Chapter Four

Chapter Four

(TRIGGER WARNING....)

"Dad!” 

Elena hurried over to her father and crouched next to him as tears streamed down her face. She tried to rip the cuffs off her wrists but it was to no avail. 

"What did you do?!” She screamed. 

Victor only gave a smile before shifting his gaze to Timothy and Lily. "Don't you want to see who else is in those bags?” He asked. 

Timothy stared at the body bag before him, his eyes wide with fear. He hoped it wasn't anyone he knew and more so, he hoped the person was long dead before he pulled the trigger.

Slowly, he neared the bag, crouched down and undid the zip by a couple centimetres. He stumbled back, his eyes wide like saucers.

Tears blurred his vision quickly. 

He shook his head in disbelief. “No, no, no… Mum?!”

Elena sat and watched, sobbing quietly. 

Timothy managed to undo the rest of the zipper and sure enough, there his mother was, as pale as a ghost. Her neck had been severed but not all the way through and her nostrils stuffed with cotton wool, which insinuated she'd been long dead.

He sank to his knees and cried long and hard. 

The faces of the men and women in the room didn't shift by the slightest. Elena stared at them in disbelief. 

“Lily?" Victor called her. “Are you going to open yours or do you want us to do it for you?" 

Lily didn't move an inch. Eventually, one of the guards stepped forward and undid the zipper. A young girl, who looked so much like Lily, appeared. Her face pale as a ghost. 

The scream and cries that followed were so bad, Timothy stopped crying. There was absolute chaos in the room.

Inside the body bag was a young girl, no more than ten years of age. Lily's little sister, Adele. The young child had a severe bash to her head and her lower lip had been busted open. 

Lily wailed and threw herself on the floor. 

Elena’s expression hardened. “You're all monsters," she said, locking eyes with Mr.Romano. “And you're nothing more than a pathetic bastard who goes around hurting innocent people just so you can feel like a man." 

A guard aimed his gun at Elena. “Be very careful what you say," he warned.

She glared at him. “Or else what?" 

The atmosphere was charged and before anyone could do anything, a gun went off. Elena let out a small gasp, believing the bastard had actually pulled the trigger.

It was the sound of something else hitting the cold tiled floor that grabbed everyone's attention. 

To her right, Timothy lay on the ground, his head blown open. The room went silent. The poor boy had shot himself in the head when no one was watching. 

Elena took a step back. The sight was a horrible one. Bits and pieces of his brain clung to the wall behind him in red clumps. 

Bile rose up her throat immediately and she emptied it on the ground. Her knees buckled and she collapsed into the wet puddle.

The room began spinning as soon as her ears began to ring. Her breathing turned shallow and everywhere went pitch dark. 

There in the darkness, nothing else mattered. Not the horrible monsters that'd killed her father or held her captive. Absolutely nothing. For the meantime, Elena hoped the darkness would last forever. A relief to her agony.

~

Lily sat in the dimly lit room, her eyes swollen from crying, her fists aching from pounding against the iron doors. They had locked her in, for fear that she would so something crazy. 

Even now, as she sat in the silence, her thoughts were eating her alive. All she could see was Adele’s face. Her little sister. Young, sweet and energetic. The poor girl still had a whole lot ahead of her and these men had taken that away without a care in the world.

Her eyes stung with tears too little to shed. She had cried her eyes out for hours. Now, she was weak. 

Lily's eyes traced the room. It was big enough to fit in three bunk beds. The ceilings were high and the only window in the room was completely out of reach.

To her left was an old rusty locker, tall enough to be seven feet high. She eyed the rusted pieces and then something else caught her attention.

Somewhere on the wall, high above the ground was a hook—like a coat hook. Her eyes lingered a little long on the protruding object and for a second, a diabolical thought crossed her mind. 

She didn't challenge the idea, after all, they had already taken away the one person she'd promised to live for.

Tears stung her eyes again. 

After both their parents passed, she had promised herself she'd look after Adele and make sure she lived a beautiful life, one that was completely different from the one she was living.

Months later and this was how it would all end.

This time hot tears flowed. Not just because she was hurt but because she was done fighting to live. She eyed the hook again and looked around.

Quietly, she moved to the rusty old locker across the room and managed to pry the doors open. Inside sat a tool box and a couple rags. She wiped her tears and rummaged through it. 

A hammer, a small box of rusted nails, a bunch of old newspapers and finally, a rope. 

Lily's heart hammered hard against her chest. She swallowed and took it out. The rope was long, old too but strong. Hopefully, it would be able to do a good job. 

Gingerly, Lily moved the only other piece of furniture in the room—the bed—and climbed on it. By the time they'd find her, she'd be long with Adele.

A weary smile stretched across her tired face.

She would take care of Lily, whether in this life or the next.