Velvet Lullabies

The bruises and scars were just additions to her collections.

But the grief, that was going to kill her.

Knowing what she had done to these men. To her family. To all the lives lost because of her.

That pain had her shaking, crying, wishing to be dead.

“Just tell me.” Niall, she had since learned his name, was sitting across from her on the concrete. His face was filled with sadness. He blamed her. “Why did you say it was him.”

“I didn’t,” she whispered, but he didn’t believe her. Maybe it was her communication, maybe it was because she wasn’t telling him the full story.

He scoffed. “Make this easy for me, girl.”

She nodded.

She was broken. No longer the strong woman who longed to get out of Providence.

No longer the part of herself that fought back.

No, Adelina DeMarco was a broken woman.

“You’re turn” he said suddenly, pausing to spit at her before he stood from his stool in front of her.

She was surrounded by chain-link on a cold concrete floor with her hand handcuffed around a chipped pole. The entire place, wherever she was, smelt like blood and death.

She was sure she was going to die here.

The younger man, Declan she had heard him called, spun the bloody baseball bat in circles. He whistled a sinister tune and he smacked the baseball bat near her head, making a large smacking sound against the cement walls. She shuddered as he repeated the process over and over.

He crouched in front of her shaking form. His muscles taunt against the white shirt, stray pieces of hair fell onto his face. In another situation, she might even think he was attractive, but here, she was absolutely fucking terrified.

“I didn’t.” The words came out as a whine, she sounded pathetic and she mentally scolded herself for it. “I didn’t tell anyone-“

“Liar.” He cut her off with a slap to the face. “Next time I use the bat.”

She whimpered. “Just do it.” She whispered this time. “Kill me.”

A sinister laugh escaped his lips. “But then you wouldn’t be able to talk.”

The floodgates started again. She was beyond done and she couldn’t hold a single tear in. She had nothing left, nothing to give them.

“It wasn’t him.” She croaked. “He wasn’t even there.”

Declan’s eyes lit up. “Dad!” He called.

“Where you in Boston.” Declan asked as Niall returned to the small chain-link room.

“No.”

“Then why?”

Adelina sighed. She could hear Massimo’s voice in her head. “You are never to speak of this, do you understand.”

But what did it matter now? She was never going to make it out of this concrete prison.

“Theo did it.”

Niall looked confused.