Mafia Men: Nikolai's Inferno - Chapter 42: Chapter 42

.Evangeline.
I slammed open the bedroom door and took off all of my clothes before running to the bathroom. I didn't even care to flick the lights on as I moved closer to the bathtub.
I fill the bathtub, the water nearly overflowed as steam surged from the scalding water. I step inside, and the hot water burned my skin, into my wound but I didn't care. The burn felt like it was washing away their hands, their touch. I clenched my jaw to distract myself from the burn.
This is good. It will wash their hands off me. It will wash off their touch.
I squirt a good amount of body wash on the loofah and started to scrub. I scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed, the blistering water scorching my skin. The cuts that had turned into scabs got ripped once more, bleeding out. The dull ache in my stomach intensified, it hurt to even clench my teeth. Their laughing faces flashed before my eyes. I remembered the way their bodies smelled, their breath smelled. It just made me scrub more violently.
Their every single insult, their degrading remarks, and their dirty words resonated in my mind. I wanted to wash it all off, off my body, off my brain.
Every time they laughed.
Every time they forced their hands in my pants.
Every time they groped my chest.
The resentment and the pain, the helplessness all crept up at once making me lose control.
I winced every time I touched a swollen bone, a bruise, or a cut but I didn't stop. This physical pain was nothing compared to the mental pain I was feeling.
The world around me disappeared. A fog formed all around me. My insides twisted with hate, I wanted to kill them, hurt them the way they did to me. I wanted them to feel as helpless as I did. I want them to beg at my feet for mercy. I want them to feel violated. I wanted them to feel exploited.
Rage.
That's all I could feel.
I was so lost in my own world, that I didn't hear the heavy footsteps, I couldn't feel someone's presence behind me.
Someone flicked the light switch on and I was startled out of my nightmare. My hands stopped scrubbing, I clutched the loofah like my life depended on it.
They walked up to me, the footsteps. I felt someone standing right behind me. My back was facing them. I didn't turn, I didn't bother to check who it was. I resumed scrubbing my already reddened skin again.
"Evangeline?"
His voice, so close, whispering my name. I stilled for a second again then snapped out of it as I continued to scrub. I continued to scrape their touch off my skin. He crouched down beside the tub, I didn't look at him. I didn't say a word. My heavy breathing and the running water resonated all around me.
"I told you, you shouldn't have taken a shower, your wounds-" he let out a defeated breath as he seemed to have given up.
Then hand came around me and adjusted the water temperature. My eyes followed his hands and resentment burned hotter insi of me.
The burning water turned cold, soothing the burn off my skin. I shook my head, I didn't want that. Their touch was still there. It was still on my body.
Then his hand was placed over mine as he tried to take the loofah out of my hand. I struggled to try to tear off his grip on the loofah but I failed, he took it out of my hand and tossed it aside.
"No..." I cried as my body started to violently shake.
"Shh..." he whispered in my ear.
He grabbed the shampoo bottle and shampooed my hair, slowly and gently as if he was trying hard not to hurt me. He gently sprayed water trying to keep it off the bandages on my head.
A flood of tears gushed down my cheeks as he softly washed my hair with cold water. He then washed off my body softly with his hands. He had never touched me with so much tenderness. Was it pity? Was he feeling sympathetic for stupid, little orphan Evangeline, who doesn't have anyone? Is that what it was?
"Why are you doing this?" I asked, my voice rough like I had been screaming for the past hour.
"Shh..." he shushed me again as he drained the water from the tub. He made me stand up and wrapped a towel around my body.
He made me sit on the ottoman only in a towel and dried my hair from the back. The bandages were all wet anyway, he didn't know what to do with them.
"Are you here to ridicule me again? Are you here to say that I am a lowlife stray who doesn't even know how to wash herself?!"
He wasn't saying anything as he made me sit on the bed. He wasn't wearing his jacket, his white shirt was all wet now as he came out of the closet holding a dressing gown.
I stood up, yanked it out of his hands, and tossed it on the floor frustratedly, my elbow felt hurt like hell.."I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!"
Without saying anything, he picked up the dressing gown again and walked closer to me. He tugged on my towel making it pool around my feet before he covered my body with the dressing gown, tying it from the front.
"Why did you come for me?" I asked as he made me sit down again and started to dry my hair with the towel.
He let out a breath and stared at me for a minute. I stared at him right back. Tears blurred my vision, and my heart felt heavy as my chest heaved up and down. I clutched the gown and looked down at my feet. I wanted all this to end.
"Why did you come for me, Nikolai?" I asked again.
I felt him kissing the top of my head before he walked out of the room.
I kept sitting on the bed lifelessly, thinking what did I do wrong? Why did it happen to me?
Ten minutes later, Nikolai walked into my room again but he wasn't alone this time. He had called a doctor, I shook my head and got up from the bed.
"No, I don't need anyone's help!"
Nikolai walked closer to me and held my shoulders making me sit back on the bed. "Quit being stubborn, Evangeline. You could get a serious infection because of the wounds. Is that what you want?" his voice
was still soft.
I jerked his hands off my body. "Why do you care?!"
He ignored me and turned to the doctor, nodding at him. "Ray..."
The doctor took off the wet bandages and replaced them. Putting on ointments on the wounds; prescribed me more antibiotics, sedatives, and painkillers.
After he was done, the doctor left the room leaving me and Nikolai alone.
"I'll ask someone to bring you something to eat" he voiced.
"Why?" I asked venomously.
He raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"So, you could insult me afterward?"
He tilted his head a little to the side in confusion. "Insult you?"
"I don't think I can repay your generosity, Don Niko. I have nothing to give you!" I spat out through my teeth.
He breathed out an unamused laugh. "Don Niko... It sounds absurd coming from your mouth."
"Just don't want to forget my place" I snapped, coldly.
"Stop being ridiculous."
"Stop acting like you want me here."
"I brought you here, didn't I?"
"I'll leave soon. I don't care what you say, I will run away!"
He nodded, clenching his fists by his side. "We'll see about that later, right now, fucking eat something," saying that, he left my bedroom, slamming the door on his way out.
I glared at the door, my chin trembling as the tears I had been trying to hold in burst out again. I mindlessly picked at the bandages over my foot as I cried.
It's not easy to just forget everything and move on with my life like it never happened.
The way those men made me feel, I wouldn't want this kind of torture over my worst enemy.
A maid I have never seen before entered the room with a tray full of food. I didn't put up a fight as I silently ate. I had starved in that dirty, dingy cell, I never wanted to feel that kind of hunger ever again. I don't
want to starve ever again.
I winced as a piece of food touched the inside of my cheek, and my jaw hurt as if it was broken. You get cuts, your own teeth cut through your skin when you get repeatedly slapped by men that are twice your size.
I could still feel the weight of their hands against my cheek.
I sniffled as I shoved the food in my mouth. Does it ever go away? Would I ever be able to forget what has happened to me? I wanted to go back to being myself, but it hurt to even think about it.
I was so stupid, I wouldn't have dreamt about something so cruel. The way they treated me was anything but humane.
Will it ever fade from my mind?
Will I ever be normal again?