NIGHTINGALE
***
My cheeks stung and there was a ringing sensation in my ears as his hand connected with my cheek. My eyes watered, but I refused to let the tears drop. I haven’t cried in front of him since I was a teenager. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he made me cry as an adult.
“GIVE ME THE MONEY!” He shouted and spit flew from his mouth. I moved backward to avoid getting sprayed and to put some distance between me and the stench coming from him.
He stank of alcohol and sweat. I doubt he had even showered in the past few days, but he didn’t care and neither did I, not anymore.
“We need it. We haven’t eaten today, you took my morning pay and I had to go work for this so we wouldn’t starve to death.”
His palm connected with my cheek again, this time it was hard enough to send me to the ground.
Don’t talk back at me, you filthy piece of shit. Give it to me.”I yelped as he dragged me up by my hair and pinned me to the wall with a hand wrapped tightly around my throat. His other hand began to search in my pockets for the money I had just been paid for walking Mrs Elm’s five dogs.
“Where’s the rest of it?” He asked as he brought out two notes from my left pocket. I couldn’t speak with his hand wrapped around my throat. He had already searched the right pocket so he moved to my back pockets and I began to squirm.
He must have taken that as a sign that there was money in it because he spun me around and pressed my face to the wall so my back was presented to him. He held me down with a hand at the back of my neck while I tried to free myself.
I knew that there was no money in my back pockets. The reason I had been squirming was to get rid of the feel of his hands against my ass, and I had made it worse. Now that my back was to him, my backside was exposed to him. His hands lingered more than was appropriate while he searched my back pockets. Did I say more than appropriate? That was wrong because none of this was appropriate at all. My father shouldn’t be forcing me to give him the little money I wanted to use to buy food for my sister and me. He shouldn’t be hitting me whenever he doesn't get his way. When he didn’t see any money in my back pocket, he pushed me to the floor again and I scraped my elbow.
“This money is too small. You’re fucking useless.” He kicked me once in my midriff and I curled into a ball.
I would have laughed at the irony of his statement. The drunkard, negligent father calling the person who works and makes the money he spends on his habits, useless. If it weren’t for me, he would starve to death. He muttered angrily to himself and stomped out of the house.“Nightingale!” Quetzal said as she rushed to help me up.
I had warned her to never interfere while our father was having one of his fits. It was an unspoken agreement between my father and I that I would take all of his insults and the physical abuse as long as he keeps my sister out of it. But that was as long as she stayed out of the way. if she got between him and me while he was at it, it would kind of be a breach of agreement and all bets were off.
“Are you okay?” She asked as I sat up and leaned against the wall.
“I’m okay.” I said as I looked up at my seventeen year old sister.
We both looked alike… Olive skin, curly brown hair, with amber eyes and full heart shaped lips, just like our mother. My sister had a light dusting of freckles over her nose and cheeks and she was the most beautiful of the both of us. I have protected her from the harsh reality of our lives as much as I can, but there was only so much I could do. We just seemed to be cursed.
Our mother was now one of the country’s top politicians and she was married. She had been engaged to the heir of a wealthy family when she met my father. He had been her driver. She hadn’t wanted to marry the man chosen for her by her parents so out of spite, she got pregnant for her driver. That wasn’t enough to stop her parents though. They made her deceive her fiancé into thinking the child was his and that hastened the marriage plans. Then when she gave birth, her parents paid the doctors to kill me so my real paternity would never be discovered. They would have made her abort me, but I was useful at that period to make my mother’s fiancé marry her less than a month later. And while she lived with him, it was impossible to get the abortion so that was why they had waited.
My mother paid the doctors more than her parent's had to pretend that another dead baby was me and then give me to my father. They continued seeing each other even while she was married, till her parents found out about it. By then, she had given birth to a child for her husband and was already pregnant with Quetzal. They did the same trick as before and gave my sister to my father. He was offered a huge amount of money and made to sign a contract by my mother’s parents in order to get it. The agreement was that he would disappear from their lives with my sister and I, and never return, never show his face, never try to publicize us or there would be dire consequences. He took the money and left. My mother didn’t care enough to fight for us, my father had just been a means to defy her parents, a distraction and a way to pass time.
My father had squandered the money he had been given while gambling, but he always blamed my sister and me for his misfortune. He had repeatedly told me this story while adding how we were nothing but bad luck to him. He had always been a negligent father, but every attempt to get us taken away by social services never worked. My mother’s parents made sure of it. We looked like our mother too much so if we somehow got into the government record, someone may become suspicious and find out our identity after a little digging. That was also the reason why I couldn’t report the abuse I’ve endured for years to the police. Who knows if they’ll send someone to assassinate us.
Our mother must love birds a lot because she named us both after them. Or maybe we weren’t important enough to actually name so she gave us bird names. Who knows.
“Nightingale, You’re bleeding!”
NIGHTINGALE***As Quetzal’s eyes widened when she informed me that I was bleeding, I looked down at myself. I was indeed bleeding. I saw a few drops of blood on my arm and touched it, but the blood wasn’t from there. I knew where I was bleeding from when Quetzal touched my lip. Usually, our father avoided hitting me on the face where his abuse would be visible to anyone who looked at me. But today he seemed more edgy than usual so he had no qualms about it. Maybe he had realised as I had that nobody would really care what he was doing to me, and if they actually cared even a little, that there was nothing they could do to help me.We lived in a rundown neighborhood where everyone had their own problems, and everyone minded their business. Someone could be getting killed and the neighbors would just shut their curtains and pretend like it never happened. Gangs operated around the area and clashes were normal so everyone tended to stay out of their way. The only somewhat normal person
NIGHTINGALE***“Where did you hide it? Come on, tell me.” Quetzal asked and I considered telling her immediately, but that wouldn’t be fun.“A magician never reveals her secret.” I said and she folded her arms with a knowing look.“It’s in your shoe isn’t it?” She asked and I smiled. Smart girl.“Close but still off. It’s actually in my socks.” I said to her.“And your socks are in your shoes, so I got it.” She said and I tapped her nose.“You get to decide what we eat since you’re so smart. And just so you know, I never doubted that you could get the lead role. I am so proud of you for taking steps to overcome your stage fright. You may not have completely won the fight, but you’re getting there and I will be with you every step of the way. I will cheer you on during your presentation even if you freeze up and forget your lines. I will take a front row seat and throw you roses. I will blow you kisses and give you a standing ovation. I’m your biggest fan, don’t forget that.” I told h
NIGHTINGALE***On second thought, I turned back and picked up the tray. It wasn’t big, but it was metallic, strong enough to be a good weapon. The manager of the bar was as sleazy as they come. He was short, and with enough belly fat that would make you think he was pregnant if he was a female. He wore expensive suits and watches and always smelt like tobacco. One of his teeth was pure gold, he had a double chin and below it, his neck was always filled with gold chains. He wore more rings on his finger than the planet Saturn and he was almost completely bald. All in all, he was a disgusting old man.During the time I’ve worked here, he has repeatedly tried to touch me inappropriately and I’ve always found a way to escape him. There were other girls I worked with that were all over him for money's sake so they kept him busy enough to keep me safe from him. I had a really bad feeling about this impromptu office call, especially since I was wearing next to nothing. I wished I could run
NIGHTINGALE***He was so close to me and the stench of sweat, smoke, alcohol and excessive cologne made me nauseous. He leaned closer and sniffed my hair.“You smell so good." He groaned deeply like he was already having an orgasm. "Now turn around like a good girl.” He took a step back and watched to see if I would obey him.‘Do it for Quetzal. Do it for Quetzal.’ I chanted in my head till the syllables blended together and reverberated in my brain.“I don’t want to have sex with you. But I’ll do… other things.” I said so low that I barely heard myself.He laughed like I had told the funniest joke in history right before he forcefully turned me around and pressed my face into the wall.“You’ll do what I tell you to, girl. I own you now. And before you leave here tonight, I’ll have every hole in your body. And make sure to scream like the bitch you are, it turns me on.” He spoke against my neck and a shiver of disgust went through my body.The more he spoke, the more I realised that
NIGHTINGALE***“What happened, Nightingale? What’s wrong?” Quetzal asked me as she cried with me.I just hugged her tighter and continued crying, I couldn’t speak to save my life. I had been absorbing so much emotional trauma and refusing to cry for so long, but now my limit had been passed and I could no longer hold the tears in. I absorbed all the comfort she had to offer and cried till I felt physically drained.“Please talk to me, Nightingale. You’re scaring me.” Quetzal said and I moved my head back from her shoulder to look at her.I tried to smile as I replied to her.“I’m fine, Quetzy.” My voice sounded hoarse from crying for who knew how long, and my throat felt so dry.“You’re not fine, Night. Please, talk to me, I’m your sister. You know I love you, and I’m here for you. I know you think you’re protecting me by keeping things from me, but I’m not a child. I can handle it, I just want to help you.” She said as she cleaned the stray tears from my cheeks.The concern in her e
NIGHTINGALE***My father ripped my blouse and put his face between my breasts that were still in a bra. I realized that I was in shock when I didn’t move or make a sound. It was like I was watching this happen to a stranger, like it wasn’t happening to me and I was just watching from afar. My father was physically abusive, yes, but he never outrightly abused me sexually. Confusion commingled with absolute terror in my mind as he began to fondle my breasts. He squeezed them roughly and rubbed himself through his boxers, he was already hard.“You both have been nothing but a burden to me, it’s only fair if you pay me back for all the misfortune you brought to my life. When I’m done with you, Nightingale, your sister is next, then you both will go out and let other men have you till we’re swimming in money. You both will make me rich again, you owe me that. You…”There was a loud sound as my sister hit our father on the head with a frying pan. He groaned and dropped to the side of the b
HAKAN *** We finally found the dump that Pedro was holed up in. It was a rundown house in one of the shittiest neighborhoods in the city. The bastard must have come here thinking I wouldn’t be able to find him on Destros’ property. This territory wasn’t mine… yet. Destros had run these parts of this city for far too long and I would take them from him by hook or by crook. He was making a mess of it anyway. It seemed impossible for people to be living here because even the air smelled like death and despair. But I had lived in places like this in the past, so I knew how possible it was. And people that lived in places like this usually did so because they had no other option. Pedro was a thieving idiot that used to be one of mine till he betrayed me. Now that he had been found, I could have left him to be dealt with by my men but I wanted to kill the bastard myself. I stepped out of the car with just two men. The rest were in the other three cars. I came with enough reinforcements j
HAKAN***As I walked to the car, my right hand man, Tivan, quirked his brow at me. He’s not the only one who has a sceptical look on his face as they all probably expected me to shoot the girl for crashing into me out of nowhere. Most of my men looked like they thought I'd lost my mind, but none of them would dare say it to my face. Tivan was more than just my second in command, he was my brother though not by blood. He was the only one that would have the guts to actually ask if I’ve lost my mind, but he knew his place when we were in public, so he would leave ribbing me for when we were alone.I carefully get into my car to avoid hitting her head against the metal, and settle in the seat with my arms around her. Tivan gets in with me and shuts the door. He pressed the button that controlled the car’s privacy screen. When the privacy screen was up and the driver could no longer hear anything from the back seat where we were, that was when he spoke.“I don’t know what the fuck is goi