9 Chapter 9

"Ezekiel, you need to leave, okay?? You shouldn't be here. Please leave." I say as I try to close the door on him but he stops it with his gigantic hand and forces it back open and forcibly steps inside the house, causing me to stumble back a bit. My calm behavior is about to shatter.

"Xennnaaaaaaawheeeerrreee???" His voice was turning into low hums and he's words were slurring together. As he walked more and more into the house, I noticed he had a bottle in his hand. He's drunk. An angry drunk.

"Where is what, Ezekiel?" I back up as slow as I can.

"Lisaaaa. People don't just....leeaaveee... like that." Lisa was my aunt. If he's looking for her, he should go check the woods. She isn't here.

"I told you, Ezekiel. She left, remember??? She went on a trip." Oh he didn't like that. He didn't like that one bit. His face screwed up as he dropped his beer bottle on the floor but it didn't break and he balled his fist. He is 6'4" and stocky compared to my 5'4" slim body. He's Gonna make me fight him. I size him up and down and he is at least 220 pounds. He was big. Way WAY bigger than me. I can't necessarily fist fight him, he can kill me. I'm going to have to tire him or outlast him and end up choking or knocking him unconscious somehow. Like breaking that beer bottle over his head.

"NO!!" He's getting louder.

"Yes, Ezekiel. She's gone."

" NO SHE ISNT!" Is that tears forming in his eyes???? "She was happy here."

"I need you to leave before I call the police." I slowly rotate around him, slowly getting to the bottle.

"Whatdiddddddyouuu-" his voice cracking and he was stuttering like a broken record.. "D-d-do to herrr?"

"Nothing at all... Look I need You need to go, Ezekiel."

"Tell me what you did first."

Okay, okay...she's in the basement." I say. He turns around and I move silently to pick up the bottle and put it in my hoodie so he doesn't see the obvious bottle in my pocket. I tighten and tie the drawstrings on my hoodie so it doesn't fall out. Ezekiel stumbles his way to the basement and I follow him. He opens the door and turns on the light.

"Are you...s-sure she's h-here?" He asked as he faced me.

"See for yourself." He slowly walked down the wooden stairs as they creaked and the basement light hummed as we moved forward. He gets to the bottom step.

"Heyyyy she's not h-" I rush and take the bottle out of my hood. I interrupted him with the bottle slamming down on him and shattering on impact. He stumbles back and groans in pain while holding his head and he goes deeper into the basement....but he doesn't fall or pass out. In fact, he gets angrier. His chest expands as he breathes in and out rapidly. He looks like a bull as his fists tighten and he looks at me with such anger. He then charges at me at full speed, but I move to the right and just barely dodge him,causing me to fall on the floor. I see a red wrench in the corner of the room. Okay, new plan. Choke him out. I push myself up off the ground and try to regain control of the situation before his gigantic hands grab my leg.

I kick and kick at his arm to let me go but he doesn't as he picks me up with one hand and slams me back down on the concrete floor. My whole rib cage empties as I gasp for air, In between those gasps of air, I saw it in his eyes. He was prepared to kill me. If I didn't fight right now...I was going to die. He was getting ready to pin all his weight on top of me but last second, I managed to slip from under him and climb on his back. I wrap my arms around his neck and clamp it down with my other hand while also wrapping my legs around his arms.

We struggle until I can get a good grip and I don't let go. As he starts to lose air, he starts to panic and move frantically. He rammed into the wall back first to try to get me off. As my back collided with the wall, I heard and felt my back crack under the pressure, kinda like if I was cracking my knuckles. I exhale in pain but still hold on. Just pass out already!!!

After a couple more times of slamming me against the wall, he stops fighting and slowly stumbles and falls, passing out from lack of oxygen. I move my hands once he's asleep and sit on top of him.

"Fucking, finally."I sit there and catch my breath before getting up and dragging his body to the corner next to the boiler. I pull the chains to him and I tie them in a handcuff knot around his hands and several pipes. I could've killed him...that would've been way easier. Way fucking easier but handling the body wouldn't have been. He would be so fucking heavy, absolutely not. I'm not going to kill him. Today has been an eventful ass day, no? I just fought a grown ass man. I think I deserve some sleep. I look around at the concrete walls and ceiling of the basement. Concrete is thick and yes, it can be soundproof, it isn't completely. So if he tries to scream... or make a lot of noise... that would be a problem.

Suddenly Rhea appeared right next to me. She was so small and up to my hip. "Hey don't you know how to do all this stuff from Mrs.Elrich?"

"Well, some things. She taught me a lot...you were there when she did? You saw all of that?" I look at her puzzled. It was so long ago, it was when I was ten years old.

"Well duh, how could I ever forget being in an orphanage?"

"Well yea... I'm glad she taught me those things... look how useful they became."

"Yea now you kick ass big sister!" She smiled at me but it calmed down to a straight face. "It sucks what happened to her though."

"She got what she deserved." I walked back upstairs and locked the basement door. " I did what I had to to protect us."

"But I don't need you to protect me an-"

"I don't want to hear it, Rhea. I already gave you my answer." I walked to the second floor of my room and she followed.

"Wait can you liste-" she started pleading. She needs to listen.

" I said no, Rhea."

"But-" she stood in front of me as I entered my room.

I close my eyes and breathe in deeply. "Enough, Rhea!" I opened my eyes in my bedroom and she was gone. Not even a whisper of her voice. I close the door, turn off the lights and go to sleep.

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