Guns and Mirrors

FIFTEEN

♕Harley Anderson♕

For a change, Isaac doesn't insist on sitting with me in the car as I race. In fact, he is the one who suggested just watching today. Without his presence in the car, I'm able to race while feeling a little lighter. When I come to a stop by the finish line, after hitting two hundred miles an hour, I almost open my door and hurl over the paving due to the nerves. However, I manage to calm down as I close my eyes and take in a deep breath. The sensation of calmness seems to be short lived though as when I climb out, Isaac is nowhere to be seen. I'm standing alone in the race track, the sun scorching me so that I have to squint to look around, and the only sound being that of the birds chirping nearby.

A sense of unease falls upon me and I look around once more, shutting the door to the Ferrari behind me.

"Isaac?" I call out. My voice travels nowhere and when silence is my response, I gingerly walk to the grandstands. My feet carry me around it to a shaded and cooler section and I frown as I see it empty.

What the hell?

Anger rises to the surface as I realize Isaac left me. The jackass actually left me all alone at the track when there's an opposing gang running around and unashamed to lodge a bullet in my brain.

"Fucking asshole." I scorn under my breath, turning on my heel to return to my car. However, just as I round the corner my feet stumble to a stop as I see Charlotte smoking on a cigarette with Raven and Seline by her side. Raven looks up to me, a smile shaping her black painted lips.

"Here she is." She announces before calling out to someone: "yo! We got her!"

My eyes dance between all of them, panic and fear stirring in my stomach.

"What do you want?" I ask cautiously just as Charlotte puts out her cigarette with her boot and turns to me. From the looks of it, Charlotte doesn't seem to like me very much while Raven just seems like a bitch. Seline, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about but that still does little to calm me. My trust doesn't lie with anyone here and my gut seems to tell me that this is bad.

"It's time to see what you're made of."

It takes my mind a second longer than it should to register the searing pain in my stomach that makes me hunch over in an attempt to grasp on air and before I can even attempt to use all the techniques that Danté has taught me about self-defense, my arms are being held back by two faces that have just arrived.

"What the fuck?" I hiss at Charlotte, tugging to try and get loose but the girls holding me only tighten their grip. Charlotte's long and skinny finger forces me to look up at her and when I see the sardonic gleam in her eyes, the fear that overcomes me is unbearable. It's like tar that's being forced down my throat but doesn't want to go down and keeps bubbling up. The girl in front of me drops her fingers before smiling.

And then it begins.

I'm hit from all directions, in all places and by different people. My stomach aches with punches that are landed to it, my ribs begin to burn and my head throbs as it lolls about. The beatings don't stop- I am the punching bag. Again.

When the two girls let go of me, I topple to the floor, my body aching in ways I've never forgotten and my eyes burning from the pain. I cover my face with my arms as the members around me continue to deliver blows, using their feet to kick me. The sound of their laughter and words all blur into one so that it's just a constant ringing in my ears and I cry out, desperately wanting this to end. This pain and feeling of inferiority and powerlessness.

Has my father come back to haunt me?

My head goes light and black dots speckle my vision and the ferocity of the pain seeping into my bones makes me lean over and vomit, even while they continue to hurt me.