All the Little Secrets

CHAPTER 34. IN THE END

Chapter 34. In the End

"Get up, you piece of shit!" Anika screams as I start to wake.

"She kicked me in the nuts!" Henry yells back at his wife as she tosses his pants at him. "Give me a goddamn minute!"

"We don't have a minute! Get her in that cell, right now! She's seen too much!"

I start to stir as strong hands grab me and carry me. Henry pins me against his body as he takes me back to the cell and throws me inside. He steps out of the cell as the door slides closed, this time locking. I try to move, but the pain throbbing in my head slows me down.

"Where the hell did he go?"

"I don't know!" Anika shrieks at her husband, then slaps him hard in the face. "You are worthless! How did you let it get to this?!"

"Back the hell up," Henry threatens as he gets in his wife's face, but Anika does not back down. She stares hard at him as if willing him to do something. He glances down at her hand. She's holding something silver and metal. That's what she hit me with; a gun.

"You think you're the only one packing, sweetheart?"

"Sir," a voice booms into the room. Henry and Anika turn to the voice, somewhere on the left side of the warehouse. "We have a situation outside the perimeter."

Garrett.

"Someone found us?" Anika asks, no longer as strong as she was moments before.

"Sir, you're going to want to see this."

"Bring them in," Henry shouts at the guard as a door closes and he screams out profanities. Anika's like a statue staring at her husband. He begins to pace back and forth. He then comes to my cell and pounds on the glass. "Who the fuck did you tell?! I swear to fucking God, when I am done with you, you're going to wish I killed you!"

Fear and pride have me staying silent, which causes him to become angrier. He rushes the door to my cell and enters, not pausing for one moment. I have no strength left in me as he places himself on top of me, his hands all over me, violating every inch of my body. His heated pant and sweat are against my neck, his lower extremities hardened against my skin. I inch a bit and scream, but he hits me hard in the face. Men call out to him, but he doesn't stop.

Henry only stops when he hears, "Sir, it's your son."

Henry removes himself from me as Cage and Seth are dragged in by the guards. I cry silently against the bed as Henry leaves me in my cell, closing the door behind him. Both boys are hunched and bloodied as the guards throw them down at Anika's feet. She commands for them to find Liam. They begin a search in the underground warehouse as Anika comes to stand next to Henry.

"I'm sad to see you, Cage," Henry says as he looks down at his son. Cage stares at his parents as Seth looks around at all the cells, terrified. Then his eyes find mine.

"Avery?"

Cage turns to me.

"What the fuck did you do to her?!" He rushes my cell as I push myself off of the bed and stumble to the glass where he stands. He tries to open the door but nothing happens. "I will kill you, I will fucking kill you!"

"No, son, you won't," Anika says quietly as Cage turns to her, wild with rage.

He backs against the wall of the cell as Anika raises her gun and points it right at her son.

"Cage!" I scream with what little voice I have left. "No, please. Don't!"

"Anika, let's not be too hasty," Henry begins, but Anika keeps the gun pointed at Cage's head. Seth's still motionless on the ground, staring up at Anika in fear.

"They know too much. We can't let them go. Not now."

"Mom," Cage whimpers, but she does not lower the gun. Her eyes are expressionless, deadly. "Please..."

"Anika, this is our son," Henry watches his wife, his eyes studying her. "What are you doing?"

"What do you think he'll do now that he knows everything?" She says, eerily calm. "What will either of them do?" She glances at Seth, moving herself until she has a direct line to both boys. "Do you think they will let us do what we have to do in order to protect us?" She looks directly at Henry and says, "I think not." She pauses. "I always have to make the hard choices for our family, don't I, Henry? First Ellen, now our son."

"You bitch," Seth says, and she begins to turn on him when bangs echo through the warehouse.

Everyone turns to the noise of gunshots above the underground warehouse. Liam takes this chance to emerge from a dark corner, running at full speed and tackling Anika to the ground with a thud. Seth jumps up from the ground and rushes to Liam as they wrestle the gun out of her hand. Another shot, bang, as Henry gasps, his leg spilling blood. He falls to the ground. Anika wails as she rushes to her husband's side.

Liam stands, the gun in his hand.

"Cage, I didn't mean to -"

"Fuck him, we need to get her out of here!"

My heart pounds against my chest as Liam and Cage approach the glass door. Cage presses against it again, and after a few trys, it opens.

"Take her, give me the gun," he commands, and Liam passes the gun to him.

Then Liam reaches down and very carefully lifts me against his chest.

"Liam," I cry into his chest, but he shushes me.

"We're gonna get you out of here."

They begin to move quickly towards the doors, past all the cells of the muted, frightened girls watching us from inside their glass cages.

"There're about three guards outside of this door, another handful outside of the building," Cage shares as we reach the doors to the underground warehouse. "I don't know how we're going to make it out alive."

Seth and Cage discuss escape strategies as Liam looks down at me, fear coated on his face.

"Can you stand?"

"Yes," I whisper, and he places me softly onto my feet. He cups my face with his hands.

"I'm so sorry, Avery," he begins, but movement catches my eye as I look away from him.

Anika reaches inside Henry's pant pocket, pulling out another gun. She turns and points the gun right at us. She pulls the trigger as I jump in front of the boys.

Bang.

A sharp pain rips through my lower abdomen as I look down, blood gushing out of my side. Cage does not hesitate as he raises the gun in his hand, points it right at his mother, and shoots her in the chest. Shock traces her face as she breathes her last breath, falling to the ground, dead.

I slip through Liam's fingers and fall to the floor. I begin to gasp for air as it becomes a struggle to breathe. Liam shouts something at me that I cannot hear as Seth drops to his knees, pushing his hands against my stomach. His hands quickly turn dark red as he sobs. Cage stands in shock, his face, ghostly white. The room starts to fade as my heart slows.

I'm going to die. I know this, so I look at my favorite face in the whole universe one last time. One last time at the baby blue eyes, his freckled skin, the beautiful messy way his hair falls.

How perfect he is.

"I love you," I whisper my last breath, and I fade from existence, into a black void.