Rough Edges (Levi Ackerman X Reader)

Chapter 18 - Oh Brother

His voice is deep, unforgiving, showing no signs of remorse. "Daughter, you do realize I'm doing this for your own sake. Being ground down to the bare minimum and built back up is how warriors are made. You have great potential, it just seems like you need some more conditioning."

I spit at the ground. "That's a fancy word for brainwashing, you may have been able to control Finn, but you can't control me. There's no amount of torture that you can put me through to make me follow a single one of your orders again."

He laughs darkly and instantly I feel uneasy. I've never heard my father laugh, not once. He smiles here and there, but that's only when I follow something he says. "No amount of torture huh? We'll see about that." He walks over to the wooden workbench and reaches into his leather bag, pulling out a vial containing a semi-transparent whitish fluid.

"W-what is that?"

Drawing up the fluid in a syringe he looks up at me with an evil smirk. "Oh just something our scientists have been working on. It's a venom derived from snakes, normally one bite will kill you. However we found a way to dilute it and neutralize it's lethal effects."

I scoff. "Harmless venom? What's that supposed to do, tickle me?"

His smile grows wider as he walks forward and harshly grabs my face, digging his nails into my flesh. "I never said it was harmless." He plunges the syringe into my neck and injects the venom.

There are no words that come even to close to describing the pain I'm experiencing, it's nothing like I have ever felt before. I let out a high-pitched, ear splitting scream as it feels like every nerve ending in my body is being burned with Hellfire. I could only imagine that this is what it feels like to be burned alive, except from the inside out.

The painful response kickstarts my fight-or-flight mechanism, dumping adrenalin into my bloodstream. My heart beats faster and faster at an alarming rate, spreading the venom farther, thus igniting more pain and adrenalin, making my heart beat harder. The cycle seems never ending, the harder my heart pounds, the more intense the pain, the more adrenalin. 

He wasn't done.

"Now let's play a game. But first I need an assistant, I'll be right back."

The anticipation and dread was agonizing. A game? What kind of sick game does he have in mind? My questions were soon answered when he comes back, and he wasn't alone. My older brother Finn stood next to him, his face turns a sickly pale when we locked eyes. 

"D-dad, what is this?"

He slaps my brother on the back, "If you want to become head of the (L/N) house one day, you're going to have to learn how to enforce our ideologies." 

I could see the terror in my brother's light blue eyes, his dark brown hair was pulled back into a small bun, revealing his whole face. My breathing was still ragged and sweat dripped down my face, I could barely hear him over the ringing in my ears. 

Finn speaks in a small voice, "Don't you think she's been through enough?" He looks at me with desperation in his eyes, "(Y/N), you learned your lesson right? Not to go behind our backs?"

I know he knows what my family is doing is wrong, but he's trying to cover for me right now, maybe get my dad to show some mercy. 

But I refuse to continue on this way of life, I'd rather die. Not only that, but Elias (L/N) never shows mercy, not even for his own children. 

Tears form in my eyes and I give him a small smile, "It's okay big brother, I know you don't have a choice." My voice is hoarse from all of the screaming.