Four Broken Pieces ✓

Forty Seven

My eyes slowly opened and I bit back a groan as pain assaulted my side. What had happened? Why was the side of my body on fire? I traced my fingers over the wound on the side of my body and bit back another groan. It was still bleeding out but the cut hadn't been deep enough to knock me out for too long. Suddenly, everything came rushing back. The strange man, the burning house, Ivan's mother and passing out. I'd passed out. Where was I?

The jolt of the surface below my back confirmed my suspicions. I sat up in the car with a start but the stranger in the driver's seat didn't even flinch.

Then again, I had nothing to attack him with. Or maybe he knew I wouldn't anyway. At some point thoughts of revenge, of hurting others had all faded when I realized what they truly entailed, a lifetime of guilt with no redemption.

I had no redemption.

"Who, who are you," I asked in a gravelly voice like I hadn't used it in weeks. It felt like it physically hurt to form words now. I realized a bruise was forming on my chin. The man in the driver's seat turned to me with a bored expression. Somehow, I didn't fear him. I felt absolutely nothing. Perhaps I'd entered a state of shock. Even the pain from my side was slowly turning numb. I glanced around the car and realized Ivan's mother wasn't here. Thank god she'd managed to escape.

That was unless they had done something to her. I silently prayed that she was safe. Ivan needed his mother back.

"We're on the way to the boss. You've caused quite a lot of trouble. You didn't think you wouldn't pay for it did you," the strange man said as he turned to face the front once again. Of course I'd pay for what I'd done. I deserved to pay for it. What I'd done was inexcusable. Punishment was what I needed even, punishment and maybe a painkiller for the wound in my side that was giving me a migraine.

Even in all my sadness though, I knew that I didn't deserve to be punished at the hands of Ivan's father. He'd committed sins far greater. We'd both pay for what we'd done at some point but he was in no way entitled to hurt me.

My boys didn't deserve any of this. They were pure and I couldn't let Ivan's father use me against them. Maybe I deserved it but they surely didn't. For them I needed to find a way to live even when all my body wanted to do was shut down. The pain in my side had my cheeks damp with tears. I hadn't even felt them fall. Maybe I'd been crying even since everything began to go wrong.

Focus. Don't think about it. I couldn't wallow in what had happened before. For my boys, I needed to find a way out of this car. Before I could contemplate just how to do the same, the car slowed down to a stop. Seems I'd missed my chance to do at least one thing right. We'd stopped in front of a deserted garage area of sorts in one of the most remote parts of town.

Plenty of space to run but with the wound in my side I wouldn't get far. No places to hide and no people to save me either. My throat was too raw to even scream anyway.

Ivan's father had chosen his place well. Therefore, I didn't struggle when the strange man all but yanked me out of the car and put a gun to my head. I didn't cry out when he tied a cloth around my mouth. I didn't fight when he lead me into the meeting area I'd just seen. I just shuffled forward and silenced any cries of pain that came because of my side when I took a step. I didn't even bother to look at the face of the stranger dragging me. There were only three faces I wanted to see right now.

The garage door rolled up. A gasp echoed from my right as a hand now seized my left arm. I didn't dare move my head to see who'd grasped my arm with the gun still pressed to the back of my head. The hand on my arm shoved me forward and this time I couldn't keep in my muffled cry of pain in as my knees landed painfully on the hard ground and blinding pain shot up my side. When I'd cleared the black spots in my vision after blinking rapidly, I looked up and almost sobbed. The hollowness in my heart faded for just a second and my heart grieved.