Let's not forget that racism STILL exists in our world (sadly). The more we portray its existence, being with any person of the poc community (African-Americans, Asians, Latinos, Arabs, etc), the more we bring awareness to this problem.

This chapter contains very strong language. The n-word and the word 'spics', both extremely offensive racial slurs, are used on their entirety in this chapter. There are extremely offensive slurs regarding sexuality, like 'faggot' and 'sissy'. In addition, there are extremely offensive beliefs and expressions shared by Levittown's villain. An attempted rape, that ISN'T explicitly described, also takes place in this chapter.

My purpose is not to offend anyone, so if you feel uncomfortable with one of my characters saying these words or expressing these offensive "beliefs", please tell me. I will censor them if this is the case.

The views/expressions/language used in this chapter are NOT my personal opinion or take of the world!

Read with caution!

Happy reading, loves ♡

51
ALEXA KING
-Present-

Levittown's woods
October 28, 2018
6:10 a.m.

MY BODY AWAKENS FROM its state of stupor, the beating of my heart becoming the engine that fills me with adrenaline. This time, I think things through. If I try to escape, it will be to no avail. Micah has a strong grip around my neck and there are two bullets with my name on them. But, after what Mr. Ellis said, two can become various. I need to be smart.

"Micah, you know what to do." When he addresses his son, Mr. Ellis' demeanor changes to an authoritarian one. His back straightens, and his voice gets deeper.

Micah trembles behind me. "W-What do you mean?"

"'W-What do you mean?'" Mr. Ellis mimics him, walking closer to where we are, away from the mess I made on the floor, to smack him. "Speak up! You know what to do. Same as with Melody."

"Please don't make me do it," Micah mumbles, taking his arm off my neck, setting me free.

What did he do to Melody that he doesn't want to repeat with me? I don't stick around to find out. As soon as Micah lets go of me, I make my escape and run to the door. But, just when my fingers brush the metal surface of the doorknob, someone grabs me by my hair and roughly yanks me back. I land on the floor with a loud thud, a painful vibration beginning on my butt and ending on my whole body. Mr. Ellis has a fistful of my hair twisted around his hand as I lie between them like a barrier that separates them. I try to take his hand away from my hair, but he just tightens his hold the more I struggle. The pain encompasses my whole scalp.

"Don't beg. Don't you ever fucking beg! That's for women and faggots," Mr. Ellis screams in his face, yanking me forward as he does so. I shriek, tears prickling my eyes. "Fuck her or I swear you'll regret it."

My heart stops. "What?"

I try to look at Micah, to find an answer on his expression, but Mr. Ellis is holding my head down, so the only thing I see are his shoes. He shifts his weight from one leg to the other, but that isn't enough to determine his guilt. If what Mr. Ellis is requesting is true, Micah was the one who raped Melody before she was killed. If the reconstruction of the incident that the police made is true, and I'm assuming it is since Mr. Ellis is a narcissist, then it means that his father held her down while he watched as Micah raped her.

Now the same will be done to me. It's not enough to murder my body and bury it in some unknown location, never to be seen again, but they also have to humiliate it and destroy it. All because of my skin color. What a cruel world.

The nausea comes up again, but I gulp it down. I shudder, feeling the distasteful liquid going down like acid. It feels like acid, killing me from the inside out.

"Fuck her or I swear you'll regret it," he repeats, as if he's chastising a badly behaved child --- as if he's correcting a bad habit, not encouraging his son to act on one. "That Jose faggot transmitted his disease, his disgusting sin, onto you. Son, don't you get it? I'm trying to save you from a life of sin, from being one of them, but you have to trust me."

"I-I-I c-can't," Micah says, crying.

"You can't?" Mr. Ellis clicks his tongue, his hold tightening on my hair. "You're forcing me to consider things that wouldn't be necessary if you just did what you're told. Father knows best. Either you fuck her, or I kill that faggot. He meets the criteria nicely. A faggot and a spic."

"You wouldn't." Micah's voice gets deeper as he walks closer to us.

"Try me." Mr. Ellis yanks me back, forcing my head up. My head feels dizzy, like in a state of whiplash. "Look at her. You will feel something, dammit! I mean, I wouldn't fuck her, or any of her kind, but she is a woman. Better a nigger's pussy than a spic's dick. I didn't raise you to be a fucking faggot."

Our eyes meet for the second time tonight. Micah's eyes mirror mine, wide and filled with tears. I don't understand how we got here. We just had an intense and intimate conversation a couple of hours ago, where he comforted me, and I listened to him. We exchanged personal stories to find closure. He's the same guy who kisses the top of my head every time he leaves, the one who solves math problems with a pen and falls in love with boys like Christopher. I can't see him as a killer and rapist, but that's what he is. The Micah I knew and loved was just a façade.

My bottom lip trembles as Micah mouths, I'm sorry.

He lowers down to my level, and with trembling hands, tries to unbutton my jeans. I keep yelling 'no' as if the word means something, as if I have a choice.

"That's it. Atta boy."

My body feels like a pulse, thumpthumpthump, no longer an entity of flesh and bones with the capacity to think, feel, do. My legs just start to throw kicks without asking my mind for permission. A survival instinct. I hit Micah on the face, blood spraying from his nose, throwing him back.

"Come on, get up!" Mr. Ellis laughs, yanking me down, my body flat on the floor. "This is what happens when you sin, son. If it weren't for your indecency, we would've only killed her. Quick and easy. I didn't want to recreate William's disgusting urge, much less let it happen to a son of mine, but you deserve this kind of punishment. Is it a sin? Yes, but a fixable one. The sin you already committed is much worse."

My head is pounding, and my vision focuses and blurs like the lens of a camera, but I try to get up. Mr. Ellis puts his large hand on my stomach and pushes me back down with no problem. From here, I see the cross-pendant that dangles from his neck and grab it to try to yank him down with me, but all it does is break off.

"Pin her legs and be quick. This part bores me." Mr. Ellis instructs and pins my arms on either side of my head from behind.

Micah does as he's told. He's stronger than I thought. I'm weaker than I imagined. Perhaps I'm already exhausted and losing hope. Maybe this is it. My father's face comes to mind. What will he do without me? He already lost my mother, and I'm the only thing he has left. At least, the only thing that matters to him.

Micah cries as he begins to lower my jeans, his face all scrunched up and red. The only thing I can do is cry and scream, hoping that, somehow, someone out there will hear me. It's useless. We're in the middle of nowhere. No matter how much I struggle and wrestle and wriggle, it all seems pointless. They're both stronger than me and barely flinch when I try to fight my way out.

My cries, they're coming from a void in my chest. They echo in it, taking every emotion that's in it with them, and wait patiently in my throat for their turn in my mouth. One after the other, there's no time to breathe.

Breathe and remember that you're able to. Breathe and forget about the past. Breathe and remember where you are. Breathe and you're going to be alright.

I can't.

Just when Micah's about to pull down my panty, someone breaks a door I didn't even know was there from the other side and barges in. We all look toward this unknown person only to realize that it's Catalina.

What is she doing here? Relief floods through me as I see a familiar face, but then dread creeps up on me when I realize her disheveled appearance. For how long has she been in this house?

"I thought you took care of her," Mr. Ellis spats, letting go off me. "You can't do anything right, can you?"

"It was either trapping Alexa or tying your new sex fling," Micah says between sobs and hiccups, but there's still something menacing about his voice.

His new sex fling?

The bruise on Catalina's neck.

Her defensiveness when I asked about who did it.

The fear in her eyes when I noticed it.

It's just a hickey.

Who's the guy?

You don't know him. He's older.

Cat is either his new conquest --- another Melody for his cult of hatred --- or his next victim.

"Now that's how a real man talks," Mr. Ellis says, walking toward Cat. "Don't let Alexa out of your sight. I'll take care of my fling."

"You said you weren't going to hurt her," Cat hisses, stepping back every time he comes closer.

Micah looks over his shoulder, then sighs when he turns to me. My body is trembling all over, and I can't seem to make it stop. There's something humiliating about being exposed like this, without my consent. He places his hands on my thighs, those same hands that are capable of violence, and I flinch. But, to my surprise, he pulls my jeans up. He looks at me without saying anything, and I understand. Somewhere in those green eyes, there's the Micah that I grew to love. But he's not just that Micah, he's the little boy who has always been scared to be himself. That fear is what drove him to do the things he's done.

This darkness of ours, it creates monsters.

"Run," he whispers, placing his forefinger against his lips. Be quiet.

Even though it hurts me to leave him behind with his devil of a father, I don't think it twice. I find the strength to stand up. It's easier when nobody is there to bring you down. Catalina sees me but doesn't say anything. Instead, she subtly positions her body toward the door as if saying, I'm coming with you.

I unlock the door, and from my peripheral vision, see Catalina running towards me. Without waiting for Mr. Ellis to catch me, I run through this dark corridor. I can't see shit, but the unknown is better than being in that room with Melody's killers. Catalina's footsteps are light and fast behind me, the sound of our breaths and the beating of my heart in my ears giving this moment a pulse of adrenaline.

"What the fuck did you do?" Mr. Ellis shouts, his voice echoing around this endless corridor.

I don't stop to see what's going on. If anything, I run even faster. Straight, ahead, until I'm finally on top of the stairs. We descend them, taking two steps at a time, almost tripping on the last one. Once we're outside, I lock the door before closing it behind me. I look around, panting for air, but there's no one here. Just trees and the vast land that surrounds us.

"Where the fuck are they?" I mumble, catching my breath.

We both look behind us as if thinking the same thing, but no one is trying to break the door open. Police sirens are heard close by, echoing all around us like warning bells. Relief floods through me again. We're almost safe. We just have to get out of here, hide behind a tree.

"Come on," I say, running toward the narrow space that was deprived from a tree.

A gunshot goes off behind me, its sound vibrating all over the woods. I look over my shoulder only to see Catalina fall to the floor and Mr. Ellis approaching me like a madman. Micah is close behind, shouting for his father, begging him to stop. He doesn't listen, of course, and another gunshot goes off. This time, the bullet has my name on it.

A sharp pain begins to grow on the back of my arm. I fall to the floor and cup the wound. The blood is already pooling from the cracks that separate my fingers, just like it did when I tried to put pressure on Melody's neck wound. Ahead of me, I can see the red and blue lights that could've saved my life. Almost. They're too late.

I look behind me to see how close I am to my end. Micah is standing in front of his father, pushing him away and screaming for him to stop. But Mr. Ellis doesn't see him. It's like his son is not even there. I guess that's how it's always been between them. His eyes are focused solely on me, at least the one that isn't swollen. There's so much rage in his stare, so much hatred. I wonder, for a split second, what happened to him that turned him into this monster.

Mr. Ellis keeps walking forward, dragging his son along despite Micah's efforts to stop him. He points the gun toward me and shoots, but all the bullets land behind me, on some tree, or get lost in the darkness. My heart picks up speed every time a gunshot goes off and doesn't stop, even when I know a bullet didn't hit me.

Mr. Ellis is now seething as he wrestles with Micah for the gun. Since he's built stronger and taller, he manages to push Micah away. That doesn't stop him, though.

Then it happens, fast and clean.

Without looking, he points the gun to his son's head and shoots without looking back. A spray of blood and brain matter comes out of Micah's head. Everything slows down for me. I watch as his body falls to the floor, lifeless and limp. His green eyes stay open, but they lose their spark. The sadness he's felt all his life etches onto his expression, forever still, forever knowing that he wasn't accepted and that his father killed him.

He didn't get the chance to be free, accepted, truly loved. His father took that from him, even before killing him.

"No," I scream, taking my bloody hand away from my arm and placing it on my chest.

I can't take this pain any longer. It feels like an open wound on my chest. It throbs and pounds and aches --- a knife that keeps twisting and turning but is unable to kill me. I attempt to crawl to Catalina and Micah's bodies, but Mr. Ellis yanks me by the hair and puts me on my feet.

"You little bitch," he spats, looking at something behind me. "You actually called the cops."

"Josiah, step away from the girl," an unknown man says.

Mr. Ellis turns me around, puts his arm around my neck and the gun against my temple. "Or what?"

"You know the procedure. Don't make this harder than it already has to be," the man, who I can identify as a cop from his police uniform, says with a sadness that only belongs to someone who is disappointed in the person they admired. Mr. Ellis was, after all, a role model for all cops and cops-to-be. "Put your gun down and step away from the girl. We won't ask again."

Several cops come out of the shadows and stand side by side to each other, their guns pointed toward Mr. Ellis. He knows that he doesn't stand a chance against all of them. I can feel it on the beating of his heart on my back, quick and sharp.

"Fine," he mutters, and I can feel the grin on his face. "I just have to do one thing first, for old times' sake."

He pushes the gun harder against my temple, and I know what's about to come. He knows this is his end, that there's no chance for an escape. If he's going down, he's taking me with him... for old times' sake. One last murder, one less pollution, one step forward to his Caucasian utopia.

He pulls the trigger, my eyes closing in preparation for what's about to come, but nothing happens. I pop an eye open, then the other, and notice that the cops are approaching us with more confidence. The gun clicks and clicks and clicks, but nothing happens. It must be out of bullets.

In his confusion, he lets me go. For a moment, he looks like the person he pretended to be all these years. It's as if he woke up from his rage, at least for a moment. The cops divide themselves. Several ones are entering the house to collect evidence, while three are handcuffing Mr. Ellis and reciting his Miranda rights.

"My son," he cries, looking at Micah's body on the floor. Some paramedics place a white sheet over him. A red blot grows on the sheet, taking control of the white, tainting its pureness. "Where's my son? Oh, Micah."

It all sounds far away, though. I'm far away from here.

I stand in the middle of it all, dumbfounded and disoriented. This is the beginning all over again. Only this time, I didn't find a body. I witnessed the killing of one. I'm the girl who finds dead bodies and watches as they're deprived from their lives. That's what everyone will remember. That's how they'll continue to see me. Nothing more, always less.

Levittown's darkness leads me to the core of this town, the evil that hides deep in the woods.

Sebastián's body is being wheeled out of the house. Catalina is being placed on a stretcher. Micah's body still lies on the floor, covered from the world by that tainted sheet. Mr. Ellis is crying uncontrollably as he's being escorted to a police car.

The sight of blood never made me nauseous like it did to others. Nothing ever did, really. But that was back then, when I was a different girl, a stronger one. The girl that's here, in the middle of all the chaos once again, the one that lives inside of me, is but a shell of who she used to be --- a mere shadow, a black hole that consumes everything around her and is unable to attract light.

It's hard to be a pretty girl like you.

In this cruel, cruel world --- in this cruel, cruel world.

They don't understand the beauty of your skin,

The complexity in your curly hair,

The struggle of existing.

Mommy, why are you red?

Mommy loves you very much, don't you ever forget that.

Everything turns dark, and I'm falling like when we were kids. This time, I don't feel the fall. This time, I'm suspended in the air, floating above all the darkness.

Mommy, I need you. Mommy, take me with you. 

•Word count: 3,160•

Countdown: the epilogue!!!!!! ♡

So... this is the last chapter, the finale. I don't know how I'm feeling honestly. Shocked? Sad? Extremely happy? All of the above? I'm still trying to process this accomplishment. Don't forget that there's STILL an epilogue left!!! If you want to know about the arrests, sentencing, Catalina and Sebastián, and Alexa's life after this night, you should definitely read the epilogue!!!!! The epilogue is the true ending.

After the epilogue, I will have:

•a fun facts chapter
•a tying the knots + Q&A chapter
•an ending author's note + acknowledgements chapter

In the epilogue's author's note, I will ask you guys to post, in an inline comment, all your questions and doubts so I can answer them in the Q&A chapter. Stay tuned for that! In the ending author's note, I will ask you to post, in an inline comment, any plot holes that you noticed, how you think the story can improve, what you most liked and disliked about the book, etc. So please read the ending author's note!

Questions: how are you feeling after reading all of that? That's all I want to know: how do you feel? This book, as you all know, deals with racism. It's a delicate subject that still exists and affects the lives of the poc community. The book foreshadows the topic since its very beginning, (how it was something hidden in plain sight), and shows itself in its completeness during the end. It's important for me to know how this chapter made you feel, if it was offensive, if it reflected our reality in the 21st century, if you perceived a message from it. You can also answer this in the epilogue because the topic of race and racism will be presented in it.

Also, what's your opinion of Micah and Mr. Ellis? What do you think will happen next in Alexa's life? What do you hope will happen in her life from this day forward?

Side note: I made a professional Instagram account about a month ago (abigailboneta.writes) to share everything and anything that has to do with my writing and the books I publish on Wattpad! If you're interested, you can follow me and we can interact about books, authors, Levittown, anything! ♡ Link in bio!

Feel free to correct any grammatical errors, but be kind about it. Tell me what you think of this chapter.

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Show me love ♡ The epilogue out soon.