Enforced (Book 1)

Chapter 42

"I'm bored." I thought aloud.

"Me too." Benjamin replied.

"We could play a game."

"What kind of game?" Benjamin asked.

"What about a question game?"

"A question game?"

"Yeah," I replied, "You know like truth or dare but without the dare." I paused for a second, "The real reason I want to play is less because I'm bored and more because I would like to know more about your past." I said cautiously.

Benjamin turned his head to look at our group and whispered, "No Bethy, I don't think you want to know."

"I'll answer your questions about my past if you will answer mine."

"Do we have to?" He asked.

"I can't make you, but this is a long journey and I want to get to know more about your past so I can get to know more about what made you who you are, and I know you feel the same about me."

"I don't know Bethany, I just don't want you to think of me differently. I don't want you to look at me like I am completely helpless." He said, his voice still just above a whisper.

"I know that you aren't helpless, Benjamin. You are the strongest person I have ever met. But if you feel uncomfortable..."

"Fine, I'll play." He said, interrupting me, "But only if you let me ask the first question." He smiled.

"Deal." I said. I didn't want to talk about my past either, but I knew it would be healthy for us to talk things through.

"What was the first thing that you thought when you found out your mom was leaving you?"

I took a deep breath, remembering that awful moment. "Well, I didn't really think anything. It was more of a reaction. I tried running after her, even with my ankle messed up. All I could think was that I had to catch her before she left for good. I couldn't let her leave me alone with my father.

The doctors had to put me on that paralysis medication, the same thing that they put you on, to keep me in my bed. I was heartbroken though. I still wonder if I will ever see her again." I took a breath when I was finished. My turn.

"When was the first time that you found out why your family hated you so much?" It was a tough question, but I'd been wanting to know the reason behind his family's treatment of him. Nothing they did to him could be justified, but I wanted to know what they told him.

Benjamin blew air through his lips. "I was six years old. My mom had just finished punishing me and I was crying. Not only because my body ached from the impacts of her fists but also because I was confused. I remember asking her, 'Mom, why do you hurt me? Why do you hurt me and not Acer? What did I do wrong, mommy?' And then she told me.

"She told me she was raped. She told me that as result, she was cursed with me. She said that I reminded her of that awful night every time she laid eyes on me and that's why she hated me.

I remember asking her what 'grape' was and she slapped me hard across the face and asked why I was so stupid. I apologized to her, but she just shoved me against the wall and stabbed her finger in my chest, 'You're a curse Benjamin, and that's all you will ever be. I hate you. I hate having to see you every day, I wish you were never born. We all wish that!'

And from then on I wished I was never born and I hated myself too, and I believed I was a curse as well. That is, until I met you. You made me believe I wasn't a curse. After I met you, I loved my life, I no longer wished I wasn't born and I no longer hated myself."