XXIII

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"Catch me daddy!" the little girl said with glee as she ran on the green open vast land, her father jogging rather than running after her as they played catch. She all but squealed in laughter when the man boomed behind her, snatching her up from the ground in his monster voice and said

"Got you" only to twirl her around in the air. Her laughter was nothing but pure joy twinkling as sweet bells in the air.

"Again daddy, again please" the girl pleaded with puppy dog eyes in her father's arms, who all but beamed at her, eyes filled with over pouring love and he relented, placing her back on her feet again

"Okay" and the minute she was steady on her feet, she took off running again, under the beaming sun that laughed along with the heart-warming scenery. She ran as fast as her little legs could carry her, but at a distance, when she didn't hear her father's foot falls or playful taunts, she stopped to look back in confusion

"Daddy?" her tone uncertain as she looked at her father in the distance. The scene changed and she was no longer the little girl that called out again

"Daddy?" she saw him fall to his knees then, and when she made to run back toward him, she found that she couldn't, as if her feet were bolted to the ground, she could only watch as her father's arms were shackled by chains and he looked her way

"Bella!" he screamed in panic and worry for her

"D-Daddy!" she screamed back in her own panic and fright, she felt cold around her wrists and she realised she too was shackled and no matter how much she tugged or tried to run, she couldn't.

"Daddy!" she screamed again, gone was the sun as her heart wrenching scream tore through her when she saw a shadow walk behind her father, gun in its hand, it raised its hand and she tugged more as she continually called out

"Daddy! Daddy behind you! Daddy!" her father simply looked at her as if dead to her warning, and his eyes remained on her even as a bullet tore through his chest

"Daddy! No! please no!" she sobbed out her pleas, yet it seemed the shadow was deaf to her heart breaking pleads as he shot her father again, and again, and again. She could only watch as blood leaked from her father's eyes, then nose, then lips, then his ears until he finally collapsed to the ground.

"Daddy, please" she sobbed out, her throat raw and eyes blurred even more and her heart broke all over again. Her father was no longer breathing, he was dead, again.

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"Daddy" she rasped under her breath as she woke up to realise she was crying in reality too. Sniffing she sat up from the cold ground, only to let out a sneeze

"Bless you" said the man that had been watching her asleep for a while. He smiled when her eyes shot to his

"Had a nightmare huh" he started as if to strike a conversation with her. she wiped away at her tears

"What do you want,?" she spat out

"Sin actually, cause its playtime, you remember play time don't you, surely you witnessed it sometimes right? rather than blacking out as usual when she took over" he said, she furrowed her brows then with a pout and said

"Now it's my turn to be offended, you don't even know when it's actually me" she said

"Oh really?" the man questioned with a cocked eyebrow and narrowed eyes as he took her face in. She dropped the pout and frown and said

"No" with a straight face. She heard no voice in her head, no evil other half to taunt her about just how miserable and pitiful she was being.

Perhaps she felt exactly how Sin would be feeling had she been in her head. Perhaps it was why she heard no voice in her head to begin with, there was no need for separation when both felt the same, thought the same and had the same wishes, that being to tear the man before them apart. Perhaps along with every soul that dared to even blink her way.

Had her acceptance of all this emotion be it evil as it was, defeated the purpose of her having two split personalities? Or perhaps her giving up on hanging on to the hope of someday being normal and away from that life was the reason she felt, her and Sin were now one, as they should have been from the beginning rather than resisting her fate.

"Quite a rare piece of art you are, aren't you? Anyways, it doesn't matter, little mouse, cause I'll punish you anyway" she watched her former foster father stand up to leave and yet again, before he could walk out, his eyes flitted somewhere this time,

"Might want to say hi to your friend, little mouse" with her brows furrowed in confusion, she looked to her left and her heart just about clogged her throat.

Cassidy, the young woman hung unconscious to the far left of the ceiling from her, and she was stripped naked for all to see. Her mind was stuck on how familiar the scene was to her dream and she wondered then if such thing as premonitions existed. Or her soul was so used to her foster father's antics that it predicted what he might do in a form of a dream.

"Cassidy!" she shouted out through her sore throat., to the woman in attempt to wake her up, whilst she tried to free her hands from the tight shackles around her wrists.

Looking down at the steel, she noticed that they had room to breathe this time unlike the cuffs, and so she tried to squeeze her hand through the hole. She looked for any liquid she could see around her except there wasn't any. She knew her mouth was too dry to use spit in place of oil so she could squeeze her hand through. She tried until her hand bled yet her attempts yielded no results. Hearing the intake of breath, she looked Cassidy's way then

"Cassidy?" the young woman lifted her head up a blinked her way, furrowing her brows she said

"Bella? What's going on, where am I?" Bella saw panic cloud her eyes as she wiggled around from where she hung as she questioned

"Where are my clothes? why and I hanging from the ceiling? Guilt suffocated Bella then, like it had never before, she should have known better, now because of her, Cassidy would die.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Cass" she said through tears. Cassidy noticed then that she herself was shackled

"You don't have to apologise Bella. We just have to figure out how to get out of here. Yes, that's what Sandra bullock would do" Bella chuckled then, genuinely so because of how serious the young woman seemed to be. Only to be struck by reality of how serious their situation was.

Trying to get her mind under control, she noticed the table a few feet from the young woman. She sneezed again, and she knew that meant trouble. Her mind might have distracted her immunity long but it couldn't be forever, and so sickness was catching up. She looked down at her hands again, with the knowledge that Cassidy wouldn't leave here alive unless she did something, she gave her shackles a go again.

Although a part of her knew it would all be a futile, for surely there were men guarding their door. And say she did manage to free them, she was in no shape to fight let alone one man. She noticed just how skinny she was turning then. However, Bella was no ordinary girl, she didn't grow up ordinary as everyone else, she was a fighter, a survivor, Sin was a testament to that and Sin was her, she wasn't fragile, she was a trained assassin, fricking Killer Sunshine is who she was, and she would be damned if she went down without even trying, she had never been a quitter and she wasn't about to start.

With her mind set, she took the shirt she wore, caring less about exposing herself, and she bit down it, only to scrape meat off of her bones as if skinning herself alive with the shackle bracelet she was pulling off her hand. She broke the bone connected to her thump then and tears flooded her eyes as she groaned.

"Bella! What the hell are you doing?" the young woman questioned with concern as she watched blood stain her friend. When her hand was finally freed from the bracelet, she looked at Cassidy

"Keep it down, I have to get you out of here" she said. Although alarmed, Cassidy merely nodded Bella realised then that with her right hand mauled and with a broken bone, she might not be able to free her other hand, trepidation hit her then.

Only to shake her head, and she tried to stand up only to fall back down, feeling like she was a baby cow just learning to walk again. So weak, she felt weak, but she pushed with all her might and stood up, walking until she was pulling at the other chain, she tried to use that restriction to free her left hand.

However, with every angle she pulled, she realised it would end up breaking her wrist and unless she aimed to tear off her hand, her left hand was stuck.

"it's not working Bella, so stop hurting yourself, please" Bella's sullen look faced Cassidy's way, only for her eyes to land on the table, she tried to see if she could reach it at least, and just as she was about to, the door opened again. The man laughed

"I have got to give it to you Bella, you have heart" when her finger grazed against metal, she grasped the blade on it only to realise she wasn't able to even grasp it enough, let alone throw it at the man that was nearing her, considering how injured and in pain her free hand was. She hadn't really thought it through.

"You gave quite a show, I'll give you that" at his words her eyes looked up to every corner of the room that was probably a basement and she noticed the camera's then. "But it's my turn now, mhmm? unless you'd like to go first"

"Go to hell" Bella spat out and although her grip wasn't firm, it seemed enough for her to slash at the man's cheek in anger, and he was too slow to move out of the way. Enraged, he punched her and she fell to the ground in pain.

"Bella! You keep our filthy hands from her your fucker!" Cassidy all but screamed in anger as he watched the man strike her friend. The man as if amused by the whole scene all but laughed.

"Oh don't worry dear, after all, it's why you're here" he said. Bella's head snapped his way then. Seeing the question on the face he smiled, only to clasp her broken hand in his. She hissed as he dragged her by it back to her position, reaching for the key in his pocket, he unlocked the shackle, only to wrestle her for her hand until he clicked the shackle back around her free wrist. Back to square one. He stood back up and smiled at her

"Lover boy said I can't lay a finger on you, well the punch couldn't be helped" he said using a finger to wipe away the blood on her cheek.

"Therefore, it is why she's here, to be my new canvas since I can't have you and to teach you a lesson you seem to have forgotten. Attachments are bad, didn't I ever tell you that, little mouse?" her eyes bugged out of her head then. "You've been a very bad girl indeed" he tutted with a shake of his head and walked in the direction of the young woman that hung from the roof in confusion

"Bella, what is going on, who is this man?" she questioned, her voice all of a sudden feeling small with how the man before her was looking at her.

"Oh goodness me,  where are my manners. I'm James Balachi, but you can call me the butcher. It's a pleasure" the old man introduced with a told of his head Cassidy's way. Seeing the familiar fear on her face, Bella muttered out

"I'm sorry Cassidy, I'm so sorry" she said though the guilt squeezing her heart. The man laughed and Bella flinched form where she sat.

"I see you never told your friends about me. can't say I'm bothered. Well let me fill you in dear...Cassidy is it? since my dear foster daughter never said a word" he smiled wider when he saw her eyes bug out in shock, for surely the man couldn't have fathered her sweet Bella.

Then again the truth seemed clear as day with how Bella shrunk into herself all of a sudden because of him, and she wondered then what the man must have done to her, what she must have gone through, being that she hung off the wall in that moment and she was certain it was because of the man before her.

"You know, Bella used to love this, well a part of her of course, she used to skin people alive, torture them with me, I thought of it as daddy-daughter bonding time. And man if she could make a man squeal, can you imagine that? that innocent face making a grown man squeal. Yea, unbelievable, I know. But she was perfect, my perfect little mouse, well, Sin was the perfect one, then Bella, well, she was too sappy and weepy for my liking" he said as he surveyed the weapons on the table.

"I'd even find her sneaking down into our basement, just to get her fill of blood. One time I found that she had sowed a man's mouth shut, want to know what her reason was when I asked her?" he smirked, seeing the horrified look on Cassidy's face. He picked up a scalpel, the tip on his finger to see how sharp it was, he continued, walking in her direction.

"She said, it was because he made too much noise with his pleading and it was annoying her cause she just wanted to play" he sighed out as if reminiscing about a beautiful memory. Cassidy found that she couldn't' believe Bella being so cold hearted, yet when she looked at Bella, her expression confirmed otherwise, and she didn't know how to feel about it, about everything that was going on. All of a sudden she realised how little she knew her so called friend, one that had always seemed so guarded.

"I told her attachment was bad, but she never listened. I thought she would after I had taught her a lesson, except, apparently she hadn't considering you, and now, because of her, you'll die a very slow torturous death. A good lesson for her this time, don't you think?" It was when Cassidy let out her first scream that Bella looked at one of the camera's and said

"Fine Deacon, you can have me, have me all you want, however you want, just please, let her go. Please" she pleaded through tears.

Yet as Deacon watched behind his computer screen in his office, he thought that perhaps this would bear perfect reminder of just what he was capable of to her. Therefore, he leaned back in his chair, and let out a sigh of pleasure as his wife went down on him, the image of Bella's pleading face zoomed in on the screen, and it only served to make him harder as he shoved himself deeper into the woman's mouth, imagining that he was mouth fucking Bella's teary face instead.