Deadly by Chant'e Francis (different e readers txt) 📖

the pot and into the fire she thought. This was turning out even worse than her nightmare had.
"Veronica was changing. She stopped sleeping around. She loves me! and I loved her!... but you couldn't accept that. You can't accept that we would be happy together. You're so selfish! You have this silly idea that if your not happy, no one else should be!... That's why you should be punished. You need to be punished. I can't have you thinking like this." He was shaking with rage.
Aerandria opened her mouth to protest, but before she could oppose, he hit her with the belt.
With the pain of what he was doing, what he felt he had to do, evident on his face, he began to beat her.
Many times she yelled out in pain and tried to escape. He would just drag her back by her hair.
He beat her for close to an hour, said she had caused him so much pain. He said that she had to be punished.
He left her.
Sobbing in a bloody heap on the bed, she just lay there crying, unable to move and in intense pain. She was so confused.


*~* CHAPTER 3 *~*

Aerandria lay there crying heavily for quite some time. Long enough for her little brother, Cyruson, to run into the room crying and bleeding.
When he entered, she stood up despite the pain. Just one look at him told her that Zander had beaten him as well.
Aerandria held him while he cried for a few minutes, before picking him up and making her way to her mother's room. There was a good chance Zander had beaten her as well. Even though she wasn't the greatest mother, she didn't deserve this.
She walked in to find her mother asleep in her bed, bleeding and completely covered in wounds from the belt. Cyruson ran and hid in the closet, crying. Aerandria tried to get him to stop, but to no avail.
She gave up and tried to wake her mother.
She woke up looking completely dazed, mumbled something unintelligible and started slipping away again. She was drugged, she had to be. Zander would never drug her, he hated drugs with a passion. She had to have come home like this. Wonderful timing as always.
Zander bellowed up the stairs for aerandria to come to the kitchen immediatly. Without thinking she quickly ran down the stairs to tend to his needs. She had to find out what happened to make him so dysfunctional.


*~* CHAPTER 4 *~*

When she entered, he told her that her previous punishment was not enough and that she had to be punished more. He grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen counter, and started calculatingly making his way towards her.
A scream bubbled through her lips, and she backed away. As soon as she had the chance, she turned and ran full speed down the hall and back up the stairs.
Finally understanding that Zander is just getting worse, she realized that they need to get away. They have to get out of the house. Have to get Zander some professional help.
Aerandria ran through the halls to her mother's room to get them out. She grabbed Cyruson from the closet and pulled him towards their mother. She proceeded to trying to awaken her again, and received the same results as the last time.
"MOM! Wake up! We need to get out the house... Zander has lost his mind and he only seems to get worse by the second. If we don't leave right this second he may take our lives. You need to get up!" She yelled frantically.
"We need to leave? Runaway? Escape?" asked a slightly hysterical Cyruson.
"Yea Cy. We need to get outta here if we wanna live. Help me wake your mother up." She felt bad for her little brother, so young and had to face this traumatic experience. He was going to need psychological help after this as well.
Cyruson just stood there, repeating her words over and over again. After about eight minutes of that he ran out the room. Without thinking, Aerandria let him go and turned back to her dozing mother.
She shook her a few times and slaped her across the face to wake her, but she wouldn't wake up. A high pitched scream pierced the air, and Aerandria ran out the room in its general direction, her mother slowly trailing behind.


*~* CHAPTER 5 *~*

Aerandria found herself standing at the top of the stairs, staring at Cyruson. He was laying in a pool of what seemed to be his own blood at the bottom of the stairs.
She stood there, frozen, for an immeasurable amount of time.
Her mother ran to Cyruson to see if her baby was still alive.
She checked his pulse and while it was a bit fast and kind of weak, it was better than nothing.
Aerandria ran down the steps at full speed towards her mother and Cyruson.
Zander enters. He walks in slowly, holding a knife as though he's about to stab someone. Laughing maniacally he advances.
Aerandria turns to her mother. She’s fainted. It was probably because of all the blood, or the drugs.
Losing any nerve she’s had, Aerandria drops to the floor. Her legs giving out, due to the pain she was in, the anguish she felt and the fear she faced as her life was coming to an end.
Zander started making his way towards her, smiling like a kid in a free candy store. He raises his knife into position.
As a last ditch effort, Aerandria screams at the top of her lungs. She shuffles back, trying to get away from him and eminent doom.
The front door flew in, at first all she saw was the bottom of a shoe. Zander sharply turned his head towards the door, and Aerandria crawled a bit closer to see. There were two strangers, with guns, and flashlights.
This was the first time she'd ever seen a real gun. The power it exhibited was enthralling. It captured both Aerandria and Zander’s attention.
Both men took a step forward, and pointed their guns towards Zander. Aerandria looked away from them and turned to her brother, he was still taking them in.
Utilizing the distraction, Aerandria jumped to her feet and quickly made her way to him. He turned back just in time for her to snap kick him in his jaw and send him flying. Zander fell to the floor completely winded, but still conscious. The knife slides out of his hand and Aerandria shoves it away with her foot. She kicks him hard in the gut, and Zander blacks out.
With a grunt one of the strangers leaves, cell phone in hand to make a call. Aerandria sinks to the floor and the other stranger walks over. He puts his gun down, in Aerandria’s reach and begins examining Cyruson.
When he's done, the stranger introduces himself as Ashur, and informs them that Cyruson should be fine.
Her mother, who was now awake, not fully but she was now aware.
Aerandria and her mother hug Cyruson tightly and awkwardly, not wanting to put him in more pain.
"How do you know that he'll be fine?? There’s so much blood." Aerandria says through tears.
"Mr. Psycho killer over there--"
Aerandria cuts in, "Zander, his name is Zander and he's not a killer."
"Zander never stabbed him in any vital areas. He has lost a lot of blood though. Oh and, the guy who just left to make a call? That's Juliano." he said with ease, as though he saw that much blood and faced situations like this everyday.
Just as Ashur finished explaining, Juliano walks in saying that its time they left.
"It was nice meeting you both, and thank you for your assistance." Aerandria say's as she gets up and heads towards the phone.
"What do you mean by that?" asks Juliano.
"I mean exactly what I said. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to call the cops and an ambulance." She picks up the phone and begins dialing. The 911 operator answers asking her what the nature of her emergency is.
Juliano walks over and takes the phone from her. He ends the call and says rather outraged, "What are you doing?!?"
"I'm calling the police!" she yells a bit insolently.
Turning to face Ashur, Juliano says, "You haven't told them yet, have you?"
"Told us what?" Aerandria asks.
After letting out a deep sigh Ashur responded, first to Juliano, "I was about to before you barged in, you need to work on your timing." Then to Aerandria and her family, "You can't call the cops, we don't have the time... and they can't know".
"Why? What’s going on?" she asks desperately, "My brother just attacked us. My brother who cries during sentimental movies and couldn't hurt a fly. There's blood everywhere, my mom is drugged and drunk, and Cyruson is slowly dieing. How can you tell me I can't call the cops?!?"
"They're coming for you. What happened here, with your brother, is nothing compared to what could happen. That my dear is why we need to get you all out of here." Ashur replied.
"Who's coming? What do they want with us?? What did they do to Zander???" Aerandria questioned hopelessly. It was obvious they weren’t going to give her any real answers just yet.
Before Ashur or Juliano could answer, Zander groaned and started moving, trying to regain consciousness.
Ashur and Juliano, fearing the worst, quickly ushered them out the house.


*~* CHAPTER 6 *~*

Cyruson was awake, but wouldn't move because it caused him a lot of pain.
Juliano carried him.
"Who are you guys? and Where are you taking us?" Aerandria asked severely confused and upset.
"To safety" Ashur replied simply.
"And where is that?" She was beginning to get impatient.
"There's a car on the corner of West minister and Katherine... Where is that?" Juliano asked nonchalantly.
Aerandria began showing signs of the wear and tear on her mind, "Is there something special about this car that makes it safe? Is it bullet proof? Does it have some sort of magical shield that will protect us from this mysterious and invisible enemy??"
Juliano and Ashur both smirked and shook their heads, but it was Ashur that responded, "No. It's just a car... It is beautiful though... Runs wonderfully, real quiet, great paint job, clean... I've had it for a while, but it still has that new car smell, its a... "
Aerandria interrupted him, "Sounds amazing and all, but I don't speak guy. Can't you just give me a straight answer?"
"I'd love to gorgeous, but like we said before... we don't have the time and your in a lot of danger. So with that said... How about you give us directions to my sexy car so we can get you guys to a first aid kit?" Ashur asks as he moves closer to her.
"It depends" Answers Aerandria,
"On?" says Ashur looking into her eyes.
"You're really creepy.. you know that?" She says stepping back
"I believe I’ve heard others say that to me before... You haven't answered my question yet." He answered with a chuckle.
"Why should I when you guys have yet to answer one of my questions?" She countered.
"We will, just not here. Can we make sure your safe first?"
Aerandria took a deep breath before replying, "There’s a shortcut through the forest behind the house, but since its so dark that’s too dangerous. We can take Union down to the corner and walk down Gerban. Take that over to Imal, cross the