Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned, they are property of Seven. I'm just playing with them for a bit.
Saving Grace is a series of one shots that follow on from one another, depicting the lives of Matilda Hunter and Lucas Holden.
Full Summary: Matilda Hunter is forced to live a life she hates. And loves. Stuck between life and death, she hovers, waiting for someone to come and save her. Waiting for that one moment that will change her life. Lucas Holden has been forgotten for most of his life... for alcohol, for the endless stream of men his mother would bring home. He's told he's special, but he refuses to believe them. What will happen when serendipity takes hold of their lives, and a series of random events lead to one ultimate mistake?
Rated M for drug & alcohol abuse, sexual situations and suicidal thoughts. You have been warned. Do not read further if you are uncomfortable with these things.
AN#1: I don't think I've mentioned this, but for this story, if you haven't realise already, Henry and Maddie are NOT related. I can't stress that enough. Enjoy!
Saving Grace
Chapter Five: Halo
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I felt his strong arms pull me towards him before I had even the slightest chance to react. The tickling assault had begun, and I was powerless to do anything but let it run its course. However, I could always get back at him later, I thought to myself, sniggering, before crying aloud as Luke found a particularly sensitive spot.
"Ohh, Ohh!" He cried, attacking me harder "You a little bit ticklish there?" He asked, although we both knew that he already knew the answer.
"Just…a…bit" I cried in between gasps of air, as the sweet tears of joy began to run down my cheeks.
"Do you give up?" He whispered in my ear, causing shivers to run down my spine.
"Never" I yelled, as I used all my strength, and his momentary lapse of concentration, to break myself from his embrace and turn the tables on him.
-
I never promised you a ray of light
Inever promised there'd be sunshine every day
I'll give you everything I have
The good the bad
-
It was then that I saw them. Strutting towards us, their presence resonating with the cruel stench I'd come to associate with them. Their eyes gleamed with the hateful, evil look that they had made their own early on in school. That look had dictated our lives.
"Well, well, well." Cassie Turner said, as she looked me up and down. "If it isn't our very own resident slut, Matilda Hunter." Her cool eyes clanked between Luke and I, and a flicker of recognition passed over her cruelly distorted face.
"And what do we have here?" She asked, raising an eyebrow and looking over to Belle Taylor, who stood back and smirked.
"The answer to that Taylor," I spat at her "would be none of your business."
"Temper, temper" Belle said, in that so sickly sweet that it makes you want to kill yourself voice of hers. "Cass and I are just a bit curious about this darling little development that's obviously occurred here."
"Why the sudden interest?" I said, glaring, wising up to their games. "Want to play happy families?" I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "I highly doubt it." I snapped, glaring, as I spun on my heels, preparing to escape the clutches of the evil stepsisters.
-
Why do you put me on a pedestal?
I'm so up high that I can't see the ground below
So help me down you've got it wrong
I don't belong there
-
But Cassie grabbed my arm firmly, and turned me back to face her, her grip never letting up.
"We weren't done." She said harshly, digging her nails inconspicuously into my arm.
I reached down and wrenched my arm out of her grip and looked into her icy blue eyes.
"I am not afraid of you." I said to her, my tone even, my voice controlled.
"Well you should be." She replied, her tone matching my own.
We stood facing one another for a moment, neither of us willing to break away from the death stare that we wanted to desperately to kill one another. But then she smiled sweetly at me, before turning around and addressing her posse.
"Come on." She said, her fake voice returning, "We wouldn't want to hang around here for much longer." She continued as she stepped back and Henry wrapped his arm around her waist protectively. "Then Henry and Ric might consider slumming it like you Luke." She said, as they erupted into laughter.
-
One thing is clear
I wear a halo
I wear a halo when you look at me
But standing from here
You wouldn't say so
You wouldn't say so if you were me
And I, I just want to love you
Oh I, I just want to love you
-
For the first time since their arrival, I remembered that Luke had been here to witness the entire altercation, and that all he'd done was stand back against the lockers, his arms folded across his chest, his dark eyes brooding.
"We tried to warn you." Henry said, which snapped me out of my thoughts, "But I guess it was a chance of too little, too late." He finished, shaking his head, and shrugging. "Sorry we couldn't save you." He said, as they walked away, their cackles loud enough to be heard from the other end of the school.
I watched as they danced down the hallway, and the sea of students parted, much like the red sea had done for Moses, at god's will.
God's will, I thought, as images of blood and tears passed through my mind, what has he ever done for me.
-
I always said that I would make mistakes
I'm only human and that's my saving grace
I'll fall as hard as I try
So don't be blinded
-
"Why were they like that with you?" He asked, his voice low, as he took my hand and pulled me closer to him.
"Personal history." I replied, shrugging off his hand and moving away from him.
"What kind?" He continued, undeterred by my vague answer.
"The kind where Henry and I slept together." I snapped at him, and his face fell. "Is that what you wanted to hear?" I screamed harshly, walking towards him. "That I was used and abused by the most popular boy in school? That I'm just another fucking notch on his belt, like I am almost every other fucking guy in this hallway?"
He looked up, and his eyes met mine. In them I saw sadness and forgiveness, and pity. And it made me want to be sick. It made me feel weak to the core. Because I knew that he knew. That he could read my eyes, my mind, my body and soul.
-
See me as I really am
I have flaws and sometimes I even sin
So pull me from that pedestal
I don't belong there
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"No Maddie." He said, stepping towards me, as he leant down and his forehead touched against my own. "I just want to know you. And protect you, because you don't have to be alone against the world. You don't have to be alone."
"But I am" I whispered, pushing him off me and walking down the hallway.
I am alone.
-
Like to think that you know me
But in your eyes
I am something above me
That's only in your mind
Only in your mind
-
AN#2: Kate, thanks for proofing! I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Sorry about the delay, but more soon, as I've not finished That Endless Summer! Thanks for reading!