Chapter 14- In My Veins

I got back to the ground again, ignoring the humility bubbling up inside of me. ‘Aaron, I am deeply sorry about the remark that Eli made. He was being foolish when he made that comment and I assure you it won’t happen again.’
He smirked and pushed Noah back towards the couch where Raven caught her and let her cry into her chest. She was still glaring at me when Aaron smacked the back of my head lightly to get my attention. I turned back towards him and got back up again. When I started to walk back towards the couch he pointed the gun at me. ‘I don’t think so, love. Alec go get a chair from their kitchen and tie her to it. We’re going to punish her,’ all the men laughed with Aaron.
‘Aaron, please don’t do what I think you’re going to do,’ Raven protested.
He stopped snickering and looked at her. ‘Why shouldn’t I? You know as well as I do that this is the punishment for not arriving at the gatherings.’
‘Yeah but why couldn’t you have at least told her the punishment before she and… Eli skipped it like you did me?’
‘Because darlin’ you were the first recruiter I ever had,’ he sneered and turned back to Alec who had brought the chair. He set it down in front of the coffee table. Just then burly arms grabbed me from behind and started walking me towards the chair.
‘No,’ Raven objected, setting Noah beside her and getting up. ‘Aaron, you can’t do this to her. Please.’ She walked up to him. One of his cronies started tying me to the chair with some rope. I struggled but couldn’t move my shoulders because the Michael guy was holding me still. ‘Aaron, you listen to me. You can’t do this to her, she didn’t do anything wrong. She didn’t know,’ Raven was insisting.
Aaron pushed her backwards into the coffee table, ‘You are not going to sit here and tell me what to do when you quit the gang. I still can’t believe you did that, you were my top girl, Ravez. Why would you ruin it?’
She pushed him back with as much strength as she could muster, throwing him back a couple feet. ‘I went to jail for you, Aaron. That’s why. I’m lucky they only held me 6 months to, thanks to my parole. I could have been in there for 5 f*****g years, cuz of your f*****g mistake.’ After I was all tied up, Alec walked out the front door and came back with a gas can. When Raven saw it, she began hitting at Aaron’s chest. ‘Aaron! Stop! She hasn’t done anything wrong!’
Aaron backhanded her across the face with such force that she fell to the ground. ‘So, you’re saying that her f*****g her own brother is right? Having sex with the guy you’ve been all goo-goo over for the past 10 years is right? Just think of it as I’m punishing her for that, even though I’m chastising her for being late. Now go sit with the child before I do the same thing to you.’ He turned back towards me as Raven went back over to Noah, who was still bawling her eyes out. ‘Now, Alice. This is what we do to people who don’t listen to us. It often causes death or serious injuries. I told you that you’d better listen and be on time, but you ignored me.’
‘I couldn’t hav-’
He held up his hand for silence. ‘I don’t want to hear excuses Abigail. What I want is for you to listen to me and maybe it will save your life. Now you have three choices here and you’d better choose carefully. Are you going to pay attention?’ I nodded hurriedly. ‘First choice,’ he said, beginning to pace back and forth in front of me. ‘We catch you on fire and wait until I feel like you’ve had enough.’ My memory quickly reeled back to this morning when Austin made me catch my bag on fire. ‘Second choice, is we beat you with baseball bats. And the third choice is that I shoot you wherever I please. Take your pick, but choose wisely cuz your life depends on it.’
I was hyperventilating so hard that I couldn’t think straight. I was starting to get light-headed and nauseous. Eli wasn’t here to help me, Noah was watching all of this, my mom was gone, and Raven was mad at me. Could my day get any worse? Jeez. Closing my eyes, I tried to concentrate as hard as I could but found myself unwilling to reopen my eyes.
‘Aaron,’ I heard Raven stutter. ‘She’s high. That could be the reason why she didn’t make it in time, she probably just smoked to much of it and isn’t in the right mind right now.’
‘I said I didn’t want excuses,’ Aaron snapped at her but then he was quiet and I felt somebody looking at me. ‘How much of that s**t did you smoke?’ he asked cautiously. He waited for an answer but I couldn’t give him one. I couldn’t open my mouth to speak and I felt hot and cold rushes throughout my body. ‘Alice! How much? I told you not to smoke that stuff all at once, it’s dangerous.’
I couldn’t remember where I was or who I was at the moment. I started feeling tingly all over and it felt as if my brain was twirling like a ballerina. My body began to jump and convulse all by itself but it couldn’t do it freely because of all the rope. I could hear noises in the background and the rope being pulled on.
‘Alice!’ I heard a distant echoed voice. ‘Alice, sweetheart I need you to open your eyes for me.’ I felt gentle, smooth hands on my burning cheeks. My eyes slowly fluttered open and I saw Raven standing in front of me with a worried look on her face. ‘Alice? Do you feel funny? Do you need anything that would make you feel better?’ She looked behind her where I could see Aaron carefully eyeing the situation. She started talking to him, ‘She’s having a seizure. You need to let her go.’
He shook his head, ‘Not until she gets what she deserves,’ he said but it sounded echoed and far away. My eyes rolled into the back of my skull and I opened my mouth, trying desperately to get air. Trying to flail my arms or legs, anything to get free and let my body do its thing. Noah was screaming in the background, no doubt scared for her life. Raven was yelling at Aaron for him to let me go. And Eli…
Was running through the open front door with eight police officers behind him.