Characters: Shepard
Word Count: 827
Rating: T
Author's Note: So I've not updated in awhile, this was mostly due to me heading home early for Memorial Day weekend. I've been spending a lot of time with my cousins and such, but now we're tired of looking at each other so I finally have time to sit down and type something lol. Anyways! My poor, poor Shepard tends to lapse into unpleasant memories, this is one of those times...
Taken
"Now the next part is very important. They're going to take you."
Joss Shepard looked on in horror as the men grabbed the girl from under the bed. She kicked screamed and yelled, but none of her efforts had any real effect.
She didn't see much more after that. Her vision became dark around the edges, making it hard to focus on anything but the impending blindness. She curled up in the fetal position, arms wrapping tightly around her middle, and waited for the assault of memories.
The Batarian stands over her daddy's lifeless body snorting with laughter. Joss cannot see his face, but she imagines it to be smug and covered in the blood of the man who had loved and nurtured her.
He nudges the corpse with his foot. "Dumb bastard, never stood a chance."
It's all Joss can do to keep from screaming. She clamps one hand tightly over her mouth, the other pulls her little sister Roxy close, burring the 12-year-old's face into her side. This is something that nobody should have to witness, but at 16 Joss feels as if she's better equipped than the preteen gripping at her shirt.
From the left another set of feet appear. "You get everybody on this end?"
"Yeah, you?"
"I did. Took me awhile to take down his bitch. She was a fighter, I'll give her that. But, she found it a bit harder to resist after taking a clip to the face," the second man said with a cackle. Joss' face drains of all color. She can feel Roxy's grip on her tighten causing long nails to bite into her flesh, but the resulting pain is distant.
At least they didn't rape her, she thinks to herself. She'd have to remember to point that out to her sister. A bit of a silver lining, a shitty one, but a lining nonetheless.
The father-killer slaps the second man on the back, his grueling laughter joining the sick chorus. "Hell yeah it is. Did you see anything worth taking?"
"Nah, this place was a dump."
"Did you see either of the girls?"
"Nope. Probably ran."
"Damn." He crosses over to the bed that they're hiding under. Joss' hand slowly inches over to the knife that was present for just such a circumstance.
'Not a gun,' daddy says, 'A gun will make too much noise. No, you'll want to take them down silently. Make sure you got a good grip on the knife, stab them in the foot to bring 'em down then go for a pair their eyes. A partially blinded Batarian is easier to kill.'
She fully expects him to kneel down, but instead he stops at the makeshift nightstand. "From the looks of it they we're quite the beauties. Would've sold for a nice bit of creds."
She isn't sure which feeling is more prominent, the relief that they were not discovered or the anger at how these "men" were so blithely talking about a future that they'd already planned for them.
"Yeah, it's a shame, no doubt about that. Oh well, let's get back to the group." The second pair of legs disappear through the door, but the first don't move an inch. "You coming Kar'resh?"
So the kin-slayer had a name.
Kar'resh stood there a few agonizing seconds more. "Yeah," he said, drawing out the last vowel. She hears some clinking, then a thump as the empty metal square falls down just out of reach. "Yes, they are quite beautiful," he whispered, voice tinged with emotion that makes Joss' blood run cold.
It's the flashes of searing white pain just behind her eyes that pulled her from the horrid scene her mind insisted on playing. Like a rose with it's thorns, the migraines always came with the memories. Instead of fighting the pain, she welcomed it. The key, she learned, is to work with the pain, resistance only served to make it worst.
The pain recedes, but she's isn't foolish enough to think that it's going to be merciful and leave completely. Instead she clenched her teeth in anticipation for the next round. Like clockwork it came fifteen seconds later, only this time it brought a wave of nausea along with it.
"Deep breaths," she mumbled to herself, "Deep breaths." Slowly, she sucked air in through her nose and pushed it out through her mouth. And, just as slowly, the pain began to fall into a manageable range, once again allowing her to see properly.
On shaky legs, she manages to stumble into the bathroom for the pills that would bring total relief. She shook two from the bottle and popped them into her mouth, not even bothering to chase them with water.
Clammy and exhausted from the ordeal that just took place, she laid her head against the cool floor and allowed a dreamless sleep to take her.
