The Devil's Justice

LARA:
My car's leather seats embraced me as I sank into them, my face still flushed with anger. The desire to escape gnawed at my very core, not as a temporary respite but as a permanent getaway from this chaotic place.
They say that family is supposed to provide a sanctuary, a place to call home. But for me, that so-called home had become a chamber of torment. Hidden behind their smiles was something dark and sinister, lurking within the hearts of those who were supposed to love and protect me.
I checked my phone, and there were seven missed calls and eleven texts from Ana. I sighed. I know I have ghosted her and she needs an explanation. But right now maybe I can't give one. Not when I myself was not aware of what was going on with my life.
I only hope everything is fine there.
I let out a heavy sigh as I finally turned the key in the ignition, awakening the car's powerful engine. The rush of air brushed against my face, my untamed hair dancing like a chaotic symphony. The urge to flee was overpowering, and as I pulled away from the mansion, I could feel the refreshing embrace of freedom in every breath.
No more suffocation. No more pain. Just the familiar numbness that had become my constant companion. I glanced into the rearview mirror, catching a last glimpse of the opulent mansion that had been both my so-called home and my prison. With determination, I took the final turn, disappearing from that place forever.
But before I left, I stole one last glance at her. A blurred figure on the balcony, likely revelling in my distress or wearing a self-satisfied grin for successfully driving me away.
****
The music enveloped the place as I gulped down my third shot of the Saturday night. Sitting inside the harmony bar, I began to drink my sorrow. 
Suddenly my white tank top and denim shorts seemed to be too heavy on me. Only a black jacket covering my body.
This is what she wanted me to wear tonight for him. Damien.
FLASHBACK:
"The rents are due, and Damien asked he could show us mercy this time, but only if you go for the night with him tonight," my mother informed me, her voice carrying an unusual sweetness, her eyes hiding a darker truth. "So, just get ready for tonight, okay?" Her smile was a facade, a mask concealing the desperation behind her eyes. "All you have to do is look pretty."
"No," I replied, my voice unwavering, fueled by years of suppressed defiance.
"No?" Her tone was laced with disbelief, quickly morphing into anger. "Say that again," she demanded, her patience thinning like fragile ice under pressure.
"No—" I barely managed to utter the word before her hand struck my cheek with a stinging force, the impact echoing in the room. The pain, both physical and emotional, cut deep, but I refused to let her see me break.
Tears streamed down my cheeks, my voice cracking with the raw pain that engulfed my soul. "Why do you need to ruin my life so bad, huh?" I shouted at my mother, standing before her in the crumbling remnants of our old house.
"I? I ruined your life?" She retorted, her confusion transforming into bitterness. "It's you who ruined my life!" Her words lashed out like a venomous whip. "It was you..."
Her accusations cut through me, a familiar agony that had haunted me since my childhood. I had grown up bearing the weight of her resentment, but hearing it again now felt like reopening an old, festering wound.
"It's your fucking birth that ruined me!" she screamed, her voice breaking in the midst of her mental breakdown. "Have you not been born, I would have lived my life! Free and happy!"
I glared back at her, my own hurt transmuting into defiance. "I am your goddamn daughter, mom! You don't get to blame me like that!" I spat back, my words laced with the bitterness of years of unspoken pain. "I haven't begged you to stay for me!"
She looked up at me, her eyes bloodshot and swollen. "What would I have done, huh? You came into my life like a shadow. You ruined me. You. You. You." Her voice cracked with anguish. "He left me because of you." She sobbed. "because you don't look like him."
"How is any of that my fault?" I asked, my voice rising despite the lump in my throat.
She threw a vase at me, the impact sending waves of pain through my head. "How is that not your fault? How is this not any of your fault, huh?" she screamed, her anger bordering on hysteria. "You made that video to gain what? Fame? If it hadn't been exposed, I would have... I would have..."
I hissed, feeling a surge of defiance. "You would have what?" I challenged. "You would have condemned me to this hell too, huh? Sold me off to some monster who would destroy me? Is that what you wanted for me, mother?"
"Yes! Yes! yes!" she yelled back, her words laced with desperation. "You could have made good money, but instead, you chose to fuck like a whore and publicize it to the whole world," she spat, her venomous words hanging heavy in the air. "It's not like you are pretty like your sister. She made me good money but now...." She sighed. "I am left with nothing but you. I sent you to school so you could come back to me as the woman I wanted you to be. I gave you freedom, and you tossed it away!" Her voice quivered with disappointment. "You could have lived in this mansion with all the riches and money, but you tossed it away, silly girl!"
"I don't want your money!" I screamed back, my voice breaking. "Why don't you understand that? Not me. not Heath, we never wanted anything like this! I don't want anything that belongs to you—the money you made by selling your body and trying to sell mine or hers. You can keep everything you have!"
"Shut the fuck up!" she screamed, her rage erupting like a storm. "I raised you both to become my way of making money..."
I cut her off, turning away from her hateful gaze. "Well, I'm sorry to say this, Mother. You will not have me in that way," I declared, my voice firm, even though my heart trembled with fear and anger.
"And where will you go?" she taunted, her voice dripping with mockery. "Like your sister? Who is god-knows-where at the moment? No father, no mother, no money! Do you think you could survive alone like this?"
I swallowed hard, my hands trembling. I hated her. I despised her more than anything in the world. A mother who had shattered her own child. Without looking back, I said the words that had been building up inside me for years. "I will find my way, Mother. Goodbye. Just like Heath. And I will fucking find her!"
She called out to me from behind, but I didn't turn back. This was the moment I had decided to free myself from her toxic grasp. I wouldn't let her control my life any longer. I walked away, leaving her, my past, and her poisonous words behind, determined to find my own path, even if it meant walking it alone.
"Another one," I slurred, my voice heavy with the weight of my sorrows. The bartender, a silent witness to my descent, poured another glass, the liquid amber offering a temporary refuge from my pain.
"You're drunk," a voice from beside me remarked, pulling me back from the abyss of my thoughts. I looked up, my bleary eyes meeting the gaze of a handsome blurred stranger who had settled himself next to me, his eyes fixed on my troubled face.
I scoffed bitterly. "I know. I'm just trying to drown my pain," I replied, my words laced with bitterness. He didn't say anything, merely observing me with an empathetic silence.
"You shouldn't drink this much!"
"And who are you supposed to be? My dad?" I shot back in anger. The man didn't say anything and I felt guilty for throwing my anger on him. I sighed before making an apology, "Look, I am sorry..."
"Don't worry about it," The stranger replied cutting me off. "I am habituated to this by now. I actually started liking it."
I chuckled weakly, my drunken haze amplifying my emotions. "You know, you're cute. And handsome and..."
"And?" 
"And... you remind me of someone I really like," I confessed, the words slipping out in a drunken confession. 
"Really? Who is it?"
I scoffed, "Oh, it's just someone I call a brown-eyed monster," I replied in my drunken voice. "Not that he's an actual monster like my mother who would have sold me off to a rich old man for money..." My voice trailed off. "But I hate him," I said. "I guess he hates me too. But there is something... Something about him I just can't get away from. He saved me from my biggest mistake and then chose to ignore me as if I didn't even exist. Maybe he judged me based on that video, right?"
I sighed a deep breath as I mumbled, "Just like everyone else." I tried to look up at him, but everything was blurry. maybe due to the alcohol or the tears. I am not sure. 
The man spoke something to me, his words blending with the ambient noise, but my vision blurred, the sounds growing distant, until the darkness engulfed me, swallowing my consciousness whole.
****
"Sorry, I am so sorry Lara." A whisper came to my ears, waking me up from the slumber.
My consciousness returned like a shadowy haze, and I found myself bound to a wretched chair, the world around me a blurry, disorienting mess.
"Hello?" My voice quivered, a desperate plea for salvation, but it evaporated into the lifeless void of the room. Echoes of my own desperation returned, mocking me. "Somebody, please help!" I screamed, each word a prayer for deliverance, yet silence clung to the air like a malevolent spectre.
The room was a chamber of frigid despair, and the cold air bit into my bare skin, sending shivers coursing through me. As I gazed downwards, the brutal reality dawned—I was not only restrained but stripped of every vestige of dignity. Tears welled up, cascading down my cheeks, and I clutched the chair's armrests as if they were my lifeline.
Lifting my eyes, I discovered a malevolent presence—a camera, unfeeling and detached, its lens capturing every gruesome moment of my torment.
My vision blurred again, and my voice grew numb as I continued to cry out in despair. Tears flowed like a river until none remained. The voice left my throat raw and horseily until it turned into a mere whisper of its former self.
But no one had come to my rescue that day.
Returning to the present moment, I jolted awake, my consciousness emerging from the murky depths of unconsciousness. A familiar sense of disorientation settled in, just like before. My body felt heavy as if I were frozen in time, and an overwhelming feeling of isolation washed over me, enveloping me like a suffocating shroud. However, this time, I found myself sitting up on a cozy bed in a room I didn't recognize.
"Where the hell am I?" I whispered, my voice barely audible in the quiet room.
Then, like a crashing wave, the memories flooded back, hitting me hard. My home. The argument with my mother. The desperate escape. The bar. The handsome stranger...
"You're awake!" a voice startled me. I turned my head to the left, my eyes widening in recognition. It was none other than Mark.
A/N: Woah... So Mark saved Lara twice? Comment down below. 
Follow me on Instagram and YouTube for more digital updates and Pre-caps. If you want to read the whole book right away, you can now order the Amazon paperback format. Link on my profile.