Devils and Demons

Chapter 16

They start flipping through the sketchbook and Eyes throws punches but the noise is fading and growing fuzzy. The feeling comes back that's been missing for so long and I don't know what to do.

A2 acted like them. He acted like my foster brothers and foster brothers were always bad. Was I going to be beat for drawing? That's what happened before. I back away from him and Ears moves in front of me.

"What is this freak?"

I stare horrified at the packet in his hands. It was a packet of papers used in school but I had been drawing instead of doing the math.

"Were you drawing? Drawing is for the weak. Then again I shouldn't be surprised. I mean look at you"

I was already on the verge of tears. He wasn't supposed to find that. It was in my backpack under all the mandatory books that the school rented me. I had just gotten back from making dinner for everyone. Dinner I wouldn't eat.

He starts to flip through the packet and I can hear his breathing get erratic but I don't look up. He starts hitting me and screams that something's wrong with me.

I listen to his footsteps leave and more come. He showed his dad. They thought they had to beat it out of me.

I'm alone in the room but I would prefer that. What would happen now? Would they decide that I needed to have the monster beat out of me like the foster homes, or what?

The door opens and I flinch at the sound. It's only Eyes and Ears. I sigh in relief and hold my head. Maybe I could hide at their house? No that was selfish. Selfish to assume they would let me.

I needed to get out before I got hurt. A2 will be back soon. Nile would too. They were gone so they probably told someone and now more people were going to come and I was going to get beat.

I couldn't move for days. It had been weeks before I was able to walk without a limp or even able to skate with Eyes and Ears. They never asked what happened but I think they knew because they got killed within a week after I was moved.

Eyes is sitting in front of me and asking me to do something but I don't know what. After a few minutes he asks me to rub my knees if I can hear him. I rub my knees. He asks me to do a lot of little things but I'm not able to do some of them. I can't feel some parts of my body or move in certain ways.

"What are they going to do to me now?" I ask Eyes shakily once he stops asking me to do things since I still can't feel my fingers.

Eyes doesn't answer and that's how I know it's bad. That's how I know that either they won't do anything or I'm in for my worst beating yet. I close my eyes and I feel my chest get tighter.

"Just breathe for now" Eyes tells me

Ears was off to the side watching everything. I feel guilty for wasting his time and just hope that he'll let me make it up to him. Maybe go wood scavenging later so he can carve.

"Do you want to go painting?" He asks.

I nod and everyone gets up. I catch a glimpse at the clock and am both surprised and not at the ungodly hour.

1:15

Maybe I should have said no.

()

We stopped at a store that wasn't closed on the way and bought enough paint for a while and now we were at the fort. Eyes fell asleep on the couch a while ago and was now muttering about cars and girls.

Ears was carving something that was too small for me to see right now and I was painting. I was painting my heart out and stressing about the fact that A1 knew where the fort was. Well, he knew it existed. He could tell them where it was.

Ears had his headphones on and I wonder who he's listening to. I know it's a pop band but I wonder who. I was still shakier than I would have liked but life is life and it certainly isn't fair so what was I gonna do about it?

The sun starts to come up and I glare at it. It meant that the Vinci's would get up and everyone else in that house. Then everyone would know because what else would B1, A2 and Nile do? They would tell everyone about the stupid drawing I drew.

Unless they could hold it against me for blackmail. They would do that. Yeah, hold something like this against me so they could have blackmail for me. I'm glad they don't know I'm albino.

All the suddej Ears puts his arms around me and his head rests on my shoulders. He sighs into my ear and turns his carving in his hands admiring it. I wonder what he's doing until I try to start panting and he won't let me go. He was pestering me. I try to push him off but he won't let go so I do the only reasonable thing.

I drop all my weight against him so he has no choice but to fall forward or let go of me. Unfortunately for me, he does the most sibling-like thing and falls on top of me.

I sigh into the floor and stay still. Maybe he wasn't so bad. He didn't have all his weight on me after all. And he did worse with Eyes. I mean, he didn't just lean on Eyes. He jumped on Eyes.

I try to move so I'm not on a can but fail so I attempt to move the can onto my rib cage so it's not hurting as much but it seems fate is having a festival because it only makes it worse and Ears is laughing on top of me still.