Page 89 of Ruin

Thank you.

“Where are you going? Come hang out with us.” She looks over at her friends, and I put on a fake smile, and shake my head. “They’re nice, I promise.”

I haven’t spoken to Ash for a few days, I want to catch up with him.

Maybe not so much catching up, but I wanted to forget last night, and I’ve had nothing to smoke, and right now, Declan isn’t here, so I need to smoke something and forget everything.

“Meet me at lunch, and we can go to class together after.” Lileah takes my hand before I can exit the car. “Trixie, are you okay? We might not know each other, but Declan likes you, and I want to be friends with his girlfriend. You can talk to me.” Lileah gives my hand a squeeze and the way she’s looking at me makes me uncomfortable. Did she see what I’m covering under my bracelets? I get out of the car, the second the door closes a tear drops on my cheek. The pain in my stomach reminds me of last night when Robert kicked me. This is going to be a long day.

I’m living in both heaven and hell, it’s only a matter of time until one pulls me under, and right now hell seems to be winning.

Walking into school, I know Lileah is not far behind me. Has Declan told her to follow me all day? Because if that’s the case, I’m not going to like her for long.

I roll my eyes when I see Stephanie with her friends standing by my locker. What the hell does she want? I’m not in the mood for her to be a bitch.

“Stephanie, walk away,” I hear Lileah behind me, but I choose to ignore both of them.

“Oh look, Declan's sister is here to protect the freak. Is Declan too ashamed to be here with her.” Stephanie leans on the lockers next to me, and I feel her looking me up and down. “I mean who can blame him, a freak should only be allowed behind closed doors.”

I’m used to people judging me, and calling me names, so if she thinks her words hurt me, they don’t.

“So, you’ve stolen my boyfriend, and you can’t even walk around with him.” Stephane points her finger into my shoulder, and if it was any other day this wouldn’t hurt, but it does. It hurts so fucking much. I close my eyes while she continues to throw insults at me.

Slamming the locker shut, I go to walk away, but stop when Stephanie grabs the back of my hair and tugs on it for me to take a few steps back, and when I start to lose my balance, she pulls me harder, resulting in me falling ass first on the floor.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath in before shooting back up to my feet and turn around to face her. Before she can open her stupid fucking mouth again, I punch her so hard I hear her scream out in pain. I take a step closer to punch her again, but something in me stops me from doing it. She holds her nose, and I smile when I see blood coming through her fingers.

Shaking my head I turn around and walk over to Ash who’s laughing, like most of the students in the corridor at the moment. I’m not taking shit from her anymore. What’s the worst that will fucking happen? They’ll kick me out of school, might be worth hitting her again, hoping it might happen.

TWENTY-FOUR

DECLAN

Walking into The Pit,Cain was right. No matter how long you’ve been in this hell, the smell still makes you want to throw up. No one is in their cage tonight, I told Cain not to lock them away. When he comes down here, they’re free. If I’m going to be him one day then nothing changes.

I needed them to know they don’t scare me, and I’ll fight if I have to.

Cain told me there will more than likely be a fight because it’s the first time I’m here without him, and kept telling me to bring Lincoln with me, but I refused. This was not a test for me, but for Big Man, too. I told Cain, if Lincoln protected you down there, I need to know if Big Man will have my back no matter what.

Cain didn’t say anything, and if I know Cain well enough, he will be down here watching if things get out of hand and he will step in. If he needs to. If he doesn’t need to he will never tell me he’s watching. But knowing I have the back-up hidden in the dark makes me feel a little better.

Walking in, I look down at the two men fighting in the middle of The Pit. There are always people fighting, they have to climb up the ladder to fight Cain, to get out of here. I hear a few of them shouting at me, saying my babysitter isn’t here with me, or how they can fight me now and it’s an easy way out. I’m more than happy to show people I'm not the easy way out of this hell.

As I walk to Big Man's cell, the insults get worse, they even bring my mom into it, but I have to learn to ignore them, otherwise I will fight every time I come down here. Leaning on the cage I watch him punching the wall, and fuck do I remember the amount of times I had to hit that same wall.

“What has that wall done to you?” I ask with a humor in my tone, and he looks over his shoulder at me.

“It was in my way.” He finally turns to face me, and smiles. “You look good, pretty boy, your girl must be keeping you happy.” He taps my shoulder as I walk further into the cage. “Are you going to tell me her name?”

“No names remember. You asked to talk to me.” We both walk out of his cell, and look out at the cheering happening in the middle of The Pit. Someone is about to die, and they’re all waiting for the moment the killer finally does it.

At that moment when everyone is chanting, kill him, the energy moves through me. Every time I was in the middle, it gave me a thrill, the power of knowing I’m about to kill someone, having the power of their life in my hands.

“There is a family after you, I’ve only found out the surname, but I’m sure your brother knows everyone's full name from when they came down here. The Adams family. I know nothing else about them, they have some high connections, from what people are saying to me.”

We both watch the fighters in the middle as one guy breaks the other guy’s neck. It shouldn’t, but the side of my lips curl into a smile. A few months ago, I would have looked the other way, but how things change. How things have changed?

“Who said it’s the Adams family?” I ask. I know Big Man wouldn’t give me any wrong information, but the person who told him, now I don’t trust them, and will want to find out about them to make sure it’s not something to start a fight for no reason.

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