Lena Martins

Chapter Five

“The sure sign that the soul is awake, is that it's outraged”

- Francis Weller

LENA'S POV
𝕾𝖔𝖓𝖌 : 𝕭𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍𝖊 – 𝕱𝖑𝖊𝖚𝖗𝖎𝖊 

Deep breaths.
I'm going to be okay.
Deep breaths.

Everything is in my head, this is not happening.
It's just a bad dream that I'm paralyzed in. They are the demons that will disappear as soon as I' ll wake up.

They can't break me.

Never.

Deep breaths, deep breaths, I  am  my own anchor.

No room for fear, it will carry me into an abyss and never allow me to escape from its grasp.

Delusional. This is what I was.

I was scared, petrified even , it was as if my whole body shut down and was unable to move.

I could feel them.

My tears trailed down my face as my kidnapper approached me, his intentions really clear

"Please don't" I pleaded but he grabbed me by the hair and lowered himself to whisper in my ear

"Be compliant and you'll get away with as little damage as possible"

"What?"

"Shut up" he whispers before kicking me in the knee causing it to buckle and lose its balance, a sharp pain shoots through the area where I had been hit as I fell in the cold ground.

In response I hear Annaliese's exaggerated chuckle seemingly content with the pain inflected to me.

My eyes closed trying to hold back my howl but I had no time to do anything as I was lifted by the older woman and grabbed by the throat forced to look into her viperous eyes.

This is not happening, this is just a bad dream, a bad dream. I sang in my head but even my brain couldn't believe it.

The mayor was like in a trance, amazed by what he was witnessing, his eyes shone and his pupils dilated and I could not do anything else but feel disgust for the scumbag I once had an ounce of admiration for, I am even surprised that I did not disgorge everything that I had in my guts on the polished heels of Annaliese.

This one coming dangerously close to me, her face leaves little space to mine leaving me the opportunity to visualize all the little details.

"So pretty...."
The pressure around my throat tightens and I try to get her hands out of me as I struggle to breathe correctly  "but after what I reserve for you, you will not be it so much" she sneers before spitting on my face. Her saliva that I could almost describe as viscous cascades on my skin.

I turned my head and my heart dropped as I see Albert approaching me with a mask covering his face, a steel baseball bat in his hand and a brass knuckle that he put in his wife's hands

"W-What are you going to do with that? You're not going to use that on me, are you?" My voice cracked, fear taking over everything, my hand going to my stomach protectively as if it would save me from any threat in the world.

No response from him.

All air is knocked out of my lungs as he swings at me, brutally hitting my belly with the instrument.
I let out a shrill scream  as blood gushes out of my mouth, the liquid and metallic substance almost preventing me from breathing, I feel myself collapsing but something is holding me back.

"Fall and your kneecaps are next" Annaliese warns before hitting me in the face with her dominant hand armed with her brass knuckles.

My vision blurs , everything goes dull as I spit more of the sanguine fluid and something whitish that I take time to recognize.

My first bicuspid in my mandibular arch.

I lost a fucking tooth.

"I didn't think you had it in you" I grunt trying to steady myself .

"What?"

"To get your hands dirty and who knows, maybe even kill ."

"I'm not a murderer" Annaliese defended herself as if even hearing me say that was insulting and disrespectful to her person

" Who knows? You've always been the kind of woman who knows perfectly well how to hide her game and fool others without them even suspecting shit" .

"I'm not a murderer" she screamed before grabbing the bat from Albert's hands and slamming it into my left arm which caused me to emit a low growl and then she lashed out at my belly, hitting me again and again even when I fell to the ground bleeding barely managing to beg her to stop

"You're not a murderer are you?" I cough struggling to take short breaths "so stop"

"Franky" she calls out to the younger man "Get her up" she ordered not seeming resigned to stop her actions.

It was not with too much difficulty that he managed to lift me off the ground but I could feel the reluctance in his touch as he forced me to my knees in front of Annaliese who in the meantime had retrieved a pocket knife that she stabbed my shoulder with without an ounce of hesitation 

I was bleeding so much that I didn't know where the blood came from. I couldn't tell where my pain came from. If it came from my pierced and sore shoulder , from the brass knuckles that hit my face , from the bat she mercilessly hit me with or even from my throbbing head.

I almost don't see the mayor of Paris groaning excitedly at such a gruesome scene, I almost don't hear the words of the bitch who called herself Hunter's mother "Just a whore like your mother. She was begging almost as much". I almost don't feel my tears starting to flow again or the knife being removed. The only one thing I can seem to think about is my baby, who is undoubtedly dead inside me.

I could feel a building rage inside of me

They used me, taking advantage of my blind love for their son, put me in prison, smeared me, kidnapped me and tortured me.

I wanted to scream until I lost my mind, my sanity, every rational part of myself but I remained silent, raging in the dying light that was beginning to take over everything else.

I fall to the ground once again barely able to keep my eyes open

I'm weak, helpless and pathetic and I've never been more ashamed of myself.

My hands shake, I choke on the sobs I leave in my throat. I don't like this, I don't want to feel this way. It's such an ugly feeling and when I allow myself to let it all out, they'll feel what they've caused and I'll show the same lack of compassion when I'll strike them down but I'll take my precious time to destroy their so loved empired