Hey guys, sooo sorry for the super long wait! School got super crazy, and I have literally not had a free moment in forever.
So, this isn't the way I originally wanted this chapter to go. It's pretty...dark, and I didn't want to do this, but it just wrote itself. You'll understand when you read it, but...let me give you fair warning.
WARNING: extreme angst/horror in this chapter. It's very sad. :'(
He didn't know what to say. He hadn't actually expected that she would agree, and now actually felt guilty.
"You don't have to right now. I just…"
She shook her head. "A major secret for a major secret, right?" She tried to joke, but her voice sounded hoarse, and he could tell she didn't really want to tell.
"Really, Lucy, you don't have to if you don't want to."
She just shook her head again and took a deep breath. He waited anxiously for her to start.
"I used to be rich. Well, I came from a very well-off family. I never really wanted for anything, material-wise. I was content throughout my life with what I had. I guess I was what you would call one of those all-American girls. I did well in school, I was a fairly good athlete, I had lots of friends." Her voice turned slightly sardonic at those last words. "I wanted to go to California, to study art. My parents thought that was stupid. It wasn't as well-paying. I mean, an artist?" She laughed once. "They wanted me to become something like a doctor or a lawyer. You know, follow the family business. Of course, that just made me want to study art all the more."
He nodded at that statement.
"But that wasn't the real reason I'm here today." She paused for a moment, took another deep breath. "I have a brother. My parents love him. To them, he's the epitome of what we are. He's studying to become a surgeon, is about to marry his perfect girlfriend, everything is working out for him." She rolled her eyes. "My brother, when we were both in high school, was even more popular than me, and believe me, I'm not trying to brag. He had tons of friends over all the time, and when my parents were around, his friends were model citizens. But they were smart. They knew that by hiding behind that mask of responsibility and their pedigree, they could get away with nearly anything. When the adults weren't home, my brother and his friends were horrible. They swore, they drank, they did drugs, you name it, they did it." She shook her head. "My brother's best friend was this kid," she shuddered, "he was worse than my brother. They used to get together all the time, sleep over all the time, getting drunk or high or whatever. One night…" she trailed off, shaking from whatever memories she had in her head.
He put his hand on hers reassuringly. She flinched, caught up in her memories, looking up at him frightened through a haze of the past. She blinked, fighting to return to the present.
"Lucy, you don't have to finish…"
She shook her head. "No, I—I do. Just, give me a moment." She blinked again, drawing a shaky breath.
He watched her nervously. What was happening in her head?
"One night, my parents had gone away…I could tell they'd been doing something new; they were acting even stranger than usual. I had shut myself in my room, reading a book." She closed her eyes. "It was The Scarlet Letter. Kind of ironic, really…" Her voice was weakly sarcastic. "I remember it so well," she whispered. "I had headphones on, I couldn't hear the door opening…I couldn't hear him come in until he was standing in front of me…" Her fingers were shaking now, as was her voice. "He was breathing hard and grinning…He looked like an evil jack-o'-lantern. He said, 'Ah, little Lucy, home alone on a Saturday night? Do you need some comforting?'…I didn't really know what he meant. I thought he was joking, just trying to scare me…so I rolled my eyes and didn't answer…That made him mad…" she trailed off. "He pulled my book away and held it up, fanning through the pages. 'This is what you do on the weekends? Read old books? Some slut you are.'" She avoided Hermes' gaze as he gasped. "I said, 'Give me back my book. Go play with Jack again.' Jack was my brother. He laughed, and it was…scary. Almost possessed. 'Play with Jack? You think I'm gay? I'd rather play with you, sweets.' The look he gave me…ugh, it was like…" she shuddered. "Like he was undressing me with his eyes. He came and sat on my bed. I pulled away…he just came closer. I could smell the drugs on his breath, sickly sweet. He threw my book on the floor and ripped out my headphones—" She broke off, clutching the table until her knuckles turned white. "There was so much pain…" her voice was nothing more than a whisper, "I remember shutting my eyes, praying he would stop. The first time I prayed for anything." Her laugh came out more like a choke. "No one heard the screams; I didn't even know if I was screaming…when it was over…he just left. Just like that. I remember looking at my book, lying there on the floor discarded, just like me…" She trailed off one last time, tears falling down her cheeks. She couldn't look at him, but he couldn't stop looking at her.
It was horrific, happening to anyone, but to Lucy? It killed him to think she'd been through such atrocities. He flew around the table fast as lightning and picked her up, cradling her to his chest as if she was a glass-blown doll. She was stiff at first, still locked in the horrors of her past, but eventually loosened, her head falling on his chest, her tears leaking onto his shirt.
The minutes passed in a blur, he held her gently, silently until she'd cried herself out.
She turned her head, burying her face more deeply in his chest. "They didn't believe me." Her voice was muffled.
"What?" He didn't understand.
"My parents. When they asked why I wouldn't get up, I told them. But they didn't believe me."
"Why not?" He was aghast.
"My brother. He denied it, of course. The consequences of that night would have been terrible. So he backed up his friend. It was their words against mine. And guess who my parents believed?" She laughed without humor.
"But, there are tests for that! Couldn't they have figured it out?"
She moved her head back and forth against his shirt. "My perfect family didn't want the scandal. They took the easier way out. I was pretty much a pariah until I graduated high school, when my parents disowned me." She sighed tiredly. "They said I was a lying, manipulative person who tried to hurt my brother's reputation because I could never be as successful as him. So they wouldn't pay for my college at all. I came here and met Marley, and she helped me get a job and start school."
He gaped at her. "But, how could they do that? That's terrible!"
She smiled wanly at him. "I was never really part of that family anyway. I never really fit in. So it was sort of a relief to them to have an excuse to disown me."
He frowned. "How can you be so…casual about all this?"
She shrugged. "Because, honestly, my life is better now than it would have been if I'd stayed part of that family."
"Why?"
"I'm free," she answered matter-of-factly. "I don't have to listen to them anymore; I can do what I want without some disapproving parents breathing over my shoulder all the time. I have friends I actually like to be with. I have you." She finished, and he could see she had a point.
And he couldn't but feel pleased that she'd included him on her list.
"Lucy…" He was at a loss for words. He'd lived for centuries, but had never experienced anything like that.
She laid her head on his chest again, closing her eyes. He frowned, suddenly thinking of something.
"So why were you crying then? The first day we met?"
Her brows puckered without opening her eyes. "I'd been to the doctor that day. My stomach had been hurting and…I felt wrong. So I went to talk to her."
"What did she say?"
Lucy paused a moment before responding. "Just a stomach ache. Nothing too serious."
He bent his head down and kissed her forehead; she looked up in shock. "Lucy, I'm so sorry you had to go through that…but I'm here now. I'm here to protect you. I won't let that happen again. Ever." He stared earnestly at her eyes, trying to make her see that she was safe now. She met his gaze hesitantly.
"Yes…" She didn't sound convinced, but he could tell she was trying to persuade herself.
He kissed her forehead again, gently. "You're safe now, Lucy."
See guys? Like I said before, this isn't how I planned this chapter at all, but when I wrote it, it just seemed right. I mean, it was a horrible thing to do to Lucy, but it's her background, you know, how she got to be the way she is. I'm definitely going to elaborate more on certain points later, but I think these two deserve something nice first, don't you?
And yes, I know this is a short chapter, but I really couldn't write anymore about that right now. It's...really hard.
Oh, by the way, how many of you think Hermes is going to try and hunt down her brother and her brother's friend?
