003

The day had darkened and the night was drawing quicker; yet the young rebel still laid on the couch unfazed. His swellings had stopped, but he still remained unconscious.

Karla stood at the door, smoking a cigarette, trying to keep herself calm, but her nerves were wracking.

"How the hell do I raise the rest of the money?." Karla asked out loud, blowing a thick cloud of smoke around the room.

She coughed afterwards, still trying to adjust to the sensations that accompanied smoking, as her line of work demanded that she try such kinky things.

*Cough*

Karla spared a glance at the young man who just let out a cough. She tossed the cigarette out the window and dashed towards him.

"Addie? You still alive?" Karla asked, monitoring him from head to toe, for any sign of life. The young man by the name of Addie coughed again, his eyelids twitching.

Karla took the no longer frozen steak and placed it on the table. Still on her knees, she pushed Addie's hair to the side. He had such long hair that it always got in the way of his vision.

Addie coughed again. Karla watched him, as he coughed repeatedly without any reaction. Suddenly, Addie's eyes opened, sending a slight chill down Karla's spine.

Addie immediately sat up, groaning under his breath, his face twisted in obvious pain as he placed his left hand behind his head for support.

"How did you survive that? You're supposed to be dead." Karla voiced out. Addie smirked at her, searching around for his shirt which he didn't have on.

"Where the hell is my shirt Kay?" Addie asked in a raspy tone as his eyes landed on his red stained shirt lying on the table.

"Damn, couldn't you at least wash it for me? You just sat back and watched huh?" Addie stated as he slowly got up and started walking around the small living area, till he finally perched at the window, looking outside.

"How the hell are you still alive? I was certain that in at most an hour your body would have lost so much blood. Your blood would have clotted, and by now, you would have been dead." Karla voiced confused and exasperated as she got up from her position.

"But you scaled through, as though nothing huge happened..what exactly are you Addie?" Karla questioned with a look of perplexity planted firmly on her face. Addie tossed her a quick glance, his face almost impossible for Karla to read.

"My mouth tastes like shit. Damn Karla, did you feed me that junk you call medicine?" Addie asked changing the tensed atmosphere of the room.

"I had to, it was the only thing I could think of that would stop you from dying." Karla defended, taking his bloody shirt from where it lifelessly laid.

"But it seems like you could keep you just fine without my concoctions, which brings me back to my initial question, what are you Addie?" Karla pressed, with a serious look on her face.

"Fricking scientist, you can't seem to stop asking these damned questions. Am just a normal man, tall, brave, good looking..."

"Humble." Karla sarcastically inserted, cutting Addie off, as she rolled her eyes.

"Point is, I'm not one of the fictional characters in your mind. I'm not the red eyed beast you talk so much about." Addie retorted.

"No one is, so stop dedicating your life to that shit and help me with a decent meal. I'm starving." Addie said, changing the topic.

Karla for a moment seemed offended, but her eyes couldn't keep to the ceiling, they kept on staring at Addie's face, and how his bruises had magically disappeared.

"I don't have any food here. It's at my home, and I have to leave now, it's almost time for work." Karla said pulling her coat from the door where she hung it, dashing out of the cramped up place, into the silent night.

Addie sighed heavily once she left. He stretched his fingers a bit, examining them himself. His mind flashed back to how these same fingers were hurt pretty badly and how bruised they were. But now, they looked brand new,

Addie himself had started to look worried.

♠♣♠

Karla pulled out her key from her bra, looking around for anybody who might have been watching her. Once the coast was clear, she planted it into the lock and jiggled it around till it clicked open.

She shoved the key back in her bra, then took off her shoes holding them in her hands while she walked inside.

"I'm home!" Karla announced, dropping her shoes where the others were laid in a neat row.

"Karla?" A frail voice called from a near distance. Karla tossed her coat on the hanger and strutted inside, but stepped on a knife which was left laying on the floor.

"Who did this!?" Karla asked yelling out in agony, as she realised just how dangerous it was to have sharp things lying about.

Luckily, she didn't get hurt by it. She crouched down to pick it up. Her eyes trailed forward to see not just the knife on the floor, but to two feet standing at a corner, shaking in fear.

She shrugged and took the knife with her, walking up to the frightened little person standing by the kitchen door.

"It wasn't you who did this was it?" She asked, ruffling the blonde hair of the girl who stood there shaking, not paying any heed to Karla.

The girl's vision was strictly on the ceiling, as if she saw something there, something that no one else was seeing. Karla looked up with her but saw nothing of any interest.

"Are you there? Karla?" A voice called out. Karla turned her head towards the source of the voice, then shifted her gaze back to the blonde girl.

"You're nine, learn to pick up your brother's mess." Karla let out, ruffling the girl's hair before moving onwards, still grabbing the knife.

"Is that you walking in? Why didn't you come home today? The twins were worried." Karla fully stepped into the kitchen to find a brunette sitting on a chair, holding a long wooden stick.

"How could you tell with those two? They never act like they like me." Karla broke out, dropping the knife on the sink.

"Where did you get that knife? Where you fighting someone? Was it the officers?" The brunette who was in her late forties said staring at the wall in front of her.

"Your sense of hearing is getting sharper, you could tell what it was just by the sound of it. I'm impressed mom, infact am jealous." Karla asserted.

Next, she opened the fridge, brought out a cold box of pizza, and took it to the microwave to heat it up.

"It's broken...don't bother." Karla's mom said, turning to face Karla.

"What? It was fine yesterday." Karla defended, now noticing the missing see through glass that helped to heat the food.

"He got mad today and smashed it. I tried to stop him, but he was so pissed off, he didn't stop till he heard the glass shatter." Karla's mom explained.

"Where are the pieces?" Karla asked immediately, staring at the floor till she found the broken pieces. Her eyes widened in horror to see all the pieces shoved to a corner, a bit of blood stained on them.

"Fuck." She voiced out, staring at the red coloured glass. "Who got hurt?" She asked in fear. Her eyes wandered to her mother's hand, which had some cuts and blisters. She had been trying to hide them from Karla ever since Karla walked in.

"Please don't hurt him..." The woman's desperate voice echoed, as Karla stormed out of the kitchen, and headed towards the only room with two beds.

She pushed the door open to see a young boy, shorter than the girl by just an inch, scribbling on the wall with some crayons.

Karla didn't waste anymore time. She rushed up to him, snatching the crayon from the boy, but the brunette boy didn't seem to want to surrender it.

"Give it here you damned twerp!" Karla said in-between grunts and struggles. He was strong for a nine year old. Luckily, Karla grabbed it away from him and tossed it aside. It rolled under the bed, to rest with the rest of the set.

On cue, the boy began to cry uncontrollably. Karla rolled her eyes, gripping him by both sides, staring daggers at him.

"Stop it. You're a very bad boy! You hurt everyone around you, and you can't seem to understand anything!" Karla scolded, but the boy was adamant, and kept on crying louder than before.

"Hey! Stop it! You can't just smash things and drop pointy things around! You're nine now..."

The boy stopped his crying once he noticed how angry Karla had become and tried to match her anger. He raised up his hand which was curled into a fist and started to hit his head, not looking at Karla but at the door, as if someone stood there.

He kept on hitting his head, smacking it with the force of another person. Karla struggled to stop him from hurting himself out of anger, but that only encouraged the boy to hurt himself even more.

"Stop, don't do that you twerp. It's enough!" Karla cautioned, but the boy continued to assualt himself violently.

He attempted to smash his head against the scribbled wall, but Karla grabbed him by both sides and enveloped him in a tight bear hug, stopping him from moving.

Tears flowed down the boy's eyes falling freely down to his cheeks, falling off his face to the ground, as he screeched in pain, trying to struggle out of Karla's tight bear hug, just wanting to inflict some pain on himself.

Just some pain to give him pleasure.