Page 13 of Ricochet
“Oh, you’ve no idea.” She tore away from my grip, again taking the same spot. “I am mad, so fucking mad. I would love to pull his eyeballs out of their sockets and feed them to the dogs.”
Okay then, it just got worse.
“Dorogoy, we will discuss this at home.”
“Ya khochu obsudit’ eto seychas.” Was that Russian? Since when did she speak Russian?
“Dorogaya, prekrati eto.”
Before I could stop her, a glass went flying over the table, crashing on the wall behind Nikolai and her mother. Ava sat frozen, still gawking at her best friend. I wasn’t sure if she completely lost her mind, or if this was the delayed reaction to everything that was going on around her.
“You think I’ll miss? Ah, Papa, you trained me.” Aaaand, there was another knife in her hand. Just brilliant. “I never miss.”
I would forever remember this night as the beginning of the true fuckery our lives ended up being. A fitting setting if I might say. A couple of glasses broken, some knives thrown, and all of a sudden, Theo Aster strolled in, as if we weren’t in the middle of an almost fight between Ophelia and Nikolai.
“Holy shit. What is going on here?”
“Didn’t you hear, brother?” She looked away from Nikolai to Theo. “You just got engaged.”
Six Years Ago
One…
Two…
Three…
Four…
I counted every whip on my back. My teeth rattled in my head, knocking against each other, as I tried to keep all of my whimpers within my chest. I couldn’t hear anything but the blood rushing in my ears. I couldn’t feel anything but my skin opening.
Raw.
Broken.
You’re a broken little girl.
“Count,grebanaya suka!” my executioner yelled when the whip connected with my back one more time.Motherfucking bitch. “Count!”
“Fifteen,” I yelled out. “I, yedinstvennaya suka zdes' eto ty, Sergei.”
“What did you just say?” He yanked my head back, pulling my hair.
“I said,” I tried to focus on his face, “the only bitch here is you, Sergei.”
My head went flying as he landed a punch to the side of my face. There was a ringing sound in my ears, and it took me a moment to refocus on the dark wall in front of me. My knees were bleeding from the concrete floor I was thrown to, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I lost consciousness.
The human body could only take so much.
“I’m going to—”
“Sergei!”
The new voice echoed around the room, sending shivers all over my skin. I could feel blood trickling over my naked back, the cold air of the room hitting me in unpleasant ways. My stomach churned, but even if I wanted to puke, there would be nothing in there to throw up. An acidic taste filled my mouth, and I wondered if this was the way I would finally go.
Finally leave this sick world I never wanted to be a part of.
This Devil’s playground—a fucking misery I had to wake up to every single day, never knowing what the next thing would be they threw at me. The hushed voices of Sergei and my father barely reached my ears, but I was already too far gone to pay attention to anything they said.
