Read Online Sinners 01 - Branded by Abi Ketner, Missy Kalicicki - Free Book Online
Authors: Abi Ketner, Missy Kalicicki
Ads: Link
branded on
my neck. “Let’s get out of here.”
We jog to our quarters. My clothes are spattered with blood, dirt’s plastered in every
crevice of my body, and my head thunders. My heart hammers against my chest. My ankle
throbs and Zeus keeps running into me. The damn dog doesn’t watch where he’s going
half the time. He grins at me with his huge tongue hanging to the side of his mouth.
I can’t complain about him too much, though, since he saved my life once already.
He might be the most compassionate one here.
Everything looks abandoned. I glance warily around me while we run. The faint echo
of a skirmish occurring in the background terrorizes me, and I don’t want to get caught
in a situation like that again. As we turn into the courtyard of our building, a voice
pierces the darkness.
“Skank. Skank! SKANK!” The voice yells louder each time. Cole grabs my arm roughly
and speaks directly in my ear.
“It’s just Bill. He’s mentally disturbed but harmless. He screams something about
your brand the very first time he meets you. It won’t happen again, at least not from
him.”
I’m branded for life. I’ll always have lust tattooed on my neck in blue… It will happen again. I self-consciously pull some strands of my hair over my brand as we pass him. He sits
on the cement pavement outside the entrance, inhaling a cigarette. His appearance
is barbarous with wild, unkempt hair and missing teeth. His cackle disturbs me as
I follow Cole into the building.
“Don’t take it personally,” Cole says.
“Sure.”
At what point do they believe what’s been branded on their skin instead of just knowing
who they are inside?
My eyes focus on him ahead of me, his muscles flexed as he opens the door. Moonlight
slips across my cell, and breathing finally becomes easier. Collapsing on my mat,
I squint when Cole flicks on the light. I roll over, too tired to talk and too traumatized
to eat. There’s no way out of this place now. I’m going to live the rest of my life
in this hell.
I toss and turn on my mat and can’t stop the flood of memories from burning me up
inside. I promised myself I’d never go through the pain of telling my story again.
Nothing hurts more than the disbelief of people who are supposedly your friends.
“You’re a liar just looking for attention. How could you say such things?” they said
to me.
Only heartless people don’t believe a child. A part of me died when my father passed
away. A slow withering took place in our family, and my mother deteriorated into a
shell of her former self. No protection existed for me. I prayed every night that
my brother would return and take me away. He never came .
I was full of life, happy, confident. My father loved me. He gave us protection and
peace. I didn’t know anything about the outside world except what they taught in school.
How that’s changed since he passed. Everything changed.
My family would’ve been forced to live on the streets if I hadn’t obeyed the rules.
My stepfather bought my silence with the threat of consequences. He promised retaliation
and he followed through.
All these thoughts swirl through my head as I lie down, pretending to sleep. I jogged
the whole way back without consciously knowing it. I braved a gunfight and witnessed
the murder of a man in the street. I succumbed to the screaming of an insane person
outside my own building, and still I’m alive.
Giving up on sleep, I walk to the bathroom and turn on the shower. Cole left his door
open and I see Cole, who looks deep in thought. Zeus stands on his hind legs and drinks
from the kitchen faucet in Cole’s room. Please don’t tell me he turned that on himself. He drinks so fast he starts to hack. Must’ve gone down the wrong tube. Cole doesn’t even look when he does it, so I assume this is normal.
“Care if I shower?” I ask.
“Yeah, no problem. I’m gonna update the
my neck. “Let’s get out of here.”
We jog to our quarters. My clothes are spattered with blood, dirt’s plastered in every
crevice of my body, and my head thunders. My heart hammers against my chest. My ankle
throbs and Zeus keeps running into me. The damn dog doesn’t watch where he’s going
half the time. He grins at me with his huge tongue hanging to the side of his mouth.
I can’t complain about him too much, though, since he saved my life once already.
He might be the most compassionate one here.
Everything looks abandoned. I glance warily around me while we run. The faint echo
of a skirmish occurring in the background terrorizes me, and I don’t want to get caught
in a situation like that again. As we turn into the courtyard of our building, a voice
pierces the darkness.
“Skank. Skank! SKANK!” The voice yells louder each time. Cole grabs my arm roughly
and speaks directly in my ear.
“It’s just Bill. He’s mentally disturbed but harmless. He screams something about
your brand the very first time he meets you. It won’t happen again, at least not from
him.”
I’m branded for life. I’ll always have lust tattooed on my neck in blue… It will happen again. I self-consciously pull some strands of my hair over my brand as we pass him. He sits
on the cement pavement outside the entrance, inhaling a cigarette. His appearance
is barbarous with wild, unkempt hair and missing teeth. His cackle disturbs me as
I follow Cole into the building.
“Don’t take it personally,” Cole says.
“Sure.”
At what point do they believe what’s been branded on their skin instead of just knowing
who they are inside?
My eyes focus on him ahead of me, his muscles flexed as he opens the door. Moonlight
slips across my cell, and breathing finally becomes easier. Collapsing on my mat,
I squint when Cole flicks on the light. I roll over, too tired to talk and too traumatized
to eat. There’s no way out of this place now. I’m going to live the rest of my life
in this hell.
I toss and turn on my mat and can’t stop the flood of memories from burning me up
inside. I promised myself I’d never go through the pain of telling my story again.
Nothing hurts more than the disbelief of people who are supposedly your friends.
“You’re a liar just looking for attention. How could you say such things?” they said
to me.
Only heartless people don’t believe a child. A part of me died when my father passed
away. A slow withering took place in our family, and my mother deteriorated into a
shell of her former self. No protection existed for me. I prayed every night that
my brother would return and take me away. He never came .
I was full of life, happy, confident. My father loved me. He gave us protection and
peace. I didn’t know anything about the outside world except what they taught in school.
How that’s changed since he passed. Everything changed.
My family would’ve been forced to live on the streets if I hadn’t obeyed the rules.
My stepfather bought my silence with the threat of consequences. He promised retaliation
and he followed through.
All these thoughts swirl through my head as I lie down, pretending to sleep. I jogged
the whole way back without consciously knowing it. I braved a gunfight and witnessed
the murder of a man in the street. I succumbed to the screaming of an insane person
outside my own building, and still I’m alive.
Giving up on sleep, I walk to the bathroom and turn on the shower. Cole left his door
open and I see Cole, who looks deep in thought. Zeus stands on his hind legs and drinks
from the kitchen faucet in Cole’s room. Please don’t tell me he turned that on himself. He drinks so fast he starts to hack. Must’ve gone down the wrong tube. Cole doesn’t even look when he does it, so I assume this is normal.
“Care if I shower?” I ask.
“Yeah, no problem. I’m gonna update the
Similar Books
