Chapter six. - Revelations.
As he lowered himself to the floor Rick ran his hands down Evelyn's sides until they were resting on her hips. His mouth was dry before his knees touched the floor, and not from fear. Desperately he tried not to think about the connotations of what he was about to do, choosing rather to concentrate on the why. Letting go of her body, reluctantly Rick opened his knife with a quick flick of his wrist as his other hand, with great care and tenderness, pulled the soft material of the nightgown away from the skin on Evie's thighs. Taking in a deep breath, Rick took a second to compose himself before sliding the blade through the white cotton and beginning to pull down, the sharp blade efficiently cutting a split straight down the middle of her skirt. Pausing as he put the knife away, Rick looked up at Evelyn and saw, much to his surprise, that she had her eyes squeezed tightly shut and appeared to be whispering to herself. Concerned, Rick lowered his head and continued with his task.
As unexcited as it is possible for a red-blooded male to be in such a situation, Rick raised his now free left hand and gently slid it in through the torn material of Evelyn's gown.
Evie jumped as she felt Rick's skin touch hers for the first time, and as his fingers lightly grazed a path across the delicate skin on her right thigh she bit her lip in an effort not to moan.
Slowly Rick's hand slid still further around her leg, taking with it the curtain of fabric that he had created, and exposing her flesh, and continued to caress around its circular path until the majority of it was exposed.
As his eyes lit upon what he had been searching for- the wound that had bled through the cotton- Rick had to stop him self from gasping aloud.
Branded across Evelyn's taught thigh were five inflamed scarlet lacerations, surrounded by deep bruising. As the shock wore off, Rick began to realise there was a familiar pattern to the mark he was looking at. The bruises and scratches started high on Evie's inner thigh and travelled outwards in five narrow channels, until the cuts stopped and the bruises widened into a circular shape.
"My god," Rick whispered under his breath as he realised what it was; a handprint.
Quickly Rick pulled his hand back and the shocking wound disappeared behind the returning fabric. Without using any of the tenderness he had before, Rick now pulled the material away from Evelyn's other thigh. This time he couldn't stop himself from making a noise as he found exactly the same markings there, just reversed.
The pain Rick had felt when Evie had turned him down paled into insignificance compared to how he felt now.
Standing up sharply, he stared deep into Evelyn's now open eyes.
"Did he do that?" he asked, stumbling over his words.
Evie couldn't answer him; a large lump had appeared in her throat, so she just nodded sadly.
Rick felt his blood begin to boil as he realised the next question he had to ask.
"Did- did he do anything else?"
Again Evie couldn't answer. Her face began to crinkle and her eyes began to swell with tears. Reluctantly she nodded once again.
Unable to believe what his mind was suggesting, Rick bit his top lip as his own eyes began to swell and his anger began to make him shake.
"Did he..?" He paused, unable to believe what he was about to say. "Did he rape you?" Rick pushed the words roughly past the lump in his own throat.
The tears that fell down Evelyn's face as the word hit her were answer in themselves, but she nodded anyway for a third.
Rick snapped his eyes away from Evelyn's and spun on his heel. He didn't want her to see his own anguish. Unable to control his anger, Rick screamed and kicked the chair in front of him, sending it spinning across the room. Behind him Evelyn jumped silently as it broke noisily on the stone floor.
Unable to believe that he knew, Evelyn held her breath, waiting for him to turn back. When after a minute he hadn't, she used her sore throat to call to him softly.
"Rick?"
Standing in the middle of the room, Rick was so over whelmed by his distress he barely heard her. He couldn't believe he had allowed such a thing to happen. His anger, not sated by the outburst on the chair, was so strong that he was convinced that had Imhotep still been alive, he could quite easily, and willingly kill him with his bare hands- the very hands that were clenched in fists at his sides. His whole body twitched with rage as many violent images played through his mind.
The desperation in Evie's voice stroked his guilt further as he heard her call out to him again. He couldn't understand how, when he had failed to protect her so badly, Evie still called to him. Ashamed and yet furious beyond belief, Rick could not bring himself to face the woman he loved, and thus he begun to walk towards the door.
"Rick?" Evie gasped through tears that would not stop. She felt as if her heart had been ripped from her chest. Rick knew her secret, and now it seemed Imhotep had been right; he had turned from her.
As Evie watched through blurry eyes, she willed him to turn around, to say he still loved her, or hated her even, just to say something, anything. Then she saw him move and all her worst fears were confirmed. One step, two steps, he was walking away. "Please, Rick!" she cried, and lurched away from the wall that had been supporting her. As she did so however the room begun to spin, and in her weakened state she was unable to support herself. Falling heavily to the floor, she winced in pain, but only cried out again as she looked up with her tear bitten face and saw Rick reach the door. "Please," she begged "I...I...I love you," she began sobbing. "I love you."
The words stopped Rick in his tracks as they burnt into his soul. They were the words he had wanted to hear ever since that very first day that he had met Evie in that god-awful prison. Amongst the filth and the stench, Evie had shone out like a diamond, stunningly beautiful and elegant and, most charmingly of all, completely unaware of it. Rick knew in that very first moment that if he survived the next forty-eight hours, then the day would come when he would try and make that vision his wife.
Slowly, as he stood in the doorway, Rick's bottom lip began to tremble as the rage he was feeling started to be washed away by a pain unlike any he ever felt before.
Without warning Jonathan suddenly appeared in front of Rick. Standing in the hallway he smiled wildly. With one hand he was carrying a large bottle, and in the other three champagne glasses.
"So," he said to Rick. "Is it time to celebrate you making my innocent little sis into a woman?"
Rick stood perfectly still as he felt his entire body tense up again. The word innocent bounced uncomfortably around in his head and he realised, for the first time, that Imhotep had probably stolen Evie's innocence. The idea made his stomach turn over, and brought his blood back to the boil. Pushing Jonathan roughly aside, he stomped out of the room.
"Riiick!" Evie screamed, but it was too late- he was gone. "I'm sorry," she cried as she dissolved into hysteria on the floor. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
Amazed by Rick's behaviour, Jonathan stumbled back towards the room.
"What's his..." he begun as he re-entered the room, but the sentence died in his throat as he looked around and took in the scene in front of him. Somewhere to the right of him lay a broken wooden chair, but that didn't concern him. What did, however, was his sister.
Evie lay face down on the floor with her arms outstretched towards the door, her body convulsing as she gasped for breath with violent tears.
"My god," Jonathan whispered as he dropped the bottle and glasses onto the near-by couch and ran to her. Once there, he could see her ripped nightdress and the blood stain on it. "What happened?" he asked as he sat beside her.
Evie didn't answer him, she couldn't, she just kept whispering to herself, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," over and over again.
Her distress was so overwhelming, Jonathan wasn't even sure if she knew he was there. "Hey," he called to her after a minute of wondering what to do. "Hey, this isn't exactly the marital bliss I was expecting to find, but let's work with what we've got." Gently he began to pull her towards him and into a seating position. "Evie!" he shouted once she was facing him, "Evie!"
Her hysteria lessening as she heard her name, Evelyn eventually become lucid enough to acknowledge her brother.
"Jonathan," she whimpered as she saw his face. "Oh Jonathan..."
"Hey, hey," the young man called quietly, and he pulled her into his arms as she began to cry again, albeit gently. "Evie, what happened?" Jonathan asked gently as he cradled his little sister in his arms. As he stroked her hair he remembered how he had used to do the same thing, after their parents had died.
"Oh Jonathan," Evie whispered, "it's all my fault. Rick hates me and it's all my fault."
"Shush," Jonathan soothed as he felt Evie begin to shake again. "Ssshh." As he looked down at her he saw the bloody stain again, and realised a question he needed to ask. "Evie?" he asked softly, "Did Rick hurt you?"
Outraged by the idea, Evelyn pulled herself away from Jonathan.
"No!" she said. "No, of course not."
"Good," Jonathan sighed with relief, and then seeing his sisters confused eyes, he added, "But you know if he had, I would have gladly gone and given him a piece of my mind. And then let him beat me to a pulp for you."
"Oh, Jonathan would you?" Evie asked as she stumbled over an idea. Jonathan looked at her warily. "Would you go and find Rick," she added, "and tell him that I'm- I'm sorry and- and..." Evie's voice broke down as the tears came again. "And...that...I...didn't...mean...it...to...happen," she finished, punctuating each word with a sob.
Pulling her back for another cuddle Jonathan nodded.
"Yes," he agreed after a short pause. "As long as I don't have to do the getting beaten to a pulp part."