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Chapter 2

Warning, This story contains dark scenes with graphic detail that some readers may find distressing.

The place was surprisingly clean and tidy, looking like it belonged to a dignified and compassionate family. But from what I experienced back there, they were no close to even being one.

“What are you standing there for??” Uncle Robert asked in annoyance.

“I-I don’t know where my room is.” I stuttered out. He sighed and rolled his eyes as he suddenly yelled.

“Victoria!!”

Not a minute after, a young, beautiful girl who looked around my age came running down the stairs. She had the same raven hair just like her father’s and her eyes were a shade of hazel with thick, long lashes. She looked like a barbie doll as she neared her father with a sweet smile on her pink, pouty lips.

“Yes, daddy?”

“Take your cousin to her room.” He grumbled before leaving me alone with Victoria. She quickly turned to face me and her long straight hair whipped in the air.

I smiled. “Hi, Victoria.”

Her smile dropped as she eyed me up and down, making me remember the way her mother did the very same thing back in the hospital earlier.

“Lilly.” It was all she mustered. She then turned around and began making her way back up the stairs. “Follow me.”

I quietly followed behind her, looking at the picture frames hung on the walls as we passed.

They were filled with happy smiling faces of the three of them, and I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that behind those cheerful smiles and warm façade were cold-hearted strangers.

“How was the asylum? Did it treat you well?” Victoria asked with a snicker. “Probably not. I mean, look at you. You’re so thin, and you look like you haven’t slept in a year.” Her voice was laced with sarcasm.

“You wouldn’t know what I’ve been through. You wouldn’t understand.” I retorted as I kept on

following her. The second floor looked darker than the floor below, with nothing but only narrow halls and wooden doors.

“Of course, I wouldn’t know that. I’m not a murderer, to begin with!” Victoria replied with a laugh.

“Anyways, I hope you don’t go around killing us here.” The sneer on her face pushed me over the edge.

“Hey,” I called angrily, finally having enough of her attitude as well as her parents’. Victoria looked surprised as she turned around to look at me with her arms crossed across her chest.

“You can’t just go around making jokes like that. You have no idea how fucking hard it has been or what I’ve been through in that damn hellhole, and you’re here acting like a complete jerk!”

Victoria was taken aback by my sudden outburst, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open.

Just when she was about to say something, another voice echoed throughout the hall and my heart dropped.

“Hey!”

It was Uncle Robert.

“What did you fucking say to my daughter??” He asked incredulously, his anger visible as he neared me, nostrils flaring, and his eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets.

“You just got here and now you’re yelling at my daughter when she’s just trying to help you!”

I was at a loss for words. I wanted to explain to him, tell him that Victoria was talking shit about me, but it would still deem useless knowing that he would defend his daughter no matter the cost and the fact that he hated my guts ever since they picked me up wouldn’t help my situation at all.

Victoria began sobbing and we turned to look at her. “She called me nasty things, daddy. She said that she would kill me if she ever got the chance!”

My eyes went wide. “I did not— “I could hear the shock in my own voice at her words. Why would she say something like that?

“Who do you fucking think you are, you psycho?!” Uncle Robert yelled and before I knew it, I

felt a sharp, stinging pain on my left cheek, and before I could process that my uncle had hit me, I felt heavy arms push me with such force that I fell to the floor with a hard thud. Pain ripped through my side at the impact.

“You’re even lucky my wife and I took you in. You could be in jail for what you did, you bitch!”

He spat at my face, followed by a swift kick to my gut. I could feel my insides churning and aching from the attack. I gasped at the pain as I doubled over and held my stomach, trying to catch my breath and scooting away from him as far as my feet could drag me.

“Talk to my daughter like that one more time, and I’m sending you back to that damned place,

you hear me??” He growled as he took another kick to my gut instead of hitting my arms, but the impact still hurt a lot. I then felt a hand gripping my jaws harshly, forcing me to look up at him. I blinked away the tears that didn’t seem to stop from flowing. ‘Don’t cry, don’t let him know he’s got to you,’ my mind kept screaming at me. Yet the tears still stung my eyes.

“She’s lying!” I sputtered out, still holding on to my stomach. “She started it!”

He then gripped my wrist and pulled it away from me and pulled me upward. The quick, harsh pull he did to my arm sent a buzzing pain from my shoulders, and I was afraid he popped my joints loose. I cried out in pain, struggling to free my wrist from his grip, but his hold on me was too strong. His tight hold would leave bruises on my skin along with the rest of his assault.

“You even have the nerve to talk back.” Uncle Robert pointed out with a bitter chuckle. “Just to keep you in your fucking place…” I wanted to say something but opening my mouth was what had got me into this mess in the first place, so I shook the thoughts and words from my mouth.

I watched as he took something out from his back pocket and my eyes widened at the sight of a pocketknife. Its blade shimmering from the landing light that reflected from the stainless steel.

He was going to kill me. That was it. The end for me.

I yelled and kicked myself away from him, but he was too strong for me to escape from. He lifted my wrist higher, and I lost my breath when he let his blade touch my skin. His foot on me chest pressed down hard, holding me to the floor. I was sure if I moved or struggled, he’d crush my ribs.

“This is to constantly remind you what a monster you are and why you should never lay a hand on my daughter or any of us in this fucking household.” He mustered as he deepened the blade on my skin, turning it downwards, so the sharp point was poking on my red skin.

“N-No, please, stop!” I cried out. “I’m sorry! Please!”

But it was too late. He pushed the knife deeper until it cut my skin open, the pain shooting up to my arm as he dragged the metal deeper and dragged it along my skin heavily. The pain worsened with every touch and all I could do was cry and begged for him to stop, trying my best to pull my wrist away, all while struggling to breathe from the constant pain that never left my stomach.

After what seemed like a hell of eternity, he finally let go of me and I watched with teary eyes at the sight of my bloody wrists. The blood obscenely oozing out of the wounds and I cradled my wrist closer to my chest, pushing the open wound against my shirt in hopes of stopping the blood from bleeding out fast.

“If something like this ever happens again, I’m going to carve out of your stomach next time. So,

you better watch your fucking mouth.” And with one last raging look, he left me on the floor,

bleeding, sobbing, questioning how life was so unfair. How stupid was I to think this was the time that I can redeem myself again after the worst year of my life?

As I continued to bleed on the floor, my head began to feel light and everything seemed to spin,

my eyes slowly began to lose focus. Darkness was creeping in around me, threatening to suffocate me or save me from the pain, I didn’t know which, yet I welcomed the dark. A pair of feet appeared in my sight and pulled me up. Pain shot through every inch of my body and I completely lost consciousness and blacked out.

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