Bugs Bite

CHAPTER TEN: Blood For Blood

DISCLAIMER: This chapter features intense violence, gore and language.
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Bewildered, scared and numb, Avish wildly rubbed his eyes as he tried to register what the hell was going on.

'You nasty fucker!' he heard Dad shout. Followed by his mother wailing, which sent his heart hammering madly.

Avish jumped off his bed and dashed over to the living room with a blotted vision, sticky goo all in his eyes. Along the way, he hit his foot on something hard and metallic, but he didn't care.

He heard the crash of glass breaking.

His veins were on the verge of explosion. Honestly, he knew what he would see before he saw it.

He took a peek into the living room. Saw a sight he would never forget.

Dhruv was standing with his back to Avish, a smashed bottle of booze in one hand. The other half of the decanter laxed on the floor, liquor trickling out of it. He looked eerie with that bent posture of his body and was grunting as he slowly kneeled over, revealing his mother.

She was on the ground, whimpering, her cheekbone bruised an ugly violet. Painful to look at. Avish wanted to look away, he wanted to run, but he couldn't.

He was stupefied by the horror of it all. He felt like he was seeing a ceremony he was forbidden to. Somehow he felt guilty and afraid. Like he was going to be penalized for this.

He saw his father bring the jagged end of the decanter dangerously close to Mom's face, using it like a blade. 'I should have done this long ago,' Avish heard father whisper.

The glass touched Shweta's skin, gently at first, running over its terrain. Avish gripped the wall in front of him. He saw as the shank cut just the tiniest bit into Mom's skin, drawing some blood from her cheek.

Avish almost broke his teeth by gritting them too hard. He felt like a forced audiences, his muscles unresponsive.

The makeshift saber dug deeper, and blood oozed out at an exponential rate. Just looking at it made Avish feel sick.

'Please, Dhruv!' Shweta screamed, less louder than Avish himself would have. 'Please, I'll do anything, just please!'

Father grinned menacingly in Avish's line of sight. 'Yes, you will.'

Again the serrated blade budged towards his mother, who was still on the ground, her ankle horribly twisted. Avish noticed just now, her lower leg was at an odd angle with her femur.

She's broken a bone.

The blade edged closer to her other cheek. Dhruv grunted satisfactorily.

She's broken a bone and she's bleeding bad and he's going to kill her, he's going to FUCKING KILL HER DO SOMETHING YOU FUCKING COWARD -

'Stop!' Avish yelled, involuntarily. Sand solidified in his throat.

Dhruv looked up at him with an untamed grin on his face. His face redder than the devil's.

'And where there's a bitch,' he said, licking his lips, 'there's always a pup.'

(like a puppy)

He receded the serrated decanter from Mom's face and stood up, looming over Avish by at least five inches.

(Raghu the Boogies Raghu the Boogies just like back then no no no)

His father was a lofty, burly man, and what was he?