The Broken Angel

Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Is This Real?

Angelica's POV

Beck had left me in that cell for hours, the only company were my half-dead parents. They had gags shoved in their mouths because Melanie had tried to bite her own tongue off after Beck had left that first day, which didn't work, so now they are forced to wear them.

Every once in a while, someone would come down to give me food and water, but it was always sparse and a different person every time. And they were never people I knew, so they were probably the underlings who get the crappy end of the stick, no pun intended.

Beck would come back at some point and start the torture all over again. Every time he came down, he would make me choose who was going to get it that time and I would make sure to go back and forth between them.

I was tired and desperate to leave this cell behind as soon as I possibly could. But, I had stayed down there so long that it was starting to get hard to remember what the world outside was like. I remember my brothers face, but that was it. Everything faded into blood, screams and tears.

It was months, possibly years later and things were bad. Melanie had died a while back, but she had made Beck mad and he cut too deep. She probably did it on purpose, I know I would have.

Before she died, she had all of her appendages cut off, including her fake breasts. She also had every hair plucked from her head, and some of her skin was peeled off her body to show the muscle and bone underneath.

My father had also gotten everything cut off of him too, and I mean everything. Right now, he was hanging from two rings pushed through his shoulders. They had done a lot more to him since Melanie died and they couldn't use her anymore. Some things were pulling off all of his fingernail and toenails, ripping out all of his teeth, gouging out his eyes, and so on.

And possibly the worst thing is, they had left Melanie's dead corpse in the cell, staring blankly at me with clouded eyes. It was something I saw even in my nightmares and it has been so long that it was starting to get hard to remember her alive.

Beck had come down today, without his cart being towed behind him. He walked inside and headed straight for me. He crouched in front of me and smiled.

"Do you want to get out of here and see you brother again?" he asked. I paused. Who is my brother? I couldn't comprehend anything or anyone outside of this room. Beck pulled out his phone and held it up to me. I looked at the screen and saw boy on his phone. He had messy blond hair and light brown eyes. Freckles were splattered across this bridge of his nose like someone had flicked paint across him.

Wesley? I gasped as I started to remember. Wesley! Oh God, my baby brother!

"Yes!" I yelled, my voice hoarse and cracking. It has been a long time since I had spoken.

"Good." he said, nodding. "You just have to do one thing before I can let you go."

"Anything." I said.

"Kill your father." he said and I blinked.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Kill. Your. Father." he said, slowly. "If you want to leave this cell, you have to stab you father with this knife. If you do that, I will forgive you and bring you upstairs." I hesitated and Beck laughed. "You did say a long time ago that you want to stab them in the head to stop them from hurt others. Well, this is your chance."

Did I say that? I looked down at the knife and nodded. Beck smiled and unchained me. "Can you stand?" he asked. I tried to push myself up, but my legs were like jelly.

"No." I said. Beck set the knife down on the cart, away from me in case I tried to stab him while he picked me up. He slid his arms under mine and picked me up. I groaned as I felt my body crack as it moved for the first time in a very long time.

He spun me around in his arms and wrapped his left arm around my waist, holding me up. He grabbed the knife with his right hand and slid it into my hand, his hand clamped over mine.

"Are you ready?" he asked. I nodded and he walked us towards my father's body. For the first time in a long time, my father was smiling. Not his sick, cruel smile, but a genuinely happy smile. I could only remember this smile once when I was young. This was before our mother died, a time where my father was happy.

We brought the knife up and I felt tears run down my face, but I wasn't sure why I was crying. I didn't cry the entire time I was down here, but this moment made me cry. Was it because I was killing my own father? Or was it because I saw something I hadn't seen in a very long time?

Before I had realized it, or had a chance to process my feelings completely, the knife was plunged into my father's temple, finally bringing him peace. I was numb, not really understanding what just happened.

Beck forced me to let go of the knife and it fell to the concrete floor with a loud bang. Beck swung my body around so he was now carrying me fireman style. He walked out of the cell and carried me up the stairs. I didn't hear any sounds in the house, so I was guessing we were home alone.

Wait, did we live with anybody else? Did we even live together?

Beck carried me upstairs and brought me into another room, but I had no recollection of this room. Looking around, I hoped to see sparks of recognition, but nothing came to me. Beck set me down on the bed and crouched in front of me.

"This is our room." he said, rubbing my cheek, but it felt like an ice cube being placed on my cheek and smeared around my face. "I want you to get cleaned up here, and promise me something."

"What?" I asked.

"Don't tell anyone what happened in the basement." he said, seriously. Images of before came flooding back all at once and I nodded my head, not wanting to think of it myself. Beck nodded, satisfied by the look on my face and stood up. "Alright, I have some business to attend to, but I'll be back later."

"Wait!" I yelled and he stopped walking. He looked back at me with a raised eyebrow. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, princess, anything." he said, smirking. He had a very playful demeanor right now.

"Why me?" I asked and his playful demeanor changed.

"What do you mean?" he asked darkly.

"I mean, out of all the women you have met, why did you choose me?" I asked again. He walked over to me and leaned down over top of my body.

"A few reasons." he said. "Nice body; perky breasts and big ass." I rolled my eyes at his words and then he narrowed his eyes at me. "And your name."

"My name?" I asked.

"Angelica." he said, my name rolling off his silver tongue. "Such a holy name. It made me wonder if you could live up to a name like that. And if you did, I wonder what it would feel like to rip you angelic wings off. Feather by feather, slowly and painfully." He made a plunking motion behind me, smiling a sick smile that he always wore when we were in the basement.

Beck left without another word and I was grateful. I grabbed the bed and pushed my body up, but I just fell on the floor. It hurt, but I kept trying to stand up. I hated being taken care of or carried around, so I needed to relearn how to walk quickly.

A half an hour. That was how long it took for me to stand up on my own, but not walk. But, this was the time when two strange men walked in. They looked familiar, but it was hard to place their names.

"Hey, Angel. Long time no see." the blond one said, smiling. They walked over to me and I fell backwards onto the bed. "Chase." he said pointing to himself. He pointed to brunette next to him. "Walter."

I blinked and remembered them. "Oh, the gay guys." I said before thinking about it. Chase snorted and Walter frowned at my comment, but I don't blame him. "Sorry, it's been a long time since I have spoken to anyone besides Beck and he's not one to beat around the bush."

"It's fine." Chase said, and Walter smacked his arm, clearly not fine with it. "How are you?"

"Yeah, how's your memory?" Walter asked. "Most people forget a lot of things after that long in confinement."

I smiled softly and looked at the wall. "I wonder, is this even real? Everything blurred into torture and screams, so coming up here and seeing something other then darkness, blood and guts is... Different." I said quietly. I looked up at them and they both wore a cold and almost detached face, but I could see regret and sadness in their eyes.

"Angel-" Chase started to say, but I waved my hand.

"But, I'm alright." I said. "Beck didn't really hurt me. Mentally, yes, but physically, no." They gave a small smile, but I could tell they didn't really mean it. "Anyways, where's Wes?"

"I sent them out for shopping today. I didn't think you would want them seeing you like... this." Chase said, slowly. I smiled and nodded.

"Thanks," I said. "I would hug you guys, but I don't think you want blood and stink on either of you." They laughed and shook their head.

"Yeah, we'll take that hug later." Watler said. "For now, you should clean up." I pushed myself up, but as soon as I took one step, I fell on my face.

"Oh God, Angel." Chase said as they both rushed over to me. "Are you okay?"

"What happened?" Walter asked.

"Uh, Beck didn't let me move the whole time I was in the basement, so by body's muscles depleted into weak noodles." I said, laughing. I didn't know why I was laughing, but I felt like I didn't want to worry these two.

Chase looked at Walter and they both nodded. They hooked one of my arms around their neck and picked me up in unison. They carried me into the large bathroom and set me down on the toilet.

"Don't move, we will be right back." Walter said, grabbing Chase's arm. Chase looked confused as Walter dragged him out of the room. I looked around and my eyes settle on the space in front of me. There was a strange girl sitting there.

She had long black hair that was completely knotted and messy, but it had some white hair mixed in. Her blue eyes were sullen and dead looking, and bruises covered her face and body. Her lip was split down the middle in a scabbed wound and she was so thin that she looked anorexic.

I lifted up my right arm and the girl mirrored me. I touched my face and so did she. When I moved, she moved at perfect sync. And that was when I realized who she was.

It has been a long time since I had seen this girl, or a girl who looked like this. And I don't mean the me from before I had met Beck. No, this was me before I had a job. My father had starved and beaten me like this before. It has been a long time since I had looked like this and it'll take a while before I can get back to my old look.

Walter walked back in and locked the door behind him. I looked at him and asked, "Where's Chase?"

"He had something to do." he said, walking over to me. "Can you stand or no?"

"Stand, yes. Walk, no." I answered. He nodded and pulled my shirt over my head. Walter proceeded to undress me, and I thought about his words. That was something someone said when they didn't want to do something.

"What?" I asked, venomously. "Did you have to play rock-paper-scissors to see which one of you have to bathe the female?"

"No." Walter said. He walked over to the bathtub and turned on the water. "I didn't want him to see." I opened my mouth the say something snappy, but Walter held up his hand. "Your wounds."

"What?" I asked confused. Walter sighed and walked over to me. He crouched in front of my half naked body and held my hands.

"Chase is... a gentle soul and hates violence against those he cares about." Walter started. "When we first met, Chase and I hated each other. God, we couldn't be in the same room without fist fighting."

"What changed? I mean, you guys look so in love." I asked. Walter smiled.

"Well, he seen my scars." he said and I remembered his body. He told me that he grew up like me and was abused too. "And he knew he didn't make them, so he asked about them. I pushed him away and ran away from him, but he wouldn't stop chasing me.

"No matter where I went, Chase would follow me and ask about it." Walter said, laughing. "Until one day, he got sick of chasing and decided to force me to tell him. So, he pinned me down, pulled up my shirt and asked me."

"Did you tell him?" I asked.

"God no." he said, laughing. "I spit in his eye and head butted him." I laughed.

"You did what?" I asked.

"Yeah, I was able to escape his hold, but everything had changed." he said. "Chase had refused to fight me after that and let me hit him, over and over again. He stopped talking to me, but continued to follow me around."

"How long did that go on for?" I asked.

"Six months." he said and my mouth dropped.

"Six?" I asked and he nodded.

"It would have went on longer if that didn't happen." he said, looking away. He stood up and went to turn off the water before it overflowed over the edge.

"That?" I asked and he shook his head.

"Long story short, he found out about my past and accepted it. He promised to protect me and we even got married." Walter said.

"Wait, married?" I asked and Walter laughed.

"Why do you sound so shocked?" he asked.

"Because... I'm not sure." I said, looking up at myself. "My whole life I saw marriage as something binding you to someone else completely and you don't get much of an opinion, at least Melanie never did. She was a Barbie doll, playing into my father's hand and taken her frustration out on us."

"Well, that's not all true." he said and I looked back at him. "Some marriages are like that, but not all. Marriage is only a piece of paper, that's it. We say 'I do' and sign a piece of paper stating we are married. But, it's what we do after to show what our marriage looks like."

"What is your marriage like?" I asked.

"Hate." Walter said and I looked confused. He laughed and kept going, "Hate towards us, not hate between us. We typically don't broadcast 'we are gay lovers' to most people, even those we are close to, especially guys. Once other men know we are gay, they think we are automatically after their body and start to hate us."

"I'm sorry about that." I said, quietly.

"It's not your fault." he said. "But, our marriage is full of love between us. We cuddle, kiss, play and do everything together. Of course we have our fights and arguments, but the good times overshadow them. We both have equal say in what goes on and talk through everything before we come to a decision."

"That sounds like a nice marriage." I said, smiling. "You know, my dad wasn't always like that."

"Oh yeah?" Walter said, taking off the rest of my clothes. "What was he like?" He picked me up and helped walk me to the tub. I slid into the tub and sat down.

"He was... happy." I said, thinking back. "Giving, caring, loving, smart, and fun to be around."

"What happened to change that?" he asked.

"My mom died." I said. I picked up some of the water and dropped it into the tub. "She died giving birth to Wesley. My father changed after that. He blamed Wes for making her leave him and hated him more than anything. But, he hated me even more because I looked almost exactly like her."

"What was you mother like?" he asked. Images of her dancing and singing came forward, making me smile.

"Sweet, kind, gentle, hopeful, optimistic." I said, smiling. I looked into the water and saw my mother's smiling face looking back at me, but it wasn't the young, energetic version anymore. "But, she became fragile, weak, tired, sick."

"Sick?" he asked. He was about to put shampoo in my hair, but I stopped him, shaking my head. He handed me the bottle and sat down next to the tub, looking at me.

"She was diagnosed with Metastatic Breast Cancer when she was four months pregnant with Wes." I said. "She was already in the advance stages and they wanted to get her started on treatment immediately, but my mother refused."

"Why did she refuse?" he asked.

"Because she didn't want to harm Wesley." I said. "We had to stay in the hospital for the rest of her pregnancy because my father didn't want to risk her being home and getting hurt. She would always make me promise to take care of Wes, who wasn't named that at the time, and I always agreed."

"Did he have a name?" he asked and I laughed.

"Well, Wesley was supposed to be Weslyn." I said. "The people said Wes was going to be a girl, so my mother was excited for that. But, as you see today, Wes is a boy and I was the one to change it Wesley. Since my father wasn't there when Wes was born, and my mother died as soon as Wes was out, I stepped up and said Wesley, which was close to Weslyn."

"Wow," Walter said.

"Hey, can you do me a favor and get me something?" I asked.

"Yeah, what'cha need?" he asked. I smiled as I told him my plan.