VIRAGO

untold truths

For as long as Zoey could remember, Charlie had always been cruel. Sometimes she'd wonder what had to have happened to him, what things he may have seen in those 7 years she wasn't on earth to have turned him into the beast he was today.

She knew that as the eldest things for him were never easy, their father had almost beaten him to the brink of death multiple times and humiliated him often. But she could never understand, that someone who had suffered so much at the hands of evil would succumb to its ways so voluntarily. She narrowed it down to his lifelong need to please their father but instead, he'd ended up turning out exactly like him.

The only time she had ever witnessed Charlie's innocence arise from those psychological walls of impenetrable malice was at age 8 when their mother was going through, what they hadn't known at the time, her final throws of depression. He must have been 15, the children had returned home from school to find their mother in hysterics on the kitchen floor- blood dripping from her sleeves. It was then and only then she had seen the ability of compassion locked deep within him, kneeling down to their struggling mother he had wiped her tears, cleaned her wounds, and wrapped her in a warm embrace. That memory was the only reason she still held an ounce of empathy for her big brother.

And soon those never-ending waves of pain rattling through her skull had numbed into normality, desensitizing herself to it mentally, now she was just simply a body- he couldn't hurt anything inside because there was nothing internal left. Just emptiness, a void awaiting death. While externally her body hadn't stopped shaking for 36 hours straight, she was so lost in a world of hallucinations it was impossible for her to tell what was real and what was not so she didn't even bother.

"It's clear." Frank signaled after surveying the warehouse, he watched as John ardently entered racing to release Zoey from her bounds. Her muscles rigidly locked, yet her skin was static sending a slight shock through John as he made contact. Gently lifting her head up to gage if she was conscious or not, John's heart heaved in his analysis that she was clearly in another dimension- eyes so bloodshot you could hardly see any white, black pupils outgrew her green irises as they continuously flickered to the back of her head. "Zo? Can you hear me?!" She could, but she couldn't move her jaw, it was so tightly stuck in place. "We need to get her to a fucking hospital!" The desperation in his voice was evident as he pulled her body from the chair, throwing her over his shoulder. Frank came to inspect her condition but before he could do so the click of a gun being cocked against the back of his neck caused both men to freeze.

"I should've known." the chilling voice of Charlie Richardson echoed through the room, Frank hadn't reacted- he simply turned to face the barrel, his dark eyes meeting Charlie's cold ones. "I'm disappointed in you Frankie." Nothing left Frank's lips, he wasn't much of a talker but that was probably a good thing in this situation, he slowly raised his hands in surrender, triggering a smug smirk to sweep across Charlie's stony expression as his focus flickered to John. "Put her back."

Now unfortunately for Frank, John was a talker- "Piss off you cunt." Similarly to Zoey, Frank rolled his eyes at the young man's manner, opting to act before the volcano erupted. In a tactical move, he'd managed to use the fact his hands were already raised to his advantage, twisting the gun from Charlie's grasp and smacking him across the face with it, knocking him out. "Fair play Frank," John was impressed, giving him a nod of approval one that Frank didn't much need nor appreciate.

"It's Mr. Maguire to you, boy." He corrected, slipping Charlie's gun into his own pocket as both men turned to exit. And all would have gone to plan, but no one could have ever predicted Charlie's next move- just as Frank was about the reach for the handle a small grenade rolled over, gently tapping against the door. "Shit." both men ran, the explosion had thrown them to the ground, and the doors had been blown clean off.

"Who the fuck carries a grenade around with them?" John uttered under his breath, groveling over to Zoey and checking her for any more injuries- though her legs had begun to twitch and her eyes fell back into place momentarily, clearly the impact had jolted her back into reality slightly.

"Knowing our Charlie, he'll 'ave more than one." Frank groaned, dragging himself to his feet, attempting to shake the ringing from his ears as he reached for his weapon but Charlie had already tackled him to the floor again. Despite his head wound, he had turned into a vicious animal- his uncontrollable rage had morphed into his brutal punches, Frank put up a good fight but he wasn't a as fit as he used to be anymore.

John stood up after gathering Frank wasn't going to win this one but he was stopped at gunpoint as Eddie made his entrance, "Not so fast Romeo."

It seemed they were at a stalemate, all John could do now was hope that his backup had heard the explosion after securing their exit route and were on their way. But for now, all John could do was watch as Zoey's older brother beat Frank relentlessly.

"I knew you'd betray us, I fucking KNEW IT," Charlie growled, blood pouring from the corner of his head onto Frank- the rage in his eyes was unlike anything he'd ever seen before, so much like his father, Frank almost felt like he was seeing a ghost. "You betrayed us like you betrayed him!" He screamed, throwing another blow to which Frank had managed to block and throw one back, grabbing him by the collar and pushing him over so he was now on top.

"I never betrayed your dad! I just fucking loved her!" Frank confessed through heavy breathes as he threw a few more lazy punches but it wasn't enough to tame the fire within Charlie Richardson, swiftly overpowering the older man.

Watching the scene unfold, Eddie felt out of the loop "Charlie what the fuck is he on about?!" But John couldn't care less about any of this, his eyes were fixed on Zoey on the ground- to him it looked as if she were slowly coming back to life.

"Go on! Tell him!" Frank encouraged, splatters of blood leaving his lips under the heavy fire of Charlie's knuckles.

"Tell me what!?"

"He's Zoey's Dad," He revealed, pausing as he watched Frank intensely with unforgiving eyes, he knew he would kill him in that second, watching the beaten man swallow his regret. "He and Mum had an affair,"

At this new information, Charlie faltered in his stance, "How the fuck do you know this?" It was a very delicate question because depending on how it was answered could change his perspective forever.

"Mum-" Charlie took a deep inhale, slowly drawing out a handgun from his back pocket, "She left a note."

"She left a note?"He was taken back, in complete disbelief. All this time, he'd wondered, like a tormenting carousel in his mind constantly asking the same question, why? Eddie always had a very deep bond with his mother, she was the only person who gave him any sort of comfort growing up, the only one who paid him any attention. When she died he was crushed. "She left a fucking note and you didn't tell any of us?!"

Charlie didn't take his brother's pain that seriously, he was the embodiment of an undiagnosed sociopath, placing the cold barrel of his gun firmly on Frank's forehead as he started to insult their mother, his sole focus was on Frank "She was worthless anyway! A fucking whore, she didn't give a fuck about us-"

"Shut your fucking mouth." Eddie snapped, pulling his brother's eyes away from his next victim. Frank struggled to find his breath, ignoring the stinging of his wounds and observing the brothers carefully before finding Zoey, who he'd noticed was watching him through loose unkempt strands of bloodied blonde.

Charlie gave him a light-hearted smile, not grasping the seriousness of his brother's reaction "I'm sorry Ed, but it's the truth."

At that, Eddie knew, Charlie didn't care, he didn't care about him or their mother or anything- he truly had become just like their monster of a father "No." he gulped, knowing what he was about to do would haunt him forever, "I'm sorry." and without warning, his aim had switched from John to his brother. Pulling that trigger was like flipping a switch, everything that was hidden in the dark had now come to light.