My heart sunk as he charged across the room to the silent guy, grabbing him by his throat and lifting him up high in the air, my breath caught in my throat at the scene unfolding in front of me and I felt so utterly guilty. This is all my fault, this is all my damned fault. I shouldn't have let him take care of me, I should have told him to leave me alone, but I didn't and now he was paying for it.

"What the fuck are you doing, Vic? You little shit!" He yelled, the silently guy—who I figured was called Vic—didn't say anything, he just gasped for air, grabbed at the mans hands trying his best efforts to pry them off him as his bottom lip trembled.

"Remember what happened last time you did this?" What did that mean? There's been more girls? He's done this before? He dropped him abruptly and kicked him—one time, two times, three times. I so desperately wanted to get up and help him but the new contents of my stomach were threatening their way back up, I couldn't watch, I couldn't look.

"You, get up" I instantly knew this was aimed at me, without even looking at him and for some unknown reason I couldn't obey, I was frozen to the spot by fear. "Suit yourself" he snapped at my disobedience and a few seconds later I felt my hair being pulled, my scalp felt like it was on fire as he dragged me upwards.

"Fuck!" I yelled stumbling over my chair as I stood up—or should I say as I was dragged up.

"This isn't a fucking hotel, you eat when I say you can, if you ever fucking let him take care of you again I'll kill you while he watches and then I'll kill him too. Do you understand?" I tripped over my tongue and my words came out jumbled "Do you fucking understand?" he screamed bringing my head just next to his mouth so he was shouting in my ear.

"Y-yes" I sniffed trying not to be weak but of course I was failing considering my voice came out broken and I stuttered. Fuck sake, get a grip! I cursed myself.

"Mike!" The guy screamed, still not releasing my hair. I looked out the corner of my eye at Vic and he was sat in the corner with his hands protectively wrapped around his neck, tears were flooding his eyes but I didn't see whether they fell or not because-

"What?" someone from the doorway said. He had black hair just brushing his shoulders, also heavily flat-ironed—like Vic's, just without the huge bangs. He had a ring decorating his bottom lip and a small silver ball decorating his cupids bow, it really suited him, he had the same eyes as Vic and I wondered if they were related in some way.

"Take your brother to his room" ha, that confirmed my suspicion, they were brothers! The guy at the door—Mike—rolled his eyes.

"Dad, c'mon, go easy on him-" He started to say but was interrupted.

"Mike I swear to god, take him to his room!" he screamed and my eardrum felt like it was about to explode.

"No need to fucking shout, jeez!" he retorted and walked past us and over to Vic. "You okay, buddy?" he asked, crouching down to Vic's level to show him he was no threat. I tried to stay as still as possible because the more I moved the more my hair moved and the more it hurt, I wished he'd just let go.

"Hurry up" he growled at Mike, yanking my hair even more, I winced and squeezed my eyes shut trying to ignore the excruciating pain.

"Oh I'm sorry, have you got somewhere to be? I didn't realize I had a time frame in which I had to remove him from the kitchen. How silly of me" Mike replied sardonically, turning his torso in his Dad's direction so he could give him daggers. He threw me to the ground and marched over to Mike and Vic, he shoved Mike backwards, causing him to fall on his ass.

"Go take her into the room down the hall, I'll fucking deal with him" he ordered.

"Wow you're so calm today!" sarcasm laced Mike's tone—honestly, he was making me nervous because he kept winding the man, who happens to be his dad, up and I had a bad feeling he would take his anger with Mike out on me. Mike stood up and turned on his heel, heading over to me. "Stand up" he spoke, not demanding but not comfortingly either, I did as I was told. He took my by the elbow and escorted me out of the kitchen and down the hall "Be nice" Mike warned his Dad, I assumed he was referring to how he treated Vic.

He led me into the room that had become oh so familiar in the past few days and closed the door behind him. "Cigarette?" He asked and I laughed aloud at the normalcy of the question, so unfitting in this situation.

"No" I replied flatly, thinking about using my manners and saying no thank you but then thinking well why the hell should I?

"Take a seat" he pointed to the steal chair in the center of the room before putting a cigarette between his lips and fishing in the pocket of his too-skinny-skinny-jeans for a lighter.

"Nah, I'm good here" I replied folding my arms over my chest. He shrugged at my stubbornness. "Nice choice of attire" he smirked taking a drag of his cigarette.

"Er, they're your brothers'" I explained and then added "My dress was no longer intact, thanks to your ever so respectful and polite father" venom danced from my tongue as I said that and my tone sounded bitter.

"Ah yes, isn't he a saint?" he smiled sarcastically. I opened my mouth to speak and he shook his head. "Don't do that" he said monotonous, I frowned at him and asked

"Do what?" I canted my head to the side.

"Ask questions I can't answer" he kept his eyes on the cigarette between his fingers. I wondered how he knew I was going to ask questions about his dad and why I'm here and why he seems one hundred percent okay and un-bothered by his fathers actions and behavior.

"Why can't you answer them?" I asked a little irritated at his vagueness. He shook his head throwing his cigarette on the floor and stepping on it. "What? You can't answer that either?" I was getting more pissed off by the second.

"No, I can't okay" he snapped, sitting down in the chair he offered me to sit in. Silence fell heavily upon us and I took the time to observe my surroundings—to say I've been in the room for the past three days, I'd never noticed how empty the room was. The only furniture in the over-sized room was the chair Mike's ass was planted on and a wooden chest of drawers in the far left corner—I wondered what occupied the drawers. I then noticed my vomit had been cleaned up and I instantly assumed Vic did it because I can't see the ogre in the kitchen doing any form of cleaning (the state of the filthy house was enough evidence of that)

"Sorry, this must be hard for you" Mike mumbled rubbing his face with his hands "I forget that"

"Forget?" I questioned "You say that like it's something continuous. How many girls have there been?" he bit down on his lip, hesitating on whether to answer or not and his deep brown eyes grew sad

"A few" he breathed

"Are we talking double digits?" Oddly he took another cigarette out of the packet and lit it, even though he'd literally just finished his last.

"Look, it's not really my business okay? I don't get involved usually, I don't like it but there's nothing I can do" he shrugged leaning forward and resting his forearms on his knees.

"Er, report him, stop him, help them escape, there's many things that you can do, Mike" I couldn't fathom whether I was getting more angry or upset-my voice hinted more at the latter.

"Every action has a reaction, you can't understand"

"Too right I can't understand because no one will give me any fucking answers" I gripped my hair and pulled, feeling frustrated but immediately regretted it when my scalp-still sensitive from the ogres attack-burned, ouch.

I slid down the wall-the same wall I've been slumped against for the past three days-and put my head in my hands.

"You saw how he treated Vic-and that was just for letting you eat and giving you new clothes. If I even considered- no, no, not going to happen" he shook his head and I wanted to scream. I wanted him to let me go, set me free, but evidently that was too much of a task, he implied the repercussions of that mistake would be life threatening and I bit my lip as my imagination ran wild at the idea.

There was a moment of silence, my brain was in overload, I needed to get out of there, I just had to.

"So, how'd it happen?" He broke the silence and I looked at him blankly, he realized I had no idea what he was talking about so he added "How did he get you here?"

"You mean there's more than one way?" My eyebrows dipped into a frown and he smiled a little

"I've heard a few various ways from people" he shrugged

"I thought you didn't usually get involved?" I raised an eyebrow

"I don't. But I have to when Vic tries to intervene and be the hero otherwise..." He shuddered and he trailed off as if the sentence was too difficult for him to finish.

"Why does Vic intervene if when he does the repercussions are so bad?" I asked, curiously, not knowing whether I'm crossing a line with my persistent curiosity or not.

"Because he's a fucking idiot" he replied with a tight and sad laugh as if he knew it wasn't necessarily a bad thing Vic was doing but like he still resented it because it put him in danger.

"You care a lot for him, huh?" I stated the obvious, like an idiot.

"He's all I have" he looked at the floor as if stating his feelings made him uneasy. I nodded in understanding, only I didn't really understand because I've never really had anybody at all.

"So, tell me how it happened..." He spoke and I bit my lip, unsure whether to tell him or not.

Not wanting to even recall the event myself.

But I did anyway.

Notes

So, Mike made an appearance in this one, oooooo!
This was going to be longer but I didn't want to make it so long that you all got bored and fell asleep so the other stuff that was going to be in this chapter will be in the next one :)

Please give me feedback, let me know your thoughts and opinions :)

Thanks for reading <3