10 10. BANG... BANG...

BRIA

It was very funny how you love a person so dearly and feared the same person like a child fears a hypothetical bad man, trying to overlook the very fact that they were even part of your life. It was like dealing with a beautiful snake. The colourful, vibrant beauty with intricate details and shiny skin attract you towards it. Its captivating eyes were the only place where you could get lost in very depths. You always admire and dream of touching it someday. But when you get the once in a lifetime chance you stood there frozen and just want the animal to disappear from your sight.

Why the reference to a fearful animal like a snake? Because I was experiencing the same situation right now with Benji. He was my own beautiful but dangerous snake. I love him so much and always want to keep him by my side. But at this very moment, all I wanted him to disappear from my sight as I stood frozen at my spot when I saw him with my truck parked at the school's front gate. His captivating eyes were blaring in hot red fury making me get lost in the depths of fear. His perfectly white teeth (I really need to take tips from him on keeping your teeth in good shape and form after the fifties) were baring in anger. He was in a ballistic snake mode right now like King Cobra.

Oh, by the way, my favourite animal?

Snakes, duh. I absolutely adore them!

He stalked towards us with firm steps and I could see his tensed muscles from a mile away.

"h-hey Benji! Wassup man?" my pathetic attempt followed by a laugh that could only be described as a cry of a hungry baboon.

The last ounce of confidence I had destroyed when his face twitched in anger. My hands reached for kids to hold them close as a shield for my dear life but all they managed to grasp was only thin air. I cocked my head to look past walking death machine to saw the little traitors running for their life towards the truck without sparing me a glance. I was so fucked up!

He opened his mouth to say something and as an instinct, my hands flew to cover my face as I closed my eyes in fear. But he stopped with his body getting stiffer than before if that was even possible. I cracked open my eyes into thin slits and realised that he was not staring at my innocent face but behind me. I slowly dared to look back to see the three paled faces with their mouths hanging open. Eva, Liam and Juan stood frozen on the spot when their eyes met with Benji's menacing ones. I might sound selfish but a relief spread in my mind at the thought of not facing Benji's wrath alone.

Benji didn't say anything and grabbed my elbow, dragging me towards the truck. He threw me inside and closed the door with a force that my brain went straight into calculating mode figuring how much it would cost to repair the broken door. My three companions in a sinking boat rushed to get inside the truck silently without wasting a minute. After throwing a cold you-are-in-a-deep-shit look Benji slipped into the driving seat and drove us to home. The ride was quiet, thick with a palpable tension that I could hear my heart beating against my chest. Even Jack was snuggled into Eva's arms pretending to fall asleep.

When the truck stopped, I was the first one to hop out of it not bothering to close the door behind me. I literally broke into a run to get as far as possible from the poisonous snake trailing behind me. I could even imagine two fangs shining in daylight with a bifurcated tongue peeking out of mouth periodically on his face. I dashed through the front door and darted straight to the kitchen. I chugged down a glass of water to drench my dry throat. I could still feel the coldness of the metal against my skin. I shuddered at the sound of the closing of the front door. I gulped down nervously and stepped into the living room to face the repercussions of my actions.

I saw only kids in the room and when I noticed three idiots avoiding my eye contact, I lost it. "where the hell was you three? Do you have any remote idea what happened today? Juan, you were supposed to be there protecting the kids" my fists were clenched tightly, my nails digging in my palm. They opened their mouth to answer but shut it with wide eyes and that was enough indication that Benji was standing just behind me.

I turned with a sigh, bracing myself for the expected catastrophe.

When Benji didn't say anything for a minute I decided to take the responsibility of cutting the tensed atmosphere. "Look I am sorry Benji. I take all the responsibility for what happened today. I was out for only shopping and didn't expected anything like this to happen and-"

"do you know what I was expecting when I found you were not here and out, without any protection or help? I was expecting you to get harmed. I was expecting you to be presented before me in a bloody body bag" loudness of his voice increased gradually by octaves with every word resulting finally in him shouting at the top of his lungs at this point. His face was so red in anger that I thought all the blood in his body was accumulated only there.

Cody entered the living room as quietly as possible for him with a guilty look in his eyes and a black ring forming around his eyes. I cringed at the sight and gave him my best apologetic look as subtly as I could.

"Yeah. I know and I am sorry" I whispered as my head bowed in shame.

Benji gave me an incredulous look. "you are sorry? You are sorry that you could have got yourself killed or worse you put the lives of these innocent kids in danger? Really?" he shook his head in disappointment and I realised how wrong my choice of words was.

"Benji-"

"What happened?" he questioned in an authoritative tone to which I complied instantly.

I was hesitated to fill up every detail in front of Cody but did it nonetheless as he at least deserved to know why he will be showcasing black eye for the next few days. After I finished explaining everything the kids were crying harder while holding each other tightly. All the colour from Cody's face was drained and his knees were shaking in fear that I was expecting him to piss his pants any moment. And Benji... Well, you really don't want to hear.

Five minutes of silence passed when a loud crash echoed around. Kids screamed in panic and backed away to the wall behind them. Benji and I shifted to alert mode in an instant. We were about to run out to look for the noise when the sound of glass shattering came from the adjacent room startled us. The commotion was followed by repeated crashes and the sound of breaking glasses and other articles in the house.

"Cody, get the kids behind the sofa" Benji shouted ducking behind a nearby wall.

Cody did as he was told and hide behind the sofa with kids. I took shelter behind a large bookshelf that was able to hide my body behind it. Silence filled again as the bombardment halted for some moments. I swept my gaze around to see the condition of my house. Once the neat and clean house was now all mess resembling the after-effects of an earthquake. Pieces of window glasses were shattered all over the floor with other broken articles such as photo frames, vases and my favourite wall décor piece. I peered out of the now broken window to find the sky filled with dark ink and I could spot the dim twinkling lights in the distant.

I took a step towards the window to get a good look to outside, ignoring the warning from Benji when a loud boom was followed by a thud.

What was that sound? It was my fucking front door, now unhinged from its frame and lying on the floor with dust.

Kids broke into a screaming competition for the second time in the span of ten minutes. My eyes widened the size of saucers when they land on two figures looming at the once present front door.

Gabriel and Kyle.

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What is the biggest fear of any girl? Yup, you are right. It is getting bald and ugly. I woke up in the morning with my black jet hairs on the pillow, taunting me about my not so healthy eating habits. I witnessed the most horrifying scene where my comb and floor were filled with black strands after I try to work on my hairs.

Twice in a week, I saw a bunch of black on my bathroom floor which I managed to pass through the drain hole with ten minutes of stubborn efforts. I was used to seeing a few hairs on my sweatshirts, duvet, clothes and... Food.

I was used to getting pimples here and there on my face and oily skin with dark circles around my eyes. I remember that one time when that red ball decided to have a vacation on tip of my nose and every time, I talked with anyone, they tuned out my voice concentrating only on my nose.

That. Was. Horrible.

But none of these everyday horrifying incidences prepared me for today. Nope. Not at all. It was officially the most terrible day of my life. And it was clear the moment I saw those two pignuts at my now non-existent front door.

Why? Because my once 'not-so-beautiful-but-not-so-ugly' face was now covered with red marks of slaps and an ugly round mark on my left chick of a punch which was thrown by none other than Kyle, the bulldog, because and as he put it, 'he captures the image of every pathetic human being who irritates him in the slightest. And I, the most infuriating weak girl had crossed all the lines.'

When Gabriel dragged my wildly throwing punches and kicks self out of the house, grabbing and painfully tugging my long black hairs, I finally got acquainted with the pawn of satan. He threw me on the ground with a hard tug on my hair and I saw the most horrifying and cruel thing any girl could see. Gabriel opened his palm and showed the amount of hair that was equal to my one week's hair fall. And ladies and gentlemen that sight made me cry my balls out. Now was the time that those conspirators, my tears, decided to show their debut.

Gabriel, on the other hand, was looking like he saw the worst thing in his life that he could have ever seen. He shook his hand as if he had touched a cat's poop making a disgusted face. I opened my mouth to curse him with a string of colourful profanities when Cameron took a chance to slap me hard.

My head spins at the impact and I groaned in pain. Well, if you consider a string of curses as groaning in pain. My vision got blurry when I got two more hits on either side of my face because I disrespected oh-not- so- great- fucking his majesty. I knew he was taking it out on me to satisfy his bruised male ego. But I was not in a good shape and form to resist him as my head was throbbing with unbearable pain.

The ringing sensation faded when I heard yelling and shouting from the other side. It took me some time to open my eyes and steady them. I glanced sideways adjusting my eyes and saw four men holding the animalistic Benji while his worried eyes were looking at my damaged face in anger. Five men were holding the kids and Cody at little distance from Benji. I tried to say something, anything but my voice came out barely as a whisper that I couldn't understand myself.

Six shiny black cars were parked in a row, all with a golden K at the front with their bright headlights damaging my corneas. My anger bubbled at the sound of crying, shouting, pleading and that daunting laugh. I took an opportunity to kick Kyle on the backside of his knee when he was busy displaying his slightly yellow teeth. His knees hit the ground as he bellowed in pain. Now that was a little satisfying. I tried to stand up with a smirk.

"don't laugh at my kids when they are crying" I seethed while throwing daggers at him with my furious eyes.

It was a pretty good move if you ask me but what I got in return? A punch in the gut. I mean what kind of gentleman hit a lady like a ragged doll. Oh, wait.. they were no gentlemen. I was surrounded by dogs, barking street dogs.

"Briaaaa... Leave her alone you bastards" Benji was shouting in panic as I lay there in pain. I was so gonna kill that Cameron, the bastard. I was wailing in pain as tears streamed down my eyes like rivulets. God! This fighting thing looks good only in movies.

Through all the chaos I heard the opening of a door of a nearby car, followed by strong and firm footsteps. Every man around me went on dead silent mode in a second. Even Benji stopped struggling and cursing while kids held their bodily fluids running from their eyes, nose and skin. But when the rancid smell hit my nostrils my eyes automatically shift to trembling form of Jack and a wet spot forming on the front of his pants.

What did he saw? A Dracula?

My head bowed down when pain shoot through the back of my skull that I thought it would split my head in half. I clutched my head between my hands while supporting my body weight on my knees. For a minute I lost all the sensation to the world around me. Cameron grabbed my hair again in a painful grip and tugged it hard to make me lookup. I closed my burning eyes in pain. What's with these men and grabbing my hair.

"Open your eyes" he commanded but I refused.

He tried again "open your eyes Bria Maxwell" and I refused again.

No one ordered me around and made me do things that I don't want. But soon my teary and must be red eyes flew open when I heard Ava's scream. I wanted my eyes to land on her but instead, they land on someone else.

My head was throbbing with pain and all I wanted was just to wake up from this bad dream. But when my eyes landed on black polished shoes, I knew that my prayer would remain unanswered. My eyes slowly trailed up painfully slow, may I add. The person was wearing black pants covering his taught thighs. I could imagine all the lines and cuts in the right places. He was wearing a white crisp shirt tucked inside his pants along with the grey suit, which I was pretty sure costed equal to my family's monthly expense and belonged to some world-famous fashion brand which I couldn't even pronounce correctly. Even through his clothes, I could make out his well-defined features, v-shaped torso with broad and I mean really broad shoulders made up of only muscles. My train of thoughts broke when my eyes land on his sinfully perfect face.

His had broad face with high cheekbones, short and narrow jaw. His high forehead was like a playground of cricket for his facial germs, well... if there were any. His long, straight nose was so perfect that I was doubtful his plastic surgeon must have inserted a metal stick through his nose to keep it in shape. I was not sure about his skin though it was light in tone and from where I was looking it was quite near to perfect. Features of his face were prominent as his face was clean shaven. This guy, I mean man must spend fifteen minutes daily to maintain that clean shaven look. I couldn't even keep my legs clean shaven for two days straight. And his eyes.. wait. I couldn't see his eyes as they were hidden behind the black masterpiece that must be from Christian Dior.

In short, he was someone dangerous yet devilishly beautiful.

And ladies and gentlemen here was one more thing I suck at- describing people's physical appearance. But hey! I was pretty good at describing people though!

"are you done?" Gabriel's amused voice cut me from my inspection.

"wh-what I had done?"

"your eyes were bulging out of their sockets and you were drooling like you have seen a delicious piece of meat, which according to 99.87% of people is considered as ogling or checking out a hot guy."

He said in the same amused thing which I hated because now my face was a dark shade of red and Benji was giving me his 'are-fucking-serious' look.

"and one more thing. The guy you were just ogling is none other than KING"

Holy mother of dinosaur!