♕Harley Anderson♕

For a change, Isaac doesn't insist on sitting with me in the car as I race. In fact, he is the one who suggested just watching today. Without his presence in the car, I'm able to race while feeling a little lighter. When I come to a stop by the finish line, after hitting two hundred miles an hour, I almost open my door and hurl over the paving due to the nerves. However, I manage to calm down as I close my eyes and take in a deep breath. The sensation of calmness seems to be short lived though as when I climb out, Isaac is nowhere to be seen. I'm standing alone in the race track, the sun scorching me so that I have to squint to look around, and the only sound being that of the birds chirping nearby.

A sense of unease falls upon me and I look around once more, shutting the door to the Ferrari behind me.

"Isaac?" I call out. My voice travels nowhere and when silence is my response, I gingerly walk to the grandstands. My feet carry me around it to a shaded and cooler section and I frown as I see it empty.

What the hell?

Anger rises to the surface as I realize Isaac left me. The jackass actually left me all alone at the track when there's an opposing gang running around and unashamed to lodge a bullet in my brain.

"Fucking asshole." I scorn under my breath, turning on my heel to return to my car. However, just as I round the corner my feet stumble to a stop as I see Charlotte smoking on a cigarette with Raven and Seline by her side. Raven looks up to me, a smile shaping her black painted lips.

"Here she is." She announces before calling out to someone: "yo! We got her!"

My eyes dance between all of them, panic and fear stirring in my stomach.

"What do you want?" I ask cautiously just as Charlotte puts out her cigarette with her boot and turns to me. From the looks of it, Charlotte doesn't seem to like me very much while Raven just seems like a bitch. Seline, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about but that still does little to calm me. My trust doesn't lie with anyone here and my gut seems to tell me that this is bad.

"It's time to see what you're made of."

It takes my mind a second longer than it should to register the searing pain in my stomach that makes me hunch over in an attempt to grasp on air and before I can even attempt to use all the techniques that Danté has taught me about self-defense, my arms are being held back by two faces that have just arrived.

"What the fuck?" I hiss at Charlotte, tugging to try and get loose but the girls holding me only tighten their grip. Charlotte's long and skinny finger forces me to look up at her and when I see the sardonic gleam in her eyes, the fear that overcomes me is unbearable. It's like tar that's being forced down my throat but doesn't want to go down and keeps bubbling up. The girl in front of me drops her fingers before smiling.

And then it begins.

I'm hit from all directions, in all places and by different people. My stomach aches with punches that are landed to it, my ribs begin to burn and my head throbs as it lolls about. The beatings don't stop- I am the punching bag. Again.

When the two girls let go of me, I topple to the floor, my body aching in ways I've never forgotten and my eyes burning from the pain. I cover my face with my arms as the members around me continue to deliver blows, using their feet to kick me. The sound of their laughter and words all blur into one so that it's just a constant ringing in my ears and I cry out, desperately wanting this to end. This pain and feeling of inferiority and powerlessness.

Has my father come back to haunt me?

My head goes light and black dots speckle my vision and the ferocity of the pain seeping into my bones makes me lean over and vomit, even while they continue to hurt me.

"Stop!" I rasp out desperately, not caring how pathetic I look.

They don't listen.

"Stop." I push out again and I'm almost certain that I'm on the brink of life and death- threading a very dangerous thin line.

"Guys, cut it out. It's done." I hear someone say but I still feel the blows coming. My skin feels numb to it now but the tears don't stop coming. "I said fucking stop!" The same voice shrieks and suddenly it all stops. I lay on the cold gravel a trembling mess, the feeling of liquid on my face making me doubt that it's remnants of vomit.

My mind doesn't get to hear what they say thereafter because I'm eventually losing myself to the darkness, my body burning up as I go.

****

My mind forces me to open my eyes slowly, my vision blurry and fuzzy so that it feels like I'm looking through a pair of dirty glasses. However, I wish I hadn't opened my eyes because then I wouldn't be aware of the intense pain coating my body. The pain prevents me from being able to focus on my surroundings but I force myself to try and make some sense of it.

From the looks of it, I'm in a stop house that's completely empty and extremely cold, so much so that my teeth begin to chatter. The floors are not too grimy, letting me know it's used rather frequently and I see a few specks of blood on the floor.

That's what forces me to finally take a look at myself. My hands are clean and unscathed but as they lift my shirt up, I have to cover my mouth to block out the whimpers that escape me from seeing how blue and purple my torso is. I drop my shirt down and lean my head against the wall I'm protped up against. My fingers ginerly lift to my face to feel for wounds there and I stumble across a bust lip, a swelling eye and cut up cheek. My hand drops back down to my side as I sigh, my eyes fluttering closed for a moment before I hear a door open.

The logical part of my brain tells me that I should probably try and get out of here- wherever 'here' is- but my body is too sore and exhausted for me to even attempt to. So, instead, I tiredly sit against the wall until someone comes into view.

"Shit, they did you bloody." Persephone says and I lift my head before looking at her. She crouches down beside me and extends a water bottle and what seems to be a granola bar. "Here."

My first instinct is to throw what she's offering back at her but my dry throat is enough to make me snatch it out of her hands and take a long gulp. The stinging in my torso forces me to grimace as I place the cold water down.

"Why'd you guys do it?" I ask groggily and Persephone gives a one shoulder shrug.

"It was your initiation."

"Then why am I still here? You got it over and done with." My voice sounds so far away like I'm floating.

"The last part is that you have to go through the next twelve hours without medical attention. So, you're stuck here for," Persephone checks the watch on her wrist, "another seven hours."

I look down at my lap, not bothering to hide my discomfort.

"Now I gotta complete it by marking you."

My eyes snap up to hers and she pulls out a switchblade as I sneer.

"Don't you dare bring that near me."

She raises an eyebrow. "Initiation isn't optional Harley. If you want to- or even have to- join this gang then you have to go through with it and I'm not sure who gave you or Cameron the idea that you were an exception," her voice is hard and unsympathetic and I remind myself that I'm talking to an assassin- no wonder she's heartless. "Besides," She goes on to add "if I don't complete your initiation by marking you then that means that all of this was for nothing,"

My teeth grind together in frustration and her lips twitch as she realizes that I know she's right. I'll be damned to let myself go through all of this and then chicken out.

Percy flicks the blade out before angling my head so that she can cut my skin. My hands lift up as a reflex to push her off when the stinging begins but after I realize its futile, I drop them down to my sides.

"There." She says, putting the blade away and standing up. My fingers lift to the gash and when I pull them away to look at them, they're stained with blood.

I'm officially one of them.

I've shed my blood for them. When will I be forced to make someone else do the same?

"Cameron is looking for you."

My head snaps up to her at that.

"That man sure is absolutely whipped for you."

"Did you tell him where I am?" I inquire and Persephone shakes her head.

"Of course not, but I don't doubt that he's still looking as if you need to be saved. You're not going to die,"

"No, I'm just all beaten up and being denied any medical attention." I snap sarcastically and Persephone shrugs.

"We all had to do this."

I roll my eyes, slowly lowering myself to the floor but wincing as I do so. The surface is cold and hard and it makes my body ache even more but the sleep that my body yearns for is so much stronger.

"Couldn't you at least bring me a blanket or something? It's freezing." I murmur as I close my eyes. I can feel Persephone watching me.

"That would defeat the whole purpose of this."

"Which is?"

"To see what you're made of. How much you can take before you break,"

My eyes fly open and I stare at the ceiling above me, pondering over her words. How can they break me when I'm already broken? Shattered. If anything, they're just going to cut their hands on my cracks. Getting beaten and being forced with no aspirin might break another person but not me. Not when this was once my daily life. I've being a punching bag most of my life and after Cyrus left, I had nobody to tend to my wounds but myself and in the beginning, it was better to just leave them cause I only hurt myself more trying to fix things up.

"You're going to have to try harder." My voice mutters and I hear a sound from the back of her throat leave her mouth.

"Yeah, well that's what happens when you come from a fucked up family huh?"

My head snaps in her direction so fast, it clicks in the process. We both stare at each other and I sigh. The fact the Persephone knows something so personal about me makes me squirm but the fact that Cyrus trusts this girl enough to bring up our family shocks me even more.

"He must really love you to have told you all of that." My tongue manages to push out as I look back to the ceiling. Persephone doesn't respond and I let my eyes close again, finding it harder to stay awake as time goes on.

"You have six hours left." Is the last thing she says and I hum in acknowledgment before she leaves and I welcome sleep once more.

****

The next four hours pass by rather breezily- painfully- but breezily yet it's the last two that seem to drag. I slip in and out of consciousness, no doubt having had a concussion, and the floor makes my bones feel brittle. I can't manage to get the granola bar that Percy brought me down my throat and rather stick with the water.

The weather has become a lot warmer as we move into spring but I just had to be locked away when it's one of the coldest days we've experienced this month.

I want nothing more than to just go home- my home in Oregon- climb into bed and have Danté wrap his arms around me as I drift off to a soundless and comfortable sleep.

Nobody bothers to come check up on since Persephone left and I don't bother to keep up hope that I'll suddenly just wake up back in bed. However, after a while, I do hear the door squeak open and footsteps patter along the floor as they seem to near me.

I don't need to open my eyes to know that it's Danté because the scent of his cologne is enough for me to know. My eyes peek open and I look up to him as he slips a hand underneath my back and one under my knees.

"Danté?" I say in a raspy voice and his russet brown eyes meet mine just as he hoists me up into the air. His chest is warm against me and I snuggle closer although all that causes is for my torso to go into flares of pain.

"I got you." He responds as he takes me out of the room. It's dark outside and the breeze that blows past makes me shiver. Soon, I'm sliding into a seat and I see Katalina sitting behind the wheel and watching me with a concerned look.

"Lina?" I ask in surprise and she smiles softly.

"Hey."

Before I can get much out, Danté is slipping in beside me and he wraps his arms around me so that I'm no longer a shivering mess. But the minute I'm embraced in his arms, his grip on me tight and his chin resting on my head, I feel myself begin to cry quietly.

For what? I'm not so sure. There's too much to count.

•••
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter :)
At the moment, I'm really struggling with writer's block and I'm so frustrated about that because I really wanted to use this social distancing time to focus on writing...  Nevertheless updates will go on as per usual since the writing of Guns and Mirrors is already complete. I hope you're all doing great and getting more done than me hehe.

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