𝐍𝐎 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐒, ꜱʙɢ

21

"Dad?"

Dominique asked softly, knocking quietly on the wood door of his office where her father sat, a whisky in his hand and his other reading over the morning paper.

"Yes, Dominique?" He asked, his voice calm but slightly angry at being interrupted from reading. Dominique winced.

"Could I ask you something?" She whispered, just over her voice. She flinched back when her father slammed his glass of whisky down on the counter, looking at Dominique and rubbing his temples in frustration.

"Speak up. I can't hear you over your damn mumbling." He spoke, his voice calm but his eyes betraying him. Dominique swallowed the lump in your throat, parting her lips as she held her shaking hands behind her back.

"Would you mind if I took some self-defence classes with my friend? He's struggling a bit, getting bullied and-" Dominique was interrupted when her fathers chair screeched against the floorboards, where he came up to her face, looking her in the eye with eyebrows furrowed in anger.

"He?" The man questioned, huffing out his nostrils. Dominique's eyes widened in alarm,. she stuttered lightly, trying to back away from him, but was interrupted when his hand met her cheekbones in a sickening slap.

"No daughter of mine will be raised to be a whore." He said, watching as Dominique crumbled to the floor lightly, feeling blood pool in her mouth and run down her cheek.

Her father's rings always left nasty cuts in their wake.

"God. You look just like your pathetic mother." He spoke, scoffing as his boot met Dominique's stomach, watching as she furled in on herself and held tears in her eyes. His eyes calmed and he looked down at Dominique in indifference.

"Do what you want, Dominique. You're no daughter of mine anyway." He spoke, curling his fists and walking out the door to his office, clutching his whisky glass as if it were a lifeline, sending one cold, last glance at his daughter curled on the floor.

Dominique got up weakly, one of her hands around her stomach and the other cupping her cheek. She limped over to the bathroom outside the office, collapsing against the toilet and hurling, coughing lightly as tears burned her cheeks.

Tyler hit the matted floor with a thud, groaning as his back landed against the padding. He laid for a second, wiping his brow before getting back up with the help of Mike, who patted his shoulders.

It had been two or three weeks since what happened with Dominique's father. There was another small scar running across Dom's cheekbone and her stomach wasn't swelled anymore. It was still a little purple, but she didn't care. She flinched lightly whenever someone in the group poked her or punched her in the stomach playfully, but other than that she was okay.

"Dominique! You're up next." Mike spoke, gesturing to a lightly worn Dominique, who was sitting on a couple of old canisters next to beaten Ash, who gave her a thumbs up with a blank face. She got up with a sigh, rolling her shoulders lightly as she made her way over to the mat with Ashlyn's father.

The group had taken a quick water break, everyone turning to Dominique's match with interest. She was taking Ashlyn's father's beatings like champ, which had concerned them lightly. She seemed somewhat used to be thrown around and the group didn't like it. But; she had been the closest out of all of them to get Ashlyn's mother or father to the ground so far.

"You ready?" Mike spoke, looking over Dominique with narrowed, focused eyes. She nodded, throwing Dominique's dad a thumbs up with an unenthusiastic smile.

At the nod, Ash's father made the first move toward Dominique, aiming for a takeout to her ribs. As she went to block it, she noticed Mike's hand come up his side, ready for a cross against her face. She quickly spun, her hand moving against Mike's as she held his other fist with her's, blowing her bangs out of her face lightly and grimacing against the force of the punch.

Regrouping, Ash's dad pulled his hands away, aiming for a disoriented Dominique's side at the loss of contact. Furrowing her brows, Dom quickly shifted her feet closer, ducking lightly and kicking in the back of Mike's leg, bringing him down.

But, she didn't expect a hand to hug at the back of her tank, sending her down with him. He wrapped a hand around Dominique's throat and her eyes flashed with panic. He leaned down, looking her in the eyes, questioning her next move.

Her panic turned into anger and in a flurry, Dom bought her head up, smashing the top of her skull into Mike's nose, his eyes automatically watering as he let go of her, holding his nose in pain. Twisting her feet, she quickly wrapped her hands around the back of his skull, bringing his forehead to her knee in a loud smash.

Not giving him a moment to regroup, Dom quickly wrapped her arm around his neck and tensing, cutting off his airway.

Mike slammed his hand down on the mat twice, signalling his defeat as Dom quickly let go, looking at Ashlyn's dad's battered face.

Her eyes were wide with horror, looking at her hands lightly running with blood, Mike coughing heavily in the background and groaning at the pain.

"I'm so sorry-" she started, getting cut off as Ashlyn pushed her fallen body to the side, quickly coming to her dad's aid as she looked him over with worried eyes.

The group quickly gathered around Mike, who was holding his nose in pain, his back against the floor. She shuffled forward lightly, putting her hand on Ashlyn's shoulder and patting her lips to apologise. But, was cut off when a fierce, angry glare was thrown to her from Ashlyn.

Dominique felt her throat dry, her breaths coming out shakily. Her mind ran over the images of the torn, massacred phantom's corpse from the night in Savannah. She placed her hand over her mouth, clamping down as blood mixed with fallen tears on her cheeks.

She picked herself up, limping lightly as she backed away from the scene, her pupils dilating terror as she ran out of the graveyard walls 

fin.

1053 words

Short chapter today sorry :<