𝙽𝚘𝚝 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝙶𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝚂𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜(𝚂𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙼𝚎)

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚢-𝙾𝚗𝚎

the picture above is of emmaline and aurora

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

song of the chapter: dangerous woman by ariana grande

"i'm locked and loaded. completely focused, my mind is open"

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      I'd been blindfolded and put on a plane. My father wanted me to help Aaron with a special project he'd been working on for a while.

      I was led down a series of hallways, but father's unwelcomed hand on my back, guiding me. Aaron was quite upset that I was being brought into this, but we hadn't much of a choice. I was fourteen, he was seventeen.

     When I got into the room, the blindfolds were tugged off of me and my brother. I glanced around, taking in the sights.

"She's taking her twenty minute break now," Evie informed my father. Evie. Why was she there? There was a tank, a large one. But it was empty.

      I glanced down and saw a girl on the floor. She seemed maybe a year older than me, but she didn't look right. She almost didn't look human.

     Her skin was white and soggy, she was wearing no clothes, and her eyes were white and glossy. She had webbed fingers.

     I stared at her for a long time, and then our eyes met. And I just about went crazy. Things were coming to me in a flash.

    Memories I didn't know I had were being restored. I could see her as a child. Us as children. I could remember everything.

"Emmaline!" I exclaimed, rushing to her side.

     I could hear concerned voices from everyone around us, but I didn't care. I wrapped my arms around her and held her to me protectively.

"It's Aurora, you're okay," I whispered, kissing her wet forehead. "It's going to be okay. I'll make them stop, Em."

     She didn't say anything, and I wondered if she could speak at all. But then I heard her voice in my head.

"You won't remember this, Rora."

      I stared at her in disbelief, and then my father was ripping me away from her. I screamed and protested, thrashing in his arms. But he dragged me out the door.

"What do you think you're doing, you stupid girl?" he snapped, smacking me hard across the face. I winced.

"Let her go, please," I begged, clutching onto him desperately as tears streamed down my face. "Please, you're torturing her. She doesn't deserve it!"

"How did you remember?" he demanded, grabbing a fistful of my hair.

"I--I don't know," I stammered, terrified of the anger in his blue eyes. "We made eye contact, and I remembered everything." He cursed under his breath and sighed, turning to Max, who was standing outside the door.

"Get everything ready," he said. "We have a lot to erase this time."

"Stop!" I exclaimed, chucking a towel at me as Bianca tried to scoop some cheesecake batter from the bowl. "Not until I pour it into the pan!"

"The oven burns out the germs," she reminded me, licking her finger. I let my tense shoulders relax as a small laugh left my lips. "There you go. Let your hair down."

"That wouldn't be sanitary," I pointed out, rolling my green eyes as I poured the cheesecake batter into the pan.

"Well, I didn't mean literally," she deadpanned, scoffing. She wrapped her arms around me from the back, making a small smile creep over my lips.

"I think you're the most annoying person I've ever met," I confessed. 

       I closed my eyes, enjoying the scent of floral perfume that washed over me every time she got close.

"Well, obviously, you haven't looked in the mirror," she smiled, placing her head in the crook of my neck.

"You're insufferable," I informed her. "And the worst part is, I actually love you."

"You love me?" she teased, wrinkling her nose in mock disgust. I felt my cheeks go red.

"I said nothing of the sort," I replied. She chuckled, shaking her head.

"You have the batter in your hair," she said to me. "Do you want me to get it out?"

"Yeah, I'd appreciate that," I confirmed, nodding. She grabbed the towel I had thrown at her and dabbed it out. "Thanks."

"I didn't know you could bake," Bianca said, wrapping her arms around me from behind again and placing her head on my shoulder.

"I was seven when my mom got sick," I told Bianca. "So I was the one who did all the housework. I hated it. All the cleaning up after my brother and father. But the cooking and baking, I really enjoyed."

"Really?" she mused, pressing her lips to my shoulder. Her hand reached under my shirt, tracing my back. I tensed up, stepping away from her. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's just," I defended, shaking my headi. "The scars, you know?" She sighed, glimpsing over at the group at the table, making sure they couldn't hear us.

"What happened, Aurora?" she wondered. I glanced around, sighing.

"It's stupid," I mumbled, staring at my hands.

"Hey," she said softly. "You can tell me."

I looked her in the eyes, and realized that they were sincere. I sighed, preparing myself. I had never told anybody except Emmaline. Which I had just recently remembered.

"Our father hated the idea of birthdays," I explained. "Presents, and all of that. We were never allowed to receive gifts. But on our birthdays, he would whip us. For every year we'd been alive. He started on Aaron when he was five, and me when I was three. In total, I have 117 scars on my back."

She stared at me, her eyes wide with horror. I peered down, suddenly embarrassed for opening up to her.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, her hand stroking my cheek. "You didn't deserve that."

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

There had been a massacre. Aaron wouldn't tell me much, but I already know it was at the hands of my father.

He gave Ella to me and told me to hide with her. He had shown me where to hide, and gave me a gun. Just in case. It was my job to protect her.

I heard the screams going on outside, and I tried to tune them out. I'd been desensitized to murder my whole life, but I did not enjoy hearing it so clearly.

Without warning, the door busted open. I grabbed my gun and shot without even checking who it was.

One man fell to the floor but the others pursued, all pointing guns at me. I realized I couldn't shoot anyone else without getting shot myself.

"Drop your weapon," a man told me. I didn't reply. I continued pointing it at them, standing in front of Ella's unconscious body. "Drop your weapon." I still didn't. "This is your final warning. Drop your weapon." I didn't.

He fired his gun, and I jumped out of the way right in time. Another bullet hit me in the leg. I shrieked, falling to the ground. I winced, tears springing to my eyes.

I dragged myself up, shooting one more of the men. But before I could kill any more, a pistol hit me in the head, and the world went black.

A/N: imagine me might get dark, yall. so tw