Page 84 of Born to Scar

I’m so confused. What is he talking about? Those three men are everything to me. They give me more than I could ever ask for, and he thinks…what the fuck? I stay silent as Cam told me to, but I don’t understand what is happening. My chest is starting to tighten.

We’re still driving, and I’m uncomfortable, with my hands pinned behind my back. “Where are you taking me?” I finally ask.

“Somewhere safe from them. Are you ready to talk now?”

I turn my head, looking out the window again. I should have known he would never tell me where we’re going. All I can hope is that someone is still tracking him. I can’t imagine Cam and Ken are still behind us. I sigh, pressing my forehead to the cool window. It’s really hard to fight back the hopelessness that’s settling over me.

Finally slowing down, he takes a turn. We are in the middle of nowhere. The house he parks in front of is worn. Some of the roof is missing. It’s completely dilapidated. Great. Perfect. This is the start of every horror movie out there, not that my life hasn’t been one big horror anyway.

He opens the back door and jerks me out, slamming the door behind me, making me jump. I need to figure a way out of this. No one pulled in behind us. Either they couldn’t keep up, or something pulled them away. He pushes me up on the porch, avoiding holes in the wood, and through the opening for the door. There is no door attached. It’s just a hole.

“Looks like your little boyfriends couldn’t keep up,” he sneers, pushing me in.

Still avoiding holes in the floorboards, he pushes me through the house and down a set of stairs into a basement. The basement is finished. It’s clean. Too clean. Bleach fumes are heavy in the air, and it’s so bright down here. What the fuck? This makes no sense. This is a horror movie in real life.

He sits me in a chair and ties my legs and handcuffed wrists to makeshift tie-offs. “Ready to talk?”

I still don’t say a word. His lips tip down as he nods, pushing my hair behind my shoulders. I recoil at his touch and don’t look in his eyes. I can’t.

He pulls a knife out. The air is sucked from my lungs. I don’t move a muscle and keep silent; maybe if I’m perfectly still, he won’t use it.

“You know, I left your face free of scarring, but”—he spins the knife through his fingers—“if you don’t start talking to me, I might change my mind.”

I already have so many scars; I don’t care if he adds to them. Staring at the floor, I know I’ll stay safe in my head until I can figure out a way to get out of this. He presses the sharp blade to my cheek and slices down my face. I don’t make a sound, but the warmth trickling down my face takes me back to the life I once lived. It’s been so long since I’ve felt the heat of a blade separate my skin.

He slices through my shirt, noticing my Medusa tattoo first. He cuts Xs through her eyes, and I want to cry. But I blink the tears back, resolved not to give him any reaction from me. He looks over what he can see of my body and marks any tattoo he knows is directly related to what he did to me. Even some that have nothing to do with him.

Is no one coming for me? Am I in some kind of nightmare I can’t wake up from? I’m not sure how long I’ve been here, but it feels like it’s been a long time. Five minutes? Five hours? Five days? I’m not sure.

“I hope you aren’t thinking you’re going to be saved. They’ll never be able to find us. You should get comfortable and start talking.” He paces in front of me, running his fat fingers through his hair. “It’s funny. This isn’t what I was hoping for when all of this started. I wanted to make us a closer family.”

Bile rises in my throat, but I swallow it back down. He will get no reaction from me, not even involuntary ones.

“But then Jennifer went and fucking ruined everything.”

For the first time tonight, he gets me, and my eyes widen at her beautiful name rolling off his ugly tongue. Through restraint I didn’t know I had, I keep myself reigned in, allowing that to be my only reaction.

“She tried to get custody of you. Do you know that? She tried to take you away from me. Though I guess she did. You left that very night. How the fuck did you get away without us hearing you?” He shakes his head. “It killed your mother to lose both of her daughters on the same day.”

It’s taking everything in me not to lash out. He’s going to keep pushing me, and I don’t know how much more of this I can take. He knows he can get to me through her. I shift in the chair. The way my feet and wrists are tied is unbearable. “If you answer some questions for me, I can free you.”

“What questions?”

His smile is vile.

——

“Indy? Hey Indy! God, I’ve missed you.”

“Where am I…is this a dream?”

Her face lifts in a smile. “Yeah. Come dream with me for a little while.”

“Jenny, I miss you so much. I’m so sorry for everything.” Her face drops a fraction, but she keeps her smile, the smile she never let anyone take away from her. One I’ve missed for so long.

“You, my baby sister, don’t need to apologize for anything. What happened wasn’t your fault.” She holds my face between her hands the way she always did. “I wanted so badly to get you out of there.” Tears build in my eyes. “I guess, in a way, I did, though. Huh?” Blinking, my tears fall over my cheeks. Her thumbs reach out to gently wipe them.

“I killed you. Jenny, I’ll never be able to forgive myself for that.”