(Yaya’s POV)
Noodle walked beside me. The lantern (a net of glowbugs) he was holding cast shadows along the roadside.
"Your hands," he said, "Why are they like that? What happened to them?"
"What happened to them? They’re just hands," I muttered.
If cold-blooded were this curious, I didn’t want to know what the warm-blooded would be like. I already had enough problems with placating this noodle, especially after we left the raccoon village. It felt like he was growing more paranoid with each slither.
"No," he insisted, softer now. "They’re not. They look... broken."
"They’ve been put to good use." I held up my right hand to his lantern’s light.
The flickering flame revealed every ridge and scar, every hardened knot of flesh that had accumulated over the years. My knuckles, in particular, stood out. They were swollen and discolored, with thickened skin.
I watched Noodle’s eyes as he examined them.
"Really good use," I repeated.
─────[start of flashback]──────
Ten years ago...
Bound tightly in the back of the Hummer, the rough ropes dug into my wrists and ankles, securing me in place. My head continued to swim with whatever they had pumped into my veins. The gag in my mouth tasted sour while the black bag over my head trapped hot air against my face.
"Three of you," a man said, followed by the sharp sound of a fist hitting the dashboard. "Where’s the rest?"
"Two-day recon." A pause, then a breath. "That’s all it was supposed to be," followed by a soft click of a tongue. "Half of our team went missing by sunrise."
The vehicle hit a pothole, my head thumping against the door. Dizziness washed over me, the drugs making my stomach lurch.
"When we found her..." The voice trailed off. "She was already in this state. We underestimated her, big time... Boss isn’t going to be happy about this. "
I felt a shift in weight beside me as another man leaned forward, his breath hot against my ear. "The real question is, will her rich daddy pay up? We’re talking about a hefty sum."
A grunt of agreement from another corner of the vehicle reached my ears. "He will. If he values his daughter’s life, he’ll pay up quick."
"Yeah, crazy rich folks," another snorted with contempt. "Ready to throw wads of cash for his little princess to get a front-row seat to a real action movie. Like it’s some damn thrill ride instead of bloody war. What a fucked up world, eh?"
I sat there, forced to listen to their banter as they reduced my worth to mere currency. A sudden pressure against my thigh made me flinch violently, alerting the rest.
"What the fuck are you doing?! What if she tells her father that you did something to her?"
The hand didn’t retreat. "Don’t worry. I didn’t do anything. She can’t say shit if there is no proof. It’ll just be her word against ours."
"Still, you better keep your hands off her. Or else you’ll answer to the boss. You know what happened to the last guy who pissed him off."
The man didn’t listen, so I pissed myself in my pants. The warm liquid spread around me like the last line of defense I could muster.
"Fuck!" He yelled in frustration. "You better clean this mess, bitch!"
"Shut the fuck up and focus on the mission. The sooner we get to the camp, the faster we will get paid."
The moment we reached the camp, they yanked me into their boss’s tent. The bag from my head had been removed together with the gag from my mouth.
A shadow fell over me. "Your father refused to pay our wage, Miss. I hope you understand that it’s not personal. I just have to do whatever it takes to feed my family."
When I remained silent, two men grabbed my arms and forced me to my knees while their boss unbuckled his pants.
"Let’s see if your mouth is as sweet as it looks," he whispered, his rough fingers wrapping around my jaw.
One of the mercenaries held a knife against my neck. "Bite our boss, and I will cut your throat," forcing me to take the unwashed, smelly, disgusting cock in my mouth.
I immediately threw up the contents of my stomach all over his cock.
"Fucking bitch!" The boss hit me in the face, splitting my lip open, then another hit, breaking my nose before grabbing my hair, yanking me back to his crotch. "Suck it good, you slut. I’ll show your father what happens when he refuses to cooperate with me."
Tears blurred my vision, and I was unable to see his face. All I saw was a blurry, disgusting monster. I didn’t give a damn about my life anymore. I opened my mouth and sank my teeth into his dick, earning a loud scream.
Before the knife could sink into my neck, a few gunshots rang out. Blood splattered all over me, and then all the men around me slumped on the floor, dead.
I was trembling, my body wracked with fear and disgust.
"So this is where you’ve hidden yourself, Precious." A pair of powerful arms ensnared me, hoisting me up as though I were no heavier than a wisp of smoke.
He pulled me against his chest while my feet dangled uselessly beneath me. "How do you propose we present you to your father in such a state, hm? You’re well aware of his fury over any harm that comes to your beautiful face, aren’t you?"
The faint scent of gunpowder and stale sweat clung to his uniform. His thumb traced the swelling around my eye, making my skin crawl with revulsion.
Instead of thanking my saviour, I spat the remains of the bloody cock, directly onto the freakingly handsome face from my memories.
"You betrayed me, you fucking betrayed me!" I snarled, the words tearing from my raw throat. "You, out of all, had to fucking BETRAY me!"
I choked up as his blurry silhouette cut the ropes around my limbs. "Both you and that old fart can go fuck each other to death!"
He softly wiped my face and rinsed my mouth with water, completely ignoring both my words and my body’s aggressive thrashing, and even had the guts to switch the subject.
"Precious, I’ve found a way to enroll you in an all-girl high school behind your father’s back. Promise me to kill every man in this camp with your bare hands, and I’ll handle the arrangements as soon as you are finished."
His words soothed me a bit as he helped me stand up with a sinister gentleness before turning me towards the silhouette, which I recognized as the monster. No, not even monsters deserve to be associated with them.
"Unleash your rage, my precious. Remember everything they did to you," he whispered into my ear, "And never permit such a disgrace again."
Without thinking, I lunged at the corpse, punching it until the skin on my knuckles tore up and blood trickled down. The betrayal that I felt, the rage that coursed through me; it was a tempest, a storm of emotions so intense that it drowned out all reason, all fear.
"My precious," he persisted by my side, softly caressing my head with a twisted tenderness, as though I were his cherished pet, a kitten that playfully scratched at its scratching post.
But instead of a kitten, it was a beast unleashed upon its prey. And instead of a scratching post, it was bodies, torn flesh and shattered bones beneath my fists. My knuckles tore through their skin, turning them into pulpy tissue and exposed bones.
─────[end of flashback]──────
"So this is where you’ve hidden yourself, Precious."
In an instant, I spun around, my pulse hammering against my ribs.