Shattered (The Academy)

Chapter 30: Betrayed.

Time before.

The sound of Eleazar Rossum knuckles against his brother's jaw bones echoes through the room at the same time as someone hits the door.
For a moment, Robert doesn't react and the door opens itself.
Nor Eleazar or Robert saw the man standing on the door.
Eleazar expects a punch back, security, cussing. But he gets none of that.
"I have to admit I am surprised by your strong feelings towards that girl. And that's why I have to tell you all I do is for your own good, even if you don't agree now. Things will go back to normal. Now, show yourself the way out"
Eleazar stares.
"What are you going to do?!"
Robert's answer is pushing the red button under his desk before his guards come in. They take Eleazar by his arms and drag them down to the hallway. In a side, her father waits.
"Come in, come in!" Robert smiles at him, cheerful. As nothing of what had just happened was weird "Would you like some tea?"
"I would like to know why I'm here" Answers, a bitterness in his voice he is familiar with. He sits in the chair in front of him and frowns "Our deals ended years ago"
"And look what happened. Your daughter is stronger than you. How's your family?"
Mr. Sorenson narrows his eyes at him.
"None of your bussines"
"A little bird came and told me something really interesting. Your daughter is missing and your wife is dead. How does that go?"
Mr. Sorenson keeps quiet.
Robert smiles.
"My brother made mistakes on the way" He continues "Horrible ones. The kind that blind you. I'm here to solve them all, Mr. Sorenson. I can handle your daughter"
"I don't really need her being handled. She's fine"
"And yet, you came"
For a moment, there is silence.
"Shannon killed Marie" Mr. Sorenson confesses "Mina made my wife rot in some place"
"Shannon" Robert says, almost like tasting the name. Then laughs "You mean Sang? This would have never happened before. If you had just heard"
"She threw my wife down the stairs! She made everyone think she was crazy! What did you want me to do?"
"I wanted you to put on your man's pants and handle your daughter. Now she's stolen five millions from me and my brother is long gone. Soft. Tamable. Do you think I'm happy?"
"But you didn't bring me here to blame it all on me"
Robert spins on the chair like a kid, chuckling.
"Smart man. No, I didn't. I did not indeed. I may have solutions for you"
"Like what?"
"It's kind of easy: You live with her. Or you do when you're not fucking that other woman. What's her nane again? Oh, well. Here is the deal: Go home, smile, pretend to be the good, caring father you never were and never will, ask some sweet questions, show you care. Then you act on it. Do you have a gun?"
"No"
"A knife will do, then. No need to worry! You don't have to kill her. Actually, I don't want you to kill her. I just want... a scratch. You know? No a stab to the heart or such, but a nice almost deadly wound. Almost is the key word, if you notice. Ask her where's the money, what she did with her, make her tell you. And for you? I'll take care. I'll take her where she was always ment to stay until you screwed up and then you can go back to that family of yours. Free. Agreed?"
He finds Mr. Sorenson eyes at the other side of the desk, giving the answer his mouth will.

Sang's point of view.
Real time.

My ears are buzzing.
What?
There's... blood. There's blood!
Dad.
My head spins around with thoughts until I can only see blurry and feel dizzy. And the pain in my lower back. I have never felt something like this before.
"Sang" Dad calls my name, kneeling down onto the ground next to me "Isn't this so familiar? Almost like when I found Marie there on the ground, dead"
Revenge. He's doing this for revenge. He knows!
"I'm sorry. It wasn't..."
"You?" He interrumpts "They are all you, Sang. And I think you know that"
Inside, I feel it, skowly: Mina shaking up, ready to jump, readjy to stab back. But I can't. I can't let go. Not now. I want to remember. I want to remember every piece.
"Every piece?" Mina is angry. Really mad "Then let's show you every piece!"
"No!" Someone else says. Not Elizabeth, not the sorrowful and hoping voice of Shannon, not the scared voice of Kaylan. Amanda?
"Hi, honey" I hear her say before a violent flashback comes to me. Something unknown, but at the samwe time, it feel familiar.
Is Mina's memory.
Mom holds me by the shoulders behind me while my knees sink on shattered glass underneath. The pain feels so real, the blood is so red, not the jamaica kind of red but a purple-ish one. It spreads. I scream.
And then it hits me again.
Mom pulling of my hair for watching the kids outside my window play, dragging me around the house until some locks of my hair are in between her fingers, me laying down in the kitchen.
"Stop it, Mina!" A sweet voice says. I think that's Amanda.
"Amanda" I whisper her name.
Over me, dad shakes his head.
"I should have been stronger. I should have let them take you. Damn the consecuences. They're coming"
"Coming?" I mutter, feeling myself going and coming from dizziness.
"When you were younger I never knew. Never knew you were capable of murdering, until you attempted it to your mother. That's when I knew what you were capable. I was afraid, but I'm not anymore"
Mina won't stop.
I'm in a hospital room and mom is sitting on a bed, looking down at her toenails. She looks done. So old, so wasted. Unestable.
Then she looks at me walking in. She frowns, her knees up to her chest.
"Are you ready today?" I hear my cruel voice. Mina's.
"The lord will punish you" She answers "Monster!"
"Oh, darling. I'm not Shannon. Do you need a reminder?"
And then, there is an injection in my hand. She flinches.
"I don't like that" She flinches, like a child.
"Well, I do. It makes you dizzy, uh? It makes you lightheaded. It makes you speak"
"I should have drowned you when you first arrived at my door"
"I should have killed you in your sleep. We all regret things. So. How do you feel about talking, dear momma?"
She spits at my feet.
"You will never know, monster"
Then I smile.
"Do you want to know about your sweet daughter Marie?"
That caughts her attention.
"Last time I saw her was sweet. You know how much I like murders. I have to admit I have to admit I learned a thing or two in Criminal Minds. One of those is that I might be a psycopat. I mean, all that blood on the floor..."
She doesn't cry, but she looks at me with hate.
"I should have killed you, I should have killed you, IshouldhavekilledyouIshouldhavekilledyouIshouldhavekilledyou"
"Oh, I will if you don't tell me what I want to hear. Finally"
"YOU'RE NOT MY DAUGHTER!"
"No shit. I want a fucking name! Who was she?"
I gasp as I come back to reality, at my father over me looking down.
"Mother?" I can only mutter.
"Don't die, Sang. There are bigger plans for you"
He takes his phone and dials while I start to fade away every time a little bit more.
Amanda throws a memorie at me, this time.
It's not hers, but she has it and gave it to me. Is Elizabeth, laughing next to Eleazar, him calling her Mina and kissing her. She feels safe. She feels warmness inside.
In the inside I thank her. If I'm going to go, I want to go like this. With a safety feeling. A good memory. A good feeling.
I'm not sure I'm gonna make it.
And then another, but this time it's my own. Victor smiling down at me, North calling me Sang Baby, Gabriel touching my hair and calling me trouble, Sean smirking like a child, Luke hugging me on the pool. Kota and his first nice gesture at me. Silas being huggy when I thought he would likely kill me. Nathan letting ne cuddle with him.
I'll remember this. This is the way I'll leave. And maybe it's the best possible end.
He finishes his call and looks again to me, this time sitting down besides me.
"Where is the money, Sang? You stole it from Robert Rossum and now he's mad. More mad. This will look bad to you. First you run off their hand and then you steal money. Where is it?"
No, no. Think about Victor, Nathan, al the guys. All my guys.
I've surprised myself for considering them mine, but I do.
They're my guys. They will forever be in my heart.
"Come on, Sang. Is time to talk. Can you hear me?"
I close my eyes, the tears falling down the corner of my eyes.
Don't think about mom not being your mom. Don't think.
Don't th

Mina's point of view.

She leaves and I get out. And I fight against him, cursing and screaming.
I can't leave. I refuse to leave until each and everyone of them pay for what they did to me. To us.
I move through the pain, the way Sang can't. I fight. I scratch and shake and try to punch him.
I survive.
"They're coming, Sang" He answers, now standing up.
I'll be damned if I go back to that place "Just tell me where is the money now. They will get it out of you on the hard way, but with me it will be easy"
"Screw you"
He crosses his arms.
"Do you understand this is the end for you? But I have to admit I have to thank you, Sang. I wasn't sure how I was gonna get rid of this family. Then you did it for me. I just never thought it would be by killing them"
"Mother is not dead, yet"
I try to breathe in, but it gets harder by the moment.
"I don't care what happens to her now. But I don't want the police questioning our situation"
"I am smart. Haven't you thought I hadn't gotten through that?"
"You're a teenager"
As if being a teenager makes me a fucking unicorn. As if it made me not know all the things I do, as if it really ment something. As it were valid.
But I am a whole lot more than a teenager.
"I'm proud" Then I do it: I gather all my strenghts and sweep of his feet with my legs. He falls on the floor and I take off the knive on my back, screaming as hell, stabing it into him now.
A knife has always had a double blade.
Blood pours out of me like crazy and I understand I have to press. By my side, he lies in pain and yells. I take the knife out. I put it back in. And then again. And again.
And I can't take it anymore. I let myself fall down. I'm fucking leaving this godammned place like this. Dad paid, Marie paid, but Mother is another story.
She neds to suffer. She needs to feel double of what I felt.
I won't let her die. Never die. I"ll do something worse: I'll let her live knowing all the things that will distroyed her. A dead daughter. A cheating husband. A life full of white rooms and heavy meds.
A daughter who beat her up.
I still haven't won.
When the door opens and heavy footsteps echoe in the room, I don't look back. I don't turn my head.
It's the end now. I can't move, I can't breathe. Powerless.
Kaylan rises inside and I let myself being pulled out. The last thing I see is my father's blood extending to me, touching my cheeks against the wood, the salty smell.
Someone grabs my arm hard.