Chapter 478: I’m Okay, Ophelia.
[Trigger Warning: This Chapter contains graphic depictions of violence, profanity, and sexual assault.]
[Flashback]
Tak! Tak! Tak!
Little Ashley hugged herself in the corner of the dimly lit room. Her eyes were wide, trembling with horror as she watched the nightmare unfolding before her.
"Miss..."
Ophelia’s weak voice reached her, drawing Ashley’s gaze.
A tear rolled down Ophelia’s cheek, reflecting Ashley’s frightened face in her watery eyes.
"... please don’t look."
"Fucking bitch!" Addict roared as he yanked Ophelia by the hair before slapping her across the face. "I told you to stop crying! How dare you fucking—moan! Moan, you fucking bitch! You wanted this, didn’t you?!"
"Haha!" Baldy laughed from his chair, lazily sipping a bottle of beer. "Maybe you’re not pleasuring her enough. Fuck her harder. She’ll be screaming soon enough."
Ophelia clenched her teeth and turned to little Ashley again, desperately shaking her head, silently begging the child to look away.
But Ashley couldn’t.
She could only stare at Ophelia... and the man violating and beating her at the same time.
She had seen people die before. Scott had taken her on enough missions that she thought she would eventually get used to death.
Scott had even taught her how to shoot a gun.
She hated it. The recoil hurt her tiny shoulder, and she never understood why adults willingly used something that caused so much pain.
That had become her life.
At one point, she believed nothing could ever frighten her again after witnessing Marshal take a life for the first time.
Yet here she was.
Watching something no child should ever witness... happen to someone who had done nothing but show her kindness.
"Miss... please—"
"Fucking bitch!"
Ophelia’s screams, mixed with the relentless blows, forced little Ashley to squeeze her eyes shut.
She covered her ears and turned away, but she could still hear everything.
The bed creaking.
Fists striking flesh.
Ophelia screaming for mercy before desperately begging them to take her somewhere else.
Baldy’s laughter as he watched the entire ordeal like it was entertainment.
No matter how tightly Ashley pressed her hands against her ears, the sounds refused to disappear.
They went on... and on... until they felt endless.
When the noises finally stopped, Addict’s voice suddenly snapped her out of it.
"Hey." When Ashley didn’t respond, he grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him.
"Hey, you fucking little bitch. You’re lucky Scott claimed you. Otherwise, you’d be the one lying on that bed instead of that saggy old woman."
Ashley’s trembling eyes drifted toward the bed where Ophelia lay motionless. Beside the bed, Baldy casually zipped up his pants as if he finished his turn.
Addict smirked as he licked his lips before leaning closer.
"When you grow up," he said, "you’ll like it too. It’s amazing."
Laughing, he shoved her away before walking toward the door.
He and Baldy glanced back at her one last time, wearing the same cruel smiles, before disappearing outside.
By then, Ashley had already learned many lessons.
One of them was never to cry.
Even though she wanted to sob, she bit down on her lip until it hurt. Then she forced her tiny legs to move.
"Ophelia!" She rushed to the bedside.
For a terrifying moment, Ophelia simply stared blankly at the ceiling.
Ashley thought she was dead.
Then Ophelia slowly pulled the blanket over herself before turning toward Ashley. Shame and guilt filled her exhausted eyes.
"Miss..." she whispered, gently caressing Ashley’s cheek.
Ashley was desperately holding back her tears, biting her lip so hard it nearly bled.
Ophelia gave her a faint smile.
"I’m sorry you had to see that." She brushed Ashley’s cheek again. "Are you okay?"
Ashley’s breathing hitched.
It wasn’t the bruises covering Ophelia’s face that caught her off guard.
It was her smile.
Despite everything that had just happened, it was the exact same gentle smile Ophelia always wore whenever she looked at Ashley.
At that moment, Scott’s very first lesson echoed inside Ashley’s head.
Don’t cry. Become louder than your sorrow.
Ashley released her lip. Then a wide smile slowly spread across her face. It grew wider until her eyes squinted shut.
"I’m okay!" she exclaimed cheerfully, sounding as though she were spending the day at an amusement park instead of standing in that room. "Ophelia doesn’t have to apologize! I’m okay! Hahaha!"
Ophelia’s face crumpled.
Unable to say another word, she pulled Ashley into her embrace.
She buried her own sobs against the little girl’s shoulder while Ashley’s laughter echoed louder than anything else in the room.
******
[Present Time]
Ashley drew a slow breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, there was nothing.
No anger.
No hatred.
Not even coldness.
Only emptiness.
"Drop the gun!" a panicked voice shouted.
Ashley stood in the office doorway. Fresh blood covered her from head to toe. Bodies lay scattered behind her, stretching throughout the hallway.
Only one man remained alive.
"I said drop your weapon!" Baldy yelled from beside the desk.
One arm was wrapped tightly around someone’s neck.
Ophelia.
He held her in front of him like a human shield. Yet Ophelia paid no attention to the pistol pressed against her temple.
Her eyes remained fixed on the woman standing in the doorway.
"Miss..." she whispered.
She almost didn’t recognize Ashley.
Earlier, Ashley had been wearing nothing more than a blouse with a few buttons undone and a simple skirt. The only trace of red on her had been her lipstick.
Now...
She was drenched in dark red from head to toe.
"I’m going to kill her if you don’t drop that—" Baldy’s threat stopped short when Ashley quietly mumbled something. "What did you say?!"
"I said..." Ashley slowly raised her rifle. "...you’re one pathetic little bitch for hiding behind a woman."
A smirk curled across her lips. "As if that would work."
BANG!
Without the slightest hesitation, Ashley fired directly at Ophelia.
Ophelia gasped as she looked down where the bullet had passed straight through her chest.
Baldy’s eyes widened as he stared at Ophelia before snapping his gaze back to Ashley.
"You psycho—" He shoved Ophelia aside and raised his pistol.
CLANG!
"AHH!"
A bullet tore across the fingers gripping his weapon, and the pistol flew from his hand.
Ashley stepped forward and fired again. This time, at his leg.
"AHH!!" Baldy collapsed to his knees. "You fucking—"
Before he could finish—
A boot slammed into his back. He crashed face-first onto the floor.
Groaning in pain, he couldn’t resist as Ashley grabbed his shoulder and flipped him onto his back.
"Ugh..."
His body hit the floor with a heavy thud.
Ashley stepped over him, planting a foot on either side of his torso. Then she slowly sat down on his stomach.
Baldy looked up, only to freeze in horror.
Staring back at him... was a pair of empty eyes and that same unsettling smile that was creeping onto her face.
"I am... okay, Ophelia," Ashley murmured as she raised the rifle over her head."I am okay."
CRACK!
The butt of the rifle came crashing down onto his forehead with a sickening crack.
"I’m okay," she whispered again, smiling.
CRACK!
"Haha..."
CRACK!
"HAHAHA!"
She struck his head again and again and again.
Ashley kept bringing the rifle down with relentless force. Blood splattered across her face and bone shattered beneath every blow.
Yet her smile only grew wider until Baldy’s skull caved in and fragments of brain matter spilled across the floor.