"She can't leave!" Nick cries, trying to get up again. "Her dad is still out there! Please!"
"No," his mother says forcefully, pushing him down once more. "You suffered a major concussion, Nick. You need to stay here until they say that you're okay to leave."
"Meanwhile, her father is doing God knows what to her?" Nick shakes his head and sinks back down onto the bed, defeated. "I have to save her."
"No, you don't, Nicholas," his mom replies. "That's not your job. She isn't your responsibility."
Nick looks up at her. "I'm the only one who's ever loved her," he says. "Do you know how sad that is? I'm the only one she has." He pauses for a second. "You owe her this change in me."
His mom frowns a little. "What do you mean?"
Nick sighs. "She's the reason I'm not a jerk anymore. She's the reason Joe and I are okay again, she's the reason I apologized to you. If we had never been paired up for that stupid English project, I'd still be the same asshole I was a month ago. But I'm not, and I—and you—owe that to her."
His mom shakes her head. "I don't care. Yes, I'm glad you're that sweet little kid you used to be again, but you are not getting out of that bed."
"Mom!" Nick tries.
"No," she says, ending all other discussion.
Nick sighs again and closes his eyes, pretending to be asleep. He can hear his mom and brother settle back into their chairs and their slow breathing, indicating that they have fallen asleep themselves. He opens his eyes once he's sure that they're both actually asleep. He sits up in bed slowly and pulls the IV out of his arm, wincing and biting his lip as he does that. He gets out of bed quietly and walks over to the closet, getting his clothes out. He realizes that the shirt is bloody, but at the moment, he has more important things on his mind. Like saving Demi. He quickly gets dressed and glances back at his mom and big brother before sneaking out of the room, out of the hospital.
Hang on, Demi, he thinks as he makes his way down the road to Demi's house. I'll be right there. Just please hang on.
Demi doesn't know where she's going. When she left the hospital, she just started to walk. She knows she can't go home—her dad will be waiting for her there for sure. With friends, most likely. She has nowhere else to go, no one else to turn to, so she sinks down onto a park bench, puts her head in her hands, and starts to sob.
"I knew you'd come here," a voice speaks up from behind her.
Demi raises her head and looks behind her. Her eyes light up when she thinks it's Nick, but the light quickly dies when she sees that it's not Nick at all.
"D—Daddy," she says, standing up and taking a step back from him. "How—how did you know I'd—I'd be here?"
"Every time you ran away," her father says, taking a step towards her; she takes another step away, "you'd always come here. Don't you remember?" He smiles at her, and her stomach churns. "The park was always as far as you made it before I found you."
"Why—why did you even come looking for me?" she wonders.
He smiles again. "Because if you left, who else would I have to fuck?"
Demi swallows and bites her lip so she won't cry out and get sick right there. He walks over to her quickly before she has a chance to run away and grabs her. She looks up at him, fear in her eyes.
She knows she shouldn't say it, but she does anyway. "Please don't hurt me."
He smiles that sickening smile once more. "Oh, baby." She nearly gets sick again. "Of course I'm going to hurt you."
He picks her up and puts her over his shoulder, walking out of the park. She screams and cries and hits his back and kicks his chest.
"What did I say about kicking? And hitting? Do you really want me to hurt you that bad again?"
Demi immediately goes limp in his arms. "N—no," she says. "Please, please don't."
"Too late," her father answers, throwing her into the backseat of his car. "I'm going to anyway. You only brought this on yourself."
"Daddy!" she cries as her father closes the door to the back of the car and gets in himself. He starts the car and they're home minutes later.
Nick's halfway to Demi's house when he collapses. When he opens his eyes back up, Joe is standing over him, a worried expression on his face. His eyes light up when he sees that Nick is okay.
"What are you doing out here?" Joe asks him, grabbing his arm to gently help him up.
"I need—I need to find Demi," Nick answers, holding onto Joe for a second as a wave of dizziness washes over him. "Where's—where's Mom?"
"At the hospital," Joe replies, "still asleep. I woke up to go to the bathroom and saw you weren't in your bed. I figured you were out here for Demi, and I knew Mom would want to take you back to the hospital. But I also knew that you wouldn't want that, so I came out here to find you myself. You're going to Demi's, right?"
Nick nods. "I can't think of anywhere else that she'd go."
"Okay, come on. You are not facing that man by yourself again."
Joe slips an arm around Nick, holding him up, as they—very slowly—make their way to Demi's house.
Demi's father slams her against the wall as soon as they get inside. She cries out in pain from the impact. That just enrages her father even more and he grabs her, pinning her against the wall with his body. She whimpers.
"What did I say? Fucking shut up, you fucking bitch." He steps back and his hands move to the buttons on his jeans. He never once takes his eyes off of her. "You scream, and I hurt you worse. You're quiet, and maybe, maybe, I don't hurt you quite so bad. Understand?"
Demi nods, but she knows it's a lie. Her father is angry at her, for getting Nick involved and for not coming home last night. He's going to hurt her worse than he ever has before, she just knows it.
After he's fully undressed, he starts to take off Demi's clothes as well. She squeezes her eyes shut but then her father is grabbing her face roughly.
"Look at me," he practically spits at her.
When she doesn't, he moves his hand to her hair, grabbing a fistful of it and pulling it hard. She cries out in pain, and then immediately regrets it as he both slaps her and pushes into her hard. She cries out again. She doesn't care anymore. She starts to sob, begging him to stop. He tells her to shut up, and when she doesn't, he puts his hand on her throat, squeezing it tight as he continues to force himself in her. She's finding it hard to breathe, but just when she thinks she's about to pass out, he pulls out of her and releases his grip on her. She falls down onto the floor, breathing hard and bleeding and sobbing. She curls into a ball, trying to get away from her father.
"Get up, you bitch," he says vehemently. "I'm not done with you yet."
"Please," Demi says quietly, not looking at him. "Please stop."
"I said," Demi's father sneers, "get up!" He grabs her roughly, forcing her into a standing position. He smiles at her. "I brought a friend for you to play with." He glances over at the door as it opens and smiles at Demi again.
"Hi," Zac says, an evil glint in his eye, as he steps through the threshold. "Remember me?"
You'll find out why Zac is there next chapter. Enjoy!
