I started to feel myself calm down, I watched Axel analyzing the man’s stuff, seemingly trying to decide what to do with him.

I just wanted to leave this place, I wanted to go back to Axel’s apartment and curl up into a little ball and just forget the last year of my life. Now that I had cleared my name with him Axel seemed like a far more gentler man but still just as strong and determined as he was before. Even with the tattoos on his body and the obvious gang affiliation he was the only person I had now, he was willing to take me into his home and help me get back on my feet. Although I knew it would be hard for me to trust him initially after everything that I’ve been through I knew that if Axel was the man I thought he was that I’d be able to trust him.

I needed someone I could trust, I was willing to open myself up to one person, after what I’ve just been through I would need someone I could rely on no matter what. Maybe Axel could be that someone.

I saw him standing there, looking at one of the photographs. I couldn’t believe that the bastard Edgar had a family, a family and friends. He used to put something over my mouth when his family was over so that they wouldn’t hear the remnants of my screams through the padding he had on the basement walls. Sometimes he would bring his friends over and they’d taunt me together, his friends would beg for a turn with my but Edgar was always saying how he was waiting for a “special occasion” to have his way with me. I had to wonder what that special occasion was.

Axel turned to me, holding one of the framed pictures in his hand.

He walked up to me and sat next to me, showing me the picture of Edgar and one of his asshole friends. They were at a gun range and both had their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulder, grinning from ear to ear as they pointed their guns in the air. To anyone else it would have just looked like two middle aged men having a good time on a saturday afternoon with guns expensive enough to pay for a year of college. I knew the truth about them though, what kind of men they were.

Axel put his finger on the friend, tapping it for a few seconds before asking the question: “Do you know who this is?”

It almost sounded rhetorical, but I assumed that he wouldn’t be asking me this question if he didn’t want an answer.

“It’s one of Edgar’s best friends. I don’t know his name but he brought him downstairs more than any other person to show me off.”

I hated it when they were together, he would have me dress in a police uniform and strut around for him, god just thinking about it made the bile rise in my stomach. Edgar’s friend was a tall and lanky man, he always buzzed his hair and wore sunglasses whenever he was over here, even in the darkness of the basement. I could only assume he had something to hide.

Axel squeezed the wooden picture frame until the glass shattered, he ripped the page from the now broken frame and looked at it.

“This man is the man that shot my best friend Ezekiel. My club brother… the man I considered my true blood brother...”

He stood up and marched towards the basement door, I didn’t know what to do so I quickly got up and followed him.

“He shot him? Are you sure it was him?” I said following behind him as we went down the stairs.

“I’ll never forget that face, that smug fucker is permanently burned into my brain, and I’m gonna get him back if it takes the rest of my life.”

He walked up to Edgar who was trying to get to his feet, struggling with the dinner knife still lodged in his leg, his leg was so fat that the knife was lodged deep in there and yet there was barely any blood. He was probably afraid to take it out for that very reason, I hated knowing that I had physically hurt someone but if I had to choose one person on Earth to get hurt it would be Edgar.

Axel walked up to him and wrapped his hand around his throat, slamming him hard into the wall and practically lifting him off of his feet.

He held up the photo to Edgar’s face.

“Who is this? This guy right here, who is he?”

“All I see is a handsome guy and your mom’s boyfriend” Edgar replied with a smirk.

Axel smashed his fish into Edgar’s face without hesitation, the loud slap rang throughout the room. I felt chills go up my spine as I imagined Axel hitting him for all the things that he did to me, even if that wasn’t what was really happening it somehow made me feel far more safe and even helped me cope a little bit

“Don’t you fucking test me Edgar!” Axel shouted out as he threw him onto the floor. He put his boot on the side of Edgar’s face, pushing him into the hard cement of the ground.

I ran up and pulled Axel away, grabbing his hand and bringing him towards me.

“Axel please, as much as I love to see this asshole gets what he deserves you’re not gonna get this out of him this way. You’re angry because you just found out he’s attached to the death of your friend. I know how good you are at interrogation, just your gaze and your touch was enough for me to give in and ask for a chance to prove I was who I was. Work the same magic on him that you worked on me.”

He started to calm down a bit as we looked into each other’s eyes.

“After everything he’s done to you… you had the strength inside of you to pull me away, why?”

“Because if you really want to honor your friend you’ll find the man who took his life, not his friend, not the sad bastard who ruined mine.”

He took my hand in his and looked at me. “You’re not ruined, I will help you turn everything around. I promise.”

As I looked into his eyes I fully believed he was telling the truth. Just a few hours ago he had me strapped to his bed and could have killed me without any hesitation, instead he gave me a chance to prove myself, and now he was giving me protection and a second chance at life. Already I was beginning to feel grateful.

He let go of my hand and ran his hand down my shoulder and the side of my arm as he continued to calm himself down. He looked down at the photo of the man who took the life of his friend, I could see a fire in his eyes, a fire that I had never seen someone have before.

“I need to make a call” he said as he walked away from me, letting his hand slide down the back side of my arm. It sent shivers down my spine, but not the kind of shivers I got whenever Edgar would touch my face or my hand, it was a shiver that made me want more. I never thought I would ever want someone ever again after what Edgar did to me, who knows, maybe I was just confused.

He started walking up the stairs before stopping to look down at me.

“Are you coming?”

“Yeah, just give me a sec ok?”

“Take your time” he said as he headed upstairs, leaving the door open just in case Edgar tried something.

“You’re such a stupid little bitch you know that?” Edgar said as he spat out some blood on the floor and got onto his hands and knees.

“Say what you want Edgar, you might have taken away so much of my life but in the end I’m the one who’s standing here and you’re the one who’s chained. I have the rest of my life to live, the rest of my life to give love to this world to make up for what you took out of it, only god knows what’ll happen to you.”

“You think I give a fuck that your little boyfriend is gonna beat me up some more? I can’t wait for you both to realize you’re in over your heads with this thing. The rabbit hole is far deeper than you could ever imagine.”

“Talk all you want Edgar, in the end you’ll get what’s coming to you for keeping me down here.”

“Fuck off, you loved it, you couldn’t wait to bounce on this cock I could feel it.”

I clenched my fists, I wanted to hit him but I knew that’s what he wanted. Edgar was amazing at getting in my head, now I had the choice to leave rather than sit here and listen to the hate he spewed.

I started walking back up the stairs, turning around only to grab the string for the light and pull on it hard.

“How about you get a taste of what you put me through” I said as I walked back up the stairs and slammed the door behind me, leaving him in complete darkness.

I leaned against the door and slid down until I was sitting on the floor. Wiping the tears from my face, they weren’t the tears of sadness, they were the tears of knowing that I was finally free.