You guys can thank xoxo_reese for the POV change in this chapter! Hope you like it. Tell me if I need to stop trying to write in new people's perspectives. If it's good, shoot me a comment and I'll do more chapters like this. If it sucks, shoot me a comment and I'll stop. Thanks, my peoples. Love you lots! Hope you enjoy.
Kade's POV
"Don't hurt them. They can't take the pain. Hurt me. I can take all the pain you dish out and more." Ariel said, her tone cold and confident, like she knew she would get her way. I wanted to yell and scream for her to shut her mouth and let someone else handle this situation.
But fear of what was about to happen caused my lips to freeze. The fear made my thoughts flee from my head.
Elliot looked like he was debating, arguing with himself about something. Then he shrugged and said "Sounds fair to me."
The sound of the crowbar hitting flesh is something that I couldn't stomach. With anger flooding my system, I wrenched at the ropes and tried to get out and save Ariel. But I don't think anyone could make a sound. And then I was frozen again.
She was hunched over, breathing heavily, but quiet.
How could someone just take a hit with a crowbar like that?
I stopped moving. The ropes were too tight and there was no way I was breaking out of them anytime soon. I had hoped that I would be able to pull off some move that you always see in the movies. You know the ones where the guy unties himself easily, and then goes and unties all his friends, only to stand in the villians way?
Yeah, I wanted to do that. But I shook those thoughts out of my head. There was no way any of that was possible. This wasn't some cheesy movie where the hero got to save the girl. This was real life. The girl had to save herself, and maybe everyone else. But I doubted that would happen. Ariel's face... She was terrified. Not for herself, no, she's too selfless for that. She was afraid of something else.
"And here I thought you didn't like toys?" My idiot of a baby sister (who didn't know when to keep her mouth shut) broke the silence. Toys? What the hell? Everyone held their breath. None of us had ever imagined we would be in this situation.
Mom made sure we were too well trained to be attacked and overpowered, and it wasn't like we could be taken by surprise. We didn't trust anyone who could possibly have some ulterior motive. Until my mother married the biggest crazy this side of the Mississippi.
"So that's what you really think, huh?" Elliot asked, his voice going hard and cold. I had never heard anything but warm things from him before. It was honestly like he had some sort of evil twin brother who just happened to have the same name. I mean, sure, the guy gave me the creeps from time to time, but I always brushed it off. I figured that I should've been grateful for Elliot bringing Ariel into my life and not say anything that could've gotten her taken away from us.
I should have done something.
"Elliot, please, leave her alone. I'll do whatever you want me to. Money, a place to stay, a way out of the country. Just... Please don't hurt her." Mom begged, her voice cracking. She couldn't help but fear losing another member of her family. My sister and then my father were bad enough. She wouldn't be able to bear losing Ariel too.
When he hit her... Rage rushed through my veins like never before. So, I started yanking at the ropes again and screaming every horrible thing I could think of. Of course, nothing happened other than my wrists were bloody and red from the ropes and my throat was hoarse from the screaming.
"We had a deal." Ariel snapped, looking at Elliot with cold eyes. I was positioned so I could see her if I sat forward and turned as much as possible. The position wasn't comfortable, but it was better than wondering what was happening.
"I know, I know. I'm sorry, but she spoke up. Now everyone needs to calm down. Let me think." Elliot looked like he was losing even more of his mind. God, what was wrong with this guy?
What was wrong with my mother's taste in men? First my dad, who up and left after years of cheating on her. And now a murderer? It seemed like her love life was getting worse over the years.
Horror rushed right through me, straight to my head which made me light-headed, when Elliot started cutting Ariel out of her chair. He was gonna hurt her... He was gonna hurt her!
Ariel's gaze landed on us, her hazel eyes widening as guilt ran through her beautiful eyes. Her innocent, beautiful eyes. I couldn't let him hurt her. I couldn't let him ruin the innocence I found in her eyes.
""Not in front of them." She pleaded, her words hardly brushing her lips. Elliot's smirk was crazy. The crazy, horrible smirk that tells you something is going to go very wrong.
"That wasn't stated explicitly. No, no, no." Elliot giggled. I didn't think evil guys giggled in anything but movies until that. And he really needed to stop giggling. Not for him. I was getting lost in my sarcastic thoughts until he kicked her.
Repeatedly.
In the gut.
And all I could do was watch.
Where was the big brother who promised he would protect her with everything he had? Where was the guy who stood up on a lunchroom table and threatened everyone in the school? Where was the guy who sat down with his youngest brother and said that if Jaydon hurt Ariel again, I would rip him a new one?
Where was that guy?
He rushed out of the room, giving Ariel a slight reprieve from the pain. She sat up slowly, tears building in her eyes as she did.
I couldn't move. It felt like I couldn't even breathe. I wanted to check on her, make sure she was alright. But I couldn't. I couldn't even move.
Was this what shock was?
"Ariel! I have a present!" Elliot called gleefully from the kitchen. My mouth opened in shock when I saw he brought a huge knife out with him, waving it in front of his face like a new, shiny toy. Ariel looked like she wanted to lose her cool, but she kept her calm mask on.
I was losing my cool.
Well, I would have been. Had I had any cool left to lose.
Screams of begging, pleading for it to be them and not her, filled my eyes. It was only after a few minutes that I noticed I was also screaming. Praying that he would cut me instead of cutting her. Stab me, just don't hurt her.
Anyone but her.
"Calm down or your little buddy here gets the knife." Elliot threatened, aiming his knife at Jaydon as he spoke. The screams died in my throat. Everyone instantly shut up.
It was out littlest brother, or our little sister.
"Please." Came a broken whisper. I jerked my head and looked at her.
Please don't give up, Ari. I'll figure a way out. Just don't give up. Not now. Not when we're so damn close to getting out of this freaking mess.
"Please what?" Elliot asked, looking way too happy for what he was about to do. Or maybe he was happy at how broken Ariel sounded.
I had never heard her sound like that before. Never so completely and totally shattered. Like she was ready to die. Like she was ask-
"Kill me. Please." Those words cut off my thoughts. A choked gasp escaped my mouth before I could stop it. Ariel wanted to die. This wasn't like her. She was strong and independent and she lived for making people happy. She didn't want to die.
She wasn't allowed to!
"Now why would I do that?" Elliot asked. He was a hunter, playing with his prey. I just hoped that this certain prey got away. I wanted to say something, do something, that would help. But it was too late for that. The damage was done.
Ariel was broken.
This time for good.
"You've been killing me for sixteen years." She muttered, looking at the ground. She snapped her head up and glared at her father, tears falling down her cheeks like her own personal waterfalls.
"Just kill me!" Came her pained shriek that had me wincing.
Elliot looked dumbfounded for a minute, like he didn't know what to make of the anger shining brightly in Ariel's eyes. Then, without hesitation, his knife was in her leg.
She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. Elliot watched her with a sick sort of smile, pleased with all the pain he caused her. As he walked away from Ariel, I knew something had changed.
And not just in her eyes, but in Elliot. A newfound determination to do something I was pretty sure we were all not going to like. He made sure his gun was loaded and pointed it at Ariel's head.
The bang of the gunshot resounded throughout the house.
But it wasn't Ariel who was bleeding on the floor, dying from a gunshot wound.
It was Jaydon.
Jaydon was holding his stomach, looking at Ariel with an apologetic smile. The small pocket knife Ethan had gotten him for his birthday fell out of his hand and hit the floor with a small clunk.
And he followed. Ariel and mom screamed at the same time, their high pitched shrieks mixing with Elliot's maniacal laughter and my brother's and I's screams and threats.
And then Jaydon's eyes closed.
Perhaps that was when I heard the sirens.