Fighting For Life Read online

  Copyright © 2021 by Kylie Alyssa Forte

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  Typewriter Pub, an imprint of Blvnp Incorporated

  A Nevada Corporation

  1887 Whitney Mesa DR #2002

  Henderson, NV 89014

  www.typewriterpub.com/[email protected]

  ISBN: 978-1-64434-174-2

  DISCLAIMER

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. While references might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  FIGHTING FOR LIFE

  KYLIE ALYSSA FORTE

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Little Girl

  Chapter Two

  Get Out

  Chapter Three

  The Underground

  Chapter Four

  Plan

  Chapter Five

  Hurt

  Chapter Six

  Biceps

  Chapter Seven

  Truth

  Chapter Eight

  Forgot Where I Was

  Chapter Nine

  Long Day

  Chapter Ten

  Done

  Chapter Eleven

  Livid

  Chapter Twelve

  Instincts

  Chapter Thirteen

  My Life is a Joke

  Chapter Fourteen

  Now That We’re Friends

  Chapter Fifteen

  Miserable Dinner

  Chapter Sixteen

  Wear Something Flattering

  Chapter Seventeen

  Hope on the Back Burner

  Chapter Eighteen

  Down to Earth

  Chapter Nineteen

  Every Scar Has a Story

  Chapter Twenty

  Suffocating

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Hope

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Nice To Have a Friend

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Aiden’s Girlfriend

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The Best Christmas

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The Ugly Duckling

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  What Are You Thinking About

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  I’m fine

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Make Yourself at Home

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Welcome to the Family

  Chapter Thirty

  People Hurt People

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Promise

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Closure

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Later

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Why Not?

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The Best Birthday

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Wow

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Boundaries

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  I Believe in You

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  You’re Amazing

  Chapter Forty

  Keep Fighting

  Chapter Forty-One

  The End of us

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Broken

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Everywhere

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Numb

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Idiot

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Dead

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  The Pain of Nothing

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Let Me Help You

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Brother

  Chapter Fifty

  Psycho

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Deserve It

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Situations

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Fight

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Prize

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Strong

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Everyone She Loves

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Here

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Confused

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Forgive Yourself

  Chapter Sixty

  Debt

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Free

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Happy

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Acceptance

  Epilogue

  Light Exercise

  Together

  Family

  Nervous

  Future

  Happy

  You Did so Amazing

  To anyone who has ever had to fight against their own mind to get through the day . . .

  You are a warrior.

  Trigger Warning:

  The following story contains scenes depicting violence, sexual assault, drugs, self-harm, and near suicide attempt.

  Reader discretion is advised.

  Chapter One

  Little Girl

  Aubry

  I stared into his cold brown eyes, the ones that usually were bright with laughter as I handed him his money at the end of the month. I swallowed as he had his hands wrapped around my wrists tightly. Surely, he was leaving bruises.

  “Where’s the money, little girl?” Demetri asked with venom laced in his voice.

  “I-I-I don’t have it,” I stuttered out.

  I closed my eyes tightly while wishing to not be in that situation anymore, wishing to be anywhere but there.

  His breathing sped up, and I felt a hard punch to the right side of my jaw. My head jerked over as I inhaled sharply. It hurt like hell, but I wasn’t going to let him know that; I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. Besides, I’ve had a whole hell of a lot worse than that.

  “Listen here you little bitch . . . I put my trust in you, gave you the benefit of the doubt, and supplied you multiple times with my drugs. Now you’re telling me you don’t have my money?” he said sharply.

  Another blow came to the side of my head. It hurt a little less, but it still made my ears ring. I breathed in slowly, trying to calm down, trying to tell myself that everything was going to be fine. I knew it wasn’t going to be okay though, I messed with the wrong people.

  “I-I’m s-sorry I was robbed, they stole everything,” I tried to plead with him so I could make him understand that it wasn’t my fault. It was my father and his demented friend’s fault, that’s why I hadn’t seen either of them for three whole weeks.

  I could kill them. They were the reason I needed to do that bullshit in the first place! I should have just left like Kelsey did . . .

  “No, I don’t want any of your damn excuses! They’re meaningless anyways. You were responsible for all of it. I trusted you to put them in a spot where no one could find them. I took pity upon you . . . a little fifteen-year-old girl coming to me, a drug lord, because she had nowhere else to turn to. I gave you the protection you asked for, yeah? How many times did anyone touch you after I told you I would take care of
you?” He paused, waiting for me to answer.

  “Um, n-none,” I stated as he grabbed my face in his hand.

  “That’s right, none. I asked you to do one tiny little thing for me in return. Sell the supply and give me the profit, and this . . .” he gestured around the room for emphasis. “This is how you repay me? Making me track you down and telling me everything is gone?”

  He slapped me this time on my left cheek. I couldn’t really feel it though. I was too worried about my fate and if I would even still be living when they left.

  At that point, I was crying. For what? I don’t know. Maybe because this was all my father’s fault; he was the one that stole the drugs, or maybe it was because this wasn’t quite how I wanted to die. Either way, I was blubbering like a baby against the wall that was holding me up. I couldn’t even stand up on my own because I was so scared.

  “Do you know what I usually do to people who do this to me?” He moved my long hair out of my eye.

  I shook my head “no” at him. I actually did know the answer—he usually killed them. I prayed silently that he wouldn’t do that to me; I knew it was a lost cause though. I was as good as dead.

  “I kill them. They die because of this.” He paused as he took the gun from the holster on his hip and placed it upon my temple.

  I started crying harder. I only had six more months ’til I was supposed to graduate, then I could’ve left that shitty town forever, but instead, I was going to die.

  Six more months and everything could have been okay. Six more months, and I could have been free from the monsters that had control over me for my whole life.

  I squeezed my eyes together tightly, waiting for him to pull the trigger. My breath was ragged, and my tears were soaking my shirt.

  This was it . . . my death. It seemed so fucked up, the whole situation was fucked up.

  “You look so much like your mother. She was one messed up bitch, but she was beautiful nonetheless, at least before the drugs. God, it sure would be a shame to blow your pretty little brains out.” He removed the gun from my head, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Could it be? He wasn’t going to kill me.

  “What the fuck are you doing Demetri?” Daniel, Demetri’s brother, asked from behind. He always did hate me ever since I went to Demetri’s office and begged for help. Daniel was the one assigned to protect me, and he was not happy about that at all. As soon as he figured out that he couldn’t treat me how he treated my sister or my mother, it all went downhill. I wasn’t as agreeable as them. I wasn’t as weak as they were, or maybe it was that I was actually way weaker than them. I wouldn’t have been able to handle the things that they did or the things that they let happen to them.

  I wasn’t like that; I wasn’t like them, and Daniel hated me for it.

  “Look at her, she looks just like Jenny. I can’t kill her. Besides, I always did like her . . .” Demetri stated with a sigh.

  “Then give me the gun, and I’ll do it. She fucked us! Twenty-five thousand dollars are gone because of that little bitch! Half a kilo of coke, two hundred and fifty G’s of crystal, and a brick of green . . . It’s all gone, and she let it happen!” He backhanded me across my face.

  My face whipped to the side, and I bit back a scream.

  “She deserves to die. I don’t know what your little obsession over Jenny was, but she is dead, and this is not her.” Daniel pointed to me and snarled. “This is a piece of shit that deserves what’s coming to her.”

  Demetri put his hand up, silencing his younger brother instantly. “I know you feel strongly about this, but this is my business, and I have the final word.”

  Daniel scowled at me due to Demetri’s words.

  “So Aubry . . .” He gently ran his fingers down my tear-stained cheeks. I wanted to cringe, but I couldn’t risk pissing him off. “You’re seventeen, right?”

  I nodded quickly.

  “Graduating this year too?”

  I nodded again.

  “When is your graduation?” he asked.

  “May thirty-first,” I said slowly, trying to piece his questioning together.

  “Excellent. You have until then to give me my money, little girl.”

  My eyes widened. Six months to get twenty-five thousand dollars? That’s more than some people make in a whole year!

  I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off quickly.

  “Don’t make me change my mind. If you don’t get the money to me by then, I’ll certainly take Daniel up on his offer. You’re pretty, but not that pretty.”

  “So that’s it then? We just leave her alone for six months waiting for the money? You understand she crossed us, correct? You’re just letting her off the hook,” Daniel said to his brother angrily. He wanted to kill me; I saw the bloodlust in his eyes.

  “You’re certainly right, brother. Teach her a lesson or two about not keeping her word and to take better care of things.” He then looked pointedly at me. “I will be keeping my eyes on you, so don’t even think about skipping town.”

  He turned and walked back to the front door of my house and nodded at Daniel, “Have your fun.”

  He looked at two of the several giant bodyguards. “Don’t let him kill her.”

  With that, I heard the door open and close. He was gone, and I was in deep shit.

  I pressed myself against the wall, firmly trying to blend in with it and praying that he wouldn’t go too hard on me. By the look in his eyes when he turned to me, I knew that prayer wasn’t going to be answered. His eyes held intense fury and hatred for me. He smirked at me, and I felt like throwing up, I knew this was going to be bad.

  “Please, I am so sorry!” I screamed as he charged at me quickly. He hit me in the chest, and I fell against the wall, hard. All my breath was knocked out of my lungs, and my chest was on fire.

  “No, you little bitch. My brother might have a soft spot for you, but I see what you are. You’re just like your father: unreliable, idiotic, and useless,” he said as he brought his fist down into my head. My vision blurred with his hard hit. “Your mother was a slut, just like you. How many guys have you fucked, huh?” He was taunting me while kicking me in the stomach.

  I couldn’t breathe. I tried to gasp for air but every time I thought I was going to catch my breath, another blow came.

  “Ten? Thirteen? No, maybe seventeen, one for every year of your life.” He spat on me in disgust.

  My vision was becoming black from the lack of oxygen. Suddenly, he yanked me up by my hair. I was no longer crying, I could barely feel the blows to my body anymore. I just felt sick and really, really tired.

  He yanked my head up to look at him in the eyes; it was too heavy for me to hold it up by myself. My breathing was coming back to me in little puffs, so the blackness was finally disappearing. When I could finally see clearly, I wished that I was blind. His face was so close to me, and his eyes held so much anger that I felt suffocated.

  He wanted me dead. He smiled at me menacingly as he reached into his pocket. He was still holding me up by my hair so I couldn’t look down to see what it was, but one could only imagine.

  “Remember what Demetri said, ‘You have to keep her alive’ so I suggest you don’t pull that out,” the tall bald man who was standing behind Daniel said gruffly.

  “Chill, I know what I’m doing,” he snarled back at him and pulled the knife up to meet my face. I started to struggle some more, but he just pulled my hair tighter.

  “Look here, whore, you’re going to be punished and by the time I’m done with you, you’ll wish you were never born,” he stated as he sliced the knife just underneath my collarbone.

  Almost instantly, my white shirt was covered from the shoulder down with crimson blood. I felt like fainting but instead, I mustered up enough strength and smirked at him.

  “It’s . . . a little t-too late for that . . . D-Daniel, I started wishing that years ago,” I croaked out, feeling like I was going to faint. The world was buzzing around me as he
held me up. I knew I couldn’t take much more; my body was already trying to give out from the numerous hits it had already endured. Just a few more hard hits, and I’d be out.

  Out seemed to be a much better option than what I was going through at that point, though.

  He practically growled at me as he smacked me with the knife handle on my cheek. I could feel the gash instantly, blood poured down my cheek and into my mouth. I fell to the ground as soon as he let go of me.

  He kicked me as soon as I fell. “You stupid bitch. Don’t you dare . . .” he emphasized each word with another kick to my body.

  I could no longer hear after that, and to be honest, I couldn’t even tell where the hits were going anymore. I was done and my body was too. It had taken too many hits to bear. I mean, I had been hit and beaten many times in my life, but this guy was trying to kill me.

  I painfully turned over and tried to get into the fetal position, but my body protested. I couldn’t move anymore; it was too painful. Everything was black, and I couldn’t do anything but lay there.

  I must have passed out completely soon after that because I have no recollection of anything that had happened after. I could only remember black, the cold and lonely black.

  Did Daniel succeed in what his brother didn’t do? Did he kill me?

  Chapter Two

  Get Out

  I woke up to cold water being poured over my head. I jolted up, but my body screamed as I did. My sides were on fire. I couldn’t move my shoulder, and it hurt just to breathe. I felt like I had been ran over several times and then dragged off somewhere to die.

  I looked up for the culprit who poured water over me. I was met with hardened eyes that haunted me for too long.

  “Get up. I can’t believe that bastard didn’t kill you!” my father said harshly.

  Suddenly, I saw red. Maybe it was the fact my own father wanted me dead, or the fact that I hadn’t seen him since he stole the drugs that were not mine three weeks before, but whatever it was . . . I lost it.

  A switch flipped in my brain, and I went berserk. I jumped up from my sitting position and attacked him. At first I was kicking him, but then in my sudden rage, I started strangling him. I felt in control and was going to kill him.

  He deserved every bit of it, he deserved to die, and I deserved to be the one to kill him.