Page 134 of Inside the Sun

I feel like some idiot school kid getting scolded. But still, I know I’m right. I see it as the only moral thing to do. So, I clench my fists.

"If you know who I am, and it sure as hell seems like you do, then you know where I stand. Am I supposed to watch him torture Sun, and just keep spraying fucking spider mites like nothing’s happening? Am I supposed to lose my soul, my humanity, while pretending everything’s fine?"

"Damn right you are. Spray the fucking bugs and don’t pull this suicidal bullshit again."

I’m breathing hard, pissed.

"One thing I don’t get, if you knew who I was, why the fuck did you let me inside this fortress to begin with?"

Luca ignores me and looks at Mauro. Mauro nods.

"Now listen carefully. We erased the keypad footage. You were never there. Now you walk out of this room, go back to pest control, and start thinking like a soldier with a brain, not a goddamn kamikaze."

"So I just let Sun suffer…"

Luca gives me a shove, eyes burning.

"You’ll die if you try to save him! That’s the reality. This is the last time we save your ass. If you fuck up again, you’re on your own. And once they’re done with you, Anzo hands Sun to his men. You know what that means; Rocco’s first in line. You get it?"

A chill runs down my spine, cold sweat damping my back.

"Not helping him makes you complicit—"

Luca growls and slams me into the wall again. But I’ve had enough! I shove him back, so hard that he stumbles and barely catches himself.

But then Mauro slams both fists on the desk, surprisingly loud, and both of us whip around.

He types rapidly, a sentence flashes on the screen behind him:

"Leave now if you want to live! That was your last warning. There won’t be another."

His face is hard as stone.

"Sons of bitches," I mutter. I raise my hand and point at both of them. "Watching and doing nothing is the same as participating! You’re both no less guilty than Anzo!"

Furious, I turn and storm out, my whole body shaking from anger. I feel even more alone now than I’ve ever fucking been.

I climb back upstairs to the first floor.

No one passes me. I punch in the code, step through the door, and I’m back on the fucking patio that opens onto the garden.

With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I go back to work. Spraying for mites, armored scales and other bugs. Every cell in my body feels like it’s buzzing with pain, with guilt… because I failed Sun.

I hate this helplessness. The trap we are in seems to haveno end.

SUN

I don’t know where I end and the pain begins.

I’m locked in a metal cage Anzo brought down to the black room. Every day he comes to whip me, rape me with a dildo, electrocute me, over and over. The only time I’m let out is to use the bathroom. It’s Matteo who takes me.

Summer doesn’t have it much better. He’s forced to spend hours in the black room too, hanging by a hook. When Anzo gets bored of torturing me, he turns to Summer. Makes him fuck him, sometimes rapes him with the same damn dildo, sometimes just beats him until the omega blacks out.

Anzo’s rage is bottomless.

He takes it out on both of us.

But why? What the hell is he so angry about?

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