Happy Halloween if you celebrate!
Okay, so...sike! I've tricked you (not on purpose lol, sorryyyy) and I have a treat for you. The story will be over soon, but this is not the penultimate chapter as I've said before. I had way more notes for it than I thought, so I need to organize them and really complete the fic before telling you girls what the final chapter is. I'm guessing...90? It's just an estimate, I can't lie anymore lol. It seems endless, hm? I'm going to try finishing it around Christmas or New Years, expect weekly updates starting from the 7th of November :)
Gonna be some nightmares and flashbacks along the way and a few nuisances, but their troubles are truly over, I promise! Just pure happiness and love from here on out! :)
Also, I'm terribly sorry, but I messed up badly on Lourdes' age, she's only 48, so she's nearing fifty, not seventy. She's middle-aged. I apologize again for that confusion!
"It's amazing how I didn't have another aneurysm, given all the stress I went through the night before."
"Yeah, I know, Diane, but it's like, since all of our lives were in danger, adrenaline kicked up and we fought real hard!" Flaca points out, giving Maritza's hand a gentle squeeze. "They were relentless, but we were stronger."
"I agree!" Diane turns to Alex and kisses her cheek while her fingers comb through her daughter's black locks. She appears to be extremely guilty. "Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry that you sometimes have to comfort me from panic attacks…you have since you were tiny."
"Hey, Mom, it's okay. We take care of each other," Alex assures her, and she beams. "What'd you do when I was a baby? I'm just wondering."
"Fahri held you or I asked a female stranger to comfort me," Diane responds.
"Oh, okay!" Alex seems satisfied with her mother's answer.
"I was thinking of a wolfsbane recipe to shoot the vermins with," Diane murmurs, winking at Frieda, who grins proudly in return. Charles hugs her close. Alex and Diane squeeze each other's hands.
"Neat!" Alex comments.
"Ay, that would've been amazing! Also, like, I was hoping a Doberman would be growling in the corner somewhere, and we'd throw raw meat at the motherfuckers so it would eat their dicks!" Maritza says. She and Flaca high-five.
"Well, at least they're terminated now!" Alison pipes up and rests her head on Hassan's shoulder as they hold hands around their little Farah.
Blanca shudders at the thought of Juarez clawing at her. "I can't believe la policia saw corpses swinging on branches outside of where we were trapped, and we never did...ev-even when m-me and Maritza were being bru-brutally assaulted..." Her voice cracks, so she stops talking for a while. She needs to calm her erratic breathing.
"Ugh, so creepy! We were so relieved...since I was in a different part of the house, I thought I'd need to pull down a ladder and climb up it to get to the main floor, but there was just a rickety set of stairs. Thank goodness it didn't collapse!" Lorna exclaims. Vinnie's arms are around her protectively.
"I kicked Hellman in the balls, it felt good!" Aleida announces, and they cackle altogether.
"That's my girl! You're amazing, babe," Leon praises her, and she smirks pridefully.
"I really thought shooting them wouldn't work since my hands were shaking so bad, but it did!" Blanca says, amazed with herself. Diablo massages her shoulders gently and she leans into him. They share a short but sweet kiss. Karla is on the other side of her and she rubs Blanca's back in soothing circles.
"No matter the number of gruesome shit they put us through and how lightheaded and hopeless we all were during our hellish experience, we never gave up on trying to survive," Gloria points out and exchanges a beam with Fahri. She cuddles her sons in her lap and pecks their temples. She and the boys have temporarily moved back into the Diaz place because it's too traumatizing to sleep in the bedroom where she was taken against her will. They'll probably resume living there in a week. Arturo is gone for good and absolutely nobody is after them anymore. She knows they're safe now, but she still has recurring flashbacks and nightmares.
"Well, the most important thing to do after something terrible happens, is to keep your dignity," Frieda tells everyone at Lourdes' therapy session. She's helping Lourdes lead it today since Lourdes isn't feeling all that powerful at the moment. She's sitting next to Celeste and they're holding hands. The girls' and women's eyes are shining with tears.
Finally, though, every single one of their villains are dead. Even Kubra, who they haven't heard from in a while, is in a maximum-security prison in Turkey. He won't be coming near them anytime soon. Officer Clarke was fired and arrested for being an accomplice to the kidnappings of Aleida and Diane.
"That's right," Lourdes agrees with Frieda.
Maria holds up a glass of cherry coke, motioning for the others to do the same. She has Pepa in her lap. "May they rot in Hell for all eternity! Cheers!"
"Hear, hear!" Yadriel agrees, and everyone clinks their glasses together before taking a sip of their beverage.
"I can still remember the first time Arturo hit Benny." Gloria hugs her kids tighter if that's even possible. Her eyes are far away and everyone gazes at her in sadness. "That nasty prick caught me leaving from the school and took me home to beat me, but then Benny defended me. Lourdes came in once he gave my poor little boy a black eye. He then dragged me out and made me go on the bus before I could comfort Benito..." Gloria touches her oldest son's cheek gently and she swallows hard. "Lourdes was screaming that she'd kick that cretin in the nuts, and she followed us in her car with the small ones in tow. My babies were hiding the next time he appeared in my bodega, too scared to make a sound."
Karla gasps and the rest of them look just as upset for Gloria and her children as Blanca feels. She brushes some tears out of her eyes. "Oh, lo siento mucho, Gloria...I really hope that bastard and his minions get tortured in the dark underworld."
Gloria sniffles. "Me, too, Karla."
"Mm-hm," the group concurs.
"Satan will make sure of it," Diablo declares. "He punishes all evildoers, they burn in his inferno."
Blanca looks up at her boyfriend. With an adoring look, he smoothes her hair down with his hand and cups her chin. "You should know, mi amor!" she murmurs, managing a smile.
"Sí, querida." He grins down at her.
"Hey! Look on the bright side. We won, girls! It's like somebody took a brick off our chests!" Aleida points out, and their spirits lift again slightly. They break into applause and shouts of pure, unbridled happiness.
"Aw, yay, butter cookies!" Lorna exclaims as Red sets a tray full of the treats down on the table. "That's what she made for me after Christopher threatened to kill me. I can't say the blame is a hundred percent on him, though, I used to be obsessed with him," she lets Shani know. "It's a huge, complicated story. We was both wrong, I suppose."
"I've heard about him...sounds like a real piece of work!" Shani comments. "Uh, well, anyway, that's nice of you, Red. Thanks!"
"Yeah, thanks, Ma!" Nicky chimes in.
"We appreciate it," Tricia says.
"Very much so," Allie chimes in. She and Mercy had been invited by Tricia to sleep over.
"You're really sweet," Mercy praises Red.
"You're very welcome, girls!" Red sits down with them at the table and massages her lower back while groaning softly. Nicky frowns; she'd normally do it for Red, but she's in too much physical pain herself right now.
"So, all of those bad guys were connected through Kubra?" Shani wants to know.
"Yep. After Charles captured him, they went nuts." Nicky winces as she shifts slightly. "Poor Alex...she was trembling when Kubra's right-hand asswipe, Aydin, tried to kill her. Hopefully, Kubra thinks Aydin ended her. He's far away, like completely gone from this country."
"Why'd Kubra have a hit out on Alex?" Lorna wonders aloud.
Nicky scratches her head and eats a cookie along with the others. She doesn't want to mention anything about Alex being part of a drug cartel in front of Red or two of their good friends since it's no longer an issue and it's Alex's secret that she'd trusted Nicky to keep private. "Ummm...I dunno. That ain't my story to tell, anyway. So, Red..." She turns to her foster mother. "Why don't you like being referred to as Galina? You seem to only let your sons and Lida call you that!"
Red shrugs. "I don't mind it if you girls do, too...but Red sounds more badass, does it not?"
"Oh, it certainly does!" Tricia says and the rest of the girls nod their heads in agreement.
"My full name is Nicole." Nicky makes a face. "I hate it. Like, really...Nicole Nichols? Come on."
"Your parents had absolutely no imagination!" Shani pats Nicky's hand and gazes at her sympathetically.
"Patricia is even worse. My mom would always scream my complete name when I was being punished for seducing my stepdad, who was really a rapist," Tricia grumbles. "He'd also call me his little Patty. That's why I prefer Tricia...so I don't gotta be reminded about any of it."
A sinking, queasy feeling grows inside of Nicky. Everyone else turns pale. "I'm so sorry, sis." She puts her arm around Tricia, rubs her shoulder gently, and kisses her cheek. It's the only thing she wishes she and Tricia didn't have in common-being sexually abused when they were younger.
"It's over now." Tricia smiles a bit. "They're in the slammer."
"Yeah, you can breathe again after all this trauma!" Allie points out.
"So true!" Mercy grins at Tricia with a loving expression in her eyes and squeezes her hand. Tricia beams back at Mercy and kisses the other girl's knuckles. Their relationship is too cute, Nicky thinks to herself. Those two always cheer her up with their softness toward each other.
"Mm-hm. Uh...are they gonna have a trial for your uncle or just keep him behind bars without one, Nicky?" Tricia asks.
"I don't even want one. Charles is just gonna watch that shithead like a hawk!"
"Good! I hope he dies while he's locked up for what he did to you," Shani mutters.
"So do I," Red agrees and Lorna nods while chewing.
"Me, too!" Allie chimes in.
Tricia gasps. "You know what I just realized? My stepdad's name was Pete, so Nicky, you and I are cousins by marriage if my mom's still with that bastard! I swear, I recognized him as my abuser when I saw him on the news!"
Nicky looks at her in disbelief. "No way! Well...being adoptive sisters is better."
"I agree," Tricia murmurs.
"Yeah!" the others chorus.
After their therapy session, Diablo takes Blanca to his place. "Tengo frío..." she informs him softly as soon as they get inside.
"I got you, baby."
So, he bundles Blanca in a dark red blanket like the sweetheart he is. She sits by the new fireplace he's just installed in his apartment and he starts the fire before joining her on the loveseat. She's just staring off into space as she relaxes in his arms, safe at last. She has to keep reminding herself that the hunt is over. Gloria's pursuer is deceased-they all are.
That doesn't stop her nightmares after she drifts off later at his home.
As she's laying on her fire escape in the dead of night, Juarez in his ghost form floats over her. He's glowing green and looks a bit like a zombie. Blanca yelps in terror with her hand over her mouth as he materializes. She sits up and grabs the railing as she stands so she doesn't fall. She screams for help, but nobody can hear her out here. Juarez grabs her and jumps off. Blanca is so scared she'll die along with him, but she doesn't. They just float through the sky and hit the ground. The wind is knocked out of her for a second, but she's still breathing. She's not in any pain.
"What are you doing, you evil fantasma?" she can finally gasp out once they've landed.
ghost
Juarez growls and drags her to a cemetery. She's stumbling over her feet, trying to keep up with him. He doesn't stop until he reaches his own gravestone. "You got me murdered, cunt. So you'll be digging up my dead body as a punishment!"
"I-it's been years since Maria killed you...the corpse would just be a skeleton by now…"
"You'll dig until I tell you to stop, bitch!" he snarls, pushing her down. A shovel appears in front of her and she gets back up and starts obeying him. She's gagging from the smell of death and when she digs up the bones, he makes her touch herself with them.
"Why are you doing this to me?" She sobs as she holds his skull between her legs. He just looms over her and chuckles in such a menacing way that it sends chills up and down her spine.
"I want revenge!" the abhorrent creature yells, his tone demonic. "The Devil is burning my soul down there-"
"Good!" she snaps. "You deserve it. Not my fault you're an asshole vermin."
"You were the direct cause of this." He picks up his ulna and smacks her across the face with it. She cries out with agony and shields herself from more blows. "If you hadn't been born so scrumptious looking, I wouldn't have fucked you and taken you hostage!"
Blanca wakes up shrieking and panting heavily. She tugs on her hair and trembles in Diablo's arms as her chin quivers and she begins to cry and choke on her tears. "You're okay, ¡estás bien! You're no longer in that place, you're safe with me," he assures her.
She flinches and bolts upright, even though she knows it's just Diablo holding her around her waist. "Lo siento," she mumbles and then wails loudly into her shaking hands. "Lo siento mucho, mi amor…"
He sits up and she scoots closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder and gripping his shirt. He puts his arm around her shoulder and holds her there. She touches his other hand that's on her cheek and then his wrist and his chest where his heart is beating steadily against her palm. Slowly, she relaxes as they hold hands. It gives her great comfort to have solid proof that he's real and nothing in her nightmare was. Juarez has perished and he's never going to haunt her with his physical presence again.
"It's alright, te amo, reina de mi corazón," he murmurs as he gently kisses her temple and caresses her curls.
"Yo también te amo, querido...gracias for always being here."
His thumb brushes her tears off her cheeks and swipes underneath her eyes. "De nada, princesa."
"I'm not tired!" Benny pouts and Gloria can see that he's struggling to hide a yawn. She tries not to roll her eyes or laugh. "One more story, pa-weeeeease?"
In the little kids and Gloria's room, several nightlights of different shapes and neon colors are plugged in, as is a glow ball. Christina is sharing a bed with Daya; neither of them want to sleep alone.
Gloria ruffles his hair. "That's what you said for the last two. Mama's exhausted, she needs you to get your shuteye. You got an early day tomorrow." She looks over at Daya, who's still texting. "That means you, too, missy."
"I'm older than him!" Daya grumbles. "I'm just saying good night to my friends, anyway. Yo, why don't you indulge in some time to yourself tonight since you so badly deserve it. I insist."
"Okay, I'll listen for you in case any of you need me."
Daya gives Gloria a thumbs up and goes back to her phone.
Benny sighs. "Okay, Mamí, can you stay with me until I fall asleep?" he asks. Gloria had been reading him, Julio, Christina, and Emiliano several Barney books and one on Clifford the Big Red Dog, and before that, the little ones were watching Dora the Explorer and Teletubbies. Other than Daya, he's the last child who's still up and a bit active. Christina was the first one down.
"Of course I will, bebécito." Gloria presses her lips to her eldest son's cheek a few times and he pecks her cheek, too. She guides him into a laying down position. Before, he'd been leaning against her, but now, his head is on her thigh and she strokes his hair. "I adore you, mi amorcito. Buenas noches."
"Buenas noches, Mama. Love you, too." He sucks his thumb and his eyelids slowly droop and close as she starts singing a Puerto Rican lullaby. He looks so precious and innocent, as do the other kids in the room. She never wants anything else bad to happen to them for the rest of their lives. Gloria switches between patting Benny's back softly and stroking his hair and the side of his face, just as she'd done for Julio and Emiliano to help them go to sleep.
She sits there until Benny drifts off and then does her best to adjust him so his head is on his pillow instead of her lap. Then, she crawls off of his bunk bed and carefully climbs down the ladder. She tiptoes to Daya and they hug each other good night and exchange pecks on the cheek.
"You know...the whole time we were kidnapped, I couldn't help but think of when Edward and Phyllis used to torture me," Diane mumbles when she and Charles are back at his apartment later that night and snuggling in their bed. "They planned on selling my private pictures to Playboy, but they couldn't, since I was a minor, so they hired some sketchy pedophiles to be photographers. Photos and videos of me were sent around the pedophile ring; they made thousands of dollars...they said it was better than the fifty bucks they would've gotten from Playboy...and at age ten, I asked them why I needed to wear a corset since it wasn't the early nineteen hundreds anymore, and they told me I had to shape my body into that of a woman's. "
Charles brushes his fingers through her hair and runs his knuckles up and down her cheek. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart...I'm glad Alex got rid of Phyllis for you and Edward's in the slammer!"
"Mm-hm, thank god kidnapping's got no statue of limitations!" Diane breathes in and out slowly to try soothing herself. "I used to think Mitch and I didn't have the same DNA...we were still very close since he was seven when those pigs abducted me from Frieda. Of course we would be...a kid that age would wanna protect a helpless little baby girl his parents stole from some poor mother out there. I also did some research and found out those Nazis invaded a Jewish family's home and took Mitch when he was a baby in nineteen-fifty-seven...they killed his adoptive parents, too...someone wrote a blog about their lost grandson, daughter, and son-in-law when Edward was arrested. I don't know how the fuck he and his wife got away with it all..."
"Me neither, that's so fucked up..."
"I know he wanted a boy and she probably didn't wish to waste her time, so they decided to kidnap baby boys to grow them into their little helpers. I'm so happy it didn't work. Mitch was protective of me."
"Yeah, that's a real good thing."
"They actually did human trafficking! Since they were a madam and master of a brothel and they had girls being traded for sex...so, involuntary servitude of a minor! I should've reported it, but I never did because I was afraid. I tried to tell someone once, though, but the poor girl they were selling-" Diane chokes up, inhaling and exhaling shakily. "She wound up dead and hanging above me as I slept, with her limbs all spread out!"
"Wow, that's sick! Those fucking bastards...I'm so sorry you had to go through that!"
"Yeah...also, when I was a little girl, I'd admire butterflies that would come up to my window and fly in if it was open, which it was on warm days. They were attracted to sunflowers, which were outside my bedroom. I loved them because they were free and I wasn't. I would play with them and have them sit on my finger..." Diane smiles slightly at the memory, and so does Charles. "It didn't last long...Edward walked in when I was holding a...yellow butterfly, I think it was? Maybe purple. Anyway, he killed the little thing and ripped the flowers out! Phyllis then collected butterflies for me in a jar, but it was filled with poison gas...so I saw my favorite tiny insects crushed and dead way too many times to count."
Charles gazes at her in concern and swipes his thumb underneath her eye where there's a budding tear. "Oh, baby, that's just nasty..."
"I wasn't Diane from birth...I secretly called myself that, since I didn't want to be reminded of what Phyllis named me. Gertrude Saurer," she says bitterly. "Well, first, when I was fourteen, I was Lauren because of Diane Lane's character in the film A Little Romance, but someone called me Lauren in front of my abductors, so I had to change it again...to Diane. I'm only three months older than my namesake. Then, I was Cherry, like in her other movie, Outsiders. Edward and Phyllis said it would be my slut name. Also...when I was with the Nazi, I was forced to break up with Lila so we wouldn't face his wrath. I didn't give her a reason. It was too hard to sneak around with that vicious creature everywhere I went. We remained friends and I hooked her and James up together." Diane closes her eyes and shakes her head. "I'm so sick of talking about this...I just needed to vent."
"That's okay, you can, my love."
"I wanna see Under the Tuscan Sun tomorrow."
"That's what we'll do, then!"
After being woken up by a kick in the back, Gloria gasps in pain and rubs her eyes.
"Make breakfast," Arturo grunts.
She starts to roll out of bed, but the scene fades and morphs into an image of herself getting ready for bed after putting Benny and Julio down for the night. She reaches into her purse for her late-night snack she'd bought for herself at the bodega and suddenly feels sharp shattered glass shards and thorns slice into her fingers and palms. Wincing at the stinging pain in her hand, she pulls it out and shrieks in horror at all the blood leaking from the cuts. Breathing shakily, she turns around and sees orange and pink flower petals from the bouquet Fahri had gotten for her, arranged into the words Hola, mi mascota, on her bed. The stems frame the eerie message and she nearly falls backwards. She runs into the bathroom, cleans her injuries, and wraps her hand in a tight bandage from the first aid kit.
Arturo knows where she is now. He must have dumped the flowers and water from the vase and broken it. Then, he'd snuck into her bedroom to create this chilling note.
Her phone rings a few times, startling her from her train of thought. She'd been expecting a call from Debbie, the children's psychologist, so she picks it up.
"Hey."
There's just heavy breathing at first, but then the person on the other end begins to speak. "Ahh, Gloria...I've missed your voice," Arturo says ominously. "Why don't you let me talk to the boys?" She's frozen in her spot and she drops her phone like it's on fire.
Gloria's still so scared as she comes out of her flashback, especially because she's in the darkened apartment alone. The only source of light is from a lamp nearby and the television screen. She'd been enjoying a show when she was triggered by a commercial showing the trailer of some upcoming violent stalker movie. Leon is bringing Aleida back home from her night class, and the kids have drifted off since it's ten at night, even Daya, since she's badly wounded so she needs all the rest she can get. She races to their rooms and flips on the lights so she can check if they're still there. A sigh of relief leaves her lips when she sees that they are. Through the dimly illuminated space, she couldn't really tell.
The doorbell chimes and she tries to soothe herself. "It's only Aleida and Leon…" she mumbles.
Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong…
"Carajo, is this seriously happening…" She power walks toward the front door and sees Badison through the peephole, along with other pranksters, Annalisa, Crystal, and Juanita. They run away, cackling hysterically as soon as she opens the door. "Yeah, you better sprint and hide before I find you stupid punks!" she hisses after them through gritted teeth. "Fucking bitches…" She closes the door and returns to the program on HBO that she'd been watching. She'll try harder not to pay attention to any of the ads. She just wishes someone were here to distract her from anything that would bring on horrible flashbacks. She'd invite Fahri over, but she doesn't want to bother him since Aleida and Leon will be home within ten minutes.
She takes a wine glass out of the cabinet and an almost empty bottle that's labeled Bay Moon Sauvignon Blanc from the fridge. She pours herself a drink and sits down on the couch again. A few minutes after guzzling it down, she feels better. The buzz from the alcohol is doing its job to relax her completely.
That is, until the door opens and shuts. Gloria screams out loud and raises the remote, prepared to use it as a weapon. She stomps into the foyer, prepared to attack the intruder.
"Yo, whatcha doin'?! It's only us, Glo, ¡cálmese!" Aleida informs her, and she glances down in shame while lowering the remote.
Calm down
"Oh, lo siento…" Gloria rubs her forehead and groans. "I-I don't know what's wrong with me. Por supuesto it's you guys." She sniffles and rubs her nose.
Of course
"It's cool, we understand," Leon says and Aleida nods in agreement. "Your ex is no more. He can't hurt you or any of us!"
"Yeah, he ain't never gonna come back, the dead can't rise from the grave," Aleida puts in.
"I-I know," Gloria mumbles. She embraces them and they hug her back. "This is gonna sound real pathetic, but I just...I need to be with somebody when I'm out here. I'm thinkin'...Fahri, because everyone else is with their significant other or sleeping at this time. He's a night owl, like me."
"You should have him swing by, then," Leon recommends. "I'm sure he'd be happy to do it."
"Mm-hm, you could probably use the company, too!" Aleida points out. She winks. "I see you finished the vino!"
"¡Sí! It goes good with TV!" Gloria giggles; she's finally in a happier mood now. "I'll call Fahri tomorrow so I can feel a hell of a lot safer."
"Awesome!" her couple friends chorus together.
When Brent comes into Diane's classroom to supposedly give her a new alarm since he'd broken hers the night before, when he had barged into Friendly's, he slams his backpack on the floor. "Get up!" he commands in a harsh tone, and she jumps. "Why aren't you moving? On your feet, bitch!"
"Excuse me?" she demands. "That is no way to talk to a teacher!"
He points at her with a long, jagged finger and kicks the underside of her desk so hard that it pushes into her tummy, forcing her to leave her chair and stand. "You're not my teacher, you whore...not if you give me an F!" All of a sudden, he corners her, trapping her against the wall so she can't push him off if she tries. He's under half her age, but almost twice her size and seemingly, three times her strength. "You're just a slutty cunt whose tits are too big for her shirt!"
"Get...off...me..." she struggles to say while breathing heavily. Her heart is racing in her chest and she can't quite catch her breath. She has no idea what he's going to do to her.
"No!" he yells angrily and clutches her arms so tightly that she's sure she'll have purple handprint shaped bruises when he finally releases her. He digs his nails into her flesh and she whimpers in pain. Tears slip out of her eyes as he pushes himself into her a few times. "I'd like to have that delicious body of yours, but it'd need to be hate sex, because I can't stand the sight of you!" He wraps one huge hand around her delicate neck and shakes her until the only thing that's keeping her from passing out is him steadying her. Diane gasps shakily when he pulls out a pocketknife.
"You're the reason I never met my grandfather, you banned me and my pals from eating at Friendly's, and you didn't pass me!" His fingers crawl up her jaw and chin like gnarly branches. Closing her eyes, she shoves her knee into his groin and elbows his left ribcage, which allows her a moment to scream out loud. He groans and rubs his side while falling on the floor. Her shriek for help is so hoarse, though, because of him choking her a few seconds earlier, and her voice cracks. She starts coughing as he recovers himself, and her vision is blurred with tears.
She blindly grabs for the pocketknife, but he's too fast for her. He steps on the small weapon, crushing her hand against it, so she yelps and moves it away. She grows faint from looking at her own blood that's seeping through the scrape on her palm, and she can barely move her fingers now. Brent starts growling like an animal and trips her when she attempts to run. She spins around and bumps hard into a desk and he laughs at her cruelly. He slaps his hand over her mouth, making her teeth scrape hard against her tongue, and he pushes her back further into the wall while yanking her head back by her hair. "Oh, damn, you sure are a frisky one!"
She's so dizzy at this point and gasping in and out heavily. Once she bites his palm, he kicks her hard in the crotch, leaving her in immense pain, and climbs on top of her, pinning her down. "Let me eat at the restaurant and change my grade, or I will destroy your family like you did mine. I'll fuck your daughter and she'll call it rape, but I'll make it good for her and give her Oxy, and I'll put a bullet through that nigger's skull and give you his head on a stick for a nice Halloween decoration." Diane shivers with terror racing through her veins. "Boo!" he bellows in her face, and she jolts sharply. He runs his tongue over his teeth and smirks evilly.
"Don't you touch my family!"
"Then fucking change my grade and let me eat where I want! Do it to protect your stupid clan and save your own life. If you get me suspended for this, I'll make you regret it." Diane nods, but then her eyes roll to the back of her head and her heart beats slowly in her chest as she starts to lose conciousness, and he roughly connects his hand against her cheek. She attempts to focus on him again, but it's difficult. He resembles a raging bull. "Keep this a secret or things will get worse!" he snarls at her while squeezing her breasts. "Oh, praise Hitler, these are nice!"
"Ow," she mumbles and then sniffles.
"I wanna fuck you until you're knocked out, sweet cheeks...I'll even slip a twenty in your bra!" His knees tighten around her hips as he unzips his jeans and hers in one swift move. "I must warn you, I'm not slow. Jesus, you're trembling under me already." He takes the knife out of his pocket and goes to cut her underwear, until he's pulled off of her within seconds.
Blinking in confusion, filled with relief, and on the verge of having a panic attack, Diane lifts her head up and leans on her elbows. Frieda is bent over him, knife of her own in hand. She throws him onto a chair and ties him to it. Diane sees that her mother figure has plunged the knife into his nuts and pulled his pants back up and over his boxers.
"Now, if you don't admit what you were doing to the principal or to the cops, I'll make your death look like an accident!" Frieda threatens the Nazi boy, and Diane gasps in amazement. Frieda is once again, her savior.
"Y-yes, ma'am..." he stutters.
"Well, he's gonna be bleedin' through his pants now and he'll be too afraid to report me! I'll drag him over to Mr. Caputo and explain the whole thing...but first, I need to take care of you."
Diane cries in Frieda's arms until the older woman brushes her hair and fixes it into a single braid.
"Oh my god, when that malicious boy came into my restaurant, it really triggered me...and he...he was so disgusting! I'm afraid he'll...he'll meet Edward and Phyllis, and they...they'll all come together and pin it on me and Alex...I know it's late, like three in the morning, I'm sorry for waking you, I'm sorry!"
"You don't gotta apologize. Edward's in the slammer, and I beat him up for you, baby, 'til he was black and blue," Charles assures her soothingly while stroking the side of her face and cupping her chin in his hand gently. He presses a soft kiss to her cheek and then another on her bandaged hand. He bundles her in a blanket that's on the end of the bed, as she'd been quivering with both fear and chills. "As for Phyllis, she's got amnesia, for real, she's lost in the world, like she was gonna cause to happen to you by selling you. It's karma!"
"I know...thank you."
"Please don't, nooooo..." Maritza begs in her sleep, her voice weak and broken. "No, n-no, stop! Stop!" She thrashes around and Flaca pushes herself up to a sitting position. She brushes Maritza's hair back from her damp face and turns on the lamp so the room floods with a faint yellow glow. "Help me, anyone, por favor..."
"I'm right here, Mari! Sweetie, ¡despierta, estoy aquí!" Flaca rubs Maritza's upper arm gently and protects her from falling off the bed. It breaks her heart how much Maritza had suffered at the hands of those cretins, especially Humps. He'd always been terrorizing her since the day he'd feasted his cruel eyes on her. Flaca winces as Maritza pounds her fists into her thighs. "Baby, you gotta wake up. Ya se terminó."
wake up, I'm here! It's over.
"Qué, qué..." Maritza's eyes flutter open and shut as she cries and breathes in and out raggedly. She blindly reaches for Flaca, so Flaca gently takes her hands and Maritza cuddles into her side, her arm draped over Flaca's hips. "¿Que pasó? ¿Está muerto? My first rapist?"
What happened? Is he dead?
"Sí, they all are!" Maritza sniffles and whimpers. Flaca combs her fingers through Maritza's tangled hair and lifts the smaller girl's hand so she can kiss her bruised palm. "Oh, chiquita, you're safe, I promise! You even kicked him after he was down, 'member, you told me?"
"I keep having frightening dreams about him, though. Even though I was badass and totally proud of myself, me and you and Gloria and Blanca were the most brutally assaulted," Maritza says. "Obviously we'd be the more deeply traumatized chicas."
"Yeah, I know...I keep flashing back to when that monster smashed my face in..." Flaca touches her nose slightly and then her neck where Arturo had gripped it. Maritza presses her lips to Flaca's hand and rubs her knuckles gently. "I always gotta take in my surroundings..."
Maritza gazes up at Flaca with tears glistening in her eyes and threatening to spill down her cheeks. "Me, too...but I'm just hella lucky I got you here with me." Her frown turns into a sad smile.
Flaca grins and massages Maritza's back a little. "Likewise, querida."
Thank you for reading and reviewing, Juliette45 and VeraRose19!
