I hoped he didn’t. I hoped hefeltnothing, because that’s all he deserved after the shit he caused. Everything… Everything was his fault.
Pausing at the door, I took in a breath as I curled and uncurled my fingers. I couldn’t let an ounce of weakness show, not while my father watched.
This wasthetest.
Stuffing my black shirt into my camo pants, I ran my hands over my face once before entering.
There were two rooms: the room my father called the prep room, and the second, the interrogation room.
Running my hands over the weapons, I decided on a small blade, easy enough to conceal until I needed to inflict damage. I wanted Thorne to be surprised. I wanted him to think I’drescuedhim, only to be cornered with a battery of my pain.
The very same pain he’d inflicted on Simon the first day of training.
He couldn’t die, father made that clear, but as he’d taught me, there were far worse things to suffer through than a simple death.
Stuffing the blade in my pocket, I painted my face with a look of shock and horror, one I easily managed. At least the theater would aid in my illusion before ripping him apart.
I ran to the door, fumbling it open like the damn idiot I used to be. “T-Thorne?”
Unconscious and slouched forward, they’d planted him in the chair, cuffing his wrists and ankles to its metal frame. A bandage curled around his bare stomach, concealing the freshly stitched wound. The reverberation of my voice seemed to be enough, and he stirred slightly, his lids fluttering.
I dropped in front of him, my hands cradling his face. “Fuck, Thorne!” God, this fucking sucked, but Ineededhim to believe it as he’d done with me.
Groaning softly, his eyes slowly opened, the lively gold I’d once bathed myself in dulled to a rusted brown. “O-Oren?” he breathed, his voice rough. “W-Where… is everyone? S-Simon…”
I swallowed my retort. “My father got you. Simon, he’s… he’s not doing well, and Liam’sbroken.”
He huffed a weak and fractured laugh. “Leave it… to me… I try to protect you, and i-in the process… I-I nearly killed one of our friends…”
“Protect me?” I feigned innocence, trying to pull as much information from him as possible, as Dad taught me. “But… but they said you went rogue.”
“M-My last attempt… T-To keep them safe… For y-you…”
Fuck this.
“For me?” The mask dropped, a pit of nothingness staring at him as I laughed. “For me?”
My fist collided where he’d been stitched, patched together as if hedeservedto heal. The first cry of anguish slipped through his parted lips, and I unraveled at the sound.
I sent another punch to his jaw,lovingthe spew of red, the warmth as it hit my face. “Fuck you!You left me here, and your faulty judgment got Simonmaimed. You’re a fucking curse, a plague that deserves to be eradicated, but unfortunately, I can’t kill you. Fuck knows you deserve it, but you’re stillneeded.”
I reached into my pocket and stabbed the blade into his shoulder, twisting it. “Everything you’ve done… It’s all been a game. A deliberate ploy.”
“Y-You really are like your father… aren’t you?” His jaw feathered as he swallowed the scream he wished to unleash. “Easily fooled… You believed what he said to you, about me? W-Where the fuck did your balls go?”
“Mine? I finallyearnedthem. I’ve always been like my father, but I’ve been too frightened to act upon it.Yousolidified it.Youturned me into this.You!” I shouted, twisting the blade once again.
“Isolidified it when I was simply trying to keep yousafe?”he spat through a fractured scream. “When I wasfalling in love with you?”
I yanked the blade, shaking it within his view. “You… you’resucha liar.”
Thorne took in a shaky breath, nostrils flared as he met my eyes. “My feelings for you have never been a lie.”
I furrowed my brows and spat in his face. “Stoplying! My father told me all the shit you said about me. Art school, huh? Pretty useless, right?”
“God, Oren! Are you that pliable? Your father made it clear? The same father who beat and psychologically abused you growing up? The same father you told me to wear a mask around to keep up this facade, a facade I wantednopart of? Isaidthose things to feed his fucking ego, to make him believe I was the manyoutold me to continue to be!”
I covered my ears, shaking my head. “You… you shut up.” I heaved, too many voices… too manynoisesfilling my head.
