Once A Fighter

Chapter 15

*Ria's P.O.V*

There was no way in hell that I was going to interrupt class and ask a boy I barely knew for a ride home. My hands were shaking, my throat was dry, my knuckles were still bleeding and the halls were quiet. I didn't know where to go-I was frozen with the thought of my father lurking behind any of these walls. It was cold and hot all at the same time and I felt like I was being watched. 

"Ria, baby." An all too familiar voice came from behind  me. All my breath left my body as I slowly turned around, knowing full well who I'd come face to face with. I could only stare at him. I was alone now, with my biggest fear staring me straight in the eyes. There was nothing I wanted more than for the bell to ring at that moment, but there was still class for another 20 minutes.

A lot can happen in 20 minutes.

After I didn't say anything and nobody moved a muscle, he finally said, "I just want to talk. Please come with me."

"I'm not going anywhere with you. You're a sick man." I spat back at him. He feigned hurt for a second and then laughed. 

"You don't have any idea who those boys are, do you Ria? Those boys hurt you more than I ever did."

My glare lessened when I asked what he was talking about. 

"Matthew, and the rest of them for that matter, beat you and raped you countless times. You think it's not going to happen again? They're just in it for the money, sweetheart. You don't mean shit to them. You don't mean shit to anybody. You're nothing." He spoke in a low, evil voice. It shook my bones and rattled my brain.

He kept talking as I was trying to process. "If you come with me now, Levi will be safe. They will protect him, but they don't care about you. However, if you don't come with me now, I will not stop until he is dead. I will not stop until he dies a slow, and very, very unpleasant death and I will make sure that you're there to see it. It's a simple choice, Ria. Don't you love your brother?"

He could sense my hesitation and fear. Stepping closer to me he reached his hand in his pocket and I took a step back. A smile formed on his face. "I just want you to see these pictures. To show you I'm not lying." He handed me a small stack of old pictures paperclipped together. My body started to go limp at what I saw.

A young Matthew and Sam above my naked and bloody body, both holding whips. The next picture- Zach raping my unconscious, malnourished self. And the one after that was Josh tying me to a pole. The pictures kept getting worse and worse until my vision blurred and I dropped them. The man in front of me laughed as he picked them up.

"I told you, Ria. You don't mean anything to anybody. But you could do something useful for once. And that is saving your little brother. Come with me now. I can guarantee you won't have a pleasant life, but your sweet, innocent little brother will be left alone. Isn't that what you've always wanted?" He reached his hand to me. "Come on."

"Hey, Ria!" Tristin's voice came from my left. His smile turned to concern when he saw my face and then to uncertainty when he saw my father. His body stiffened. "Everything okay?" He asked me.

"Yes." My father replied. "I'm just picking Ria up to take her home." I looked at Tristin who still clearly wasn't buying that this was a normal situation and then I looked at my father, knowing full well that if I didn't go with him, Tristin, Levi, and probably a lot of other innocent people were going to die. Then I made my decision and turned to Tristin and forced a smile. "Yeah, I got in a fight." And held up my hand. "He's taking me to the doctor. I'll see you later, okay?" I tried so hard to sound confident but voice wavered and I know he heard it because he scrunched his eyebrows and tried to step in front of me.

I stepped around him and followed out my father, who had a death grip on my bicep and practically dragged me into the parking lot. Right before he threw me into the backseat he put his hand on my ass and whispered in my ear, "Good choice, sweetheart. You and I are gonna have a lot of fun." Tears started forming in my eyes as I hurled in the backseat. All my father did was laugh.