Shattered

…I opened my eyes and let out a sob of pain. I was back into reality. Did I really meet Mitch Lucker, or was that just a dream that my mind conjured up while I was passed out.

Thunder boomed overhead. Plinks of icy hail dropped from the sky to the roof. It was Mitch, stomping up in the sky. There was no doubt

“Kynder!” Alan knelt next to me. I clutched at the slippery tiles as he knelt next to me. Could I trust him, like I trusted Austin? No, but I had no choice in this matter.

My entire body was numb with the pain and I couldn’t form words. Alan picked me up, not caring for the mess around him. Aaron was outside the bathroom, watching nervously. When I came out, his face turned ghostly white.

“What the hell did he do to her?!” He cried out in a hoarse whisper.

“I don’t know. Get towels. I’ll see the damage he did. What did you do with him?” Alan asked quickly. I shivered as the air made my body feel as if I was in the artic.

“I put him back in his room. He passed out there. The fight went out of him. I’ll clean up. Here’s the towels. Tino and Phil are asleep as well.” Aaron came from the bathroom, looking even paler as he handed Alan the towels. At least I knew Austin was out of my hair for now. Alan cradled me close against his body.

“It’ll be okay, darling.” Alan told me softly. I let out a choked sob as more tears streamed down my cheeks. My back was in tons of pain. I could deal with the whips, although it felt like paper cuts with lemon poured in them. Something might have snapped. The punctured hole in my chest throbbed incessantly and started to bleed again. All I could do was hang limply in his arms. My heart beat furiously in my chest, willing to supply oxygen to what was left of the blood in my body.

Thunder boomed loudly overhead.

Alan took me downstairs to his room. There was a bathroom connected to his room. It had a little sink next to the shower. What the shower really was is more of a little elevated platform with sliding doors that separated it. It wasn’t so much of a tub as a little cornered off area. Setting me down carefully in the titled floor of the shower area, he took off my shirt that barely clung to my body by a thread. I was too numb to be embarrassed.

Alan placed a towel under my head to elevate my neck. It did little to relieve the pain, but made laying on the cold floor in my shorts and black athletic bra bearable. All I did was stare at the ceiling and wish all of this away. The ginger’s hands gently prodded the burn wound I had acquired, looking to see how far deep it had been pierced.

“Oh dear-“Alan never finished his sentence before he retched, dropping to his knees on the floor and hugging his chest. Was it really that bad? I didn’t want to check. All I could see were dozens of long marks on my chest plus the dozens on my back and arms. All were fresh and oozing blood. They crossed over the many old grey burn wounds.

“What did he do to you?” Alan grieved. I took a shaky breath through the waterworks in my own eyes.

“Fire iron…just like…Miles….Aus stabbed to…stomach…” I wheezed in any breath I could muster. Alan seemed to slowly connect the pieces from Miles burning me to Austin’s latest wound. Alan wrapped a soft washcloth around my left and right arms to slow the loss of blood before tending to the few cuts and bruises I got on my legs. I don’t think I’d be able to walk for a day or two.

“What else?” Alan sniffed, wiping away a tear. What was the point in lying to one of the people ranking above you? I might be dying as we speak, so there was no use in lying to defend the person who hurt you.

“Kicks…punches…lashes…bottle smashed…on back...” I closed my eyes as the wound on my stomach turned back into the inferno. Spots of blood seeped into the cloth wrapped on my arms. It hurt everywhere. Any position I tried to adjust to sent waves of misery through my system.

Mitch said I was strong, so just hang on.

The bruises were already forming black and blue on my arms, legs, chest, and back. Each breath was hard. I was within an inch of my life and yet I was holding on.

“I’m not doctor! What do I do?! AARON! AARON!” Alan sobbed his lungs out. I did feel a hint of sorrow for Alan. He was trying to help me, and he felt like he was failing.

Aaron rushed through the doors and knelt by his side. He had a few ice packs clutched in his hands, already prepared. Wordlessly, he placed them on and provided relief to any areas of extreme fire.

“Shh, it’s okay, Alan.” Aaron patted his friend’s back. He sobbed over me. All I could do was lay there and wonder how I had ever ended up here, hurt and feeling so empty.

I felt beyond shattered. I was disintegrated

“She might die and I can’t save her! She trusted the one man that hurt her! Both of us are failures!” Alan wailed. Aaron sat there, finishing up bandaging me up and leaving ice packs on any bruises. Alan busied himself with taking one of the cloths and gently wetting it down with cool water and softly rubbing off any traces of blood as best he could. Alan helped me silently sit up as Aaron wrapped bandages around my chest, covering the pierced hole in my chest and the dozens of lashes on my back and front. By the time the two boys were done with me, I had white gauze covering me like a mummy. Spots of red were already starting to stain the many layers of cloth.

Aaron had left the spot on my lower back where Austin had shattered the beer bottle open. It cried out every time they touched any place around it. For now, he set an ice pack on the area and hoped for the best.

They did their best to ease my pain, but it would never end. It never ends.

Alan scooped me up from the tiled floor, bringing me to my bed upstairs. Aaron was left to wash the towels and clean the stray drops of blood. Weakness was my only friend and dizziness was its companion.

“You’ll be better. You’re going to make it.” Alan whispered over and over as he sat me down. I rolled to my side. On my stomach was too much pain. On my back felt like I was snapped in half.

I hated feeling so weak.

I hated how this felt exactly like I was at Miles’s house.

I hated how Austin did this.

I hated that I put trust in him.

I hated that I was ugly, worthless, and alive.

I should be dead.

Another tear dripped out of my eye, but I wiped it away before anyone else could see. Alan sat down on the edge of the bed that I faced. He ran a hand through my hair, trying to calm me down. All I did was shiver and hunch away. I didn’t want to receive another beating.

If sweet Austin was capable of causing this much damage, how much pain could mild Alan cause?

As soon as he felt me shy away, he stopped and put his head in his hands. We were back to square one, just like how I came to the house.

Alan didn’t leave that night. I fell asleep as soon as my eyes shut. The faint alley runner instincts that hadn’t been broken told me to stay awake and keep an eye open for any danger to run from. That part of me wouldn’t ever shatter.

But for now, I was under the control of those around me. I had no will anymore. I was just another slave for them.

Notes

You guys are awesome readers! Thanks for the feedback! I'm sorry for the feels ;_; They had to happen eventually. :(

But for now, thanks for reading!