“I’m not defiant, asshole. I’m just not one for being held in a hole in the ground, having buckets of water thrown on me, and being talked down to like a fucking dog. Defiance isn’t even the word... to describe how you make me feel.” I was seething.
I watched as the side of his lips lifted into a half smile, as if what I was saying made him happy. It would. It would make him happy to see someone like me in this situation.
Within a blink of my eye, he was standing again, his voice raised as he laughed at me. Confusion settled into my bones. What the hell was he doing?
“I make you feel something? That’s hilarious.” I listened to him talk while coming to a stand as slow as possible. Could I make a run for it? No. They would shoot me.
“Do you even know why you’re here?” Asshole asked again as if I was actually listening to him. Since Zerro, I stared danger right in the eyes and laughed—something I could always thank him for, I guess.
“I think we went over this already, but let me tell you why I think I’m here.” I pause a moment surveying the land. There was a clearing with trees on all sides and we were deep in the woods. My breaths came in as pants as my eyes caught on an old rotting stump off in the distance.
“You were saying…” He mocked his eyes glittered with amusement, and though I could see he found something funny, there was a darker secret being kept in his eyes.
“You know something…” I growled, not even caring if my accusation got me thrown back in the hole. Crossing his arms over his chest, he looked down at me.
“And you know nothing…”
“Tell me.” I refused to allow him to taunt me. I need answers if he knows what happened to Zerro, and he knows what happened to my father then he’s more useful than I ever thought.
“Tell you what? That Zerro is dead and your father is hiding you in a hole near your own home?” My eyes grew big, and my heart raced as I took a step back. Did he say Zerro was dead? Wouldn’t I know? Wouldn’t I have felt something? But that wasn’t what shocked me the most. Oh, no. What shocked me most was the fact he said my father was hiding me.
“It’s shocking to see someone pulled from your life, isn’t it? Shocking to know your dear ole daddy isn’t the person you thought he was.” I don’t even notice the tear that escapes my eye. One single tear. One single fucking tear defines my life.
“He wasn’t pulled from my life. You know nothing about him as a person. As for my dad... he would never.” The words slipped from my mouth with ease as if I was meant to say them. Zerro had been an evil man, killing countless people. People who may or may not have deserved to die.
He was dark, cruel, and sometimes I hated him…. but something inside of me loved him, too. Then there was my dad. The only person I had left, the only man who would always love me.
Could he be capable of the accusations everyone seemed to want to accuse him of? Something inside me told me he was still the same person who held me every night as I cried because I had lost my mother. Something inside of me wouldn’t fully allow me to believe he would do such things.
Asshole smirked, his body eating up what little space separating us. He was a foot’s distance away from me once he spoke.
“I know he has more blood on his hands than anyone I know. I know he’s vindictive and willing to do anything in his power to seek revenge. I know, no matter what you think or want to believe, he isn’t coming for you. I know he doesn’t love you and it was all a game—”
“Stop.” I could barely get the one word out as a cascading waterfall of tears fell from my eyes. I was strong until the moment he told me my dad didn’t want me anymore until I heard the words come from his mouth.
“Why? Because you know it’s true, and it might actually pull you from whatever delusional place you are in your head?”
“Stop. You know nothing!” I yelled, reaching out to push him away with my hands.
“I do know something…” he barely whispered as he gripped my wrists stopping my attack on him.
“I know I was given direct orders to let you rot in this hole. To let you die.” What he said hits me straight in the chest as if someone had just knocked the wind out of me and my mind begins to reel. Would my father really put me in a hole to die? Would he allow others to torment me and treat me like shit?
“Liar,” I said between clenched teeth and with narrowed eyes.
“You know I’m not lying. You know this is your property. You know your father put you here... and now I’m letting you go.”
“Letting me go?” I whisper, taking a couple steps back. He was letting me go? This must me a joke. He would never let me go. Would he?