POV Petal
The night was trying to say the least. After we double and triple checked everything, Margo and I got ready for the party. We wore sweet dresses that our fathers and brothers picked out.
"This is gross." I sighed as I looked down at the dress.
Margo nodded.
"Yeah. They must think that we're ten." she agreed.
"It's fucking pink for fuck's sake!" I added.
Margo and I had no problem with someone liking the color pink it was just our least favorite color. It could be because our 'family' bought almost everything we owned in the color. The fact that none of them realized that we hated just spoke volumes about our relationship with them.
I felt yet another stab of hurt. My family should at least know what my favorite color was. My twin should. He never asked me. He never asked me anything about myself. Neither did either of my other two big brothers. Len/Shooter was five years older than me and I think that we may have had one conversation in the last six years. Milo/Joker was even worse. He was two years older than me and absolutely insane. He would snap at the drop of a hat and he never even made eye contact with me. It was like I didn't even exist to him.
Dad never spoke with me either. He commanded me, he scolded me but he never had an actual conversation with me. Margo's dad was just as bad.
Ace didn't talk to either of us as well. Lately I had been noticing that both him and Tommy were trying with both of us. They would start to say something to one of us but we would end up rushing away as soon as possible. We didn't miss the look of disappointment in their eyes. Margo and I both felt a twitch of guilt at that but then we reminded ourselves that they had 18 damn years to get to know us. Now it was just too little, too late. Their neglect had left us with bitter wounds in our souls and hearts and I didn't think that we would ever be able to forgive them.
To be honest, we didn't want to forgive them. The last six years had made us angry and we used that anger to grow stronger. We used it to ensure that our future would be brighter than anything we could have possible had here.
"It's time to go." Margo said and I nodded.
We hadn't used any makeup. We weren't allowed. We brushed our hair and put it up so our family would approve.
"We just have to get through tonight. Then we can make our own choices, our own path, our own future. Fuck these assholes. They don't deserve us." I whispered to Margo.
"They never did." She added.
There was a bang on our door.
"Come on! We're waitin'" Her Dad bellowed.
We both stood up straight, smoothed our dresses and put our chins up.
"Chins up." Margo whispered.
"Or the crowns slips." I replied.
She grabbed my hand as we walked out the door. Both our fathers were in the hallway.
"'Bout damn time." My dad grumbled.
I clenched my jaw but kept silent as Margo's hand tightened on mine.
"Sorry. We wanted to look nice for all of you." I managed to say.
Dad looked at me and his eyes softened for a moment.
"You both look beautiful." he hastily stated.
Margo's dad nodded in agreement.
"Like two princesses." he added.
They walked us down to the bar where the club girls and old ladies had cleaned and decorated. It looked nice but it wasn't anything Margo or I would want. All pink streamers and balloons. I did appreciate that the boys were going to have to deal with all this pink all night.
I forced a smile and turned to the head old lady who happened to be my oldest brother's woman.
"Thank you, Natalia. It looks amazing in here. Y'all outdid yourselves." I gushed and she smiled back at me but as usually, her eyes were full of sadness.
She was forced to be claimed by Len. She was the daughter of the VP of a rival club that wanted to make peace with us. She was what ensured that peace. My heart broke for her. She hated it here but she still tried to be a good Old Lady. Len/Shooter was terrible to her. He ignored her and cheated on her constantly. Margo and I were tempted to grow a bond with her but we decided against it. She only joined us a year ago and we thought that it would be too cruel for us to become friends with her just to leave. There was no way she would be able to leave with us. She was watched like a hawk. Everyone knew that she wanted to escape. Margo and I hoped that maybe sometime in the future we would be able to get her out. She didn't deserve this life anymore than we did. We were all just victims of the men in our families.
"I'm so glad that you like it. Happy Birthday!" she replied and hugged me tight as my brothers and Ace came up to us.
"Your Old Lady did a great job!" I said to Shooter.
He looked surprised and then looked around as I gestured to the decorations and all the food out.
"Yeah. I guess she did." he muttered as he hugged me.
"Happy Birthday." he added as he pulled away.
Joker just nodded at me but Tommy/Viper hugged me as well.
"Happy Birthday, Sis." he whispered.
"Happy Birthday, Bro." I whispered back.
Viper had his birthday bash the night before. Margo and I were only allowed to come for the first hour of course. He ended the night in a threesome on the pool table. Asshole.
Ace/Bear hugged Margo and then came over to me as Viper went over to Margo.
"Happy Birthday, baby." he said and hugged me a bit longer than needed.
"Thank you." I smiled as he let me go.
The next two hours were spent eating, cutting the cake and opening presents. Bear got me a necklace that had a pink crown on it. That sadly was the best one. The only way I got through it was because Margo was next to me for all of it. She would grab my hand and calm me when I felt my temper flare.
I was wrong and we were led to our room at 10pm instead of midnight. That's right, I got two hours of a party that was given in my honor. Bear and Viper walked us to our room. They tried to make small talk with us but we stayed quiet.
"Thanks." I muttered before shutting the door.
I caught a glimpse of both of their faces. They had disappointment in their eyes. Get used to it, boys. Now you know how we've felt our entire lives.
"FUCK! That was awful!" I said as we torn the dresses off.
"Did you see Natalia? Shooter ignored her the entire time. She looked broken." Margo sadly stated.
"We have to help ourselves before we can help her." I reminded her and she nodded.
"Yeah. I just hate leaving her here. All the others seem to want to be here. At least, they agreed to be here. She's essentially a slave." Margo continued.
"We will get her out. We just can't right now." I replied with a heart full of guilt.
Margo nodded.
"At least we have two extra hours now. Let's get moving." I said as I pulled on my outfit.
Margo and I had ordered some clothes to wear and take with us on one of the school computers. Luckily, a classmate agreed to let us get them delivered at her house. We told her that our Dad's were too strict and she was quick to help us. She brought them to school piece by piece so we could hide them in our backpacks. She had helped us a few years ago when we ordered a burner phone as well.
We used the money Grandma had left us along with the money we had been saving. Our Dad's allowed us to get jobs as waitresses the last few summers as long as we worked at the diner that one of the club members owned. They had no idea how much we had saved along with the odd babysitting jobs and the Christmas and birthday money we hadn't touched in years.
Grandma had also left us with a list of trusted contacts from her former gang that would help us. We weren't sure but we decided to call a few of them a couple of years ago. Shockingly, they were waiting for us to contact us. Grandma had already told them everything and when they saw the news of her death, they knew that it was only a matter of time. That's why we needed the phone. Our family watched over our phones and knew everyone we were in contact with.
One of the contacts was going to pick us up a mile from the clubhouse. I sent a quick text to let them know that our timeline was moved up by two hours. I didn't want to wait. The earlier we left, the longer we could run without anyone realizing that we were gone and searching. We hoped that they wouldn't even realize until tomorrow night or even Sunday morning. They would be too drunk and high tonight and too hung over in the morning to even think about us.
We knew this from personal experience. There had been many weekends where we didn't see any family members at all. We would go down to the kitchen to get food when they were still in bed and they just kind of forgot about us. Great parenting, right?
We finished dressing and strapped on our knives and guns. I set out the tapes and letters for our 'family' on our beds. We pulled on our bags.
"Are you ready?" I asked Margo.
She nodded. We both took a deep breath and I typed some things on the computer. It looped the security feeds for the cameras on the back stair well, kitchen, back door along with the outdoor cameras. It would continue looping for an hour so we had more than enough time to get off the property. I also turned off the alarms system for the next half hour.
Margo and I crept down the back stairs. Thankfully they were deserted. The risky part of our plan was trying to slip through the kitchen. It was a big room and there was no way to know if anyone was coming in and no where to hide once we started to cross it.
We paused at the doorway and eyed the back door. We couldn't hear anyone or sense any movement. I nodded for us to go and we took off. Just when I got my hand on the door knob, someone walked in. We froze and looked back.
Natalia stared back at us. Confusion flooded her face as she stared at us. Then realization as she gasped and put her hand to her mouth. I looked at her pleadingly.
"We will help you once we are free." I whispered frantically.
She took a deep breath and shook her head. I felt my heart fall. She was going to rat us out.
"Don't. It's too late for me. Save yourselves." she whispered.
Margo and I stared at her for a moment more.
"GO!" she whisper/shouted and gestured with her hand as she turned to walk out.
"Be safe girls." she added as she stepped out of the room.
"Now we HAVE to help her." I stated as Margo nodded.
Not wasting another second we opened the door and ran out to our freedom.