Page 130 of Firefly
She swings at me wildly, catching my lip with her ring.
Bad move.
I hit her harder.
My fist cracks against her cheekbone once. Twice. Again.
Blood sprays across my knuckles while her screams echo down the abandoned road sharp enough to make my skin vibrate.
“Please stop,” she sobs, collapsing against the pavement. “Please!”
But I can’t because, suddenly, I don’t see Tracy anymore.
I see Hayden bloodied in a prison jumpsuit. Brayden’s hand around my throat. My father smiling while destroying every piece of my life.
Pain. Pain.
And for once…
I need somebody else to fucking feel it too.
She tries crawling away, crying hysterically through broken sobs.
“I didn’t even sleep with him!” she chokes out desperately. “Oh my God, you’re fucking crazy!”
Maybe I am.
I grab her hair again, yanking her backwards so hard she screams while her nails scrape helplessly against the pavement.
“You think this is funny?” I snarl.
“No! No please!”
My boot slams into her ribs hard enough to make something crack loudly beneath the impact. She shrieks.
The sound cuts off halfway into a wet choking gasp while she curls around herself, trembling uncontrollably..
“Oh my God!” she wheezes painfully. “Please…”
“Shut up!”
I kick her again. And again.
Her body jerks weakly across the asphalt while blood pours from her nose and mouth now.
Somewhere deep in the back of my mind, a terrified voice is screaming at me to stop. But the rage is louder. Always louder.
Tracy drags herself toward the wrecked car, leaving bloody handprints behind her while crying so hard she can barely breathe.
Then her hand closes around something near the tire.
A gun.
Fear detonates instantly.
She swings towards me, shaking violently. “No!” she screams hysterically. “Stay the fuck away from me!”
Then the gun clicks. Empty.
