I could feel the pain throbbing through my skull, feeling the sticky liquid creep down the back of my head and neck. My eyes were blurry from the impact of whatever the hell it was that smashed into me. I wanted to reach up and clutch at my pounding headache only to find my wrists and ankles were bound to a chair. I could only hear the struggle of Anna and the other person in the far corner of the room. My eyes struggled to focus to see what was happening.
“Please don’t hurt us!” I could hear my little sister panicking and crying out before a slap to her cheek rang out. Her sobs filled the room and my heart wanted to lurch out of my chest.
“Anna?!” My voice cracked, cutting through the sound of her crying like a hot knife. I could barely see the figure of a man making his way to me. The low thugs of his booted footsteps growing louder as he inches towards me, taunting me as he took his slow and deliberate steps. Almost sounding like the hands on a clock.
Tick… tock… tick… tock…
“It’s good to see you again, Sophia,” his voice finally said. Chills shot up my spine as my eyes grew large and wide with fear and anger. I knew this voice. I hated this voice. I began to yank at any and all restraints, desperately trying to fight my way out of them.
“ANNA!”
“SOPHIE!”
“ANNA! GET OUT OF HERE!” I screamed before I was met with a blow to my jaw, hearing Anna beg and sob across the room. Blood pooled in my mouth, feeling the sting of my split lip and loud pain roaring through my face.
“Now, now girls, let’s just relax for a moment, hm? I can’t have both of you screaming and bringing the cops here now, can we?”
“FUCK YOU!” I screamed back, spitting blood at him. My eyes were still blurry from the blow to the back of my head, but I tried my hardest to see what I could while my eyes still adjusted. I used my whole body to rock in the chair, letting the feet of the chair slam on the wooden floor, trying to make as much noise as I could to draw attention to the apartment. As I regain eyesight, I could see the glint of the blade shimmer in the moonlight that was casted through the large bay window, the window that the rain pounded against. I suddenly stopped as I could see Michael gripping at Anna’s night with one hand, the knife in the other.
“Make another sound or I swear I’ll slit her throat right here, right now.”
“DON’T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER!” I screamed. Michael quickly pressed the point of the blade into her skin and Anna flinched.
“Sophie! Please!” She cried. I could see she had been restrained into a chair just as I had. The sound of her panic forced me to calm down. He was clearly going off of my reactions and I wanted any sort of a good outcome of this, I had to control myself no matter how bad I wanted to scream at him.
I gave him a steady glare, one that would kill him if looks could get the job done. Yet, Michael stayed put with the knife twirling between his fingertips as he stared back, like a game of chicken. A low haunting chuckle escaped through his teeth as he rose, loosening his grip on Anna’s neck, remaining behind her. My eyes moved down to Anna who whimpered and shook in her chair, tears soaking ever inch of her cheeks and neck.
“Hey, hey,” I said to her, getting her to look at me. “It’s going to be okay, you hear me? It’s going to be alright. Just like always.”
“That’s right.” Michael said. My eyes shot to him. “Lie to her.”
I said nothing and continued to glare at the man who forcefully took her innocence all of those years ago. All I could think about was all of the different ways I wanted to hurt him. The side of me that I tried to suppress, and successfully so - until now. I like to think I’m not the violent type, but Michael always seemed to bring out the side of me that just wanted to hurt him without any thought of guilt or remorse to follow.
“Listen..” Michael said, holding up the tip of the blade to his ear as he moved away from Anna. His boots echoed through the apartment again, the slow steady sound that mimicked the clock on the wall.
Thud… thud… thud… thud…
Tick… Tock… Tick… Tock…
“Do you hear that? That was the sound I listened to every night. Every night I had to lie awake and think about the place I was in, how I got there and why.”
“You got there because you’re a sick fucking bastard, that’s why.”
“No, no, no,” he said, taking another in sync step, first towards me then back to Anna. “See, that’s where you’re wrong, Ms. Bennett. I wasn’t there because I have a problem with my impulses. I wasn’t there because I have a preference in what I like. It wasn’t because I liked… touching… little girls…” He said as he groped onto my sister, causing her to squirm and flinch beneath his touch. I pulled and yanked again.
“Don’t you FUCKING touch her!” I shouted again. A wicked grin spread across Michael’s face, and I could see the knife quickly brought to her neck again, causing me to shut up.
“No, see… I was there because you couldn’t keep your little fucking nose out of my business. You couldn’t seem to just let things go. You had to ruin what we had between us,” he said, moving his hands over Anna again as if she wanted any part of anything with Michael after what he had done to her. I could feel my skin turn hot with anger as my eyes locked onto Anna.
“I lost everything because you,” Michael continued. “My wife, my family, my daughter, my business, my friends - everything that I cared about you took away from me because YOU couldn’t seem to just leave it alone. You had to play hero.”
“Please…” Anna whimpered again, trying to pull her face from his hands, but the more she did, the tighter he clenched onto her jaw as Michael’s eyes steadied onto Sophia, making sure he was watching.
“Do you see?” He seethed. “Do you see the pain you caused not only me, but to my family? The humiliation that I had to go through? To hear how much everyone in my life now hates me? All because some stupid little bitch couldn’t seem to leave well enough alone.”
I shook as the anger ran rampant through my veins, the blood still pooling in my mouth and staining my teeth as I watched him lay his hands all over my sister, the knife dancing along her skin and the thunder booming through the space - but never drowning out the sound of that stupid clock. Michael smiled again.
“You’re going to watch… You’re going to watch everything you love slip away from you - just as I did. Behind bars where there was nothing I could do - just like you in that chair right there. You’re going to watch.”
Michael kneeled behind Anna, letting his lips sink into her hair, speaking softly into her ear beneath.
“I couldn’t have done this without you, Anna.”
I’ve never screamed so loud in my life.