Powers in Love

Bird in a Cage

Chapter 4

Authors note: Hello again! Welcome back! This is it! The chapter we have all been waiting for- the chapter where she meets all of the boys! I am so excited to actually get this story going!

As always, canon compliance language, abuse, and violence. Be careful! This chapter has mentions of previous abuse, as well as a bit of neglect. There is also a pretty intense scene of abuse at the end, so skip it at the line of ~~~~~ to skip the scene. It goes to the end of the chapter, but I'll give a quick rundown on what happened after to catch you up.Take care of yourselves, and please don't read if it will hurt your mental health. <3

Thanks for all of the support, the comments and votes. It makes me smile, and pushes me to work on these as fast as I can. (I held this finished chapter for a couple of days so I could start stockpiling to maybe set up a weekly update schedule(possibly with a Wednesday update??? Maybe Sunday, haven't decided), but I'm still working on it as well as specifics for future chapters. I've got a story outline, and details for about the next couple chapters, and that's it.)

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It had been a couple of days since the boys had discovered my mother's punishments.

I was worried about how the others would react when they were told.

Victor, Kota, and Silas had asked a lot of questions, and I knew they were angry, but not once did I feel it directed at me.

They were scared for me, and offered to take me in, and we argued a little about it, but after I explained the situation they accepted it with grim expressions. They still hung out with me, and treated me as their friend, through, which made me smile.

I didn't have to tell any of the other guys. They all knew by the next time I saw them.

They were all walking on eggshells, treating me like a glass doll that would break at any moment. But they hadn't thrown me out yet, they still wanted to be my friend.

That made all the risk worth it to me.

That is, on the days I could manage to get away from my house.

I'd been punished twice since the day at the mall, both small things.

Once the kitchen wasn't clean enough, so I had to kneel.

The second time had happened just yesterday.

I hadn't kept her dinner warm, even though I'd set the food on her bed side table for her to eat. She'd been asleep, and when she woke up to cold food, decided I should be sitting on a stool for hours.

My muscles still felt sore, but I couldn't focus on that now. Today was registration day!

I tried to stretch my stiff muscles, hearing a cacophony of cracks as my I felt pressure lessen on my spine. Ahhh. That's nice.

The bruises on my back from a previous punishment, the ones the boys saw, were turning ugly shades of yellows and browns. They're healing, I'm alive and will be okay.

"Girls! It's time to go!" My dad called, interrupting my thoughts, and I heard Marie stomp down the stairs.

I check my outfit in the mirror again- a pale green button down blouse that was a little worn and not buttoned up to the top button at my neck, and the grey skirt I had worn to the mall. It was the best outfit I had at the moment, and I wanted to look nice.

Thinking of the mall has me shivering, flashes of dead eyes and hungry hands going through my mind, but I quickly pushed it off and nodded at myself in the mirror before putting my hair in my clip and making my way downstairs.