,
Now…
Jesse Montgomery
I DON’T KNOW how long I have been here. It feels like hours maybe a day. My arms feel numb and needles run through my veins. Bane hasn’t been back since he left. The darkness puts me in subspace of isolation. Why leave me here? I am at his mercy; he could do anything. Instead he leaves me hanging here, with nothing but my thoughts. Dying of starvation sounds horrible, but for some reason, it doesn’t seem like his style.
I try to get a fill of the room. I know there is a chair somewhere in the corner. Some water dripping in the distance, a sink maybe. I feel cold concrete below my feet. I’m guessing a basement or cellar. God, how is this happening. I mean I knew he would come for me and it wouldn’t be pretty when he did. But when they came for me, I couldn’t believe he didn’t come for me himself. I guess how I die, didn’t really matter to him. The thought made me feel dejected.
I’m getting ready for bed when my doorbell rings. I can’t imagine who could be at my door. For the last two years, I kept to myself. A recluse if you will. I opened the door and before I could open it all the way, the door comes back and hits me in the face and I stumble to the floor. Whoever is at the door laughs gruffly and large hands grab me by the arms, not gentle in the least. The smell of cigarettes, beer, and rotten breath takes my nose hostage. I begin to scream, when another hand slaps over my mouth.
“Shut up bitch, or I’ll stick a gag in your mouth.” He spews, spit falling on my face.
His friend rummages through the house, breaking things, pulling drawers. Obviously making it look like your garden variety robbery. Not that anyone will be looking for me anyway.
The feeling of cold metal touching my cheek, makes me shiver and fear secretes from my pores. I am going to die. The next thing I know the man with the gun rips my night gown and begins to fondle my breast. His rough hands taken liberties I once reserved for another. No, not this. I fight as best as I can, but his body is too large. He overpowers me with no sweat. I begin to scream again when the feeling of something hard smashing me in the head cuts me off. Pain rattles my brain and takes me out of my nightmare and darkness blackens my eyes. Before losing complete consciousness, I hear the man say he doesn’t need me awake for what he wants to do.
Then I wake up here, blindfolded and hanging like a dead cow after slaughter. Only I’m alive, and he is speaking to me. He hates me, hell he is going to kill me. I deserve everything he is going to do to me. I betrayed him. But I also saved him. But he will never know.
There was a time, when I was naïve, young, and innocent. But all that was taken from me. From us. Now what’s left is a shell of a girl. A monster. I made my decision three and half years ago, and I don’t regret it. How could I. This might not be how I wanted to see him, but at least he is here. Safe. Alive.
If my mother could see me now. She would relish in my pain. She would love watching the man I loved, finish me off for the horrible things she made me do. Then she would finish Bane off, like she promised all those years ago. I always thought my father ran the show. But now I know the culprit. The ringleader. My mother. Lies and deceit is what she is good at. She played all of us. She wanted me dead and now she will get her wish. He deserves peace, I will give it to him. It’s kind of poetic justice, dark but poetic.
As I hang by my wrists, toes barely touching the ground, I sway, trying to alleviate the millions of needles jabbing my muscles. Knowing this pain is minimal compared to the torture he will surely inflict later I start to relish in my isolation. There once was a day when I looked forward to Bane Stratus paying attention to me, but now, I hope he stays gone. The man he is now is vengeful and deadly. He is a lion ready to strike and I am a gazelle about to be devoured.
As exhaustion takes over my body, a blanket of darkness traps my mind. I slip into an uncomfortable sleep as my head falls to my chest.
The sound of the door unlocking wakes me from my stiff slumber. My body is screaming in agony so I try not to move. I can’t feel my arms anymore and the pain in my neck is throbbing. A whimper escapes my lips as I try to find some comfort. He walks closer and quickly unattached the chains and my small body falls to the hard ground. I scream from the concrete banging into my already abused body. Concrete-burn covers my skin and I gasp for breath. I close my eyes and imagine I am anywhere but here.
“Time to play, I hope you’re ready, because this is going to hurt”, he coos.
✽ ✽ ✽
Then…
No! Father. Then I look to the second man and my heart stops beating. He is alive. My brother is alive. That jubilee doesn’t last long because he seems rabid. Menacing. He doesn’t seem fazed by his baby sister being help by gunpoint. No anger or outburst at the prospect of my death. Instead he cackles, a deep facetious tone.
“Look at her face, you would think she has seen a ghost” he speaks to me with disgust. He sounds so cruel and distant.
“What the fuck is going on, Danny” Bane growls.
“It will all be explained soon, son” my father exclaims.
“I am NOT your son, Marco” Bane hisses.
“Watch your tone, boy, you’re already on thin ice” he says dismissing Bane. He turns to me and smiles. The gun pushing further into my skull. I look to Bane and he’s glaring at my father. This isn’t happening.
It’s my brother. Its him, in the flesh. But somehow, I don’t believe this is Danny.
“What happened to you" the words rush out harshly, “Who are you” I yell. Causing Franco to push the gun further into my temple making me wince.
Bane tries to rush to me, but Franco slides his other hand down my shirt and grips my left breast, I start to cry, please no, “She is pretty isn’t she, Bane. I wouldn’t come any closer.” Bane growls at the man. But stops. Noticeably irate and ready to get violent.
Danny laughs. He doesn’t care. I am nobody to him. Whether it’s an act or the truth. My Danny is gone.
“What you don’t recognize me, little sister?” he sneers in my direction, “I’m Travis. I’m your big brother.”
Travis?