Copyright © 2021 by Kylie Alyssa Forte
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Typewriter Pub, an imprint of Blvnp Incorporated
A Nevada Corporation
1887 Whitney Mesa DR #2002
Henderson, NV 89014
www.typewriterpub.com/[email protected]
ISBN: 978-1-64434-174-2
DISCLAIMER
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. While references might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
FIGHTING FOR LIFE
KYLIE ALYSSA FORTE
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Little Girl
Chapter Two
Get Out
Chapter Three
The Underground
Chapter Four
Plan
Chapter Five
Hurt
Chapter Six
Biceps
Chapter Seven
Truth
Chapter Eight
Forgot Where I Was
Chapter Nine
Long Day
Chapter Ten
Done
Chapter Eleven
Livid
Chapter Twelve
Instincts
Chapter Thirteen
My Life is a Joke
Chapter Fourteen
Now That We’re Friends
Chapter Fifteen
Miserable Dinner
Chapter Sixteen
Wear Something Flattering
Chapter Seventeen
Hope on the Back Burner
Chapter Eighteen
Down to Earth
Chapter Nineteen
Every Scar Has a Story
Chapter Twenty
Suffocating
Chapter Twenty-One
Hope
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nice To Have a Friend
Chapter Twenty-Three
Aiden’s Girlfriend
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Best Christmas
Chapter Twenty-Five
The Ugly Duckling
Chapter Twenty-Six
What Are You Thinking About
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I’m fine
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Make Yourself at Home
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Welcome to the Family
Chapter Thirty
People Hurt People
Chapter Thirty-One
Promise
Chapter Thirty-Two
Closure
Chapter Thirty-Three
Later
Chapter Thirty-Four
Why Not?
Chapter Thirty-Five
The Best Birthday
Chapter Thirty-Six
Wow
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Boundaries
Chapter Thirty-Eight
I Believe in You
Chapter Thirty-Nine
You’re Amazing
Chapter Forty
Keep Fighting
Chapter Forty-One
The End of us
Chapter Forty-Two
Broken
Chapter Forty-Three
Everywhere
Chapter Forty-Four
Numb
Chapter Forty-Five
Idiot
Chapter Forty-Six
Dead
Chapter Forty-Seven
The Pain of Nothing
Chapter Forty-Eight
Let Me Help You
Chapter Forty-Nine
Brother
Chapter Fifty
Psycho
Chapter Fifty-One
Deserve It
Chapter Fifty-Two
Situations
Chapter Fifty-Three
Fight
Chapter Fifty-Four
Prize
Chapter Fifty-Five
Strong
Chapter Fifty-Six
Everyone She Loves
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Here
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Confused
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Forgive Yourself
Chapter Sixty
Debt
Chapter Sixty-One
Free
Chapter Sixty-Two
Happy
Chapter Sixty-Three
Acceptance
Epilogue
Light Exercise
Together
Family
Nervous
Future
Happy
You Did so Amazing
To anyone who has ever had to fight against their own mind to get through the day . . .
You are a warrior.
Trigger Warning:
The following story contains scenes depicting violence, sexual assault, drugs, self-harm, and near suicide attempt.
Reader discretion is advised.
Chapter One
Little Girl
Aubry
I stared into his cold brown eyes, the ones that usually were bright with laughter as I handed him his money at the end of the month. I swallowed as he had his hands wrapped around my wrists tightly. Surely, he was leaving bruises.
“Where’s the money, little girl?” Demetri asked with venom laced in his voice.
“I-I-I don’t have it,” I stuttered out.
I closed my eyes tightly while wishing to not be in that situation anymore, wishing to be anywhere but there.
His breathing sped up, and I felt a hard punch to the right side of my jaw. My head jerked over as I inhaled sharply. It hurt like hell, but I wasn’t going to let him know that; I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. Besides, I’ve had a whole hell of a lot worse than that.
“Listen here you little bitch . . . I put my trust in you, gave you the benefit of the doubt, and supplied you multiple times with my drugs. Now you’re telling me you don’t have my money?” he said sharply.
Another blow came to the side of my head. It hurt a little less, but it still made my ears ring. I breathed in slowly, trying to calm down, trying to tell myself that everything was going to be fine. I knew it wasn’t going to be okay though, I messed with the wrong people.
“I-I’m s-sorry I was robbed, they stole everything,” I tried to plead with him so I could make him understand that it wasn’t my fault. It was my father and his demented friend’s fault, that’s why I hadn’t seen either of them for three whole weeks.
I could kill them. They were the reason I needed to do that bullshit in the first place! I should have just left like Kelsey did . . .
“No, I don’t want any of your damn excuses! They’re meaningless anyways. You were responsible for all of it. I trusted you to put them in a spot where no one could find them. I took pity upon you . . . a little fifteen-year-old girl coming to me, a drug lord, because she had nowhere else to turn to. I gave you the protection you asked for, yeah? How many times did anyone touch you after I told you I would take care of
you?” He paused, waiting for me to answer.
“Um, n-none,” I stated as he grabbed my face in his hand.
“That’s right, none. I asked you to do one tiny little thing for me in return. Sell the supply and give me the profit, and this . . .” he gestured around the room for emphasis. “This is how you repay me? Making me track you down and telling me everything is gone?”
He slapped me this time on my left cheek. I couldn’t really feel it though. I was too worried about my fate and if I would even still be living when they left.
At that point, I was crying. For what? I don’t know. Maybe because this was all my father’s fault; he was the one that stole the drugs, or maybe it was because this wasn’t quite how I wanted to die. Either way, I was blubbering like a baby against the wall that was holding me up. I couldn’t even stand up on my own because I was so scared.
“Do you know what I usually do to people who do this to me?” He moved my long hair out of my eye.
I shook my head “no” at him. I actually did know the answer—he usually killed them. I prayed silently that he wouldn’t do that to me; I knew it was a lost cause though. I was as good as dead.
“I kill them. They die because of this.” He paused as he took the gun from the holster on his hip and placed it upon my temple.
I started crying harder. I only had six more months ’til I was supposed to graduate, then I could’ve left that shitty town forever, but instead, I was going to die.
Six more months and everything could have been okay. Six more months, and I could have been free from the monsters that had control over me for my whole life.
I squeezed my eyes together tightly, waiting for him to pull the trigger. My breath was ragged, and my tears were soaking my shirt.
This was it . . . my death. It seemed so fucked up, the whole situation was fucked up.
“You look so much like your mother. She was one messed up bitch, but she was beautiful nonetheless, at least before the drugs. God, it sure would be a shame to blow your pretty little brains out.” He removed the gun from my head, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Could it be? He wasn’t going to kill me.
“What the fuck are you doing Demetri?” Daniel, Demetri’s brother, asked from behind. He always did hate me ever since I went to Demetri’s office and begged for help. Daniel was the one assigned to protect me, and he was not happy about that at all. As soon as he figured out that he couldn’t treat me how he treated my sister or my mother, it all went downhill. I wasn’t as agreeable as them. I wasn’t as weak as they were, or maybe it was that I was actually way weaker than them. I wouldn’t have been able to handle the things that they did or the things that they let happen to them.
I wasn’t like that; I wasn’t like them, and Daniel hated me for it.
“Look at her, she looks just like Jenny. I can’t kill her. Besides, I always did like her . . .” Demetri stated with a sigh.
“Then give me the gun, and I’ll do it. She fucked us! Twenty-five thousand dollars are gone because of that little bitch! Half a kilo of coke, two hundred and fifty G’s of crystal, and a brick of green . . . It’s all gone, and she let it happen!” He backhanded me across my face.
My face whipped to the side, and I bit back a scream.
“She deserves to die. I don’t know what your little obsession over Jenny was, but she is dead, and this is not her.” Daniel pointed to me and snarled. “This is a piece of shit that deserves what’s coming to her.”
Demetri put his hand up, silencing his younger brother instantly. “I know you feel strongly about this, but this is my business, and I have the final word.”
Daniel scowled at me due to Demetri’s words.
“So Aubry . . .” He gently ran his fingers down my tear-stained cheeks. I wanted to cringe, but I couldn’t risk pissing him off. “You’re seventeen, right?”
I nodded quickly.
“Graduating this year too?”
I nodded again.
“When is your graduation?” he asked.
“May thirty-first,” I said slowly, trying to piece his questioning together.
“Excellent. You have until then to give me my money, little girl.”
My eyes widened. Six months to get twenty-five thousand dollars? That’s more than some people make in a whole year!
I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off quickly.
“Don’t make me change my mind. If you don’t get the money to me by then, I’ll certainly take Daniel up on his offer. You’re pretty, but not that pretty.”
“So that’s it then? We just leave her alone for six months waiting for the money? You understand she crossed us, correct? You’re just letting her off the hook,” Daniel said to his brother angrily. He wanted to kill me; I saw the bloodlust in his eyes.
“You’re certainly right, brother. Teach her a lesson or two about not keeping her word and to take better care of things.” He then looked pointedly at me. “I will be keeping my eyes on you, so don’t even think about skipping town.”
He turned and walked back to the front door of my house and nodded at Daniel, “Have your fun.”
He looked at two of the several giant bodyguards. “Don’t let him kill her.”
With that, I heard the door open and close. He was gone, and I was in deep shit.
I pressed myself against the wall, firmly trying to blend in with it and praying that he wouldn’t go too hard on me. By the look in his eyes when he turned to me, I knew that prayer wasn’t going to be answered. His eyes held intense fury and hatred for me. He smirked at me, and I felt like throwing up, I knew this was going to be bad.
“Please, I am so sorry!” I screamed as he charged at me quickly. He hit me in the chest, and I fell against the wall, hard. All my breath was knocked out of my lungs, and my chest was on fire.
“No, you little bitch. My brother might have a soft spot for you, but I see what you are. You’re just like your father: unreliable, idiotic, and useless,” he said as he brought his fist down into my head. My vision blurred with his hard hit. “Your mother was a slut, just like you. How many guys have you fucked, huh?” He was taunting me while kicking me in the stomach.
I couldn’t breathe. I tried to gasp for air but every time I thought I was going to catch my breath, another blow came.
“Ten? Thirteen? No, maybe seventeen, one for every year of your life.” He spat on me in disgust.
My vision was becoming black from the lack of oxygen. Suddenly, he yanked me up by my hair. I was no longer crying, I could barely feel the blows to my body anymore. I just felt sick and really, really tired.
He yanked my head up to look at him in the eyes; it was too heavy for me to hold it up by myself. My breathing was coming back to me in little puffs, so the blackness was finally disappearing. When I could finally see clearly, I wished that I was blind. His face was so close to me, and his eyes held so much anger that I felt suffocated.
He wanted me dead. He smiled at me menacingly as he reached into his pocket. He was still holding me up by my hair so I couldn’t look down to see what it was, but one could only imagine.
“Remember what Demetri said, ‘You have to keep her alive’ so I suggest you don’t pull that out,” the tall bald man who was standing behind Daniel said gruffly.
“Chill, I know what I’m doing,” he snarled back at him and pulled the knife up to meet my face. I started to struggle some more, but he just pulled my hair tighter.
“Look here, whore, you’re going to be punished and by the time I’m done with you, you’ll wish you were never born,” he stated as he sliced the knife just underneath my collarbone.
Almost instantly, my white shirt was covered from the shoulder down with crimson blood. I felt like fainting but instead, I mustered up enough strength and smirked at him.
“It’s . . . a little t-too late for that . . . D-Daniel, I started wishing that years ago,” I croaked out, feeling like I was going to faint. The world was buzzing around me as he
held me up. I knew I couldn’t take much more; my body was already trying to give out from the numerous hits it had already endured. Just a few more hard hits, and I’d be out.
Out seemed to be a much better option than what I was going through at that point, though.
He practically growled at me as he smacked me with the knife handle on my cheek. I could feel the gash instantly, blood poured down my cheek and into my mouth. I fell to the ground as soon as he let go of me.
He kicked me as soon as I fell. “You stupid bitch. Don’t you dare . . .” he emphasized each word with another kick to my body.
I could no longer hear after that, and to be honest, I couldn’t even tell where the hits were going anymore. I was done and my body was too. It had taken too many hits to bear. I mean, I had been hit and beaten many times in my life, but this guy was trying to kill me.
I painfully turned over and tried to get into the fetal position, but my body protested. I couldn’t move anymore; it was too painful. Everything was black, and I couldn’t do anything but lay there.
I must have passed out completely soon after that because I have no recollection of anything that had happened after. I could only remember black, the cold and lonely black.
Did Daniel succeed in what his brother didn’t do? Did he kill me?
Chapter Two
Get Out
I woke up to cold water being poured over my head. I jolted up, but my body screamed as I did. My sides were on fire. I couldn’t move my shoulder, and it hurt just to breathe. I felt like I had been ran over several times and then dragged off somewhere to die.
I looked up for the culprit who poured water over me. I was met with hardened eyes that haunted me for too long.
“Get up. I can’t believe that bastard didn’t kill you!” my father said harshly.
Suddenly, I saw red. Maybe it was the fact my own father wanted me dead, or the fact that I hadn’t seen him since he stole the drugs that were not mine three weeks before, but whatever it was . . . I lost it.
A switch flipped in my brain, and I went berserk. I jumped up from my sitting position and attacked him. At first I was kicking him, but then in my sudden rage, I started strangling him. I felt in control and was going to kill him.
He deserved every bit of it, he deserved to die, and I deserved to be the one to kill him.
Fighting For Life Page 1
