Retribution

Chapter 21

My father and I stood facing each other, not making a noise. After a while, he scooped up that crazy lady's body and threw it aside roughly. The other body was disposed of in the same fashion. Now there was space between us, choking me with anxiety.

"Now tell me what happened," he snarled, "And don't bullshit."

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me," I told him, my voice trembling.

"Not if you tell me the truth."

I tried to recollect what happened that day. The day my young pregnant mother told me about my little brother, the health problems he endured. How much we cried that day. How enraged he was and taking it all out on me. And I was only a tween.

"You want the truth? I'll give it to you."

"I'm listening." He lowered the gun.

"Shepard was sick, okay?" I said, tearing up, "He had massive birth defects and the doctors said he wasn't going to make it. Mom had to put him out of his misery. I watched them do it. I didn't do anything."

"I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!"

I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the bullet to pierce my skull. But when he pulled the trigger, nothing happened. Only a clicking noise and nothing more. He angrily threw the empty gun to the floor and resorted to the fallen microscope from the lady's attempt to kill me. Now it was his turn to try and crush my brains out.

My hot-headed father swung the microscope at me, but I managed to scoot out of the way. Realizing that he had just missed me, he took another swing, but missed me again, cracking the glass cabinet in the process. My mind was running a thousand miles per hour as he continuously tried to hit me with the equipment, damaging almost every beaker and other fragile objects in his wake. The lab now looked like ruins from a tornado.

"Fuck!" he screamed repeatedly as he smashed the microscope on one of the lab benches.

I limped away quietly, escaping the lab. There was a regular sitting bench nearby and I barricaded the door with it. Nate and company were in the middle of battling some League members just outside. Nate finished them off by shooting both of them down.

"We have to get out of here!" Nate shouted.

"How? We can't escape," Vanessa replied.

Behind me, the door began to open itself. Dad's hands were all battered up, presumably from the microscope bit. He didn't look too happy, per usual.

"Run," I breathed to the group.

"But Mom," Reyna started.

Dad's screaming was our signal to haul ass. "RUN!"

The only person that didn't move was Vanessa. She had this guilty look on her face, like everything was her doing. I tried my best to walk towards her and I placed both hands on her shoulders.

"Vanessa listen to me," I instructed, "You need to go. I don't want you to die in the hands of my father. Please. Escape with the others. Find a way out."

"I'm not leaving without you," she responded bitterly.

"Vanessa listen to what I say."

"But what about you?"

"I'll take care of everything. Now go!"

Vanessa hobbled away on her crutches, but she didn't take the direction my family went. I just assumed she was finding a light to this hellish tunnel. The door was now open enough for my father to slip through. He looked worse than ever. Was he drunk out of his mind again?