No Escape

Chapter Two

Lily didn't like mornings very much. Memories from the previous night always ran through her disoriented brain in snippets until all of the pieces came together and made sense as one coherent memory. After putting together the complete memory, she tried getting ready for school in peace. She was finding it difficult though. Terrible thoughts and memories circled in her head and she just wanted to get control over them and make them stop. She never could, and she hated it. The only thing that brought her some sense of comfort in these times was pain that she inflicted on herself because she had control over it. Lily knew it was messed up, but she couldn't stop. It made her calm afterwards feeling a sense of control over some part of her life.

After getting dressed and gathering her things for school, Lily made her way downstairs. She had almost made it out of the door when Carter stopped her with a question, "where are you going?"

"School," She told him. Lily never talked to anyone anymore, but that wasn't a freedom she had when it came to Carter. When he asked her a question, she always answered. It was a lesson she learned the hard way. She was skeptical of what he had wanted from her. He very rarely stopped her before school; she could count the amount of times he had on one hand.

Carter cursed to himself and thought for a moment as Lily stood there waiting for him to address her again. He was having a conversation with himself and didn't say anything for a few minutes. He was contemplating letting her go to school to keep her routine as normal as possible, so nobody asked any questions, or making her stay home. The bitch didn't deserve the education or anything close to normal, but the last thing he needed was for the human police to get involved. The only things that child deserved was to go through the torture he did when his mate was taken in place of her, the same torture her mother went through before she died. The memories of his mates capture angered him, so he called after the girl as she walked out of the door, "hey! Get back in here. You're not fucking going today."

"What?!" Lily questioned him in shock, "why??" She wondered what she had done so wrong this time to make him keep her out of school. The next thing Lily knew, her face was stinging. Carter grabbed her shirt at its collar and pulled her close to him, so they were face to face.

How dare she talk to him like that?! He let her live, in his house instead of throwing her to the rogues and this was how she repaid him?

They were so close that she could smell the leftover alcohol on his breath as he practically screamed at her, "who the fuck do you think you are?! You ungrateful, little bitch! You are so lucky I have you busy today; I would love to take my time with punishing you, but I guess that lesson will have to wait. Hurry up to your room and get ready before I decide to change my mind and really lose my temper!" When Lily didn't move the second he finished speaking, Carter pushed her out of his grasp and she fell hard on her hip onto the floor. He tersely commanded her, "Go. Now."

Lily quickly made her way upstairs to cover up the redness on her face with makeup. She also worked on covering up the other bruises and injuries that were visible. Carter may have had only one rule for his friends to follow, but there were so many for Lily; one of which was to cover up all injuries.

Carter barged into her room as she was finishing getting ready. He grabbed her chin roughly to pull her attention to him. He let her know that he was going out, but that her visitors would knock three times when they got there. He told her to "be a good little girl, so I don't have to punish you even more than I already do when I get back."

Lily stayed quiet as he spoke and walked away. She was too scared to stand up for herself or to ignore his orders anymore. Carter knew that and took advantage of it on numerous occasions.

A couple hours had passed before there were three knocks at the door. She rushed to answer it and when she had, she saw three tall men standing there in business attire. Suits, ties, and all. She came to the conclusion that her assumptions of having multiple visitors throughout the day were wrong as they were all standing in front of her in that moment. Fuck.