To Stay (Hiro X Reader--A Sequel to "A Helping Hand")

Chapter 12--Convicted?

The whip cracked once more over what remained of his back, and another scream of pain escaped from his cracked and bloody lips. He slumped forward onto the ground, stopped only by the chains of his handcuffs tied to the wall behind him, unable to think or process the reason for his sudden arrest. How did Callaghan know what happened in New Pyongyang in the past? Could he even justify that it was he who wrote that chapter in history?

"Stop screaming already!" Callaghan barked, raising the whip once more. "You should have been arrested the moment the first bomb dropped! They knew it was you! They knew you ruined this city, rendered it to become what it is like today!" With that, he brought the whip once more on his bloody flesh, and he cried once more.

"STOP! Uncle, stop!"

Both Callaghan and Mr. Lacitier looked up to see Trudy gaping at them with wide eyes. "Uncle, what are you DOING to him?!" Trudy finally asked fearfully, pointing at Mr. Lacitier.

"You might as well be asking what you're doing!" Callaghan spat back, retracting his whip. "You have no reason to be here! None whatsoever!"

"Uncle, just stop hurting him!" Trudy cried.

"Why should I?" Callaghan retorted. "This man, this man is the one who screwed up this city and had never admitted that he was the one who started the civil war in this city."

"I swear, Robert, I didn't do it!" Mr. Lacitier managed to groan past his parched dry lips, his sandpaper tongue. "It wasn't me!"

"SHUT UP!" Callaghan roared, kicking Mr. Lacitier down to the ground. "How can you prove it wasn't you?"

Mr. Lacitier looked up with sad eyes. "It just wasn't me! Sure, I was flying that plane, but I wasn't the one who made it drop bombs and crash into the--"

Another groan of pain and torture escaped the old man's lips as Callaghan bashed him on the head with his fist. "You have no proof," Callaghan hissed, leaning so close to the old man's face that he could smell his bad breath.

"Oh yes I do," Mr. Lacitier spoke up, as loudly as he dared.

"No you don't!" Callaghan screamed.

"UNCLE, JUST STOP!" Trudy screamed again. "PLEASE!"

Callaghan obeyed his niece, but not before punching Mr. Lacitier hard on the nose, blood spurting out of it, and he recoiled, feeling the cold metal of his handcuffs dig into his bloodied wrists.

"Listen to me well, Trudy," Callaghan whispered, advancing towards Trudy with a stern expression on his face and grabbing her by the collar of her shirt, almost the same way Hiro did to her three years back. "You promised to work with me. You said you wouldn't fail me after my daughter disobeyed me. You hurt (Y/N) but you weren't successful in the slightest. So get your freaking shit together, toughen up, and stop complaining!"

"For the last time I'm saying this, uncle, you're taking this too far!" Trudy screamed, her eyes already wet and sparkling with tears welling in her eyes. "(Y/N) has already suffered enough with me, and you're just adding on to her burden! What made you shoot her in court three years ago anyway? And why bother lead her here for the wrong reasons? She isn't a criminal! Even I told you myself!"

Callaghan groaned loudly in response. "She knew too much!" he cried. "She knew too much about our plans to torture her back then. And bringing her here would mean her demise anyway. The moment she gets her guardian, I would just pull the trigger, and this time, I will end her life."

"You don't even know what you're talking about," Trudy spat back bitterly. "I thought you were the smart professor of SFIT, not...someone to stoop so low. She already escaped being a falsely convicted criminal! And now doing this--what are you even thinking?"