I go to step back from them when, SMACK!
Fuck. I’m smashed on the side of the head with fuck knows what and knocked to the ground. Trying to clear the fuzz from my head I can feel blood trickling down the side of my face and a pounding in my head has me at a disadvantage because all I can hear is the ringing in my ears.
“Fucking bitch, you’re gonna wish we were given the all clear to kill you.”
It’s a guy's voice, but with the pounding I can’t place it.
Following his words comes a kick to the face, crashing me to the floor.
Fuck.
Just fuck.
Someone grabs me by the hair and smashes my face into the floor. I manage to grip whoever has hold of me round the wrist and I squeeze as tightly as possible, I don’t know how I manage it, I’m barely conscious, but a girl screams in pain when I do. Blows to both sides of my ribs have me releasing her and curling in on myself. I’m out numbered and disadvantaged enough to admit I just need to block myself.
The hits don’t ease up, but I fight to keep my face covered, they’ve hit my face enough already. I can barely keep my mind processing let alone keep my eyes open. My body is trying to shut down, but I’m holding on with everything I can.
The pain is barely registering, there's that much of it. My whole body is numb but throbbing at the same time.
“Beg, fucking beg for us to stop,” a female voice growls.
I’d rather they finished the job before I beg for anything. My silence earns me a blow to the back of my head.
Fuck, maybe I could close my eyes for just a minute.
“Shit someone’s coming, we need to move,” a guy whisper yells.
I’m gripped by my hair and lifted off the ground, like a rag doll.
“You listen here, and you listen good. You need to learn your place. Do you understand me? I’m going to make your life a living hell. You and anyone who tries to stand by your side, you’re not going to make it out of here alive, I can promise you that,” a female voice growls in my ear.
With that she spits in my face and drops me back to the floor. All I hear are the sounds of their footsteps inching further away.
I finally succumb to the pain and the sleep trying to take over my body. In the distance I hear my name being called but I don’t have any fight left in me.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
(Luna)
I feel like I’m floating. On a floaty, gently swaying with the waves. I try to open my eyes but it’s too bright, so I shut my eyes tighter and drift back off.
***
I feel myself coming round but I’m no longer floating. I feel like I can’t move, every inch of my body is screaming in pain. What the hell is going on? The pounding in my head is unbearable. I try to lift my hand but it’s too heavy. Instead I focus all my energy on opening my eyes, it feels like it takes forever, but eventually I pry them apart and try to take in my surroundings.
I know I’m in my room at Featherstone Academy. I feel like I should be up and out though with the sunlight coming through the closed blinds, but I’m struggling to move a muscle. A creak from the door has my eyes shifting in that direction.
West?
Why the hell is he standing inside my room right now?
What’s happened?
“Hey, you’re awake,” West gently says, as he approaches the bed.
I try to respond but my throat is like a desert. West must be able to tell, because he reaches for the bedside table for a glass of water and a straw. I feel like a child letting him help me have a drink, but I need water more than I need my pride right now.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been hit by a bus that happened to reverse too, what happened to me?”
“What can you last remember?”
“Err, I remember Combat, Business and History, then I came back and changed to workout. Rafe called and we were talking when ... the lights went out ... then I woke up here. I’m confused,” I say, trying to sit up but everything hurts too much.
“Luna, whilst you were on the phone to Rafe someone cut the power to Ace and proceeded to attack you. Rafe could hear commotion over the phone, so he rang me from the Inked phoneline screaming down the phone that something was happening. By the time I got here they’d already gone, but they beat you bad Luna. There were at least four different footprints on your body, and they used a weapon too,” he offers, crouching down beside me.
I try to process what he’s saying, and it makes sense with the way I’m feeling right now. I try really hard to focus on what happened when the lights were cut. I can’t remember the feeling of any of the blows to my body, but I do remember what was growled in my ear.
“You listen here, and you listen good. You need to learn your place. Do you understand me? I’m going to make your life a living hell. You and anyone who tries to stand by your side, you’re not going to make it out of here alive, I can promise you that.”
I look at West.
“I remember what someone said to me, but I can’t place the voice, it’s all muffled.”
Who would do this? I can’t think of anyone past the Dietrichson’s, either the bitch or her mother, but my head hurts too much to try and piece it together.
“It’s likely because you took
