Bam! "Did anyone allow you to take a break, Alex?!" the man sharply exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, Father. I'll get back to work right away!" The man was his father, a very abusive figure in Alex's life.
Ever since Alex was born, his life had been miserable. He was always poorly fed and neglected, but at 2 years old, things took a dark turn. His father started hitting Alex every day to vent out his frustrations and dissatisfactions in life. Because of that, Alex matured early.
At 5 years old, Alex's newborn brother, James, was born. This only made things worse for Alex.
Now there were two mouths to feed, and the food Alex ate was less than before. His parents weren't willing to spend more money just because another accident had been born. This meant the food Alex was given gradually decreased as James grew bigger.
When James reached two years old, his parents started to beat him too. But that was quickly stopped by Alex. He did not want his only real family and connection in this world to suffer like he did, so he offered to take James's beatings, always protecting him like a proper big brother should.
Then fate decided to throw yet another devastating blow at Alex. Upon entering middle school, because of his poor background and malnourished, skinny physique, the local school bullies found a new target to pick on. Because of that, his school life had been miserable, but nonetheless, he endured! His craving to escape his accursed life and, more than anything, give his brother a decent life was a driving force for Alex. So he studied and studied, using all his free time, always scoring at the top of his school.
Then it was Alex's time to go to high school. Just when Alex thought that his bullying life would be over and a weight would be taken off his shoulders, he realized that was merely a child's dream. The bullying never stopped—new ones just came and stepped in. Since Alex was now in high school, the bullying increased by several levels to the point that Alex thought about committing suicide, but his strong will to protect his brother erased that thought.
What the bullies did to Alex was horrifying! They often plunged Alex's head into the toilet, made him swallow dirt, stripped his clothes in front of his class, and worst of all, beat him half to death. Just as this wasn't enough for Alex, the abuse by his parents and his never-ending starvation never stopped.
Just as James was about to enter middle school, Alex realized that he needed to work part-time to support his brother's middle school life so he wouldn't get bullied like he had. So Alex started working as a cashier in a local convenience store. Thanks to that, James's life dramatically improved.
Although James often wanted to do nothing but help his brother. Given Alex's pitiful state, Alex had a good poker face and could hide his emotions from his brother, making it seem everything was okay and there was no need to worry.
Then, nearing the end of his high school days, fate was not satisfied and decided to take another powerful swing at Alex. Alex's grades were perfect, scoring 100/100 in every subject. His bullies didn't like this, so they had a mischievous scheme in place. They beat one of their punching bags half to death, framed it on Alex, and reported it. That resulted in his expulsion from school and a criminal record, which meant he couldn't apply to any college, much less to any corporate job.
From that point on, his only hope was to continue working at his local convenience store to support his brother, hoping that James would eventually land a job with normal pay so they could live a normal life.
Alex's dreams and hopes became a reality. James graduated with good grades and managed to land a quite well-paying job. James worked earnestly over the past 7 years, managing to earn enough money for him and his brother to start a new life abroad, away from their parents and past.
Of course, they could have escaped earlier when they had some money or bought a house separate from their parents. But they wanted to accumulate more money before going abroad to avoid struggling there, as it was a foreign country. They also feared their parents might try to take their wealth by any means necessary, which made them stay away from those two options.
But unfortunately for Alex, life had never fancied him. When Alex was 30 years old and James was 25, the unspeakable happened—something that would horrify a normal human being to their core. Alex and James's parents caught wind of their plan to escape and, of course, of James's money that he had accumulated over the past years.
What their parents did was cunning yet cruel. They laced their food with poison after imprisoning both of them in the basement. What followed was truly humanity at its lowest.
Transition to first person (directly continuing the story):
What is this dark place? Why am I shackled, and where am I? I remember having lunch with my family, now everything is a blur.
Oh, I see you're finally awake. His father chuckled.
"Why don't I wake up the second accident?" the father exclaimed.
Swish! Ugh! James screamed as a whip hit his shoulder, waking him up.
"Father, please stop! Please hit me instead, I'm begging you!" Alex screamed.
"No, your brother has committed a grave crime."
"What? What is it?"
"Oh, that's simple. He was hiding his wealth from me. Being too greedy is never good for your health, as they say." A big creepy smile lighted the father's face.
Swish! "You worthless accident!" Ughh!!
"Please, Father, I'm begging you, hit me instead!" Alex cried.
Swish! "You traitor!"
"Father, please stop. I'll give you everything I have," James pleaded.
Swish! "Shut your stupid mouth, you worthless scum!"
The repeated slashing only ended after five minutes when his father got tired and went to take a short break.
Alex began silently crying, trying to hold his pain for the sake of his brother and to keep him from wasting any more tears.
"James, are you alright?!"
"Don't worry, Alex. I'm fine," James murmured.
James was already 25 years old; he was not the little kid he had been, so at least he could be strong and take the beating.
"Don't worry, James. I'll find a way out of this," Alex insisted.
But James was no child anymore. Alex's comforting lies didn't work anymore.
After five minutes of Alex comforting James and thinking of plans to escape, their father came back. This time he was prepared like a medieval torturer. This event horrified both of them.
What Father brought were pliers, nails, a hammer, and finally, some wood and a splint.
The father took the pliers and was getting closer to James.
"Father! Stop! Please! Everything you want to do to James, do it to me instead, I'm begging you, Father."
"Shut up, you filthy rat!" his father shouted.
Then a gruesome scene transpired before the two siblings. The father slowly plucked all of James's fingernails, then proceeded to pluck his toenails and pulled out four teeth. He left most of them so he could hear James suffer; it was a beautiful melody ringing in his ears.
The torture continued.
"No! Father, get away, please!" Ughh! The father hammered nails into James's foot.
Having always relied on his brother, James could only cry and scream for help.
"Alex, please make this pain stop. Please, please, please help me!" Ughh!!
"Brother, I can't handle this pain, it hurts so much. Please help me!" Ughh!!
"Father, stop, please. I'll give you everything, just please. I'll never betray you again! I'll do anything you want, just please. Ughh!" James desperately pleaded.
And just like that, James looked like a bloodied corpse, yet he was still alive.
His brother, broken, knew there was nothing he could do to save him and gave up trying to reason with his father.
And then Alex heard a loud thump!
It was the sound of wood hitting the ground, particularly hitting the ground near the shackled, lifeless James.