Overprotective Much?

Chapter 25 Fresh Hell

I wake up with both hands tied to the back legs of my chair. My head is thumping and I can hardly open my eyes. When I do, I see the faint outline of a body in a chair opposite of where I'm sitting. I blink a couple of times to clear the thin layer of film covering my eyes and notice who it is. Chad.

There's a strip of black tape covering his mouth and I try to call out his name but there's something blocking my sound; the strip of duck tape covering my mouth.

"Finally, I had begun to think my blow had knocked you out permanently," A raspy and dark voices grumbles above Chad, Paul. He begins to walk his way towards me, behind me. I feel a cold, rough hand touch my uncovered shoulder and jump back,"Someones feisty isn't she," He turns my chair around so I can feel his breaths,"Just like her mother," I automatically start thrashing around and lashing at anything in my path. The ropes tied to my hand rub against my skin in a burning sensation. I try to scream from the pain but the tape preventing me from doing so. "Let me help you with that sweetheart," He rips the tape off my mouth leaving my face in shock and I spit at him."So I think we should play a little game, it's what my therapist says will help with family bonding."

"You have a therapist?" I ask in surprise, my voice higher than I'd like it to be.

"Indeed I do, we meet every Tuesday, he says I exhibit symptoms of a sociopath, I highly disagree. I like to think of it as good leadership skills." The smirk on his face makes me feel sick.

"Manipulation isn't being a leader, its called being a control freak. You're worse than a sociopath."

"Better watch your tone young lady or you'll get first," Then I notice the whip behind his back, "So Laurel, I never really liked your name you know. Your mom and I said that if it was a girl she would name you if it was a boy I would name you. That whore ended up naming you all her stupid family names, but Chad, that was all me. It means battle in Welsh because I knew you would endure battles in life, of course, you needed a life push so I had to inflict some of those battles or hardships on you myself." With that, he drops the whip had down on Chad's shoulder, a faint scream bursts from his sealed lips.

"Now Laurel dear, since I've been away for so long, I'd like to see how you're doing in school."

"The school's going to notice, someone is going to notice were gone!" I lash back at him.

"I don't think you need to worry about that I've got it all taken care of," What has he done. "I am going to ask you some simple questions if you get them right, good for you. If you get them wrong, however, someone isn't going to have a good time. You can choose either yourself or your brother," He comes close to my face again and whispers into my ear, "I would choose wisely if I were you."

He turns my chair back around so I face Chad, his head is down and I can hear him silently weeping, I can add on to the pain Paul has already inflicted on him. Although I don't want to add on to my pain either.

"First off, what countries border Spain?" I have no utter chance at getting these questions right.

"Portugal, France," I stop there, trying to remember everything from 8th grade World Geography class.

"Incorrect. You left out Andorra, Gibraltar, and Morocco. What is the square root of 5041?"

"50?"

"Incorrect, 71. Final question, what is the difference between a mixture and a compound?"

"How am I supposed to know this kind of stuff?"

"Maybe if you had your daddy to help you study you would remember,"

"I'd rather fail." Staring him dead in the eye, he walks behind Chad.

"Would you rather save your own skin, or save your brothers?" I stare at Chad, he looks up and I see faint outlines of more bruising, I can't let him go through this. If any of my brothers were in my situation they would risk themselves over anyone else, that's just the type of people they are, and I am definitely my brother's sister. I was too busy thinking about my decision I didn't even notice Paul lifting up the whip, seconds away from hurtling it down on Chad's bare skin.

"Stop!" The words come out of my mouth loosely," Don't hurt him," Chad's eyes widen as he begins to rapidly shake his head back and fourth signaling me to change my decision. Paul makes his way slowly towards me like an animal stalking its prey.

"I really do hate how all of you care about each other this much," He starts pulling my shirt down off of my shoulder sending shivers down my spine, "But I think I can change that soon." At that, I feel the cold hard whip strike down on my and lean forward as far as I can, as far as I can get away from him. It doesn't stop there, he drops the harsh tool down on me multiple times, gnawing at my skin until I feel blood trickling down my neck, my screaming definitely doesn't help. All of a sudden, it stops.

"Bring her to the Rec Room," I hear Paul say, most likely ordering one of his men lurking in the shadows. Paul finally leaves, slamming a door behind him as one of the goons begins to untie me and eventually pick me up bringing me to another room, I notice now that were in the basement, it's cold and desolate, just what Paul reminds me of.

He slowing brings me back to the ground and handcuffs both hands on the wall, luckily now I can lay down. He kisses me on the forehead before leaving me to be alone in a dark room to bleed, I had almost forgotten about my shoulder. It was sort of numb now so I couldn't feel the searing pain I knew would return when the numbness leaves. It was strange of him to leave me a kiss, how could someone going along with such a horrible job admit any sort of affection. When he was gone I tried to reach over and touch my shoulder, it felt like a bullet wound, not that I knew what that felt like, at least not yet.

I began to sob quietly, not that there was any reason to be quite. Darkness soon began to consume my mind and I felt as if I were about to fall asleep when I heard my name.

"Laurel?" It was a low and husky voice and I knew immediately that it wasn't random.

"Ben?"