Mine to Kill (Short Story)

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Bates Toro, the boy with those bewitching eyes that were like melted milk chocolate with a mischievous glint in the melted pools. His strawberry blonde hair was trimmed nicely showing off his chiseled jawline and high cheekbones. Bates is perfect to most people but, to me he is my captor.

I have been locked in this cold, dark, and grey basement for six months. The concrete walls were strung with cobwebs with spiders making homes. There were chains and shackles hanging on the wall, blood coating the inside of the metal cuffs. Blood was smeared across the ground, making the room look even scarier than it was. There was a set of rickety wooden stairs, that termites had been eating at before, that lead up to a small wooden hatch that opens and leads to the rest of the house. I'm not aloud up there though, Bates forbids me. So here I sit, in Bates' basement. No clothes besides my boxer-briefs, my hair a matted mess, bruised wrists, broken legs, and scarred pale flesh. I'm just cold, sad, scared, and alone.

"Oh Bradley. When will you learn?" his gravelly voice spoke through his clenched teeth. Bates' footfalls were heavy as he slowly walked down the stairs his size thirteen combat boots pounding on the wooden steps making him seem more threatening. I cower back into the corner of the dingy, cold, windowless basement. My bare back presses against the chilled concrete walls causing me to gasp at the sudden chill up my spine almost as if some had placed an icicle against my body. "What did I say not to do!?" he barked out making me jolt back and hide my face in my knees. He held his bat in his hand as he crept over to me, "Answer me!" His loud voice echoed loudly throughout the basement as I silently sobbed into my knees. Bates swung his wooden bat right above my head causing the bat to smash into pieces. Bates looks at the handle of his bat in disbelief. He muttered curse words under his breath just loud enough for me to hear. As I shook cowardly in the corner of the small basement, Bates scowled at me with a bitter glare. His chiseled features were dimly lit by the light bulb hanging from the ceiling giving his face a yellow tint with shadows casted over parts of his face. Bates let out a loud and frustrated growl as he threw his handle against the wall. "Why do you always try to leave!" Bates shouted, throwing a punch at my left cheek. I grunted in pain as my body toppled onto the floor. "Can't you see I love you! I give you everything! Food, water, a roof over your head!" he yanked me to my feet by my choppy black hair. I yelp out in pain my hands wrap around his wrist trying to pry him off of me. He swore and spat as he bashed my face in. This is how it always was. I would try my hardest to make sure everything was to his liking, but he always found something that I did wrong. Even if it was perfect he would do this for the fun of it. He released my hair and threw me to the ground. "Look at yourself," his words were quiet, but laced with fury. "You're useless. Don't you see that." He grabs my small pale wrist in his large hand, "you're too scrawny to be able to fight back. You're a wimp Bradley" he said degradingly. Gut-wrenching sobs tore through my chest as he backed away from me with regret flashed across his face.

"P-please stop," I stuttered out blood dripping from the corner of my mouth. Bates slowly walked over his hands shaking as he reached for me. His lower lip began to tremor as he knelt before me. His mouth open to say something but all that left was a small sob. My eyes darted to his face which no longer had light casting over it. Shadows crept onto his face as he allowed a single tear to slip from his eye.

"Bradley I... I'm so sorry" he stuttered out through his trembling lips. He seemed serious almost as if he did really care for me. His voice was quiet and cracking as he spoke to me. "I swore I would not end up like him!" he sobbed into his hands. His actions left me clueless as his sobbing began to subside. Bates glanced into my eyes as he rubbed his hand against the knees of his jeans. His normally harsh smile turned into a genuine one as he heaved a great big sigh. "When I was young my father was not the best man. He would beat my mother everyday for the first six-seven years of my life, but after awhile my mother became too weak to survive so her heart gave out and she died right there on her bed." his eyes began to gloss as tears seeped from his eyes and rolled down his face. I slowly reached my hand up towards his face grazing my fingers over the soft skin of his cheek. His larger hand cupped over my small one making warmth coat my hand like a coddling blanket. "Bradley, can I ask you something?" He questioned sniffling as he peered up at me with his big brown eyes. I tried to respond, but my voice was hoarse and raspy from my gut wrenching screams and sobbing, so I nodded instead. He sighed a little annoyed that I didn't speak, but he just brushed it off like dust on his shoulder. "Do you think we could just...restart?" he said voice low and tremoring. Restart! Bates Toro, the man who has beaten me for weeks on end, is asking to restart! I began to scowl at his words not just mentally but physically, and I guess he noticed. "Why are you giving me that face? Don't you love me," as he spoke he began to squeeze my hand causing me to wince at the sudden jolt of pain. His face went from a wide eyed curious child like look to a blank annoyed face. "So you don't love me!" he shouted at me smacking my hand away from his face. I looked up at him as he towered over me and said, "You know what this isn't worth it." He lunged forward and wrapped his hands around my neck and began to squeeze. I tried to yell out a "Stop!" but he just he just kept strangling me until my face turned purple. All of a sudden a loud banging noise came from upstairs. Bates' head cocked towards the noise and then, we heard a voice.

"Police open up!" a deep male voice shouted. Bates slowly turned his head back to face me and shock was displayed all over his face. He released his grip from around my neck and dropped me to the floor. The second I fell to the floor I hacked and choked for air while Bates looked around for a place to hide me. He rushed around the small basement until we heard another loud voice boom from upstairs.

"Open up now!" it was a woman's voice, but it wasn't just any woman's voice.

"Mom?" I choked out as I looked over at the basement stairs just hoping and praying my mother would walk down those stairs and get me out of here. There in that basement after 6 months I would finally get out, and get away from Bates Toro. Bates had nowhere to run he too was now trapped in a basement. A loud bang came from upstairs as footsteps flooded the floor above me. I tried to scream for help, but Bates dove over and covered my mouth with his hand that was now covered in dirt and grime since he was rummaging through the dusty basement.

"You make a peep and I'll snap your neck!" he whisper yelled into my right ear. I nervously breathed as he pulled me closer. The heavy footfalls above us got louder and louder, and eventually reached the hatch to the basement.

"It's locked Sergeant!" one man yelled angrily.

"Bust it open!" the woman yelled. Her voice was followed by three loud bangs and light flooding into the basement. five men rush downstairs and Bates books it to the darkest corner. A man picks me up and carries me out of the basement as Bates screams my name. The S.W.A.T man that was carrying me rushes me out of the house and onto the back of an ambulance. One of the paramedics start checking my body and wraps me in a warm blanket. He lifts my feet and starts to wrap them in tight bandages. I hiss at the pain in my ankles as he finishes up the wraps.

"Bradley!" I hear a woman call my eyes shoot up to see my mother bawling her eyes out running to me. She wraps her arms around my back and holds me tight. My eyes start pooling with tears as the red and blue lights hugged my mom's black hair with purple and magenta.

"Mom, I missed you so much" I whimpered into her shoulder, my tears beginning to soak her faded blue hoodie. Her hand ran up and down my back in a soothing way helping me calm down at her touch. Finally, after six months I am free from Bates' hold. I start to remember all of the memories in that basement. I remember when I first tried to run away and Bates crippled my legs with his baseball bat, but he comforted me afterwards and gave me pain killers so it wouldn't hurt so much anymore. Maybe he did love me and he hurt me because he didn't want me to leave. Maybe he did all that because, he loved me or maybe he just had a sick little obsession.