Chapter Twenty-two
1863 Words
“You’re forcing me to sleep in the same bed with you?”
“As far as I can remember, you didn’t mind the first time. Oh, you’re not in control now and your ego is bruised? Get over it lone wolf. It’s not the end of the miserable world.”
“I hate you.”
“You’re just realizing? You’re so slow.” She whined as she fell into bed with a victorious smile on her face.
“I just thought about something Storm.”
“Your brain can actually think? Really? That’s super progressive.”
“Won’t there be cameras? Weren’t there cameras in that building?”
“Yeah, there were. And?”
“And won’t they search the cameras for evidence? To know what ever was going on.”
“Cool, but I’m one step ahead of you on that one. So, basically, I hired someone to access the cameras, every single one of them. And wipe away every single memory. Even if they’re to find the video, we went as Angelina and Fred. We’re off the hook.”
“Quiet Rose. I’m tired and I need to sleep.”
“Quiet Storm. Have some respect for women. I know your step mom has definitely lacked when it comes to respecting women.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Come here.” He sat in he corner of the house, not moving an inch. He had the bag of Cameroon pepper in his hand, as he monstrously walked over to the little boy.
“Come to daddy.” He had a wicked grin on his face, stepping closer and closer. No way of escape for the poor little boy.
“I’m sorry.”
“I hate that word boy! You’re sorry?! You’ve made me a laughing stock before the Blancs. You let a Luna win you. Again?!”
“She’s just too good at geometries,” the little boy cried out, begging.
“I’ll give you a reason to be good at it. You’re as foolish as your useless mother. She’s good for nothing. All she does is stay at home and preach to me about giving up my quest for revenge!”
“I’m sorry father, please forgive me.” He kept crying, begging for his beast of a father to have mercy on him.
“You should know, that I do not care for apologies. I work with results.” With that, he dipped his hand and took a pinch of the pepper, rubbing it in the boy’s eyes. He rubbed it into both of his eyes.
“Arrerghhhh!!” He cried out. “Help me ,” he cried. “Father please,”
He heard as the leather belt whipped the table beside him, causing him to startle.
“I’m sorry,” he wailed. The little boy had fresh purple scars on his body that had barely healed. He was dreading the new ones he would receive from the next lashing that awaited for him.
“You dare make your father an object of mockery.”
“Nooo,” he cried as he knelt on both of his knees, trying to hold back his scream as the pepper was burning away his eyelids. “Pleas….” He felt the leather belt, hit against his skin. As he lifted it up, he felt like it went up with his skin. The pain sent signals to his brain, he felt like he was about to run mad.
He continuously whipped him with the belt until he felt satisfied.
“You will remain here. No food. No water. Absolutely nothing until you return victorious for once in your miserable, pathetic life.” With that he stormed out of the room, locking the door behind him. There he sat, in pain and anguish, peppered eyes that he could not open, and an aching body with new scars imprinted on him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Storm! Wake up Storm! Are you alright?” Rose tried shaking him awake but there was nothing. She noticed that he clenched the bed sheets with his fists, the veins in his body were a very dark shade of green and his body temperature was extremely high.
“Storm! Wake up you’re scaring the s**t out of me!” She tried sprinkling water on him but there was no result.
“Oh my goodness! What type of trouble is this?” She wondered.
I’m sorry father. I won’t do it again. She heard him say.
“Storm, it’s not your father. It’s me, Rose. Although that’s not meant to be comforting but please wake up,” she whispered to him in his ear. She held his hand so tight, squeezing it. She joined their heads together and there she remained. His body began to relax, and loosen up. He opened his eyes immediately and jumped up.
Rose got startled but then pretended like she was not helping him out.
“What happened?”
“I think you had a nightmare.”
“Did I say anything?”
“Only that you’re sorry to your father. Did you do something?”
“We aren’t meant to be speaking to each other.”
“I agree, but are you okay?” She asked.
“Mind your business.” He said trying to avoid the conversation but Rose was not having it.
“Storm. Sit.” Without thinking twice, he sat back in bed in fear.
“I need to to relax. You don’t have to tell me what happened, if it makes you uncomfortable. You need to relax your body, your mind.”
“Pills.”
“I could give you mine.” She said as she got out of bed, in search of her anxiety pills. She found them and she popped one pill and handed him a glass of water.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks.” He said as he put the drug in his mouth first before gulping down the glass of water, pushing the drug into his system.
“It should help you sleep.”
“I don’t want to sleep.”
“Okay, watch me sleep then.” She said as she climbed into bed, snuggling beside him.
“It was a bad memory.”
“Was he cruel to you?” She found herself asking.
“Why should I trust you?”
“Because I hate him. Tell me,”
“He had every right to,” Rose sat up in bed immediately.
“Nobody has the right to abuse a child. He did it for his selfish gains Storm and he did not have you in mind. He’s the reason for the scars on your body.”
“The fresh ones,”
“He does it till now?!”
“No! He wouldn’t dare ever since the day I took the whip from him and gave him the beating of his life.” Rose bursted out laughing,
“Really? How did he take it?”
“He was in a serious state of shock, he didn’t speak a word for almost two weeks.”
“That serves him right. So, where did you get the fresh ones from?”
Storm looked away from her face, thinking of how he could answer the question.
“They’re… they are self inflicted scars.”
“Self inflicted. Storm, self harm?” She asked him again. “You can’t stop, can you?”
“It’s a huge problem for me Rose. I don’t understand what I am supposed to do. I have this huge belief that when I get whipped, I get myself to do the task that is awaiting me. Sometimes I do it a little too much I risk sending myself into the hospital.”
“Storm, that’s a lot. Don’t you have.. friends?!”
“Rose, did you ever see me with friends?”
“That’s because I thought that there were friends you had outside of our school. You hardly spoke to anyone. In fact, I believe that I’m the only one whom you ever had conversations with even though we were meant to be hurting each other.”
“I don’t have friends. He cut them off from me. He told me that I am better off alone than to be surrounded by miscreants, surrounded by people without a mission.”
“And what was your mission?”
“Getting the companies in your custodies, one by one.”
“Yet, here you are, sitting before me after balling your eyes out.”
“Life is certainly unpredictable.”
“So, why are you still there, with him?”
“I don’t know. I’m meant to take over his position when he dies. It feels like it’s my destiny,”
“Who made it your destiny?”
“I don’t understand that question.”
“Listen to me Storm. I don’t care if whatever is happening here today is genuine or not. My destiny to make sure that everything your family took away from me, from my brothers, from my family is returned and the murderer pays for his sins. I made that my destiny and I live for it. You have made your destiny to serve the man who caused you more harm than good all the days of your life which really makes no sense to me. You can change it. Do you really believe that your step mother will allow you to succeed your father when your step brothers are there?”
“I can’t just up and leave from the pack without a concrete reason.”
“And you have not found that concrete reason yet?”
“I’m currently looking for that reason. I want to leave him, and then destroy him.”
“You… you want to destroy your father? Now I believe that I have just walked right into your trap.”
“It’s not a trap. It’s the fact, the reality.”
“And I’m supposed to believe that my arched enemy has all of a sudden turned against his leader? For real?! Storm, do I look like I was born yesterday?”
“Rose. Do you know what it means to live and grow in the same house of the man that abused you?! Mentally. Emotionally. Physically. You tend to grow hatred, hatred that has been stored up and expressed. That hatred turns to bitterness. Just one thing that I’m searching for, and if it turns out to be true, you and your brothers best believe you’ve gained yourselves a new ally.”
“I guess I am not allowed to know what you’re searching for.”
“Because then, you can alter the true results just to get me on your side.”
“Smart. What’s the time?” She asked as she searched the bed for her phone. She finds it beside Storm’s elbow and bends across him to pick it. As she lifts up her body, her lips brushes against Storm’s.
They stare intently into each other’s eyes, as the time passed by.
Following the rhythm of their bodies and the tension between the both of them, they grab each other, kissing passionately.
- Writer
