JAY JAY POV
FLASHBACK CONTINUES
"We're your new masters," the one standing closest to the light said. He looked young, maybe only a few years older than me, but his eyes were ancient and cruel. "I'm Vex."
"Let me go! Let me go back!" I screamed, lunging for the door, my fingernails scraping against the rough wood. I kicked and fought with everything I had, but it was like trying to move a mountain.
"Hold her still, Matt," Vex commanded.
Suddenly, a pair of massive, calloused hands grabbed my shoulders, pinning me against the wall so hard the breath left my lungs. The man behind me—Matt—smelled like stale cigarettes and something metallic. I couldn't move. I couldn't even slide down to the floor.
"Since I'm the youngest, I get her first," Vex said, a sickening grin spreading across his face as he stepped into my personal space. He reached out a hand to touch my hair, and I flinched, a sob racking my body.
"Vex, respect the elders," Matt's voice rumbled right in my ear, sending shivers of pure terror down my spine. "Our brothers go first. We have an order."
I looked past Vex, my eyes widening as more shadows moved in the dim light of the hallway. One by one, they stepped forward into the narrow beam of light coming from a flickering bulb overhead.
There were six of them in total. Six men. Six monsters.
"Please," I whimpered, my voice breaking. "My brothers... they'll find you. They'll kill you. Please let me go."
The men just laughed—a cold, hollow sound that echoed through the empty house. "Your brothers don't even know you're here, little girl," Vex whispered, leaning in until I could feel his breath on my cheek. "Your momma made sure of that. You don't have a family anymore. You only have us."
An older man, Alex, stepped forward from the back of the group. His face was weathered, his eyes devoid of anything human. At his nod, Matt let go of my shoulders, and I stumbled, gasping, trying to crawl away.
"Please don't," I sobbed, my voice raw as I backed into a corner of the filthy room.
"Just give in," Alex said. His voice was calm, which made it a thousand times more terrifying. He moved toward me with a slow, predatory confidence.
"Stop!" I screamed as he reached for me. He ignored my pleas, his hand snaking out to grab my arm. My survival instinct finally flared through the terror—I balled my fist and punched him as hard as I could.
"Fucking piece of shit," he hissed, his head snapping back. His calm demeanor vanished, replaced by a dark, ugly rage. He lunged forward and slapped me so hard I saw stars, my head hitting the wall with a sickening thud.
But I didn't stop. I couldn't stop. I scrambled backward, my hands searching the floor blindly as he grabbed my shoulders, pinning me down. He leaned in, trying to force a kiss on me, but I brought my knee up, catching him squarely in the stomach.
He let out a wheeze of pain, but it only made him angier. I was crying, begging, my voice losing its strength. He reached out and fistled his hand into my hair, yanking my head back.
I screamed in pure agony as my scalp burned. He ignored the sound, burying his face in my neck.
"Woah, Alex, slow down," Vex teased from the doorway, the others watching like it was some kind of sick show. "Don't break the prize on the first night."
The feeling of his skin against mine made me want to die. I felt disgusted, violated, and utterly alone. But as my hand dragged across the floor, my fingers closed around something sharp—a shard of broken glass from a bottle someone had smashed earlier.
As Alex growled and reached down to tear at my shirt, his focus entirely on breaking me, I gripped the glass until it sliced into my own palm. With a final, desperate surge of strength, I swung my hand upward and stabbed him.
The flashback shattered at the sound of Vex's voice in my head, screaming as he ran for the door after I stabbed Alex. The rest of that night was a black hole—a void of red and shadow.
But suddenly, the shadows in my bedroom moved.
A figure was climbing through my window, silhouetted against the moonlight. In my panicked, fractured state, the height, the build, the way he moved—it all looked like him. It looked like Vex coming back to finish what they started.
"GET AWAY!" I lunged for the floor, my fingers closing around the shard of broken glass. I held it out like a weapon, my vision tunneling until all I saw was a threat.
"JAY-JAY!" the figure yelled, his voice rough and urgent.
"Please get out! Just don't!" I screamed, slashing the air between us, throwing wild, desperate shots with the glass. I was sobbing so hard I could barely see. I wasn't in my bedroom anymore; I was back in that haunted house, cornered and terrified.
"Jay, baby, it's me!"
Before I could strike again, the figure moved with lightning speed, dropping his guard and stepping into my space. He wrapped his powerful arms around my waist, pinning my arms to my sides to keep me from hurting myself or him.
"Let me go! LET ME GO!" I thrashed in his grip, my heart ready to explode. I kicked and fought, the glass still clutched in my bleeding fingers.
The door to my room burst open. The light flickered on, blinding me.
"JAY-JAY, WHAT THE HELL?!" Jare's voice boomed, filled with pure horror. He was standing in the doorway, seeing me covered in blood and sweat, struggling in the arms of the man who had climbed through my window.
"PLEASE JUST LET ME GO!" I screamed even louder, my voice breaking.
"Jay, it's me. It's me. It's me. It's Keifer. Look at me!" The voice at my ear was desperate, cracking with a pain I'd never heard from him before. He didn't let go, forcing his weight against mine to ground me. "Look at me, please."
I stopped fighting for a split second, my chest heaving. I forced my eyes to focus, looking up at the face of the man holding me. The harsh bedroom light hit his features—the sharp jaw, the worried brow, the dark, familiar eyes that were currently swimming with tears.
It wasn't Vex.
"See? It's just me. It's your Keifer," he whispered, his grip softening into a protective embrace as he felt the fight leave my body.
The glass slipped from my numb fingers, clattering onto the floor and staining the rug with my blood. The wall I had built around those memories had completely crumbled, leaving me raw and exposed.
"Keifer," I sobbed, the name tearing out of my throat. I turned in his arms and buried my face in his chest, clutching his shirt like a lifeline. "Keifer, I remember... I remember everything."
Jare stayed back by the door, his face ghostly pale as he watched Keifer rock me back and forth on the floor. Keifer didn't care about the blood on his clothes or the fact that I'd almost stabbed him. He just held me, his chin resting on top of my head, his hands trembling.
"I've got you," Keifer murmured into my hair, his voice fierce. "I've got you, and I'm never, ever letting those ghosts touch you again."
The clarity of the memory crashed into me like a tidal wave, and suddenly, the weight of the glass I had just been swinging felt like a lead weight in my hand. I looked at Keifer—the man I loved, the man I was supposed to marry in a week—and all I could see was the weapon I'd just aimed at his heart.
I recoiled, tearing myself out of his grip and scrambling backward until my back hit the cold wall. My heart was thundering so loud it drowned out the sounds of the house.
Because of the noise, the door burst open again. Aries and Percy came rushing in, their faces masks of panic.
"Keifer!" Aries yelled, seeing the blood on Keifer's shirt and the glass on the floor.
"Jay-jay?" Keifer asked softly, his voice trembling as he reached a hand out toward me. "Talk to me."
"I almost stabbed you," I choked out, the words dissolving into a sob. "I almost killed you, Keifer. Just like... just like that night."
"No, no, no, no," Keifer said, his eyes wide with desperation as he tried to step toward me. "You didn't. I'm fine, Jay. Look at me, I'm okay."
"No! Please just stay there!" I yelled, pulling my bleeding hand against my chest as if I could shield them from myself.
"Jay," Jare said, his voice low and steady, finally finding his footing and trying to approach.
"PLEASE JUST STAY THERE!" I screamed again, my voice raw.
All four of them froze in place. The room was silent except for my ragged, panicked breathing. I looked at them—my brothers, my fiancé—and all I saw were potential victims. The memories were flooding back now, not just of the six men, but of the violence I had to use to escape them. I was a weapon. I was dangerous.
"Jay, look. Nothing happened to me," Keifer tried again, his voice breaking.
"No, please don't come anywhere near me! I might hurt you guys... I'm not safe! Just stay away from me!" I begged, the guilt of what I'd almost done tonight mixing with a memory I had repressed for years.
Jare didn't wait. Before I could process his movement, he crossed the room in a fraction of a second and hauled me into a fierce, crushing hug.
"Let go! Jare, let go!" I thrashed, trying to push him away with my weak, trembling arms. "I'll hurt you!"
"Jay, don't ever say that. You would never hurt any of us," Jare said, his voice like iron, refusing to let me go even as I struggled.
"I hurt Aries!" I shrieked, the specific memory of that blood-soaked night finally surfacing. I looked at Aries, who was standing by the door, his face pale and frozen. "I hurt Aries... I remember now."
Aries looked like he'd been struck. He didn't move for a long beat, his eyes locked on mine.
"I'm sorry, Aries! I didn't mean to stab you that day! Please, please just forgive me!" I sobbed, my spirit breaking as the image of Aries bleeding because of me played on a loop in my head.
Aries didn't hesitate then. He moved past Keifer and Percy and knelt on the floor, wrapping his arms around both me and Jare. He tucked my head under his chin, holding me with a gentleness that made me cry harder.
"It's okay, Jay-jay. It's okay," Aries whispered into my hair, his own voice thick with emotion. "You weren't in your right mind. You were fighting for your life. I forgave you the second it happened. I never blamed you, not for a single second."
He rocked me slowly, trying to calm the violent tremors racking my body. Behind them, I saw Keifer sink to his knees, his head in his hands, finally letting out the breath he'd been holding.
I was surrounded by them. The people I was so afraid of hurting were the ones refusing to let me go. But even as Aries held me, the truth remained: the girl who went into that house sixteen years ago was gone, and the woman who came out was covered in scars that were finally, agonizingly, starting to show.
The room began to tilt. The voices of my brothers and Keifer started to sound like they were underwater, echoing and distant. The physical toll of the panic attack, the blood loss from my hand, and the crushing weight of those recovered memories were finally too much for my body to handle.
The edges of my vision clouded with an inky, suffocating black.
"Jare, she's about to faint!" Percy's voice cut through the fog, sharp with alarm, but it was too late.
The strength left my legs completely. I felt the sensation of falling, a final moment of weightlessness, before the world vanished entirely.
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🌸 SHOUTOUT TIME 🌸
Huge shoutout goes to Handmade_Heavens for spamming the comments section and helping finish the target 😭💗✨
Of course, all of you also commented and helped complete the target — thank you sooo much 🌼🤍💬
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