*PG-13 Rating. Please be forewarned that this fanfic has both violent and sexual themes which may not be suitable for young children. Parental Discretion is advised.*

Bound

Book One - Fate Bound

Chapter One - Akima's Past

"I swear to GOD one day girl...you're going to make me KILL you!!"

Her father scrambled up the stairs, buttoning his pants as he almost tripped on some of little Xiao's toys. This maddened him even more..now determined that once he was done beating Akima..Xiao would be next. Those girls were always doing something to tick him off, angering him more than humanly possible. He considered himself a reasonable man, only beating his girls when they were bad. The problem was..when you drank, children seemed like they were always bad. Therefore, every night, no matter how hard the two tried to stay away from him, he would beat them into unconsciousness. The sweet bliss that came from falling unconscious was welcomed by them, as they waited for the final blow that would end the pain for the night. But tonight, the horror had only begun. Akima had already been beaten earlier, before dinner, seeing as she had left the TV on while she went to the bathroom. Their father hated to waste energy, and those precious few moments of energy could have been saved if she had the sense to turn the TV off before she went. But those girls..they never did have any sense, did they? Stupid..useless..ugly girls. They were a waste of his time and they paid for it dearly. These thoughts drove him every night to drink, and to tumble down the stairs after fucking his wife forcefully, void of love, and slip his belt off prepared to strike at the first small face that showed itself. The better they hid from him, the angrier he got, and the more they would pay when they were found. And they were always found.

"Shh, Xiao..please stop crying. He's going to hear you..come on hun, be strong for Kia..can you do that?"

"I'm scared Kia..he gonna hurt you again..mebbe me too.."

Akima lay in the garage closet, after having covered her younger sister with several blankets, she lay on them, as if resting on a pile of rags, intent on taking the blame as well as the punishment for any ridiculous accusation he had this night. She would take the pain, as she did every night, protecting her sister from punishment as she did so many nights before. She was lost..too far gone for any pain to matter to her anymore. Sometimes, she felt like she deserved it. But the one thing she knew was.. that Xiao did not. So, like so many nights before, she hid her sister well, and awaited her inevitable discovery. When she was young, around Xiao's age, and her father beat her, she would cry. She would scream and yell, crying incessantly, wanting the pain to end. But when he had taken to raping her, late at night, after her mother had begun to sleep over at her friends house to escape her father, she no longer cried. She no longer screamed. She no longer spoke to anyone but Xiao, and her only friend Aoling. Her family and other schoolmates believed her to have become a mute, but only they knew otherwise. And when innocent Xiao tried to explain to others that her sister did talk, when they were alone, they blamed the child's large imagination and dismissed it. Akima had once been the smartest, most congenial child her teachers and classmates had ever known, full of potential. After that day..the first time her father had come home drunk enough to perform the atrocity of raping his own 10 year old child simply because she reminded him of her mother, with her long purple hair tied up in side ponytails..after that day.. she was just a shadow of the child they knew. All the potential, and the light that shone in her bright wide eyes...was gone. Forever.

He opened the garage door, steaming by this point, and narrowed his eyes as he looked around. This was the last place they could be, and he snapped his belt, with its worn edges and blood stains. He snapped it hard, knowing the sound would bring them to tears, and he would find them. He snapped so hard however, that the fabric finally gave in, and ripped right through the middle, sending his arms flying back. Akima, peering through a crack in the door, almost gasped in hope, knowing that with no belt, there may not be a beating tonight. She hoped and hoped that his laziness would cause him to just give up and go to sleep, but there was to be no miracle such as this tonight. He snarled as he realized the belt was now useless, and in his mind, it only angered him at them more. How DARE they be so thick skinned that his belt had broken from beating them! They would have to pay more than usual, tonight. He looked around quickly, and found a baseball bat, lying carelessly on the floor, dirty and splintered a bit. He picked it up, walking towards the closet while dragging the round end along the wall, leaving a trail of blisters and a dull scratching sound that echoed in Akima's ear. She paled at the realization of what that stick was for. Her dull eyes flared for a moment in anger, and she spat quietly, disgusted at her father. She was ten years old. It was time to stand up for herself. She leaned down, and whispered quietly to Xiao. "Whatever happens, I want you to stay here until morning. Don't move, don't speak, don't make a sound. I'll be back for you tomorrow morning."

Her sister whispered back, quietly but angrily, as she peeped her tiny tear stained eyes out from the covers. "Akima, please don't go! He's gonna hurt you..mebbe kill you!!"

She blinked, hearing Xiao call her by her full name for the first time since she could recall, and she smiled weakly. "Xiao..you listen to your big sister. Do what I say, and we'll both be fine. Do not, under ANY circumstances, leave here until I come get you. Try and get some sleep. I'll be back."

She covered Xiao back up before she had time to protest, and looked through the peep once more, seeing only a large black leg looming directly in front of her. He knew she was in there..she only hoped he didn't hear her talking to Xiao as well.

He waited a moment, his eyes gazing around the place, and settling on the closet. Those cold eyes narrowed as he flung the door open, finding Akima standing there alone, her tiny figure standing tall and strong, hiding her fear well. She stared back into his eyes, her own brimming with nothing but hate. For what seemed like more than a minute, they stood there in the silence, two statues of hate having the staring contest of a lifetime. Finally, he lifted the bat and poked her in the stomach, hard.

"Where the hell is your sister?"

Akima suppressed a smile, knowing that Xiao would be safe this night, and shrugged as her only answer. Her father narrowed his eyes to slits and leaned down, grabbing her by the hair. He pulled her out as she kicked at him, dragged her along the floor, closing the door. Xiao sprung from her blanketed haven, and looked on through the crack with fearful eyes as her sister was dragged away. He closed the garage door, and Xiao crumbled down into the blankets in a fit of silent tears. She clasped her fingers together tightly and shut her eyes.

(...Please, please don't let him kill Kia..I've been good all year..I...I will pray every night...Just don't let him kill Kia...)

Mika walked in the door and slammed her keys on the table, keeping her hand there to steady herself as she closed the door. She was high, as usual, toked up on a mix of her and her friends favorite drugs of the moment. She could hear a faint screaming from the garage, and groaned, holding her head with her other hand, knowing exactly what to expect. She considered opening the door and just walking back out, when her husband and eldest daughter walked in - well, he walked, she was dragged. He picked the child up and shoved her into her mothers face, a mixture of blood and tears running down her own.

"Look at what you made Mika! Look at what your fucked up genes and stupidity made! What the hell is wrong with you and these kids anyway? Always getting me so upset, always fucking up! My hands getting blisters from all the beatings you all make me do!"

"Shut the fuck up Li, you're drunk."

He roared and raised his hand to slap her. As it came down across her face, she screamed and her head came crashing down onto the table, knocking her temporarily unconscious. He looked down at her limp body, and all the fun out of that beating went out the window. He kicked her once, but beating someone who couldn't feel it never turned him on much. He looked to the girl lying still and quiet on the floor, and wondered if she, too, had been knocked out. He picked up the bat and snapped it across her head, waiting for a reaction, a scream, a whimper, something. But she gave him no such pleasure. The pain ripped through her body, but her eyes hid her feelings well, and she looked up at him emptily, her eyes swollen but open. This was all he needed. He picked her up, a sneer growing on his face, and brought her upstairs. Once he threw her on the bed, she knew he wasn't just going to beat her tonight. Her eyes finally betrayed her, and the fear that tore through them made him smile.

"You're going to pay for your mother, for your sister, AND for yourself! Be lucky if you live through this night, little one.."

Her small swollen eyes opened wide as he moved slowly towards the bed, unbuttoning his pants. He sneered at her fear, and failed to notice the pen that lay askew on the floor under his feet. He stepped on it, and it rolled underneath his looming figure, bringing him crashing down on his back. Akima knew that if she didn't take advantage of this one opportunity, she would be dead by morning. She looked around quickly, and opened the drawers beside the bed on her father's side. A glimmer caught her eye, and she reached down, pulling out a magnum. Her father would have killed them with this gun one day, she could feel it. She had no idea how to use the gun, and fiddled with it quickly as her father rose from the floor, holding his head in agony. He saw her holding it, and his nostrils flared.

"Who said you could touch that?? Give me that right now you little bitch! Now I'll have to beat you even harder!"

She raised the gun to him, intent on shooting him before he could get any further, and he cackled.

"You stupid idiot! You think you're going to shoot me? You don't even know how to use that thing! The safety is still on and everything! I can't believe how stupid you all are! You are not my family, you are just a bunch of whores that I have been cursed by the gods with!"

He stood there laughing, as she narrowed her eyes. She knew she had at one time been one of the smartest students in her class...so many had told her how smart she really was...he had to be wrong. He had to. She would show him how smart she really was. She would figure out how to use this gun, and kill him with it. She looked to the back, at the little switch that stuck out. She cocked it, and realized in an instant that the so called safety was now off. The click stopped his laughing, and he leaned over a bit, intent upon grabbing the gun before she could shoot. She pushed the trigger just in time, but her shot hit no where near her father. Instead, the shot ripped right through the body of a figure of a woman that stood at the doorway. Her mother had been there all that time, watching, waiting for her daughter to die. She didn't care one bit about those two little bitches, she had figured, they were just whores as far as she was concerned, and deserved the beating and rapes they had received. She had stood at the doorway, waiting for her daughter's death and her husbands satisfaction, so that she would take the gun herself and kill Li. She had planned to then find Xiao, and shoot her point blank right through the head. That way, she would be free. No more abusive husband or bitchy brats bugging her. She would be free to waste her life away with her friends, lost in the high. But her plans shattered the moment the bullet ripped through her cold, empty heart. She dropped to her knees, and cursed loudly  before falling to her face in death. Li looked at her wife, whom he had once loved with such passion, and a pain shot through his ice cold heart. His anger would never be quenched now, not until the child had suffered as much as possible. She had killed his wife, the most dishonor plausible. He turned to Akima, who was lying whimpering in grief at her mother's dead body lying in a pool of blood. He could hardly breathe, as the rage built inside him, and he rammed towards her, blinded by anger. He even failed to remember who had the gun, as he ripped at her clothes, intent to rape her one last, painful time before torturing her to death. He moved too fast for Akima to pull back, and slammed into her. She screamed at the top of her lungs, and pushed the barrel of the gun between her and her father, as her father began to brutally rape her. She pulled the trigger, staring once more into his cold and lustful eyes. His eyes dulled and his pupils dilated, as he screamed in pain and dropped all his weight on the child. Soon, he too was dead. She began to push him off when a tiny shadow appeared at the doorway, and she instinctively aimed the gun towards it. Xiao whimpered, her tear stained cheeks and dark eyes coming into view.

"Kia..."

Akima slid off the bed and let the gun drop to the floor, as she scampered over to her other sister and fell to her knees at her side. She wrapped her sister up in her arms and finally cried, sobbing as they crumpled in to each others arms.

"Xiao..I t-told you to stay in the clos-set...you have to listen to your b-big sister now Xiao..we're all we have. Y-you listen to me from now on Xiao, I'm going to take care of you. "

She sighed hard and long, and stopped crying, looking up into her sisters eyes, the dullness returning.

"Remember, sisters..always take care of each other..."