"...This life's not easy, I'm not made out of steel, don't forget that I'm human, don't forget that I'm real, act like you know me, but you never will, there's one thing that I know for sure I'll show you..."
~ Justin Bieber

...♛...

I'm home. The place where I was born, and the place where I get to die. It's vacant, but through the front door, comes a bright light. I know I have to walk through so that I can give this life up.

The physical pain is gone and with a few more steps, the emotional pain will go away too. Without a second thought, I start walking towards the light.

"Summer," my brother, Dean's voice stops me. Him showing up in my head, isn't surprising. He's the youngest out of my three older brothers, and we've always understood each other more than anyone else has.

Hearing his voice, after almost three years, is calming. It sends a feeling of tranquility that I haven't felt in a long time.

"Dean?" I turn around. He stands there handsome as ever with his dress shirt and jeans. His muscles seem to have grown a size or two, and his frame has modified into a man's. He's a nineteen year old adult.

Thinking about that, makes me want to cry.

What if he's different? What if he doesn't like joking around, playing tag or teaching me how to have fun in life? That even we have the right to be happy. What if he isn't who he was?

"What's wrong?" he questions. His brown eyes sympathetically trace my body.

"Nothing," I reply.

"Mmm. What were you about to do?" he asks in a protective, brotherly way.

"Leave my pain behind." I say looking at the ground. For some reason, I can't build up the strength to look him in the eyes.

"I thought we raised you to know that pain is a given with this family," he words. I can sense his disappointment.

"You did."

"Look me in the eyes when you speak, Summer," he instructs, and I instantly raise my head meeting his gaze.

"If we raised you like that, then why are you about to kill yourself because of pain?"

"I– I can't handle it," tears brim my eyes.

"You can, and you will. If you walk through that door, Kai wins – Nick, wins. Summer. Me, Dad, Vincent, Anthony; we raised you to be a fighter. The White Dragons don't give up."

"But you did, you stopped looking for me."

"You made us believe you're dead. We still believe you're dead. Life moves on, Summer. Just like you did."

"Then let me do what I want to do!" I yell back.

"But that doesn't mean, we make stupid mistakes. Be smart, like you've been for the past two years. If Kai wants to use your emotional connection to people against you, turn it into your strength. Emotions are a mistake, you know that, but a guy like Kai, who has never felt any other emotion besides rage, doesn't. Teach him how we work," he's right. I can't give up so easily. I'm strong enough to fight back. I can survive if I choose to stay.

"So, are going to give up?" Dean asks, cocking his right eyebrow.

"No," I answer.

...♛...

Steady beeping and slow breathing. A rhythmic pattern my brain recognizes the second it comes in conscious.

My body sore, the excruciating pain tells me that I haven't been introduced to any painkillers. Every time I breathe, the movement of my lungs hurts. The oxygen mask helps me breathe and without it, I think I would just die for real this time.

I don't remember much from before, but faint images run through my mind. Cole tried raping Alice, and when I heard the gunshots, I broke. I ate the pasta on the plate knowing that my allergy would activate. My body wouldn't be able to break down the wheat and due to my severe sensitivity to wheat, it would cause inflammation in my throat stopping the flow of air to my lungs.

I should've been done for. I was dead, how am I even alive? Slowly, I open my eyes. I'm in a room painted all white. With a slight turn of my neck, the machines I'm hooked up to, come in sight. This room is quite similar to a hospital room, but I can tell this isn't a real hospital.

I turn my head back, facing the boxed ceiling. Scenes from before come into memory causing tears to well up and drip down from the corners of my eyes.

I don't wanna live. I killed myself. At least, I tried to. Before my thoughts can deepen, the door creaks open. I wipe away the tears keeping my eyes glued to the ceiling.

In my vision, appears a woman probably around her early thirties. She wears normal clothes, but by the amount of wrinkles on her forehead, it's obvious she's a doctor. Only people that have spent, who knows how many years studying in university, have wrinkles in their early thirties.

"You're awake, how are you feeling?" she has a sweet voice. My lips part to say something, but she cuts me off, "Never mind, don't say anything. You won't be able to talk for a couple of days actually. The inflammation is still healing. That's why you're still on oxygen support and you're in severe pain because Kai's strict orders were to keep you off of any pain meds."

"Fu-," I try to say something, but the weird edge to my own voice freaks me out. I clear my throat hoping it helps, "Fuck him and his orders."

Nope it did not help. My voice sounds so weird, that the doctor has to hold her laughter back. I roll my eyes and sit up on the bed. Painful, is the understatement of the year, but the dizziness that follows is just a cherry on top.

"Summer, you need to rest."

When my head stops spinning, I look up at her and take off the oxygen mask.

"What I need, is to kill Cole with my bare hands."

I try to pull my foot over the edge of the bed, but when I can't pull it away, I remove the bed sheets off of myself and spot the cuff linking my foot to the bed. I clench my jaw, "Take it off."

"I can't, I don't have the key," the doctor replies.

"Don't act so innocent in front of me. You're just as guilty as them, so you stay away from me as long as I'm here. I don't want your meds, your machines or your damn ass knowledge. I want you to leave because I clearly can't," I say, taking in a long breath at the end.

"Summer, I-,"

"No. I don't need your sympathy or words of wisdom either, because no one in this world can tell me that I'll be okay. I'm not. I was forced to watch my step-sister get raped by a guy that she, and maybe even I, trusted. No one in this world has the power to help me, not even god himself. You're nowhere near him so don't you even try," I speak on my last nerve and I can't be more clear about it.

"Well then. I'll come check up on you later."

"Don't," I say as she leaves.

"My name's Lilly by the way," she says just before exiting. I pull the IV and along with any other wires attached to me, out. The irritating beeping turns off leaving me in silence. My breathing is deep, but I calm down and eventually the calmness sends into darkness.

...♛...

I wake up again, but this time with a bulging amount of pain in my stomach. The urge to puke makes me lean over the side of the bed and I puke out blood turning the white floor, red. My eyes fill with tears from the amount of pain running through me.

The door slams open.

"Summer?"

It's Brody.

"Lilly!" he yells. I cough desperately as I choke on my own blood.

"What happened?!" Lilly questions.

"I don't know, I was passing by when I saw her puking blood."

"It's the her allergy. She took off the IV and didn't take her meds for the past ten hours. Her body isn't strong enough to heal by itself. Summer, do you feel like you need to puke more?"

I nod.

"Okay. Uh- Brody, help her lay back down I'm going to put her back on the meds," he comes close to me and I push him away.

"Touch me and I'll kill you," I deadpan. It starts to become even harder to breathe now.

"Stop being stupid and let me help you," Brody says.

"Fuck off! Ugh!"

My hands grab my stomach as I grit trying not to scream in agony.

"Help her Brody!" Lilly yells and Brody starts helping me onto my back.

"No! Ugh- stop! Brody, it hurts! Ahh!" I scream. "I can't take it Lilly, just kill me! Please!"

Begging is useless, I know they won't kill me but I know I can guilt them into giving me pain meds.

"Ugh! Please!"

"Give her the painkillers," Brody says. Besides my painful groaning, the room is silent, "I said, give her painkillers. I'll talk to Kai myself."

I feel a pinch in my hand and in a few minutes, I'm out cold.

...♛...

I open my eyes. I'm still in the room I woke up in last, but now, in less pain. I dig out enough strength in me to help myself into a sitting position. The oxygen mask is now gone telling me the inflammation in my lungs is close to gone as well.

I look around the room. Even though I'm alone now, I know that it won't last for long, so I take this as my chance to go into the bathroom considering that my foot is no longer attached to the bed.

When I lift the blankets off of me, I first look at the clothes I'm wearing. It's one of the guys' shirt, I can tell by the size. Used to wearing men's clothing, I ignore it and walk over to another door I know isn't the exit.

To my luck, it's the bathroom. I walk in, and lock the door behind me. I stop in front of the mirror, and mentally groan. My eyes are puffy red, dry tears make my skin look edgy, and the knots in my hair are cringe worthy.

I haven't seen myself this broken since Nick had me. I guess it runs in the family, because Kai did somewhat break me. I turn on the tap and run the water to a cool temperature. When it's good enough, I splash some on my face waking myself up.

I grab the towel hung behind the door to dry my face. After that, I look at myself through the mirror again. My eyes are still red, but the dry tears are gone. When I realize that I've had my contacts in for over a week, I take them out. It stings more than usual, but a few minutes later, they feel better.

A knock on the door startles me. When the fact that I've dropped one of my contacts hits my brain, I drop down, onto my knees and look for it.

"Summer?" It's Alec.

"Wait a sec," I say. My hands hover over the ground in search for the lost contact. When I feel my contact, I internally thank god. I quickly wash the contact before wearing it. Tears fill my eyes. I try to blink them away, but they wouldn't budge, so I just open the door.

Alec stands there, wearing a pair of light blue jeans and a red flannel shirt. In his hands, holds a maroon dress along with some girl essentials.

"Lilly said that you'll be fine now. Kai wants you to clean yourself up and wear this to the dinner tonight."

I walk past him. On the way to the the bed, my hand secretly runs over the tray of medical instruments picking up a needle. I tuck it in between the waistband of my underwear as I turn to face Alec and take a seat on the bed.

"What makes you think I'll do what he wants? He killed his own advantage."

"You never do learn, do you?" Alec says, almost sounding amused.

"I do learn, a lot actually. But that's not the point. If Kai wants me to come to the dinner tonight, he can come and talk to me himself. I don't know what Kai was thinking killing Alice, but now he has no upper hand. If he thinks I'll stay by choice, then he's wrong," I state.

"You really think Kai will come and beg you to come to the dinner?"

"Nope," I shrug. "But if he doesn't, then he'll lose me. I'll escape before the dinner."

"You won't," he says.

"How do you know?" I stand up and smirk when he hesitates to answer. My hand slides on top of the tray that holds the medical instruments once again. I discreetly slide a needle into my grip and walk towards Alec.

"Even if you pass me, you'll have a hundred other men to get past here alone. Not to mention the other five hundred roaming around all of Chicago."

"You wanna know a secret?" I whisper into Alec's right ear.

"I don't care," and with that, I take a step back and swing my arm. Alec catches it and pulls me around. With my back against his front, he forces me to hold the needle to my neck with his hold around my right hand.

"I've been training for years to be better than anyone. You really think you can outsmart me?" he taunts.

I slip the needle out of my waistband using my left hand and inject the liquid into his thigh.

"Fuck," he groans. I tighten my grip around the needle to my throat using my left hand and twist it around. Then, I grab onto his left arm and pull him over my shoulder making him land painfully onto his back.

"Yes," I reply as I watch him being pulled into a deep sleep. When he's fully unconscious, I search through his pockets. I take out his access card and all the cash he's carrying which is around three hundred dollars.

A/N:

Ivy: This is part 1 of chapter 13 just because it was a really long one, I decided to split it into two chapters maybe even three. I'm not sure yet.

Did you find it interesting? What do you think she'll do now? If she escapes where do you think she'll go? Too many questions😁