The Revelations of an Innocent Mind
CHAPTER 10: TWO DARK MEN
As Jacob forced his lips to mine, my eyes grew wide in shock and I momentarily froze. It took me a few moments to get my bearings, and when I finally did, he used his weight to slam me into the wall on the side.
Shouting in fright, I pushed him with all the strength I had, making him stumble backwards.
While he was down, I shakily searched for my keys in my bag, feeling an adrenaline rush course through me. It took me a few tries before I finally was able to get the key in the lock, allowing Jacob time to stand. I hastily got inside, but not in time to get the door shut.
"Bella, I'm sorry! Let me in!" He shouted on the other side as he pushed harder.
"Jacob, leave please, you're scaring me!"
My fright made me tear up, and my heart drummed in fear.
"BELLA!" Jacob got louder, sounding more mad then he was before. "LET ME IN!"
We had struggled for a few seconds before Jacob was able to wedge his foot between the door and its hinge. I caught a glimpse of his furious face, which made me inadvertently loosen my hold.
More scared than ever, I searched my apartment for any defense weapon that I could possibly throw at him. My hands were just a few inches from my lamp before Jacob got a hold of my foot making me stumble forward. I cried out in a mixture of pain and desperation. He hugged me from behind and made me turn so that I was lying on my back facing him while he was on top of me.
More tears fell from my eyes.
"Jacob, please, let me go! You're hurting me!" I shouted – my voice shaky from crying.
I tried hitting him with my hands and kicking, but he had a tight hold of my wrists.
"Why can't you love me like him? Why can't you accept me?"
He placed his mouth on my neck, kissing me there, as his hands roamed my body. I didn't even have the chance to feel repulsed by his putrid breath that reeked with alcohol. All I could do was to struggle to get away from him as more tears clouded my vision.
"HELP ME! PLEASE! GOD, HELP ME!" I cried, feeling helpless.
Then, all of a sudden, I was free.
I didn't see exactly what had happened – my eyes had been closed when Jacob's wet mouth started kissing my collarbone – but when I tried to sit up, I saw Jacob being punched by another man.
In the dim light, my eyes adjusted to see who had rescued me.
It was him.
Edward.
It was like watching a lion try to kill its prey.
Jacob stood no chance as he received punch after punch. I could hear angry groans from Edward, as well as the snapping sound whenever his fist met Jacob's face. It took me a few moments to move from my place, but when I approached them, what my eyes saw in Edward's face made me frightened more than ever.
It was in his eyes – a fury I have never seen before. It was as if he was consumed by it, and his every move was driven by his desire to crush Jacob.
His desire to kill Jacob.
And I knew I needed to stop him.
"Edward, stop! He's not moving anymore! Stop! You're killing him!"
It was as though he was deaf as he continued to hit Jacob's already bloody face.
"Edward, please stop! I'm safe!"
He didn't even flinch, or halt his actions.
As a last resort, I cried out "EDWARD! PLEASE! I'M SCARED!"
Hearing me say that, Edward suddenly froze. However, his eyes didn't change their murderous look and I could clearly see how consumed he was with rage.
He was resolute – vindictive – in what his course would be.
However, that sudden halt was enough for me to try to make him stop.
"Edward, please, I'm all right. Please, stop. Don't kill him. Please." More tears fell from my eyes.
Edward turned his head to look at me as Jacob groaned.
"We have to leave," Edward said between gritted teeth. I immediately nodded, wiping the tears from my face.
However, he still didn't move from his place. Thinking of anything to make him move, I took a leap of faith to see how he would response if made myself appear to be afraid once again.
"Edward, I'm scared. Take me away from here, from the sight of him, please."
I didn't know why it worked, but hearing me say those words slightly diminished the look of murder in his eyes. Slowly, he stepped from Jacob's unmoving body and grasped my hand to help me stand.
Without another word, he led me outside.
As if running for our lives, Edward briskly tugged me to his waiting car – a sleek looking, expensive one. He didn't even say a word, just strapped me into the passenger seat, and then walked quickly around the car to the driver's seat.
In just a few seconds, we were already hitting the road.
With both of us in the car, the feeling was strangely déja vu with Rosalie, except Edward's driving was much faster.
In the dim light of the night, I could see his muscles straining as he clutched the steering wheel so hard I feel like it would snap between his hands. His face was still etched in fury.
He looked as though he would kill someone.
But oddly enough, I've never felt safer in my life than I did with him at this moment. The irony is not lost on me though.
"Are you okay?" I asked in a soft voice.
Of course, it was a stupid question that he didn't even try to answer.
"Thank you for saving me," I tried again to elicit a response from him.
He briefly looked at me, and I saw that I somehow was able to get through to him.
Gazing ahead, he said in a rough, yet hardly controlled voice, "I should have killed him."
"No, you shouldn't have."
He hit the steering wheel with his right fist and I surmised it was his way to release some of his rage.
"He fucking tried to rape you, Bella! I should have fucking killed the motherfucking bastard!"
"You did enough, Edward, you saved me. That's what matters." My voice was barely a whisper as I tried to calm him down.
"I could turn back now and still find the fucking asshole and kill him."
"If you do that, you'd leave me alone and scared. And I don't want to be alone," I said, hoping again that those words would work on him. And once more, for some mystifying reason, it did. He calmed down marginally.
"You need to distract me, please, so I won't turn around and put a bullet in his head."
Hearing the seriousness in his voice, I scrambled within my head to find something trivial to say to him, and all I could come up with was "Rosalie is gorgeous."
He was quiet so I started blubbering.
"When she kidnapped me, I thought the girl was crazy. Moreover, she was beautiful and just looking at her makes you feel like you're looking at an angel. And she ranted and used profanities towards you, and then suddenly laughed and got serious and… she kissed me, by the way, which was the first kiss I've ever had… "
"She kissed you?" He asked in an obvious change of tone – he seemed calmer this time.
"Yes."
"And it was your first?"
"Yes."
I saw his jaw set, as though he would have laughed at what I had said if he wasn't too mad.
"And Jessica, my co-worker, is secretly dating Mike Newton, my boss. And it was odd for me because I know that they are dating so why do they even try to keep it secret when it was obvious? Well, I guess it's not obvious to everybody but it was obvious to me.
And Alice is like a doll. The kind of doll you want to be best friends with; the kind I had as a child. But I had a limited time talking to her so it was a shame. She looked like the kind of person you want to be best friends with…"
For a solid thirty minutes, that's all I did.
I talked.
And Edward just listened, and little by little, his rage diminished.
We came to a stop at a private residence that looked more like a mansion than a house. I think we were still in Manhattan, but I couldn't be sure. I had never been to this area before. It was a quiet place for New York, and all the houses looked as though they belonged to important, wealthy people.
"Where are we?"
"My place," he answered, removing his seatbelt. He then got out of the car to open my door.
He pressed some buttons to open the gate, and when it did, he went back to his car to drive into the garage as I waited at the front door.
As he closed his gate, I marveled at the grandeur of his house.
It was big, and symmetrical, and made mostly of glass, with white as the predominant color.
It looked elegant.
It looked lonely.
Edward opened the front door with yet another code, and then gestured for me to come inside.
Once we were in, he clicked on the lights, and I was greeted with more elegance, sophistication, grandiose, and solitude.
His house reflected him: beautiful and melancholic.
"You can use one of the rooms upstairs."
I nodded, and followed him to the second floor.
Again, the color of white was dominant, and his furniture consisted of mostly black leather. He led me to the right-most wing of the floor, and opened the door.
"You can stay here."
I nodded again as I scanned the room.
It was designed in pastel colors, and it was very spacious. I could probably fit my entire apartment in just this one room.
I sat on the cream-colored bedspread, as Edward closed the door and came to sit at the nearby couch.
I could feel that his eyes were on me.
"You're very quiet. You haven't said much since we arrived."
I looked at him and I could see the curiosity in his voice was reflected ten times in his eyes.
"You have a very beautiful home…" I started, however I couldn't lie to him – not to him. "It just looks so lonely and abandoned. It really doesn't look like a home."
He nodded, slightly smiling the crooked smile. A look of sadness replaced his curiosity.
"I guess I'm not surprised that's your first observation. You're incredibly observant and can pierce through the truth so easily. Most people would just remark that the house is ostentatious, but you could aptly describe it in just a few words, in just a few minutes."
Edward sighed as he leaned his arms on his thighs.
"Why did you bring me here?"
The shadow of his former rage came back to his face.
"You know why."
"No. I mean, I'm curious why, of all the places, you brought me here. You could have just taken me to a hotel, or somewhere else. Why here? I just feel as though you don't usually bring strangers here."
He chuckled darkly.
"It is the safest place I could think of. Very few people know I live here. I guess it is kind of dangerous in a way, with no one knowing you're here."
I felt that there was a warning there somewhere, but I couldn't find it in me to feel afraid of him, not after what he did for me.
My next words surprised him.
"It is a safe place. Thank you for bringing me here."
He looked directly into my eyes, and again, surprise, curiosity and a little softness were all visible. However, he tried to deflect the conversation.
"Are you hungry?" He asked instead.
I smiled, as I shook my head no. "I just want to take a bath, if you don't mind. I feel… uncomfortable in my skin… after…" I trailed off, the events that had happened earlier flashed back to my mind.
I gripped the bed's mattress.
Edward seemed to sense my discomfort and tried to speak casually instead.
"This room has a private bath, but I don't know about your clothes…"
"Oh, uhm, can I borrow a shirt?"
He hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. "I'll just get something from my room."
I nodded and blushed as he stood to leave.
I was used to hand-me-down clothes from the orphanage, so sharing clothes wasn't new to me, but not a full-grown man's clothes. Somehow, it felt a little too intimate. However, it was that, or wearing my clothes again, and I didn't think I was ready for that, yet. Because of Jacob, I feel that those clothes were now tainted.
When Edward returned, he placed his neatly piled clothes at the top of the bed.
"I'll just leave you alone then. I have to shower as well."
"Thanks."
He nodded and turned to leave. But right when he was at the door, I spoke again, making him halt his steps to turn and look back at me.
"Come back in half an hour. We have to talk," I said looking him straight in the eyes. I could see that he knew what I wanted to talk about, and it wasn't about what had just happened. He nodded and shut the door.
Taking a bath proved a very liberating experience after the horrific events of the night. I felt as if I had washed off the grime and saliva that tainted my skin from Jacob.
I scrubbed every surface of my body and used the shampoo and conditioner a little bit more than usual. I briefly wondered why Edward had female smelling shampoo and soap, but then I realized that maybe I wasn't the first female to be here. It made me wonder if Rosalie or Alice, or someone else brought these. Somehow, the last thought made me feel vexed.
When I came out wrapped in a towel, I inspected the clothes Edward had left for me. There was a button-down shirt – the kind he was wearing – and black boy shorts. He very thoughtfully also placed boxer shorts and a sleeveless undershirt. I wore them all, blushing again at using the undergarments. I unrolled the towel to let my hair fall loose. I look decent, but I felt slightly uncomfortable not wearing a bra. Putting my hair down over me helps a little with my nerves.
Edward's boy shorts were too big, but luckily, I was able to tie them at the front to fit my thin waist. As for his button-down shirt, I reckon I could do nothing about its length, but I could roll up the sleeves.
When I looked in the bathroom mirror, I was surprised to see the girl reflected back at me. She didn't look like a lonely, naïve girl, or even the girl who had almost been raped by someone. Instead, she looked very much alive, with rosy cheeks and white complexion. And she even looked somewhat 'boyishly feminine' in the clothes she was wearing.
I never thought I would ever look as such. I never thought I'd use the words 'boyishly feminine' for myself. I didn't look like a training nun anymore. And quite frankly, I didn't feel like one anymore.
Edward came back almost exactly thirty minutes after he had left. By then I was trying to dry my wet hair with the towel.
He knocked at the door and I told him to come in. When he did, he stopped in his tracks and his eyes grew infinitesimally wider as he spotted me drying my hair.
I saw him swallow, and then he cleared his throat.
I wondered what that reaction was.
He came to sit at his previous place on the couch, where I could clearly see the changes in his appearance.
His hair was wet and unruly, and he was wearing a fitted-black shirt and jeans. Seeing him wear something so casual and yet manages to look better than the movie star I have recently glimpsed in some movie trailer while passing the mall makes me wonder if he would ever look bad in anything.
It seems like the answer would be never.
For a guy, he smells incredibly good, too – I could detect soap and shampoo from his recent shower, but there was also mint, and a unique manly smell that I could only associate with him...
"I'm still waiting for it," he suddenly said, making me snap out of my stupor.
"W-waiting for what?"
"For you to go into shock. You are weirdly calm for someone who had recently been assaulted."
"I feel oddly safe around you."
His eyes once again showed the softness that I was growing to love.
He sighed.
"So, we need to talk."
I nodded. "Yes, we need to talk."
A/N: To Fran and her editing skills, you're always great. Thank you for this and for putting up with my compulsiveness.
And as I've promised before that I would post a chapter as soon as I could, I've posted two chapters today (this and chapter 9). I hope I made you at least smile.
Thank you all for your time!