𝙽𝚘𝚝 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝙶𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝚂𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜(𝚂𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙼𝚎)

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚢-𝙵𝚘𝚞𝚛

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

song of the chapter: seven by taylor swift

"your braids in a pattern. love you to the moon and to saturn. passed down like folk songs. the love lasts so long"

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

I wasn't sure how long it had been, but every day of being beaten, starved, and tortured felt like a year. Hunger never used to bother me before, but I was so attenuated by it now.

Sometimes he took me to see Emmaline, just to see me cry. I didn't cry as much as I used to. Pain almost had no effect on me anymore.

      He thought that taking me to see her was emotional torture, but I'd come to appreciate my time with her. We'd learned to communicate without alerting him.

       She would tell me how Ella was doing. How everyone back at the Sanctuary was doing. She would tell me about her life. It was an awful, depressing one. One that made me so angry with our parents. She sometimes showed me pleasant memories of the two of us.

I awoke in someone's arms, and for once in my life, I didn't fight back to the physical touch. I glanced up, realizing it was Adam.

"Hey, you're okay," he whispered.

"She's dying," Nicolas pointed out, crossing his arms. "God, how long is he gonna keep doing this?"

"Until she's dead," Lena answered. Adam shot her a look. "It's the truth."

"I knew he was fucked up, but this is on another level," Valentina shuddered, leaning against the wall.

"Oh, please," Adrien scoffed. "Just look what he did to Emmaline. I'd be more surprised by the fucked up things he hasn't done.". I laughed weakly, causing everyone to turn to me in shock.

"Aurora understood a joke," Lena sneered. "Should we throw a party?"

"She's autistic, you stupid fucking slut," Valentina shot at her.

"What did you call me?" Lena shrieked, jumping to her feet.

Lena stormed over to the girl, who was on the other side of the room. She yelped as she slipped, falling to the ground.

Through my blurry vision, I saw that she had fallen into something red. It occurred to me that she had slipped on blood. My blood. How had my blood gotten that far across the room?

I tensed up when I heard footsteps echoing outside the door. I burrowed farther into Adam's arms, feeling his grip on me tighten.

"Hey, I know," Adam intoned. "I know. I'm sorry, kid."

The door opened, and he stepped in. I felt my body beginning to tremble involuntarily as I hid my face in Adam's shoulder.

"Please, Dad," Adam begged. "Just give her another day or two to recover. Please, she's dying."

"She won't die until I'm ready for her to die," he decided, shaking his head. "Give her to me."

"No," Adam denied, shaking his head. Our father sighed, taking a gun out of his pocket.

"Get up and follow me," he instructed, pointing the gun at Adam.

Adam's eyes widened, and he stood up, me still in his arms. He followed our father out of the room and a few rooms down.

Dad took a knife out and pressed it into Adam's hand. He held my arms behind my back with one hand, holding the gun to my shoulder with the other. Of course he wasn't going to shoot to kill. He wouldn't give me that mercy.