Her Dirty Little Secret [R 18+]

8 | Our Heart Take Light

[trigger warning: childhood sexual abuse, drugs.]

I saw it festering behind her irises, ugly and desperate to escape. Her fury burned deep, but behind it sat hatred. She looked at the hold around her wrist and then snapped her gaze to mine, hatred seemed to kind of a word.

I recognised the look though I couldn't place where I'd seen it, but I knew without a doubt my mother was testing me. I knew she would punish me much worse later if I did not act now. 

Releasing a breath, I lost myself somewhere in my mind and watched as an observer at the scene unfolding. Everything dulled, the sounds the colour, everything. The words and actions came from me like second nature, practised to perfection.

Then having done so for as long as I can remember, I submitted to the vile woman.

It wasn't all bad. After a while, the hand that delivers abuse becomes comfort, a familiarity in life both painful and consistent.

"Don't, Alaric. She is my mother," I whispered the words, my eyes fell to the floor as I waited once more for the next hit. 

It did not come. 

A sharp cry of pain broke the tension in the room, surprisingly it was not from my lungs. I looked up. 

Alaric squeezed my mother's wrist until the pink flesh took a ghostly white, he seemed unfazed by the acute pain morphing her features.

No, his eyes were on me, betrayal, and something else clouding the dark oceans. "Go to your room, Vaela." He said, cold and distant. 

I was confused and nervous. I had upset him. There was no winning in this situation, if I left my mother would take it out on me. That was for sure, but disappointing Alaric, I realised was not an option. 

I could handle pain, hide in the corners of my mind while my mother took all of life's misery out on me. What I could not handle was the cold faithless look in those dark chocolate eyes of his. 

Unable to look at my mother, I slowly nodded. Then I turned and made my way to my room. 

Closing the door softly behind me, I pressed my ear to the hardwood. 

For a moment there was silence, then my mother let loose. She screamed and cursed, "she is my daughter, I will do as I please with her!" 

"She is mine," Alaric seethed, his words somehow reaching my ears despite the low tone. His words ricocheted around my head. And, the dullness seeped away, his claim bringing me back to the forefront of my senses. 

Claire laughed, it was bitter and high-pitched. "Please, you will not hurt me. I've done much worse than hit that little shit. You caught me blowing Karl while taking it up the ass by his mate and you did not blink an eye... You will not hurt me." 

There was stone-cold silence at that comment. I could only imagine the slight raise of Alaric's eyebrow; the words clear in his expressionless face. Wouldn't I?