Chapter 62: Discovered
Sorry again for not updating sooner. Let's hope Merle sees and realises and does something about Dad once and for all, ending Daryl's misery.
Please leave a review if possible if you are enjoying this story. Thanks x
Daryl
'Well, what'd ya go and do that for?' For some reason, he was ignoring what I'd said. Had hinted at. Merle must have got that, right?
'What?'
'It's pointless because ya know that by the end of today it will only happen again.'
Why was he being vague? Usually he loved going on about what he did to me. Lavishly described every little, sick detail, each time with a slightly different twist to make sure I would never forget. 'No, it won't. I'm your son, ya sick shit, not someone for you to—'
He cut me off! 'I do whatever I have to raise ya right, boy. Turn ya into a Dixon. And if that is what it takes, then so be it. Not that I'm complainin'. No, I ain't complaining one little bit. Just makes me wish I'd started training ya sooner.' I could practically see him start to drool.
He strode purposefully towards me and I started to beg as I anticipated what he was going to do. But I was kind of hopeful at the same time because Merle would find out and then it would all be finally over. 'Ya made your point, I won't cause more problems, I promise!' I blurted out panickily and backed away from him while glancing meaningfully at the gap in the wardrobe.
'That ship has sailed. I'm too addicted to stop now.'
I stared at him, with a bit of hope inside. 'Addicted to what, exactly?' I asked innocently, wishing he might slip up and say it.
But he only smiled and shook his head.
'To hearin' ya scream. Why? What did you think I meant? Ya know how much I like to see my boys bleed. Which brings us to ya back. Take off that shirt, I want to see how bad the damage is.'
I stood there frozen in place as I watched him search through the cabinets, until he found what he was looking for. A bottle of vodka. Fuck, that wasn't good news. Alcohol and Dad never was.
He walked over to me and jabbed me with one finger in my chest. 'I said, take off that shirt.' He commanded.
'Why?'
'Come on. You're already bleeding through the new one you've changed into.' He was right because I could feel the blood seeping through the cloth as he spoke. 'Off with it, or I'll rip it right off ya.'
I slowly obeyed, not only because of the pain but because I was unable to understand what he was planning. He was almost acting like he knew Merle was there, watching everything through that gap. We'd played hide and seek enough times when we were younger and stayed in the cabin that Dad had built himself out of scavenged timber. Hadn't cost him a cent to build.
Once I'd taken off my second bloody shirt that day and with great difficulty I might add, he bent me over the table where we used to eat at.
Merle was clever enough to stay where he was, despite listening to him to all of this and him threatening me. I was silently thanking him, hoping that he hadn't succumbed to his hangover. Praying that he hadn't actually fallen asleep in there.
'Wow, now that's art right there.' He traced the outlines of the wounds with the bottle, making them sting again at the same time as I tried to control my increasing fear and not utter a sound. 'Ya cleaned yaself up in a stream, ya say?'
'Yeah, not much choice.' I replied more flippantly than I felt to belie my heart pounding away in my chest. Because today could be the day when he got caught out and all of this shit ended!
He wagged his hand at me and sighed like he was my teacher and I was a hopeless case. 'Ya know how much bacteria flows in those waters, boy?'
I kept my mouth shut, forced to stay in the position he'd left me in and unable to look back at him while I wondered where all of this was heading. I soon knew, however, when I heard him open the bottle of alcohol, take a few swigs before he poured out the rest of it onto my back without warning.
I screamed, giving the asshole exactly what he wanted when I vowed never to do that. In my fiery agony, I gripped the edges of the table until my knuckles turned white. I spotted a blur – Merle- out of the corner of my eye as he lunged at our father with his fists flying. It didn't take long before Dad had overpowered him though and my brother was on his back on the floor. Dad was holding him down as he kept on raining down on my brother's face with his fists when I thought he'd lost the guts to 'punish' my brother. Especially now that he was a bit taller than he was and all muscles now. Merle's face had already become a bloody mess and I was really scared that our father was going to beat him to death. Terror for him replaced the fear I had felt for myself as I yelled at Dad.
'Stop! He didn't mean anything by it! He was just protecting me, that's all!'
'Shut up.' Dad snarled at me, as he delivered a particularly well-aimed blow to Merle's mouth, splitting his lips wide open. I had thought my brother had passed out but then I heard him groan groggily with pain. At least I knew he was still alive. The next thing I knew I had grabbed Dad's shotgun by the door in a hurry and was aiming at him without thinking.
'Stop! Touch him again and I'll pull the trigger, ya fuckin' bastard.'
His fist stopped in mid-air as his eyes met mine. He slowly got to his feet and he courteously helped Merle up.
'Put that down, boy. Not a good idea aiming a shotgun at somebody when you're trembling like a leaf. Come now, easy does it.' He coaxed me in a soothing voice but I refused to back down.
'Fuck you. Get away from him.'
'Think you're pretty smart huh? What did you want Merle to see, little one?' My mouth dried up in anxiety when he laughed cruelly at me because of course, he had known the whole time that Merle was there. I should have known it wouldn't be easy to fool Dad. 'Yeah, didn't think so. Now, sort yourselves out and get ya butts outside to help me with that deer.'
Merle
I lay flat on my back going over the dream about Sadie I'd just had and I immediately recalled what had happened earlier that day – hours ago. Helped by my throbbing face – the damn drugs had worn off so I immediately reached for the baggie of illegal pills that had the combined effect of seriously kicking pain in the ass and making you sleepy at the first time. Who cares if it made me sleep all day? But my worry for Daryl was tugging at my mind, making me reluctant to fall fast asleep because I had to protect him. Even though I did badly want to pass out to escape the pain.
My brother had sent me a message in code that we hadn't used since he was like – 8 – but luckily, I still remembered it even with my head pounding painfully even before Dad set on me with his fists. I tried to open up my right eye but it was swollen shut and the left one wasn't much better but at least I could open it a slit and see out of it.
Yay – I wasn't totally blind then, I thought to myself sarcastically. The pussy hadn't hit me for years – only my weedy little 16-year-old brother when I wasn't around who was unable to fight back against the muscle-bound brute. Fuck knows where he got his muscles from – bastard hadn't worked out in years. Just sat round at home and swigged whiskey like it was water and blowing out smoke circles through his nose.
I'd gone to our cabin early this morning after I managed to decipher my brother's letter. He'd said that he had something nice for me there. Couldn't imagine what that was – sure it wouldn't be what I secretly hoped for despite my guilt. Basically, to find him shamelessly buck naked on top of that old wooden bed, waiting there willing and begging me to take him. Instead, he'd told me to hide in the wardrobe so that I could 'see' for myself what he wasn't telling me. I'd badly wanted to check him over because his back was covered in blood but he wouldn't tell me what Dad did.
Same old story.
So, I watched but I must have dozed off during some of it, only coming fully awake when I heard my teenage brother scream. I watched as Dad finished pouring the rest of a whole bottle of alcohol all over his back which was covered in cuts and scratches but not from the asshole's fists, belt or even his knife.
So, Daddy Dearest kept his promise to me, I thought to myself sarcastically. I had no idea what he had done to him but my brother was covered in blood and still bleeding as far as I could tell. To be honest, Daryl looked like a wild animal had attacked him and clawed his back to shreds. For me, not knowing how or why made it all the worse.
After Dad nearly beat my face to a pulp after I lunged at him – I vaguely remembered Daryl trying to stop him and even threaten him with a shotgun, I guess both of them had half-dragged, half-carried me back home semi-conscious. I also had a faint recall of moving through the forest and I'd been aware enough to take the painkillers/sedatives before I fell unconscious or maybe one of them – probably Daryl – had helped me take it.
I couldn't quite remember.
Now that the pain from my skull and face was slowly receding once more and I could think more clearly, I recalled my weird dream. Sadie was in my bed like when she came over after that bastard Tony beat her up but I'd soon make her feel better. I chuckled dirtily to myself at the thought despite my pain and felt my ever-present raging libido become aroused. I stroked myself and smiled wistfully whenever I thought about us together – it was 100 times better than fantasising about my own baby brother.
She sure didn't act scared with me – once I'd calmed her down and stopped her tears so that she'd wrap her arms around me and kiss me that was. Something made me wonder if that sack of shit Tony was a brute in the bedroom as well as with his fists but I didn't like to dwell on stuff like that – it tended to put me off sex. Similarly, I stopped myself wondering about the red marks on her wrists similar to the ones that Daryl had had on his lately. Still, she was one feisty bit of ass when she got going and I didn't even mind her occasionally slapping me which I allowed no other female apart from her to do. Breathing hard and fast with excitement, she'd clamber on top of me and I'd let her because she was so damn good at giving head and that thing she did with her tongue when she flicked it over my...
Fuck! I almost groaned. Damn – I was feeling horny tonight but I was all on my lonesome without a willing girl to share my bed. Wishing anybody – any woman was here with me right now. Sadie'd been telling me that she wanted to leave him but she was too scared – he'd threatened her if she did. I'd offered to go and give the asshole a taste of his own medicine – see if he only hit chicks but she wouldn't let me. Still, when I saw her with a black eye and split lips and crying like that last time, the red rage took over and I normally wouldn't have listened and gone after him myself. No matter how much she pleaded with me not to.
I bit my lips to stifle a moan as I slid one hand down my pyjamas when I thought about her. Hated that - shit cowards who hurt women but I didn't know where he lived – he was based out of town and she refused to tell me. Still, I could have followed him or found out. Bastard only came by here to pick her up, wine and dine her and then have sex with her. Followed always by short but sweet pillow-talk with his fists. Truth was, as much as teaching the bastard a lesson on how to be man appealed to me, I didn't really want to get involved. I didn't do commitment – I wanted to be free and as long as she was cheating on him, she couldn't demand that I be faithful. I hadn't found any girl yet who made me want to devote myself entirely to her...Still, I wanted to shake her until her teeth fell out when I asked her if he was married to some poor bitch but she always shook her head and denied it. Yet, I thought the way he treated her, always driving her to a cheap motel - she'd never been back to his place since they met in a bar six months ago screamed that she was just a bit on the side.
She was either in denial or she just didn't give a shit. Or really loved him even as she pretended to herself that she was trying to leave him. Didn't she know that life wasn't like the movies?
Why then, did she sleep with me?
Then I started to remember the rest of the strange dream...Sadie had somehow changed sex and turned into no less than...Daryl! My own brother! It was fucked up. Still, even replacing her with him didn't quell my lust and that was even more screwed up. But something about it had seemed real...now I recalled him vaguely getting in to bed with me...I was hoping that it had been a premonition and that he would come and get into my bed like he did before so I could protect him. I'd given him my permission already after all.
Even as I jerked off and stifled my moans, I had one ear out for his footsteps. Anticipating – no, hoping for them.
I was going to come soon – was approaching the point of no return when I heard something that made me turn my hand away in a hurry. Because like clock-work, I could now hear his light, almost timed footsteps making their way towards my door. He lingered outside almost hesitantly, probably wondering if he should risk coming in and waking me. I turned to my side, not yet wanting him to know I wasn't sleeping. But by the time he slipped into my room and climbed into my bed I wasn't, despite my stubborn attempts to not fall asleep like the pills wanted me too.
However, before I fell off the edge, I carried on breathing deep and slow to fool him that I was out of it. I knew if he knew I was awake – if he had an inkling of what I'd just been doing and especially thinking, things could be awkward.
I was frustrated that I hadn't been able finish myself off and was struggling to get my breathing back under control. I wasn't sure he was fooled either – Daryl was no idiot – probably knew what I had been doing.
I didn't know what the fuck crawled into my body then as I stroked one hand gently slid down his side, tracing the shape of his body, revelling in the perfect, satin smoothness of his skin just like a girl. I deliberately avoided places I knew he had scars or was recently hurt.
As I did this I mumbled 'Calm down, sweet Sadie. Just wanna cuddle some, is all.' I was trying to take away some of the tension in his body and also trying to fool myself that I actually was in a dreamlike state even though I was fully wide awake. My fingers comfort him and do more but I held back. Didn't want to scare him off.
I made sure to keep my breathing as even and calm as possible as my fingers felt him gently all over. I felt glad that I got a little further than I had last time I touched him like this in my bed. He flinched and scooted away at that, making my greedy hands that apparently were hungry for more, gently guide him back close to me.
'It's OK.' I soothed. He went without resistance but gave a small whimper when I stupidly brushed across his back forgetting that I was supposed to avoid it.
'Sorry.' I pulled him closer to me. 'Sh, Sadie. It's OK...Did he hurt ya again?' I said with disbelieving outrage.
I felt him nod and sigh heavily, his hair tickling my arm wrapped around his shoulders and I swear it was the sexiest thing I had ever felt – being with a girl – even Sadie - couldn't even compare to being with him. My own brother.
'I'll fuckin' kill him.' I snarled protectively and meant it but wasn't talking about Tony, of course. Nevertheless, this harmless little white lie seemed to reassure him.
'Come here baby.' I whispered, still keeping up the act. 'Merle ain't gonna hurt ya.' I stroked his hair again – I knew the effect of doing that had on him.
I tentatively felt him all over to check him everywhere. Well, almost. I even managed to do this without him squirming away. Found swollen bruises – had the bastard made them without using his fists? Probably. I felt guilty for sleeping when Dad was doing that. he made a small noise when my fingers ghosted over these sore areas but otherwise didn't react.
I stopped and pulled him closer to me.
'Go back to sleep.' He cuddled into me as started to drift off, even slung on leg over mine unaware of the effect it had on me!
Fuck- how am I am going to sleep now? I stifled a groan as he sleepily shifted on top of me, getting comfortable. Was he aware of what he was doing to me? Surely, it must be innocent? But I wasn't sure and somehow, I finally managed to drift off.
I woke up before he did. I wondered at first where I was ...I could tell by the position of the sun shining through the blinds that it was early. He'd got off me by then – I didn't even recall him rolling off me.
He lay there sleeping like an angel and in his relaxed state, looked years younger than he actually was. I could see the damage done to his back – he was going to have more scars which I knew he would hate. I clenched my fists, wanting to punish the person who did that to him. He was still just a kid who'd never done anything to anyone, after all.
Telling myself I just needed to check him over for more bruises I'd maybe missed before, I gently tugged up his shirt while carefully keeping an eye on him for signs that he was waking up.
But there were none.
He was either clearly exhausted or felt so totally safe with me or maybe a mixture of both, that he didn't stir. His torso was exposed and I spotted the nasty black and blue bruise on his stomach without surprise that Dad couldn't keep his promise. Or maybe he had and kicked him with his boots.
'Fuckin' coward.' I muttered while I stroked his silky skin, unable to get enough of him, telling myself that I was doing it to double-check him over.
What a lie.
I frowned when I saw the marks - looked like handprints to me – on his sides, like Dad had grabbed him, maybe pinned him down. It must have been from when he bent him over the table in the cabin? Yet, I couldn't help but gasp when I saw the latest red marks around his wrists – marks from a rough rope tied far too tight. I knew the ones – the asshole kept them in the shed.
Dad had tied him up again while I was napping? And done what? Why?
My eyes were drawn to his sides for the first time, away from where they'd been admiring the beginnings of a six-pack without me even being aware of it - when I knew he didn't even work out, to his hands at his sides. I forced back the impulse to kiss him all over with horror.
That's when I saw them. Marks like hand-prints. Had Dad held him down? My mind boggled. Why? While he beat the crap out of him?
Fuck! I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth. What the fuck was going on? Why did our father tie him up? Felt the need to?
Like my body belonged to someone else, I bent down to kiss those angry, red marks on his wrist. First one – lightly and then the other, just as gently. Luckily, he didn't stir, even seemed to sigh in contentment in his sleep. I just couldn't help myself, told myself I was checking him over as looking at him first to see how deeply he was asleep, I was about to pull down his trousers when I was interrupted by him murmuring 'No' and shoving me away.
Daryl
I waited until I heard my brother's regular snoring that told me he was asleep. I gently traced my fingers on his battered face while recalling it without touching it – the punishment he'd got for just trying to protect me. No way did I want to wake him up. He apparently thought I was Sadie – one of his numerous girlfriends and I wanted it to stay that way as long as he didn't wake up again and try to have sex with me. Just like now when he tried to pull down my pants. Luckily, he seemed to hear me say 'No' and he stopped – something I was no longer used to.
Someone stopping when I told them to.
I really hadn't wanted to crawl into his bed and admit that I was afraid to sleep alone in my own like a small child after a nightmare. But I was exhausted and raw – I knew I could never fully relax in my own room, knowing that Dad could come in any time.
He'd decided to 'punish' me for Merle since he couldn't do anything more to him and that meant sex, of course. When I resisted, he punched me in the stomach. Bent over double, I had gasped an accusation at him that he was breaking his promise to Merle.
'Don't give a shit.' He'd replied coldly and hit me in the same place again. 'He attacked me and showed disrespect. That means all bets are off and ya gonna be bleedin' someplace else other than ya back by the time I'm finished with ya.' His words filled me with dread and terror even though I had been expecting payback like this for the stunt I'd pulled. 'And ya got no-one to blame but yaself.'
'I'm sorry, Dad.' I bowed my head submissively. 'But don't ya want me to love ya again?' I whined, hating myself for it. At that point, I was willing to say or do anything not to have his dick inside me again. After all, I'd already debased myself a million times in front of him by now.
He'd chuckled cruelly without answering. No – his answer was to tear my clothes off and shove me naked onto my bed. I fought as best as I could but he easily tied me up (too tightly as usual so that the ropes burned and cut off my circulation).
'Haven't made sweet love like this for a while, have we, son?'
'Ya sick! I'm gonna fuckin' kill ya one of these days!' He hadn't even bothered to gag or blindfold me this time.
I cringed expecting a painful reprimand for that threat but there was only his contemptuous, filthy laughter which was somehow worse. How I hated that laughter.
'Don't see how ya gonna do that, boy! Can't even stop me doin' what I want with ya. Like now.'
'Won't be forever!' I screamed back, hoping against hope that my brother would hear but I knew it was useless.
He penetrated me with barely any preparation and I screamed again.
He just let himself go, making as much noise as he wanted, knowing that Merle would definitely never wake up – not after the potent shit (Merle's own drugs) that he'd fed him. Considerately giving him heavy duty painkillers, so he'd said but I knew the real reason.
But I did have somewhere to run to, now. I let out a long sigh of suffering mixed with relief and he wrapped his arms around me tighter in his sleep.
'Merle', I whispered into his chest, 'You nearly found out today but he was too smart for us. He knew ya were there. Didn't ya hear anythin' he said to me? If ya had, ya would have figured it out by now and he'd be dead. Or did ya fall asleep because ya were hung over?'
He mumbled in his sleep and it sounded like 'Yeah.'
I sighed because he'd just confirmed my worst suspicions even if he didn't know it.
'We should've been long gone by now – you promised! How much money do we have to have before we leave, anyway?'
He mumbled something that sounded comforting.
'If ya ain't gonna get us outta this fuckin' house, it's gonna be either him or me. I mean it this time, Merle.'
He didn't answer of course, but patted my hair sloppily. Was he asleep or only pretending? I hoped the latter because then he would have heard my words. I hoped they would go into his brain, into his subconscious and put the idea that we had to leave right away into his thick head.
