Second Chances

"I think she's awake.", I heard a womans soft voice say.

My eyes fluttered, the bright lights of the room I was in were blinding. At first everything was blurry, but soon things slowly came into focus. I realized that I was lying in a bed, although I wasn't quite yet sure of the location. Looking around, I noticed that I wasn't alone. A women stood before me, the same woman whos voice I'd just heard. She was pretty, late 40's, with brown hair and big brown eyes. Next to her stood a nurse, who just as soon as I looked at her, turned to leave the room.

"Hi sweetie. My name's Olivia, what's yours?", the woman, "Olivia", asked.

"Um,", I said once again studying the room,"it's, it's Aubrey.", I stuttered.

"That's a beautiful name for such a beautiful girl.", she said smiling, but then her face changed. More serious, concerned,"Now I'm here because some bad things were done to you."

As soon as the words left her mouth I remembered, a man. A man had been on top of me. I felt my eyes get watery, and I tried not to cry but it was too late, the first tear had already escaped.

"Oh honey, you're safe here with me. I'm never going to let anyone hurt you again, ever.", she came and sat close to me, tenderly stretching her arm across my back and rubbed it comfortingly.

This made me feel a little better. It had been a long time since I'd felt as safe as I did here with a woman I hardly knew.

I turned a gave her a full hug. I held onto her tight, as if that she would disapear if I let go, once again leaving me alone.

She didn't appear schocked by the sudden hug, she simply smiled and kissed the top of my head.

"What's gonna happen to me?", I ask, knowing that I have nowhere to go. No one to live with, or no one who would want me anyway. I also knew I couldn't be alone, after all I'm only 14.

She pulled away to hold me at arms length so she can look straight into my eyes.

"Honestly, I'm not sure yet. But I promise you that I'm am going to do everything in my power to keep you as comfortable as possible."

I felt myself becoming drowsy again as I struggled to listen to what she was telling me until I couldn't anymore, but I think she understood.

I guess I fell asleep again, because the next time I opened my eyes my surroundings had changed. Instead of a hospital, I was now laying on a hard surface. I scaned the room and I saw that the door was slightly ajar, with light pouring into the otherwise dark room. My body ached upon sitting up. I saw a shadow cross the doorway, I was in someones house. I stood and slowly walked to the door and peered through the space. A living room lay before me. Whoever had passed by I guess continued down the hallway because I didn't see them now. I opened the door the rest of the way and heard footsteps coming by down towards where I was standing. Then I saw her, it was Olivia. The woman I'd met in the hospital.

"Oh, you're awake!", she sounded happy, content with everything.

"What am I doing here I asked?", my voice sounded like I'd been asleep forever.

She took a few more steps towards me and put her hands on my shoulders.

"Well, they were gonna send you to stay at an orphange the prison sponsered. And I wasn't about to let that happen. So I asked if you could stay here with me. I told them how comfortable you were around me. I hope this is okay...", her sweet voice trailed off.

"Of course. This is the first time I've ever lived with someone who really cares about me. Thank you Olivia.", I went to guve her a hug.

I knew then that Olivia truly did want to help me. Right now she's the only person I trust.

The next couple of days I spent trying to adjust, although it wasn't too difficult. I wasn't lying when I told Olivia that this was honestly the first time in a long time that I've lived with someone who had really cared about me, let alone fought for me. She kept asking me how I was doing and I felt like she wanted to talk to me about something, but it seemed like she wasn't sure if I could handle it.

"Aubrey?", I heard Olivia ask as I saw her appear from the hall.

I was sitting on the couch in the middle of her living room.

She came over and sat down next to me

"Can I ask you some questions? I just really want to find out what happened to you, because I know it's not right, and I want to find this man and hunt hime down.", she laughed at the end but I could tell she was serious.

I tried to think back to the evening of the attack, some parts were still a little hazy but I began to tell her exactly what happened anyway.

"The orphanage I lived in, there were a lot of kids. All ages. Both genders, and they really didn't do too much to keep the boys seperated from the girls.", I paused, looking up at the ceiling. I wanted to tell her everything, but some parts were hard to put into words. I swallowed hard, gulping back the lump that had formed in my throat.

She took my hand in hers and told me reasuringly, "honey it's okay, you are doing great. Just take your time."

I continued.

"The night it happened, I'd been chosen to take down the garbage from my room, the room I shared with about 4 or 5 other girls. They never helped with anything, so I was often the one to take it down, but that night, something was different.", I said, taking a deep breath.

"What are those other girls names?", she asked, taking out a small pad and a pin.

"Scarlett, Naomi, Jill, and Rebecca.", she wrote them down as I talked.

So I went on.

"When I went down to drop off the trash, it was pretty dark. We're supposed to leave it near the back door. Before I could reach the door, a boy grabbed me and pulled me into the laundry room. He put his hand over my mouth so I couldn't scream. I was so scared Olivia!", I cried.

Now I was actually sobbing, my words wern't even making sense anymore.

Olivia pulled me into her arms and held me while I cried.

She kept whispering, "It's okay, you're safe. I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you ever again."