Page 47 of Straightjacket

“Well, isn’t this nice?” Thorne taunts, as he walks towards us. “Nothing like a little family reunion, I say.”

“Family reunion?” Iris bites back as she continues to hold me up. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Thorne cocks an eyebrow at her then turns to face me, a smug grin on his face. “Silas, my boy. Meet... Sophia.”

In that moment, my entire world crumbles beneath my feet. Everything that I thought I knew, the guilt I’d been carrying for years crushes me under its weight and I’m so consumed by the mention of my sisters name, too weak because of the blood loss, that I’m not fast enough to react when one of the guards grabs Iris from behind and rams a gun into the side of her head, before Thorne lands a sickening blow into my stomach, forcing me to fall to my knees. My hands land with an audible slap on the floor and begin to cough up blood, trails of it leak out of my mouth as I fight against the stabbing pain, the dark clouds that smother my vision.

Beside me I can hear Iris crying out for me, her pained wails as she watches me on my hands and knees. The man I am quickly turns into the weak boy I once was right before her eyes. Thorne stands before me, his polished shoes in my gaze then I feel the cold metal of the gun as he jabs it underneath my jaw, forcing my head upwards to look at him.

“Well, well, isn’t this a familiar sight? You’re on your knees for me once again.” The sickening taunt makes my skin crawl but all I can focus on is Iris’s cries and the sight of Dolly... Sophia, I have no fucking idea, as she wriggles around in the guard's hold.

Turning my gaze back to Thorne, I spit the glob of blood onto the floor and say, “what the fuck... do you want from me?”

“That’s the million-dollar question right there. At first, I wanted to fix you. Make you better but then you chose to murder my mother, didn’t you?”

Images of Alice flash across my mind. The moment she slipped that gun between her teeth and pulled the trigger.

I shake my head. “She killed herself. I had nothing... to do with that.”

“Momma would never!” He bites back whilst ramming the barrel of the gun further under my jaw. “You’re nothing but a monster, a messed-up freak and now you have a choice to make.”

What Thorne doesn’t realise is that I made my choice a while ago. The moment I made that promise to Iris that I’d get her out of here, I knew I wasn’t coming back from this.

“Don’t... don’t do this, Silas, please.” I turn to look at my little demon, the woman who holds my heart in her hands. Her bottom lip trembles as she grits her teeth, ocean eyes filled with desperation to save me.

But maybe I can’t be saved, and this is exactly what I deserve for all the wrongs I’ve done in my life, the brutal crimes I’ve committed.

An eye for an eye.

There’s so much I want to say to her, so much that I haven’t had the chance to say to her. All the things I wanted us to do; to be there as she takes my last name and now, I can feel it all, slipping through my fingers.

I drag my gaze away from her to face Thorne again. “Let’s get this fucking thing over with.”

“Perfect,” he withdraws the gun for a moment and turns towards the guard who’s holding my sister, gesturing for him to bring her next to Iris. Tears rain down her face, her feet skidding across the floor as she dragged towards us. Once she’s in place, Thorne presses the gun to the side of her head.

“What’s it going to be, hm? Are you going to save the people you love, or hand yourself over to me? Just remember who's holding the gun, one wrong answer and I’ll blow their fucking brains out.”

I look between the both of them, the two most important people in my life as I’m forced to make a decision– my life for theirs.

“Shoot me.” Iris snaps out and I shake my head, fear barrelling into me at her demand. “Do it now, because I’m not leaving here without him.”

“You can shoot me too,” Dolly adds. “You’re not having my brother, whether you’re bullshitting about that, I don’t know. But there’s no fucking way we’re going anywhere without him. So, pull the fucking trigger.” Anger laces through her words then she turns to face me, a look of sadness in her grey eyes. Eyes that match mine.

Why didn’t I see it all those years ago? Was I too blinded by grief that I never actually noticed my own flesh and blood standing before me. And what about the little girl I saw in the body bag? Was all of it just a fucking lie?

“I’m sorry, Silas, for everything that you went through. For everything that our parents did to us. I had no idea that it would come to this, that they’d go to the extremes that they did, I just... I had no idea. Everything has been a lie.”

“I’m sorry too,” I murmur through strained breaths. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you the first time, but I’m... gonna do it now. I’m gonna protect both of you... right until the very end.”

As soon as I voice my decision, Iris breaks and if the blood loss doesn’t kill me, the sight before me will. She throws herself around in the guard's grip, tears streaming down her face as she tries to get to me.

“Don’t do this! You... you promised me! You fucking promised me that we’d make it out together! Please... please, I’m begging you!”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I finally allow the tears to fall before looking right back at her, my gaze never wavering from hers. “I’m gonna keep my promise, baby. I’m... gonna fucking keep it. I’m saving the ones that matter the most, because you were always... meant to live your life,” blood spills from my mouth and I cough it onto the floor. “Mine was just on borrowed time, but what time I had was always meant to be spent with you.”

Pain visibly vibrates through her body as she shakes her head, denying my words. “I’m not leaving–”

“Yes, you are,” I bite back. “You’re gonna take care of my sister, alright? And I swear to you, I’ll find you. Whether it’s in this life or the next. Until the end, baby.” I whisper as my body succumbs to its fate.