Masked Truths: Book 1

Chapter 5: Lunchtime

Blaze's POV:
It's her. Cassie. Her stupid dad is the reason my dad is in jail. Her dad. Her dad was the man that put my innocent father in jail. The man who's the reason I get abused every day. Her dad. Her dad...

"Hey, Blaze! Wanna sit with us?" Adair asked with a warm smile.

I shook my head quietly.

"It's fine." I murmured.

"Oh, okay, th- that's fine I guess, but if you want, you can come!" He chirped, giving me another grin as he walked over to the other people on our table group.

I glanced at Cassie for a moment, hatred in my clear blue eyes. Her... her filthy dad is the reason all of my life is ruined. I'm abused, sometimes even starved, because my absolute monster of a mother hated me. That... man. He is why I'm unloved, both because I'm abused and because he was the only one caring for me, other than Callum... who's dead. The memory killed me inside. Callum was my older brother, who was also, like me, a splitting image of dad. Mum would abuse him a lot. After he died, mum turned on me. Before he died, Callum would always protect me from mum, even if it meant getting stabbed. After he died, life was absolute torture.

FLASHBACK:

"Blaze! Watch out!" Callum cried.

I glanced beside me and saw a huge burly man towering over me. I cowered back in fear. Mia, Callum's girlfriend, had been shaking with fear, her formerly silky hair was as messy as a bird's nest.

"C-Callum! Over there! Watch out!" Mia shrieked through pained shrieks of agony as a tall, muscly man began to tie her up, yelling and cursing in frustration and fury.

Another man was next to Callum, and he slammed a large piece of wood on his head. Callum screamed in pain and clutched the side of his head. A large shoot of pain surged through my hand. I looked at it, eyes watering with tears of pain. The man beside me had stabbed my hand with a long, sharp knife. I gulped and shakily pulled it out, my body was screaming at me to stop. I pulled it out, pained tears flowed from my eyes.

"STOP." A man bellowed.

I looked at him, but I wish I didn't. The man was pointing a gun straight at Mia's sweaty and bloody head.

"N-no. Y-you can't. You can't!" Callum choked.

"Fine then." The man sneered and lowered the gun down to Mia's swollen belly. A look of horror flitted across Callum's face.

"Please no!" Callum cried out. "You can't kill her, or the baby!"

Callum was shaking, and his entire body was covered in blood, head to toe.

With red eyes, he whispered. "No."

"So come with us. Join us, or she's dead." The man put his finger on the trigger. "Join us, stay loyal to us, or she dies." The man hissed.

Callum gulped. "Promise me you won't harm her!" He shouted at him, his voice cracking with pain.

"I promise. Now make up your mind before I change mine." The man snapped, but I don't think he would've kept that secret.

"I... I don't know if I can't trust you." Callum murmured.

The man narrowed his eyes and placed his finger back on the trigger.

"Wait! No, I'll join! I'll join!" Callum cried out.

"Too late." The man pulled the trigger.

With a loud boom Mia's eyes lolled back into her head, and she went limp.

"MIA!" Callum cried out, falling to his knees.

"Now join us, or your brother will meet the same fate." Another man growled.

Callum gulped and took a shaky breath.

"Fine, I'll join." He finally said.

The man who killed Mia let out a laugh. He walked over to Callum and held him by the shoulder and walked through the crowd of people. I stood there, legs shaking, blood dripping down my fingertips. No. I thought. NO. The only people left who care about me are gone, ALL GONE. A small tear slipped from my eye, followed by another, and another. Thoughts of Callum spiralled through my head, my big brother, all gone, without us, without dad, without mum, without Mia. Callum looked back at me with a tear-stained face. Go, he mouthed. With a heavy heart, I ran. I ran all the way home, looking at Callum and Mia for the last time I ever had, knowing how heartbroken dad would be.