Title: Number Thirteen
Author: Bella Jewel
Release Date: March 20, 2014
Genre: Dark Romance
**AUTHOR NOTE - This is NOT a BDSM Romance**
Synopsis
We're thirteen girls, captive, slave to our master.
A master we've never seen.
Obedience will become all we know in our shallow existence. It is the only emotion we're permitted to feel.
When we're bad, we're punished. When we're good, we're rewarded.
Our scars run deep. Yet we survive, because we have to...
because HE teaches us to.
All of us are special, we feel it with everything we are.
He has us for a reason, but it's a reason we don't know.
We've never seen his face, but we know that something deeply broken lies beneath the darkness. With every touch, with every punishment, we know it.
Then something changed.
He showed me who he truly is.
Now I want him.
I'll go against everything I know to be with him.
A monster.
My monster.
Loving him is a sin, but a sinner I am. I won't stop until I see every part of him. Even the parts he keeps locked deep down inside.
I am Number Thirteen, and this is my story.
No one said it was pretty, or right, but it's mine.
PROLOGUE
My boots
crunch in the yellow autumn leaves as I walk towards the schoolyard. I didn’t
want to come today, but Momma told me I had no choice. She said school is for
smart kids, and if I don’t go, then how am I ever going to get smart? I could
get smart, the man on the television tells me everything I need to know. But
she claims that I can’t make friends with the man on the television, that the
only way to make friends is to go to school. I could have told her that I don’t
need friends to be successful, but she’d only tell me I’m being silly.
So I
came to school.
I didn’t
tell her that there are bullies here, or that every day they push me around and
shove me into lockers. That would make me sound weak, and now that my dad is
working, and my brother is away because he didn’t like the school here, I’ve
had to become the man of the house. There’s no room for weakness.
Momma
tells me bullies pick on the kids who are victims. I think she’s wrong. I’m not
a victim; I’m just a kid. They pick on me because I’m different. I don’t look
at the girls like they do; I don’t try to sneak out to parties. I’m only thirteen.
I’m just there to learn, then I go home and I take care of my family, because,
I’m the man of the house.
Like I
said.
The shrill
sound of the school bell ringing, tells me I’m late. I pick up into a jog,
rounding the corner and into the schoolyard. It’s a cool winter day, and I have
to pinch my coat together to stop it from flapping in the icy breeze. I can see
the students piling in the front doors, and I turn my jog into a run. I’m
focusing so heavily on the doors, that I don’t see them. A strong hand lashes
out, catching hold of my sleeve and tugging me into the alleyway that runs down
beside my school.
I
always knew this alley was dangerous.
My body is
slammed against a hard wooden fence, and I set eyes on my bullies. Four of
them. They’re all bigger than me, all of them on the football team. They’re
from a few grades up, and they’ve just turned sixteen. The leader of the group,
Marcel, steps forward first. He scrunches his nose in disgust, as if I’ve just
dragged myself out of a gutter, as if I’m offending him. He leans
in close, and I can smell cigarettes on his breath.
Smoking
is not cool.
“You’ve
been trying to avoid me, Will. Did you really think you could hide at home with
Mommy, and never have to come out again?”
I stare at
him, wondering why he chose me to pick on. I didn’t even know his name until he
flagged me down and shoved my head down a toilet six months ago. I was just a
kid, keeping my head down, studying and learning like I should. Now here I am,
pressed against a fence, wondering why they decided I was good enough to take
extra special effort to attack. I don’t bother answering him; it’ll only make
him worse. My answers won’t make a difference. If I answer, I’m wrong.
If I don’t answer, I’m wrong.
“Are you
fucking mute, you little cunt?”
My body
jerks. I hate that word, it’s so…vulgar. I let my eyes move to the four other
guys standing like protective pack animals around Marcel. I don’t know their
names; they’re not significant enough. The tall boy with orange hair looks
nervous, like he knows what’s about to happen could put him in a world of
trouble - but he’s still here, still making the choice to stay. The other two
guys are stony faced, and fully aware of their part in this attack.
I still
don’t answer him. If I just let them beat me, it’ll go away quicker.
“You’re a
freak, Will, do you know that?” Marcel hisses, leaning in closer.
Of course
I know that. I wouldn’t be pinned against a fence if I didn’t know
that.
Bullies
are so dumb.
Marcel
raises his fist, and brings it down over my face, cracking my nose so hard
blood spurts onto his shirt. I don’t cry out, because that’s what he wants, but
the pain radiating through my head is nearly enough to make me beg. Nearly.
Marcel takes hold of my shirt, and his grey eyes scan my face. He’s panting, as
though I’ve shoved him into an alley and challenged him. Like this is my
fault. The world is twisted like that, and it’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard
way.
“You
know,” he growls, locking eyes with me. “I heard my girl saying how handsome
you were the other day. Do you know how much it sucks to have my girl saying
that a freak is handsome? Especially a freak that’s only what? Thirteen years
old? Your dick would be no bigger than a tube of damned lipstick, yet she
thinks you’re handsome!”
I wouldn’t
know how much it sucks to have a girl say that, because I don’t have a
girl.
Again,
bullies are dumb.
“Don’t
answer me, you little twerp. It doesn’t matter. I will make sure by the time
you leave this alley; you’re not handsome anymore. I won’t have my competition
being some little weasel that can’t even speak.”
I taste
blood filling my mouth, and my nose is pounding so heavily I’m almost sure I
can hear my own heart in my head. I don’t take my eyes from Marcel. They say
look danger right in the eye; it gives you power and strength. I don’t feel
powerful right now, in fact, I don’t really feel anything. Someone like me
doesn’t fight, I’m the underdog, and underdogs are weak. Everyone knows it.
Marcel
reaches into his back pocket, and pulls out a pocket knife. The heart that
feels like it’s in my head begins thumping even harder. I try not to show fear,
I try to stand tall and take what he dishes out with strength, but that’s not
so easy when your attacker is waving around a pocket knife.
“She said
it was your eyes,” he begins, lazily tracing circles on his palm with the
blade. “She said they’re the most stunning eyes she’s ever seen. Like the
ocean.”
I didn’t
know my eyes were like the ocean.
He takes
hold of my shirt, yanking me close. “No one is more appealing to my girl, than me.”
They say
bad things happen in slow motion, they’re right. I feel Marcel throw me down
onto the floor. I feel every movement as my body slammed into the dirt. I feel
his body weight coming over me, his knees pinning me down as I squirm. I feel
his friend take my arms, pulling them above my head, while another puts a hand
over my mouth. With my nose pouring with blood, that makes it difficult to
breathe.
I feel the
knife ripping into my skin as I thrash my head from side to side, and I can
feel the blood pouring down the sides of my face. Each time he attempts to stab
me, I move and the knife only slices through the skin around my eye. My pained
wails fill the alley, but no one comes to help me. No one is around in the one
moment of my life that I need them.
I know
what I’ll remember most about that day, and that is the moment he finally
manages to drive the knife into my eye.
I don’t
feel pain, not right away. Instead I hear the popping sound, as his blade
pierces right through. Then I feel pressure as he twists. It’s only when he
yanks it out of its socket, that I start to scream. Then the pain is unlike
anything I’ve ever felt. Words cannot begin to explain the horror I feel as
darkness begins to invade my body. I know my face is covered in blood, because
it drips down to soak my hair. I know I bite his friends hand so hard I nearly
take off his finger.
I don’t
know what they’re saying, or even acknowledge the moment when they run away.
All I know was that I am bleeding to death in an alley, missing an eye. Red
fills my vision as the blood begins to cover every part of my face. I know I’m
still screaming, even though I can’t hear it. All I can hear is an excessive
ringing in my ears. I can’t even move my hands to cover my eye, in an attempt
to protect the empty socket. I can do nothing but lay and scream, witnessing a
pain that I’ll never witness again in my life, and wondering what I did to
deserve it.
No one
deserves to die.
But I do
die that day.
And in my
place, a monster is born.
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