A Loaded Gun

Chapter 8

Lucas POV

"Why should I be punished because boys can't keep it in their pants?" Damn, we've got a firecracker for a sister.

Daniel narrowed his eyes, but I waved him off and looked at Brooke, immediately panicking when I saw her expression.

She was terrified. Just whispering "I'm sorry" over and over again. Her eyes were closed and she sank to the ground, rocking back and forth.

I gently touched her shoulder, intending to comfort her, and immediately withdrew it when she let out the most heartbreaking scream I've ever heard. Every time I tried to touch her, she whimpered.

"Screw this," muttered Daniel, scooping her up and carrying her out of the store. She curled into his chest and cried softly.

30 minutes of sitting on a bench listening to her sob later, she extricated herself from Daniel's lap and sniffed quietly.

She looked up at us blankly and murmured, "I'm sorry. That was an accident."

"THAT WAS NO DAMN ACCIDENT!" And grumpy Daniel is back. "What the hell was that?"

"I'm not sure, that's never happened before." An obvious lie. She couldn't look us in the eye, and it seemed she had experience with this sort of thing.

"Brooke, that was a panic attack. Do you know what triggered it?" I tried to be as gentle as I could with her.

"N-no, I don't know. Maybe just being in an unfamiliar place?" Another lie. I'm definitely talking to Marcus about this. "Ok, well we'll leave shopping for another day. Let's get you home."

Brooke POV

I just had to break down in front of them. Now they're gonna think I'm weak. I don't know how to play this.

There's no way Marcus isn't gonna hear about this, there's no way I can brush this off.

We drove home in silence, with me looking out the window but not seeing a thing. I knew exactly why I had that panic attack; the last time I had talked back to Benny I got beaten.

I still had some cuts on my back from it, but they were almost healed. I was so zoned out I didn't realize my door was open and Lucas' hand was out to help me.

Still in a hyper alert state, I stared at it for a few seconds before realizing neither the hand nor the person would hurt me.

I placed my trembling hand in his and walked inside, jumping when I saw Marcus standing in the kitchen with his arms folded.

"You guys are back early. What happened?"
Before I could say anything, Daniel spoke up. "She had a panic attack."

I lowered my eyes in embarrassment. He'll think I'm weak and kick me out. When I finally raised my eyes, I was shocked to see they were looking at me with sympathetic faces.

I didn't like pity. "Alright Brooke, why don't you go rest? We'll talk later."

I was relieved to get out of the tense situation, and immediately upstairs to my room, curling under the covers.

Marcus POV

"What the hell happened?" I demanded. My baby sister looked terrified and my brothers looked clueless.

I glared at them until Lucas piped up, "She said she had a panic attack because she was in an unfamiliar place. I think she's lying though."

"Why would she lie?"

"I don't know, but she was so scared. She screamed when I touched her. There's something going on, Marcus, and I don't like it."

Suddenly, an ear-piercing shriek came from upstairs. It could only be Brooke. We all drew our guns and ran out of my office.

Her door was locked, but that didn't stop us. We kicked it open and scanned for potential threats with our guns cocked.

There was no one in the room but her. She was thrashing on the bed and screaming "NO! NO! PLEASE!"

We quickly put our guns away and rushed to her bed. "Lucas, grab her arms. Daniel, get her legs. We don't want her hurting herself."

I knelt by her head and started murmuring in her ear. "Hey, sorella, it's ok. No one's hurting you, you're safe. I promise you're ok. Please, wake up. Please, for me."

Brooke POV

TW: Sexual Assault

It was my 12th birthday. I didn't celebrate it like most 12 year old girls; I celebrated by hiding in my pitiful room.

Luckily I was small enough to fit in between the wall and the dresser he let me have for appearances' sake. "SLUT! GET OVER HERE!"

His words were slurred, which meant he was drunk. I wasn't sure whether to keep hiding and prolong the inevitable or just get it over with.

Breathing shakily, I crawled out of my spot and reluctantly walked with my head bowed over to Benny.

"It's your birthday today. You're 12 years old, you're a woman. You're the woman of the house. As the woman of the house, you have certain duties."

I wasn't sure what duties he was talking about, besides the cooking and cleaning. Nevertheless, I agreed with him. "Y-yes sir."

"So you understand your duties?" I didn't, but I knew it would be worse if I admitted that, so I quickly nodded my head.

"Good. Come closer." I shuffled closer, squeezing my eyes shut for the inevitable hit.

5 seconds went by. Nothing. I raised my head and looked at him fearfully.

He had an emotion in his eyes that was unknown to my newly 12-year-old self. I now realize it was lust. "Oh Laura," he moaned.

Laura was Mama's name. I'm not Laura. Puzzling over this, I didn't notice him leaning closer and closer until his lips slammed into my small ones.

I gasped for breath, and he took this opportunity to shove his tongue into my mouth. I squirmed, scared, not understanding what he was doing.

He began lifting up my shirt, and I tried to wiggle away. I couldn't. Eventually I went numb and he started touching me.

I hated that touch. The last straw was when he reached for my pants. His hands got lower and lower.

I managed to get out of his grip and hide in my room, crying heavily, murmuring "no, no, no," over and over again.

That was the day he first sexually assaulted me, but it certainly wasn't the last.

I woke up gasping for breath, but my limbs were restrained. I looked around with wild eyes, assessing for threats.

Dread filled my stomach when I saw my three oldest brothers standing around my bed with raised eyebrows. I had no idea how to get out of this.

A/N I'm celebrating because I think I did really well on my calc exam.  Also I hate writing these kinds of scenes because I can't imagine doing something like this to a human being so it's hard to write it.