The Force Inside Me Unleashed | Book 2 |

It's Official: My Life Sucks.

The man grabbed a fistful of my hair after unshackling me and dragged me behind him as he left the room, me kicking and struggling, Mary - no, Jaisa, my twin sister - screaming something I couldn't understand.

Could I? I... I couldn't tell.

The door slammed right after my feet slid through, narrowly avoiding them, though I had a feeling it was on purpose. I was dragged into another room just a few feet away from the last one. It was just as dark, too. The man released my hair and took my wrist, shackling me to the wall with a loud chink. I felt for the end of the chain and began to tug as hard as I could, knowing it wouldn't come out but still daring to hope.

A kick to the back, one hard enough to bruise bones, sent me to the floor. I didn't cry out. His boot ground into my back. I made no sound. He lifted his boot and pulled me up and around to face him, and his fist connected with my cheek. I grunted, tasting blood, and spat at him. That earned another punch, one hard enough that I nearly blacked out from the pain.

Hit after hit he went, but I didn't say a thing. I never begged him to stop, never even cried out from it. I wasn't going to look weak. I wasn't going to let my twin sister suffer. So I took the beating.

I lay on the ground, beaten and bloody, my breath a rasp in my throat. My head was on fire and drenched in my own blood, my ribs were a lead weight in my chest, my limbs completely useless from all the breaks that struggled to heal. I had put all my energy into breathing: in, out; in, out; in, out. And then he was dragging me again, holding my up by my arms and letting me feet slide behind me. I couldn't fight. I was in too much pain. My neck stayed limp, my head hanging down and dripping blood on the floor as he went along.

We went through a long hallway, and at the end was a door that opened at our arrival. I know because I heard it slide open with that metallic gasping sound that was so familiar in my ringing ears. I was thrown to the ground and I landed hard, groaning and coughing. I climbed to my knees and looked up, blinking rapidly in the sudden light that blinded my sore, swolen eyes.

Breathing. Loud, mechanic breathing, so familiar. So familiar.

Fabric shifted behind me, the man kneeling down on one knee, and he muttered, "Master."

No, I thought suddenly, and I barely withheld a chuckle. No way. No freaking way. That's Darth Vadar. How did I not know that?!

"Why do you smile, girl?" he asked, voice flat, and inhaled. And exhaled. And inhaled again. And exhaled again.

To be completely honest, I hadn't even realized that I was smiling. I schooled my features and looked down at the floor, mentally cursing myself.

"Look at me when I speak to you!" he boomed suddenly, making me jump and look back up at him. In time to see the hand reach up as he backhanded me across the face. I fell heavily, but got back up immediately. Vadar laughed a deep, cold, bitter, amused, and humorless laugh. It sent a shiver through my soul and down my spine.

"You know what to do," the huge cyborg man said to his yellow-eyed pupil, and then he swept from the room, his cape billowing behind him like a river of death.

The yellow-eyed man stood, looking at me with I could only imagine was disgust since I couldn't see his face. I could feel his gaze sweeping over my broken-but-slowly-mending body, analyzing how much of a threat I was.

I let out a rasping chuckle. "I'm not gonna move, man. Well, not yet, anyways." That got me another slap.

But I just kept going.

"You hit pretty hard, but I'm pretty sure my mom could hit harder than you can. I mean, seriously, it stings and all -"

His hand swept out again, but this time I was ready. I blocked his blow and looked into his yellow eyes with a sarcastic smirk.