LOVE? NEVER | ✓

Chapter Twelve

"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will regret." - Ambrose Bierce.

"Anger is a venom that starts at the pit of your stomach then spreads and takes control over each part of your body, leaving your soul alive but your body dead." - Raghad.

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"Do I connect you to her?" she asked again after a few moments of silence.

Should I talk to her?

Is she going to explain what happened?

Can she possibly do that?

A sudden glimpse of what I passed through the previous day stung and shook my head, making me remember what she and they did to me.

Pain was something that I grew up to know, all the way from when my parents were shot in front of me from a masked man just because they were his competitors and until now.

I remember that day like it was yesterday.

They were hanged in front of me on a wall inside what seemed like an old, unused gym. I was locked to a chair and two rifles were directed to my head.

My parents were screaming my name but their voices fade when my small brain was trying to process everything around me.

I think no sixteen-years-old boy would have processed it either.

"You have two choices," the masked man with the deep, intimidating voice called from in front of me, glancing at my parents every second.

I looked at him, my tongue unable to form coherent words.

"Leave them alone," I yelled, and I felt the rifles dig deeper into my scalp. "Kill me instead of them—"

"One," he cut me off, holding his index finger up. "We shoot your parents and it's done, or two; we kill them and we shoot this girl too."

A young girl that looked like she was twelve years was dragged inside and was pushed to sit in front of me, tears in her eyes and cheeks.

"Please don't let them do that," her voice was raspy.

Three rifled was directed to her head, making it drop so she'd face the ground and not me.

"But she didn't do anything," I said, then I heard a loud thus near my ear.

Pain shot up from my ankle. I moaned, not knowing what happened. I looked over and saw blood soaking my jeans and boots, creating a small blood-pond next to my feet.

Adrenaline rushed into my veins, acting like a powerful binge. I didn't feel the pain in the beginning, but as the moments passed, it felt like I got the bullet in all my body.

It was a type of pain that I never experienced.

A type of pain that rolled into the rest of my body rapidly. I rested my head to the back, breathing sharply to try ease the agony.

But nothing could stop it.

My muscles tensed under the pressure and the threat to shoot another bullet somewhere else.

"Choose," the masked man said, unaffected by how I felt.

The girl was crying in front of me and begging that it will all stop.

"Choose!" the man yelled. "Or we'll kill you're dear grandmother too."

"No!" I shouted, the pain in my ankle intensifying. "Don't come near her!"