Curve.
I step back and roam my eyes over the red letters.
Beep.
Red.
Beep.
Red.
Red.
Red.
A smile curves my lips and I dip my fingers again. Finally I have something to do. My mind is happy for the first time in forever since I got to hell. I hyper focus on my art, covering my walls in the only thing that matters.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
I’m rocking back and forth on my cot, my back smacking into the wall with every rock backwards. Piss dribbles down my leg, joining the stain from the last time I peed the bed. I’ve been humming a tuneless song for a while as I pick at my nails. I’ve stopped screaming for help, stopped hoping he’ll come.
The lights are off, but I’m so used to the darkness now that my eyes have adjusted. I can see my hands in front of me. The dirt taunts me, mocking me. I lift my hand and chew onmy nails, trying to scrape the dirt out with my teeth. It’s not working, and it pisses me off.
I clamp my teeth around the tip of my nail, tugging on it as my real nail tries to resist the assault. My mind won’t let me stop, pulling harder as I feel my nail rip from my nail bed. It’s not just the fake that’s coming off this time.
Blood pours down my finger as I yank at it like a rabbit dog playing tug of war. The ripping pain feels like a comforting hug. One more tug and a jerk of my head and it slips free.
Sucking the nail into my mouth, I chew as I watch the blood trail down my knuckles, spilling over on the back of my hand and breaking off in different paths. It curls around my wrist and drips down my elbow.
I swallow my nail as my finger throbs with its own heartbeat. My tongue darts out and I lick from my elbow, up to my wrist, between my fingers and suck my fingertip.
The sticky metallic liquid coats my tongue. My throat soothes slightly from the moisture. A laugh breaks free as the man’s words from a lifetime ago filter back.
I tastedelicious.
Slamming my head back, I try to absorb the pain like it’s a drug. My eyesight whites out asmy brain rattles in my skull. I moan from the crack. It feels nice. I laugh hysterically and keep slamming my head back, feeling blood dripping down to my neck.
At least the dirt is gone from under my nails.
Chapter 15
I’msitting in the living room when my phone dings with a new message. I pull it out and see Bravo’s name in the group chat.
I pull up the app and look at her feed. Blood pours off her wrist, andshe’s slamming her head into the wall. She’s laughing like a fucking lunatic. Red turns her head to face the wall and starts beating her face against it.
Oh fuck!
I take off towards the hall. I don’t need to let my brothers know, cause I can hear their feet pounding down the stairs heading towards me.
One of us always hadeyes on the cameras. I know Charlie has spent some nights just watching her. My youngest brother rarely sleeps because of his demons.
Every time I check the footage, I watch her dive deeper into the crazy rabbit hole. It took her 5 days to run out of food, and she ran out of water on day 7.
The body can go 3 days without water. It’s day 9 since Bravo gave her the bag. The last time I checked the cameras, she was ripping out her hair.
