "Hero, can you?" I beg. "Yeah. How soon?" I can hear his voice grow stronger. "An hour, meet at your mom's grave. Fuck the flowers. You need back up." "Baby, he shot you, didn't he?" Concern is written all over his tone. "Ambulance---" I hear Trey's footsteps coming down the steps. "Hero, I love you until the end." I hang up the phone and hand it over to Trey's open palm. When I place it in his hand, he takes my hand in his and pulls me into his chest. I'm still cuffed to the fucking pole and pretty sure he just dislocated my shoulder. He sniffs the top of my head. "Even your natural scent makes me hard. Dad says I don't have time to play." He takes keys from his pockets and uncuffs me from the pole. I didn't know how much I relied on that pole until he told me to start walking but I collapsed. My body was too weak to move without support. He grabs my arm, that isn't dislocated and starts dragging me across the cement floor and up the wooden basement steps. Adam is sitting on a chair, loading his guns while Trey drags me up another set of stairs and brings me to a bathroom. A shower is already running, and I can see the steam from how hot it is. He lifts me up and places me in the ceramic tub and I instantly scream. The water is scolding, burning my skin. I try to back up from the water, but he pushes me back into it. "Clean up," he tosses me a ratty face cloth and a bar of soap then sit on the countertop watching me. A couple minutes pass before the water stops burning my skin and he just continues to sit and watch as I try my best to scrub off every inch of this place from my body. "Why?" I ask him. He ignores me, so I try a different route. "What's the story?" I croak. "What story?" He growls. "How are you related to Hero?" I ask, the one question I've been wanting to know. "Ask dad." I drop the face cloth onto the tub floor and stand, using the wall for support. He doesn't move, he knows he has me beat. "You can't speak for yourself? Dad has to do all the talking for you?" I taunt him and I can see his eyes wrinkle in the corners. "You don't make your own decisions?" He slides off the counter and comes face to face with me. "The story is my brother forgot about us and moved on from this life." "No. His mother, although not much better than your assholes, took him away from this life." He looks at me and just smirks. It's an evil smile and I don't see it coming when he takes both palms and pushes my shoulders and I'm thrown against the tiled wall. He laughs so hard that he has tears coming from his eyes. "Here," he pulls a large, used, and holey t-shirt from his pocket and throws it on the floor, "Put it on. I'm not helping you."