The Scars She Embodies

{Music Recommendation: Demons ~ Imagine Dragons}

"I'm going to kill you!"

Jenna thrashed against him, every bone in her body screaming, every nerve flaring with betrayal and agony. She struck his chest, his shoulders, his jaw, her nails tearing into him like talons. Rhane didn't flinch.

"Let me go! You traitor! You liar!" she sobbed, pounding her fists against his chest. "You gave me away! You left me with him like I was nothing!"

"I didn't," Rhane whispered, but his voice broke, a mirror of how much his heart ached to see Jenna the way she was. Hurt, broken, scared. "I swear to you, Jenna....I didn't."

"LIAR!" she shrieked, her voice raw from screaming. "You left me! You gave me back to him like I wasn't somebody's daughter! You said you'd protect me, and you left me! You left me with him! All men do is lie!"

She tried to shove him away, but her strength had bled out somewhere between the whip marks and the broken floorboards. Still, Rhane didn't move. He held her tighter, like he could keep her from crumbling into dust.

"I didn't know," Rhane said, his lips brushing the crown of her head. "If I had known... Jenna, I would have burned the entire world down to get to you. I..." Rhane trailed, he had no excuse. He blamed himself even more than Jenna did.

Jenna kept hitting him, but Rhane noticed something else in her action. Despite her plea to be let go, she still held him very close. Afraid of letting go herself.

"Leave me alone!! I hate thus world." Jenna trembled against Rhane's chest, her eyes bloodshot with tears. Anger and spite filled her throat, and her aching heart. Yet she clinged u to Rhane, as if a part of her was scared of letting go.

"Burn it now, then!" Jenna snapped, her teeth clenched, hot tears spilling down her face. "Go die with it! Go die with that monster brother of yours! if you mean it, if you meant every word you said, Rhane!"

Rhane didn't move even when he started bleeding from the side of his head, a result of Jenna's hitting. He held her close, gently but steadfast. "Then I will," he said softly, his voice a storm buried in silk. "If it will take your pain away... I will."

Rhane's hands trembled against her small delicate back, her spine buried in fresh wounds. He could feel every bruise under her skin and knew that no apology in any tongue would ever be enough. Jenna collapsed into his chest, still breathing hard, her fists now limp against his chest.

"I hate you," Jenna whispered, but it didn't sound like hate. It sounded like plea not to be let go. It sounded like fear disguised as anger.

"I know," Rhane replied, resting his chin against her tangled hair. "Hate me. Hit me. Scream. But I'm not letting you go."

"You should've come sooner," she breathed shakily, "

"I know," Rhane whispered again.

Jenna raised her face slowly, strands of her hair covering her entire face. She wiped her eyes and glared. A lot of unprocessed emotions filled her dilated eyes, her raging heart.

"What do you know?" Jenna asked, shaking her head. "You don't know anything, I promise you." She stared down at the long jacket Rhane used to cover her. Jenna scoffed deliriously.

She staggered up from the ground, and tugged the jacket away.

Rhane turned his head to the side, it was an order and his men understood. They quickly left the room.

"Look at me!" Jenna cried, standing naked.

Rhane refused, his eyes anywhere in the room except Jenna's face. "You shouldn't do this to me...knowing how-"

"No!" Jenna screamed, "Look at the body of the woman you think you love! I am covered with shame...scars and humiliation."

Jenna staggered to the pile of dead bodies in the room.

"They saw me! Everything! Just like the day I was born." Jenna dropped the man she had dragged, her eyes darting around the room like she had lost her mind.

"I was going to give up at some point, let these men in the room take me! Have me for Gerald's pleasure," Jenna's breathe hitched, she couldn't swallow the words she said herself.

Imagining different men taking her in the most humiliating manner. It wasn't something she wanted to say but she had to. If she needed for Rhane to wake up from his delusions.

"You know what hurts the most?" Jenna's voice cracked, quieter now, like her fury had dried out. "It's not just that he touched me...it's that somewhere deep down, I stopped feeling anything when he did. I became nothing. Empty. Like I was born just to be taken." She stared past Rhane, her lips trembling.

"You need to look at the shame I embody! I am not innocent, I am beyond that...used...used by even the dirti- " A bile rose in Jenna's throat when she saw the lean man now dead that was almost going to take her.

Rhane finally raised his eyes, with everything inside of him, he looked at Jenna.

"Yes! That's the face, the disgust...I am not a pure woman and will never be." Jenna wiped her eyes, "Now will you let me go? End this madness of wanting me...wanting to protect me!"

Jenna hit her chest as she spoke, "No man ever wants to protect what they didn't have first. I have been used beyond your imagination...every wild thing you can think of...I...." she paused, taking in a long breathe.

"I have done for Gerald...I have-" Jenna could no longer control her tears, her body quaked. She grabbed a whip from the ground,

"This is the only command I listen to, I am broken! A broken woman is what I am!" To make her point, she lashed herself.

Rhane closed his eyes and winced, he too was scared. He didn't know what to do, if only he had calmly let Jenna go. She wouldn't have relived her past pains, the memories she gave up. Her brought it back to her.

"If you take me back, who knows what you will do to me....this is who...no...what I am to men...I bring out the beast in them." She raised her hand to whip herself again.

This time Rhane was faster, he stopped her hand mid-air.

Outside the shattered frame of the door, the masked assassins with Kali and Percy stood frozen, still as statues. Not one moved. Not one spoke. Their silence wasn't discipline, it was reverence. Everyone could hear the pain in Jenna's voice and it broke them.

"Let me go," Jenna cried softly, her hand melting into Rhane's hold like she had been waiting for someone to stop her. Like hurting herself was all a facade. Which it was.

Rhane slowly took the whip from her and dropped it. Then he pulled Jenna to his chest. Rhane's voice cracked as he gripped her trembling hand, his hazel eyes soft, begging.

"Jenna… stop...please." He cupped her face gently, like anymore pressure would break her.

"You think you're broken? Fine. Then break me too. Cut me open, shatter me, I don't care. Just don't you dare say that's all you are."

Jenna sobbed softly, pressing her head against his chest. His chest heaved, words tumbling out faster than his tears.

"You're not the thing that brings out the worst in men. We were already monsters long before you. But you—" he swallowed hard, "you're the only damn reason I ever wanted to be better."

Jenna tried to push him, but Rhane pulled her into him like she was slipping away, like if he didn't hold tight, she'd disappear.

"Hurt me, hate me, scream at me, but don't you stand there and lash yourself like you're nothing. I won't let you. I can't let you."

They stayed like that, Jenna's rage softening into tremors, his guilt bleeding through every inch of his grip. Rhane didn't care if his blood soaked through his tunic, if her nails kept carving him open, if the assassins stared in silence behind their masks from outside.

He would hold her until she could breathe again. Until she could believe again. Even if she never forgave him. Even if she never said his name again with anything but venom. He would still hold her.

When Jenna's tears quietened, Rhane stroked her hair gently. With a soft whisper he said,

"And if all you see in yourself is something broken… then let me be the one who learns how to love you in pieces. Not to change you. Not to save you. Just to stay… until the storm passes."

Blood trickled down Rhane's temple, warm and steady, soaking the edge of his collar. He didn't wipe it. Didn't flinch. If pain was the price for holding her, he'd bleed until he drowned.

Jenna inhaled deeply, the pains of everything done to her was beginning to kick in. "I was...I was so scared." She murmured before passing out on Rhane's chest.