WARNING: This chapter contains dark subject matter/themes.

They arrived back on the Isle sometime around one in the morning. Ben's driver dropped them off a few yards away from the edge of the bridge then turned around and sped back across the channel.

"He'll change his mind, right?" Evie asked quietly in the darkness. Only the moon that hung above the water made anything visible. Her voice was a whisper, not wanting to alert anyone to their presence. The Isle was silent, but that didn't mean no one was around.

"Yeah, of course he will," Mal said. But she didn't sound confident. It came out as more of a sigh.

"So, what do we do?" Carlos asked. "Just...just go home?"

"I don't think we have a choice," Mal answered. "We've already been gone a full twenty-four hours, I expect. Our parents are already probably super angry. If Ben doesn't change his mind, we'll have to face them eventually. I'd rather do that sooner than later. Their moods will only get worse the longer we're gone."

Slowly, Evie and Carlos nodded. But Jay felt his insides twist uncomfortably, threatening to make him vomit.

Mal looked at Jay and stepped closer so she was standing directly in front of him. "I can walk you home if you like. Maybe your dad is asleep."

Jay shook his head. "Not a chance. And no, I'll be fine. You guys go on home."

Mal frowned. "Are you sure?"

Jay nodded. "Yeah."

Evie hugged herself and looked around. "Well, you guys might not need walking home, but I have that walk through the forest." She glanced at the others pointedly.

"I'll take you," Carlos volunteered. "I'm not too eager to see Mom anyhow. She'll probably have me out washing the car from now until dawn if she's still up when I get there."

Evie thanked him, and then silence fell over the group again. None of them seemed ready to part. It meant seeing their parents, who were likely more angry than they had been before.

Jay was the one who pulled the trigger. "Ok, see you guys in the morning, alright?" He stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned to leave. As he walked away, he thought he heard Evie mutter something to the others. But he couldn't catch it, and he wasn't sure he wanted to. It was taking everything in him to walk home. But he knew he had to.

Once, he had stayed out until a little before daybreak with the others just running around the Isle for fun. When he had returned home around five or six in the morning, he had expected to be able to sneak up to bed without notice. But Jafar had been sitting in his tattered maroon armchair, his arms crossed over his chest and the whip lying in his lap. It had been one of the worst beatings Jay had ever gotten. So, yes, he knew he had to go home. Best to get it over with. Because he didn't expect Ben to change his mind. No, more than likely, they were now stuck back here forever. If he put off going home to Jafar, it would only make the impending punishment that much worse every second he delayed.

By the time he reached the junk shop, he was shaking. A tense tightening had started between his shoulder blades as if preparing for the worse. He severely wished it hadn't because that would only make it hurt worse.

He swallowed and walked inside.

The shop was pitch black. Not even Jafar's various candles that he kept lit at all hours, which was such a fire hazard with all the old fabrics that could be found lying around the shop, were lit. This made Jay's stomach do a sort of flop as he realized what was happening just as the door fell shut behind him. This had happened once before when Jay had been twelve. He had gotten angry at Jafar and pushed over an entire cabinet of porcelain, ceramics, and other not-entirely-worthless fragile items. They had smashed everywhere. Jafar had been so angry, and he had then blown out all the lights, using it as a scare tactic.

Jay backed up, knocking into a table. His memory replayed in his head of that one night four years ago. He had never mentioned to Mal just how awful his father could get. She thought it was only beatings. Just the whip and such. But things were about to get much, much worse.

The shop was silent though, but Jay wasn't fool enough to think his father could actually be asleep. No, Jafar was waiting, biding his time to scare Jay. The uncertainty of not knowing when and where something was coming from terrified Jay. Right now, his father, whose eyes had probably spent the last hour or so adjusting to the darkness in hopes Jay would return home, would be watching. He would find this entertaining to watch Jay stumble around in the dark, flinching at every whisper of wind that he thought was movement.

Finally, Jay's nerves worked themselves up and out of his mouth. "D-Dad?" he called softly into the dark shop. He needed to hear movement or breathing. He had to know where his father was before...

The initial thing that Jay had been fearing happened. Something was forced over his head. "No!" he yelped, his hands flying to his neck to wedge his fingers under the rope noose before it pulled taut. But Jafar was quicker, and the noose slid shut around Jay's throat. A strangled cry escaped his throat as he was pulled backward by the rope, like a leash for a dog. His airway constricted, and he was sure that had he been able to see anything in the shop, he would have been seeing spots.

Hands pushed him roughly, and he lost his balance. He fell to the floor, cracking his head on the way down against the edge of one of the many tables they had around the shop. A sudden weight on his chest caused what little air he had forced back into his lungs to abruptly leave him again. His eyes crossed briefly, and it took him a moment to realize his hands were being bound.

"No," he croaked, barely able to breathe but determined to force that word out. "Dad, please, don't."

"Quiet," Jafar barked, and Jay could smell the alcohol on his breath.

Jay's lungs collapsed even further if possible. If his father was unreasonable when he was sober, it was ten times worse when he had been drinking.

A moment later, Jay's hands were fully bound with the other end of the rope from his noose. He tried moving, wanting to push his father off, but he found that he was restrained. Jafar had apparently wrapped the rope around the leg of the table several times before tying Jay's hands. He was now tethered to the table, unable to lift his head more than a few inches and unable to move his hands from where they lay against his chest.

Panic rose in Jay's throat. No, no, this couldn't happen again. He wouldn't let it. He had been smaller back then. Weaker. He could fight him off now, couldn't he? But, how could he do so with his hands tied?

He gave a pull, straining at the ropes, but it only made his breathing shorter. He tried to twist his body, aiming to buck or toss Jafar off.

"Hold still," his father said gruffly.

But Jay refused. He would have to be unconscious or dead before he allowed his father to touch him like that again. To do...to do that again.

Yet however much Jay writhed beneath his father's heavy form, he couldn't move him. And his energy was quickly waning. The shop had slowly come into focus as his eyes had adjusted. It didn't make too much of a difference. Everything just looked black and shadowy. And if this was about to happen, he didn't want to see it anyhow. He'd rather tear out his eyes first. And with the pounding in his head from hitting it on the table in his fall, he wasn't even sure he'd notice the pain if he did just that.

"It'll hurt worse if you're not obedient." Even though the statement was a warning, Jafar sounded practically gleeful.

Jay immediately went limp. He was tired, and his efforts to dislodge Jafar from where he was sitting on his chest were fruitless. And he definitely didn't want to give his father the satisfaction of hurting him more than he already would. No, a plan was quickly forming in his mind.

Jafar then moved, with a grunted murmur of 'good' that seemed more disappointed than satisfied that Jay had stopped resisting. But Jay had only stopped resisting physically for the moment. In his mind, he was screaming. Screaming as his father slithered down so he was leaning over Jay. Screaming as Jafar undid Jay's belt. Screaming as Jafar moved to hover over him, his torso just above Jay's knees. This is what Jay had been waiting for. The scream he had held in then tore from his throat as he drove his knee upward as hard as he could into his father's sternum.

Jay thought he heard a 'crack!' as if several ribs had just been broken, and Jafar cried out, the wind leaving his lungs as he tumbled away from Jay. Jay knew he had weak lungs anyhow from years of smoking. He just hoped it disabled him long enough for him to escape.

Losing no time at all once his father had rolled off him, Jay turned his whole body toward the table leg he was attached to. With a groan and the constant tight pressure around his throat reminding him to be careful of which way he pulled, he began tugging at the table leg, trying to break it free.

I feel like I should feel bad about this cliffhanger. XD Anyways, please let me know your thoughts in a review! I am really eager to see reactions to this chapter!

Foarrin