Page 20 of Fighting Shadows

“Okay, now I need you to push it into the skin on her thigh and then push the plunger down to push the penicillin into her blood,” I instruct him.

Thankfully, he does it quickly and without much fuss, but I’m not sure how to convince him to get me out of these chains so I can check on her.

“It’s not working. Why isn’t it working, Noah?” He yells, his narrowed eyes turning towards me.

“It takes time. It’s fast acting, not a fucking miracle worker.”

“Fine,” he snarls, storming from the room and slamming the bedroom door after him.

“Fine,” I mock after his retreating form.

Honestly, Aidan is going to kick my ass for getting myself into this situation. He’s warned me off of Charlie for years, telling me that he had a screw loose and there was a reason our mum ran with me when I was a baby.

Butof course,I didn’t listen to my brother's advice and jumped at the chance to try to get to know my biological dad.

He has been great the entire two years I’ve known him. He became a doting dad who constantly checked in with me and offered to pay for the little flat I now own so I could be closer to my residency.

Now I see it was all just a cover, the nice guy act, but deep down, he is a monster who preyed on a young girl.

I can’t stop my mind from thinking of all the horrible things he might have done to others along with her. My lunch threatened to make a reappearance from the mere idea that I share the same DNA as him.

The girl on the bed groans, her sweat-soaked head twisting side to side. Pushing myself onto my knees, I ignore the pounding sound in my ears as I try to get a better look at her.

I roam my eyes over her, starting from her matted, bleached blonde hair if the brown roots are anything to go by. I pause as I notice her bruised eye and a scar on her throat.

Was that from him?

White hot fury licks its way through my veins at the idea of him hurting her in such a horrible way.

I continue my distanced assessment of her, trying to push past the anger that’s burning inside of me. Her t-shirt clings to her body, and the sweat stains are prominent on the neckline and underarms. Her skin is pale, almost chalky looking, and if I couldn’t see her chest rising and falling from here, I would think she was dead.

Has she not changed since she got here?

Has she been chained this entire time?

Red angry scars glare at me from her wrists, the vertical slits making it glaringly apparent as to what they are from.

My heart breaks for her that she felt the need ever to go that far to escape her demons, or was it to escape Charlie?

I can’t keep driving myself crazy with all of these questions. I see nothing so far that could be causing whatever she is suffering from, but I need to fix her so we can get out of here. So I focus, not missing a bit of her, as I try to see as much as I can from this angle.

Any thoughts come to a halt as I see the waste surrounding her bottom half. I don’t know how I didn’t smell it, but she’s covered in her body fluids. Her underwear doesn’t look like it’s been removed from her in days, the stains glaringly obvious.

This has to be it, but the idea of asking him to remove them, even if it helps make her better, makes me feel ill. She’s already been through enough, and the knowledge that Charlie would be the one to do it might send her into a spiral where she feels like hurting herself once again is the only option.

I am trying my best to think rationally. Deep down, I know I’m going to need to ask him to change and clean her.

There’s no way he’s going to let me near her, and I need to try at least to stay alive to get us both out of here.

The girl groans again, her eyes fluttering under her eyelids. If I’m going to get him to do this, I need to do it before she wakes. Try to minimize the damage this could do to her.

“Dad!” I call out, snapping my eyes to her face to make sure it hasn’t woken her.

The chain around my wrist rattles as I try to move back into place, but my movements are limited. Even if I could reach her, the furthest I could get is her knee, and I don’t know how Charlie would react to me being that close to her right now, not while he’s on edge.

“Dad!” I call again, louder this time.

“What is it?” he shouts, rushing through the door. His wild eyes latch on to her, seeing if there’s been a change.

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