☕︎Vacancy☕︎ ~Reupload~

~4~

"Wake up, Remy!" I heard harsh whispering right by my ear. "Hurry! He's coming!" My eyes flew open and met frightened blue ones staring back at mine.

It wasn't until those last words that the heavy thumping of boots registered in my mind. It was when I noticed everyone getting dressed and organizing that I finally got the message and started hurrying to get dressed myself.

Just as we'd finished and settled around the table, quickly eating as though we'd been having a normal breakfast when the front door swung open, revealing a man we all hated.

Fenry's biological father was a very tall, relatively built blue-eyed man in his late thirties with shaggy dirty blonde hair. It was clear who Fenry favored when it came to his mother and father. Fenry had his father's height, his eyes, his ears, and nose, but his stature all belonged to his mother. Who never raised him.

The man was scary. He was so convincing, bold. He had intelligence in those dead blue eyes, but he was evil incarnate.

He was the only one there for Fenry other than me, but he treated us horribly. That much was clear from the way Fen's eyes quickly darted back to the table and he bit his lip to keep it from wobbling, clenching his fists on his lap.

We all bowed our heads as the man walked into the kitchen, steel-toed boots he used to kick our asses announcing his location.

And when his large hands came down on his son's shoulders, Fenry gasped out a soft sob and shut his eyes tightly as the man leaned over, leveling his height to the younger boy's ears.

"I got uh," he paused before snickering as he continued, "just a couple of clients who want to meet you, little boy."

Fenry nodded and got up once his father backed away. He shot me a look and it wasn't until they left that the atmosphere lightened up.

But even though it was lighter, my heart felt heavier. Because I had an idea of exactly who these 'clients' were. Friends of Fenry's father's, and they were never very nice men.

Some of the first men to ever take us actually, especially Fen.

One would've thought, prostituting children would have immediately gotten everyone locked up. But there was never any end to it.

And it wasn't as though we could call the police, it was either do or die for the price of our lives.

And no matter how much I wanted to die sometimes and finally leave this life, I had to be with my brother. And I had to always be there for Fen. Regardless of everything.

They were the only people that I wanted or really needed in my life. And I wanted to be there for them. No matter how much my brother denied me, I wanted to be there for him.

So of course, I was worried sick about Fenry in his absence. He was so sensitive, and his father's friends were cruel.

The men were never careful and the boy always came crawling into my arms after midnight, bloodied and bruised and in need of healing himself for a couple of days.

And he wasn't paid anything that he was worth. Not really. He didn't get to keep that money, his sick father did. And his sick father didn't even take care of him.

There were times that living here became too insufferable. That working like this all of the time was torture. That being tortured was torture.

And Fenry returned that night in a pained daze that said more than enough about what happened. Fen was too bubbly and happy and overall hyper to get so worked up or hurt about situations. We were used to it, born and bred into it.

But something truly bothered me about whatever happened with his clients tonight and I was too afraid to ask.

Did that make me a bad friend?

The fact that I was too afraid to ask what happened to him? The fact that I didn't want him to break down in front of me, because I would break down too?

I wasn't strong enough to have a mental breakdown right now. I didn't want to feel any more of what I already felt. This despair. This loneliness, sadness, hatred, longing. This eerie feeling of wanting to drift away into insanity, letting the drugs and the alcohol take over until it was too much.

I didn't want to feel like hurting myself anymore. Wanting to find any means possible to escape.

So I lay there that night with Fenry in my arms. His head trapped beneath my chin. His tiny little arms wrapped around my body. His legs tangled between mine. His tears drenching my shirt. My fingers twisting into his hair.

We'd all find happiness someday.

I just hoped it was sooner than later.

💋