Falling into Surrender(8)

"Fine," Eleanore concedes. "I can be lenient. I am not a cold hearted  monster," she says. "I will let you choose. You let your best friend  fuck your boyfriend, or … " she trails off and gestures at the man holding  me down. "Let him fuck you until he's bored with you. Your choice."         

     



 

"Gabriel rocks violently against his restraints, looking like the hulk  as he tries to smash the metal chair beneath him. "You're fucking dead! I  promise you I will kill you when this is over!"

"Fine!" I cry out. "He can do whatever he wants to me. Just please let them go."

Eleanore ignores me as she turns her icy gaze on Gabriel, walking across  the room to slap him hard. "You have no idea about your slutty little  girlfriend here. I knew she would go for it, that's why I asked her. You  need to see her for what she really is. A whore. She's been begging for  it before she even hit puberty."

"You mean you let someone rape her repeatedly," he hisses. "Some fucking mother you are!"

"Is that what she told you?" She shakes her head in disgust. "Because, I  can assure you she was begging him for it. You should have seen how  pathetic she was."

"I was eight years old!" I bawl out. "How could I possibly be begging for it?"

"Enough!" she snaps, walking back across the room to sit down in the  chair beside me. "Fuck her now, and make sure it's brutal. I want to see  all of them squirm."

I vaguely hear Gabriel cursing at Allan before he thrusts himself on top  of me, holding me down with the brute force of his body weight. His  hands seem to be everywhere, groping me as he tries to rip my jeans off.  I manage to get my mangled hand free of the rope and punch him in the  face. His eyes narrow and turn to shades of pure black as he grabs my  head and slams it down into the floor.

"Fucking bitch!" he spits in my face.

He's angrier now, and his hands let me know it as he assaults me. I'm  still disoriented from the bump to my head, but I manage to bring my  knee up between his legs, hitting him square in the balls. He doubles  over on top of me, crying out in agony.

I can't move, can't see anything around me. I can barely make out the  muffled voices in the room underneath his suffocating weight. All I can  feel is the pain everywhere I try to fight him off. And then his fist,  smashing into my face repeatedly. Blackness wavers in and out of my  vision, threatening to take me under.

Something warm is trickling down my head. Blood. But he still hasn't  managed to remove any of my clothing, and I can at least be grateful for  that. It's short-lived though when his eyes go deadly calm and his  hands wrap around my throat, squeezing hard. My breath slips from my  chest as I flail beneath him. I pull at his arm, but it's no use. I'm  going to die if I don't do something.

I slip my free hand beneath me, reaching for the gun in one last  attempt. After several fumbles, I'm finally able to dislodge it from my  waistband. I pull hard until the rope slackens beneath, giving me enough  room to shove it into his gut. Confusion washes over his face, and his  hands loosen around my neck as he leans up to see what I'm holding.  Without hesitation, I fire off two rounds. He slumps over on top of me,  his blood soaking into my clothes.





Chapter Six

Victoria





When I catch my breath, my eyes flash open and the outside world invades  my senses. I push the heavy mass of Allan's body off of me, the noise  in the room finally registering in my brain. Gabriel is screaming  something, but I can't focus on the words. My head is spinning when I  sit up, the blackness threatening to return. I almost succumb to it  before I close my eyes and force myself to take some deep breaths.

It takes me a minute to get a grasp on what's happening around me. When I  look across the room, Eleanore is on top of Alanna, punching her  relentlessly. Alanna flails her arms weakly in defense, but has clearly  already lost the battle. The sight alone is enough to send another surge  of adrenaline through my body. I stand on shaky legs, the sheer force  of will the only thing holding me together at this point.

Gabriel screams something at me, but I can't and don't want to hear what  he's saying. I have one thing on my mind as I creep up behind Eleanore  and place the cold metal barrel of the gun to her head.

"Get off of her, now."

Everyone in the room is staring at me. The voice that just came from my  throat is so foreign, so cold and unfamiliar, I don't even know what to  make of it. But right now, I really don't care. Eleanore freezes when  she realizes what's happening, and Alanna lets out a soft moan as her  head lolls to the side and she passes out.         

     



 

"Get on your knees, and don't fucking move," I command.

She reluctantly does as I ask while Gabriel stares at me in shock. He's pulling at his ropes, still trying to get free.

"My darling daughter," Eleanore says sweetly, "what do you think you're  going to do with that gun? You would never shoot me, the mother who  raised you."

Maniacal laughter bubbles up my throat as I stare at her with wild eyes.  "Wouldn't I?" I challenge. "I hardly think you deserve any semblance of  the word mother."

"Victoria," Gabriel bellows, his face etched with panic. "Untie me and give me the gun. I will take care of this."

I glance at him, and my heart squeezes in my chest. Betrayal hot and  fierce slices through me all over again as I remember what happened  earlier, and I have to tear my gaze away from him.

Eleanore laughs at my reaction. "You see Victoria, admit it. You don't  trust him anymore. And why would you? You can't trust him or Alanna. I'm  the only person you have left in this world. Just put the gun down, and  we can forget about all of this. I love you, Victoria. You are my  daughter. We can leave here together, finally be a family again."

Her words feel like acid to the ever-present wound inside of me. I know  they aren't real, but those are the words that I've wanted to hear for  so long. Needed to hear.

"Victoria," Gabriel growls. "She's lying. Untie me, and I can help you."

Eleanore's hollow laugh echoes through the room as Alanna starts to  whimper beneath me. It's all too much. Too much noise. I can't think …  I  need to think.

"Everyone just shut up!" I scream, waving the gun wildly in my hand. "Just shut up!"

The room goes silent as they all stare at me, waiting for my next move. I  use my free hand to rub my swollen eyes, and in that moment of  weakness, Eleanore springs on me like a wild animal taking down it's  pray. My back slams into the ground as she launches herself on top of  me, trying to wrestle the gun from my grip. The blackness is starting to  take over again, and I know I need to make my decision now. Eleanore's  made her choice. She's chosen to betray me yet again.

My eyes are blurry and unfocused as I squeeze the trigger, a million  emotions swirling inside of me as the bullet flies from the cartridge.  Nothing seems to happen at first, and it feels like forever before  Eleanore doubles over in pain. I manage to scramble back to my feet,  keeping my gun and eyes fixed on her.

She's holding her hip, blood pouring from the open wound as she looks up  at me in disbelief. There's no disguising the pure hatred on her face.  This is the real Eleanore. The one that I've always known.

"This is why!" she sobs. "Why I could never love you. You've destroyed  everything …  the only man that ever loved me, and you took him away."

"I didn't take him from you," I rasp. "You did that yourself."

"No!" Eleanore screams defiantly. "He always loved you more. No matter  what kind of evil little monster you were, you could do no wrong in his  eyes."

"I was his daughter … "

"Yes, his one and only," she spits back. "I hated you from the day I met  you. All he could talk about was how you looked just like your  beautiful mother. You have no idea what it was like for me. I had to  live with the constant reminder of the woman he still loved. He wouldn't  even have another child with me, he refused."

A small pang of unwelcome sympathy slithers into my chest for the  pathetic, bawling mad woman in front of me. I had no idea how Eleanore  felt before. What her reasons were for acting the way she did. And here  she is, pouring her heart out. And for once, it all seems to be  completely genuine.

"He would have stayed with you," I whisper. "He did love you, Eleanore.  We both did. We tried to get you help, but you wouldn't take it." I  pause for a moment, unsure of what I'm about to say next. "It's not too  late, we can still do that."

Gabriel is shaking his head and trying to talk to me again, but I drown  out his voice. This is my decision, and I won't let anybody take that  from me.