—Vic's POV—

There was a loud crash. The innocent sound of something falling and breaking, but I knew in this household nothing was innocent and that the object in question was probably thrown and didn't fall at all. I shot up in bed, rubbing my eyes trying to fight off the eternal exhaustion I felt. I listened for the sound of any other form of destruction—nothing.

"Mother fucker!" He screamed and the tell tale sound of smashing proved something else was being broken. What was going on? "Fuck!" He yelled again and another piercing shatter filled the air. I jumped out of bed, I had the feeling something bad was going on (minus all the breaking noises, I felt in the pit of my stomach that something bad had or was going to happen)

I padded downstairs cautiously, another crash sounded and scared me half to death, I slipped and slid down a few steps, my heart pounding I grabbed the railing to stop myself and regained my balance. If he heard me fall (before I saved myself) he didn't react on it. I found this weird, usually he'd storm out here, grab me by the throat, drag me back upstairs and scream at me until he was blue in the face and my self esteem had dropped a couple of notches lower.

I couldn't find his location, he wasn't in the kitchen or in the study. I wondered if he was in the room Leda is in, I knew not to go in there if he was so I peaked through the slight gap, I could barely see anything and it took me a long while to realize why. I opened the door fully and put my head inside, the chains were empty.

Huh, that was weird.

Another crash sounded.

"Fuck!" He screamed again. I'd come to realize that he wasn't saying fuck because he'd broken anything, like when you accidentally drop someone else's phone and the first thing you say is fuck and the second is sorry. No, I'd realized he was shouting fuck out of irritation and that revelation made me all the more reluctant to go and find him.

But I'm an idiot so I did anyway.

Of all the rooms he could have been in he was in the one I desperately never wanted to enter (even more so than the one Leda was in. Speaking of that, where the fuck did she go?) I took a deep breath and headed towards it, my dad was mumbling to himself, slurring a few of his words.

Great, add alcohol to the mix, why not?

I pushed the door open, my heart pounded like there was no tomorrow and quite possibly —if I got him in the wrong sort of mood— there might not be. As the door opened my dad shot his head towards me, his eyes wild and furious, blood-shot red and wide.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, my heart felt like a time bomb, I swear it was about to self destruct and I wasn't sure I'd be able to pick up the pieces. Or if I'd even want to.

The room was quaint and beautiful, just like her, her things lay on the dresser still and I put my gaze to the floor so I wouldn't have to be reminded of everything that was good and pure and wonderful in my life or the fact it was gone.

"They're gone" he spoke coldly, making me shudder. I looked up at him and furrowed my eyebrows, trying my best to keep my eyes on him and him only and not letting my eyes wonder to the millions of memory's that occupied this room.

"They fucking left, she escaped, Leda and Mike they're gone!" He raised his voice a little too much and I heard it almost echo through the entirety of the house.

That's all it was. A house. Not a home.

I raised an eyebrow for him to elaborate. How, when, how didn't we hear them? Then it hit me, they left me behind. I almost wanted to laugh out loud, that was just the story of my life, people coming and going, never stopping to stay for a while.

"This is all of your fault!" He shouted moving over to me, I should have known I'd get the blame, I should have known it. He swung for me and his fist collided with my jaw, I stumbled backwards and fell, half of my body in the room and half of it in the corridor. However my mind was still fully in the room with him, playing catch up, trying to recover from his blow to my face. Once it caught up I grabbed my jaw, trying to ease the pain with my clumsy touch.

He dragged me two doors down to the room, the dreadful empty room with no windows and dirty walls and empty chains where I've seen so many girls be imprisoned by and threw me to the floor, letting my head hit off of the wood.

"You piece of shit, this is all your fault" he repeated but his voice sounded calm, I knew that this wasn't a good sign. Maybe I should speak up? No I couldn't. What would I say even if I did?

My thoughts were cut short, he grabbed fistfuls of my shirt and slammed me against the wall, my head hit it hard and I tensed my jaw, trying to disguise my pain through a façade of nonchalance. He brought me closer to him and then slammed me against the wall again, my head hitting it again, he did this a few more times and I felt my eyes rolling to the back of my head as the liquid —that I assumed would look almost black in this pathetic lighting— slid warmly down my neck.

I should have been alarmed, scared that all my blood would exit my body and I'd be left lifeless but I couldn't gather enough emotion to care, I was already lifeless so what did it matter? He threw me to the floor and really began wailing on me, kicking me in the stomach, punching me in the face. I held a scream in my throat, it sat heavily there, making my throat feel bigger and wider, crushing my adam's apple.

But all the while, it didn't even matter.

—Leda's POV—

My head buzzed, nothing was clear. Vic and Mike sounded so far away as one million and one memories flashed through my head.

"Nobody wants you here"

"Why not?" His chocolate eyes were sorrowful, matching his voice

"Because you're gross, no one would even notice if you disappeared" my voice was a million pitches higher, he began to cry, trying his best to disguise it by putting his head in his hands but the shake of his shoulders confirmed his weaknesses.

I felt sick, oh my god, how could I have possible been so-

"Leda!" I heard Mike shout distantly as my eyes rolled back and I was over ridden by darkness.

I awoke slowly, my vision blurred and my head aching from where I must have hit it when I fell.

"You fainted" Mike's voice confirmed. I blinked a couple of times and my vision became more vivid.

"I see" I replied with a sigh, propping myself up on my elbows and looking around, Vic wasn't anywhere to be seen and I had a feeling that I'd been dreaming. Quickly I sat up, looking for some form of evidence that Vic had been here, that he was still here, that we had escaped and we had come back for him and I wasn't making it all up in my head. My breath was shaky and I was becoming frantic, I staggered to my feet and circled a little, my head swimming with confusion.

"Vic's in the kitchen, come" Mike said softly, taking my hand a motioning to the kitchen with a nod of his head.

Thank god! Mike smiled with a little confusion in his features and I realized I'd spoken out loud. We walked to the kitchen hand in hand but I stopped at the closed door.

"What is it?" Mike asked

"I can't go in there." I whispered almost inaudibly.

"What?" I didn't know if he didn't hear what I'd said or he was confused but I didn't say anything further. I needed a moment to think. I needed to go in there, I had to, but I didn't want Mike to hate me or be disgusted by who I was many years ago and what I did to his brother. I closed my eyes and took a breath real slow.

"Can I go in alone?" I asked opening my eyes but not looking in his direction. "I need to talk to Vic" I explained, I peaked out of the corner of my eye and he looked like he was contemplating this.

"Sure, I'll go get some clothes and stuff for the road. Make it quick because my dad could be back any minute" I nodded nervously and he kissed the hand he was holding and turned, heading for the stairs.

Right, here we go, I can do this, I can do this.

I pushed open the door and stepped inside.

Vic looked up as I entered, he looked small in the vast and barely furnished kitchen. He looked startled and I wondered if fear had become a reflex to him, as it had me.

"Hi" I spoke first, looking down at my—still bare—feet.

"Hello" he replied formerly and his voice made my chest ache, he sounded so sad, and I was to blame for it.

"So I wondered," I looked up at him and realized he'd been watching me intently, as soon as my eyes met his he looked away "if we could have a talk..." I trailed off, did that sound dumb. He nodded in reply and walked over to the table, taking a seat gracefully, I followed his lead and pulled a chair back to sit in and dropped one of the legs on my big toe. I squeezed my eyes shut in an attempt to mask my clumsiness and exhaled slowly, moving my foot, pulling the chair out a little further and taking a seat.

He kept his eyes on his hands which were folded neatly on the table, fingers fidgeting.

"So" I said not really sure where I'm going with this.

"I forgive you" he said lowly and I canted my head to the side.

"You do?" I breathed almost stunned speechless. He nodded. "But how? I made your life hell, I was so cruel and-"

"In case you hadn't noticed, living with my dad is already hell, so I was immune to it" his voice was gentle as he spoke and it made me feel all the more guilty.

"But-"

He cut me off "Besides, I learned a lot from you" this time he looked right into my eyes and I felt paralyzed. All I could do was hope he'd elaborate because I couldn't find my voice to ask him to. "Like how not to treat people, how to accept people without judgement and how to be cautious of people in general" he spoke evenly, as if he'd been thinking for all of his life what he'd say to me if he ever got the chance to. His words stung but he was right.

"I'm not proud of it. I hope you know that." I broke the connection between our eyes and looked down.

"I can see that, it probably haunts your dreams. You carry yourself with the demeanour of fine silk guilt" that hurt too, did I carry myself like I felt guilty? Was I that transparent?

"How can you tell how I feel? How do you know?" I asked stunned. He shrugged, a little slight movement that showed no arrogance at all.

"When you don't talk people don't talk to you and you end up a background observer. You kind of just learn to read people's body language" he smiled weakly like the fact he'd just describe himself as a background observer embarrassed him.

"Oh right" was all I could say. I needed to change the subject. "I'm sorry we left without you, it was my fault...I-" he shook his head with a smile that didn't touch his eyes.

"It's okay, like I said, immune" he wasn't making me feel any better but what was I expecting really? I hurt him so much.

"How is Sam?" He asked politely, smiling a little at the mention of Sam's name.

"I don't know, I can only assume he's doing well" I shrugged feeling a new level of exhaustion and stress settle into my blood stream.

"You two don't talk anymore?" He canted his head to the side as if this information was completely bizzare to him.

"Nope. Um, it's a long story, lets not get into any of that" I laughed nervously and he nodded standing up. I watched him rise to his feet as if it was as easy as blinking and breathing. He moved around the table to the seat directly opposite me.

"You'll make friends again, soon enough" he said softly once he was settled next to me, closer than I thought either of us would be comfortable with.

"How can you be sure?" I whispered feeling some form of charge between us that made my veins buzz and sing. It was strange and I didn't know whether I liked it or I wanted to run from it.

"Trust me" he whispered back leaning in closer to me and I felt like there was a hidden meaning to his words. Before I could even process what else he could possibly mean by that he kissed me. It was soft at first, feather light and sweet, just like Mike had kissed me, but then it began getting more heated, I could sense his hunger, I kissed back slowly, all rational thoughts out of the window. I opened my mouth to his tongue, letting it dance in my mouth, it was a needy kiss that came from the somewhere very deep and lonely inside us both, two damaged souls bouncing off of each other. His lips were warm and desperate and I knew mine were too, he brought his hands to my waist holding me as I would float away any second. I clamped my teeth on his lip and dragged it out slowly, before pulling away completely.

We stared at each other for the longest of time. Swollen parted lips, heavy breaths full of need and eyes locked on each other, blue to brown.

Notes

Muahahahaha. Thought I'd give you a slice of Vic's thoughts :)
I was going to end it as she opened the kitchen but then I thought NO GIVE THE PEOPLE SOME JUICE.

Thank you for all the comments, you make me smile so much. c:

Okay, I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Give me some feedback :)
And if you're feeling super duper nice please go check out my new story 'Kerosene Hearts' (too lazy to post a link) it's a Mike and OC fic.

Stay beautiful <3