Another man hands him a lit cigarette. I don’t get it. Until I do.
He presses it into the cut.
The burn is instant and unbearable. I groan, jerking against the zip ties, the smell of my own singed flesh turning my stomach. He does it over and over until it covers my entire chest, until the pain makes me want to die.
“Where is it? Tell me and you can go.”
“Kill me.” I laugh. “I won’t talk.”
“Please stop!” Anton snivels. “We don’t know. Our dad doesn’t tell us that stuff!”
I remain quiet. Because even through the pain, even through Anton’s sobs, I hear my father’s voice.
Don’t betray the family. Don’t break.
Anton sobs beside me as one of the men presses a gun to his temple.
The man with the cigarette grins. “Last chance. Tell me where the jewel is, or he dies.”
My chest heaves. “No, don’t! Please! Don’t hurt him! He is just a kid!”
“We were all kids once.”
I cry for the first time since I was six. Hot, angry tears spill down my cheeks. I can’t lose my brother.
The man cocks the gun. Anton looks at me. His lips tremble, but he doesn’t speak.
“Three…two…”
No, no!
Loyalty over love. Family is the oath you swear to.
“One.”
The gun goes off.
“Anton!” I scream his name, the sound tearing through me.
He flinches, his small body jerking. But…there’s no blood? No hole.
He’s alive?
“What the?—”
The men start laughing. All of them. Like this is a joke.
I stare at Anton, shaking so hard my teeth clack. He’s crying. I’m bleeding. And none of it makes sense.
They didn’t kill him. Why?
Then…footsteps.
When I look up, I choke on the air.
My father stands in front of us, hands behind his back, disappointment written all over his face.
“I thought today might be the day you made me proud.” He circles us like a wolf, his voice calm. Too calm. “But I see now I have to push harder to make you into men. Because this…” He gestures to us. “This crying. This begging. It’s pathetic.”
