Warrior Human Short Stories Featured Chapter for chapter milestone 150 is announced to be "Boring Office Work's" rewrite titled, "Her Second Chance."
Written by Caylee Mitsuko
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(Boring office work REWRITE)
I've spent six years under the hand of a man… Six years of my life I will never get back.
Cynthia's blue eyes wandered over the scars scarring her forearms, a small portion of the various marks that remained on her body after being in Ashton's clutches.
I was beaten and bloodied every day for six years, too afraid to tell someone that I needed help, that I wasn't as okay as I seemed.
Cynthia carefully brushed her bangs over one of her eyes, hiding the bruised and swollen black eye she had sustained last night. "I'm fine," she spoke into the mirror in front of her, studying herself and making sure everything wasn't visible to anyone else. "I'm okay," her voice wobbled, but she forced it even, "I'm okay."
In a burst of fleeting courage I broke the engagement between me and the man who was stealing my life and I paid heavily for it, but nothing could be as freeing as the realization that I had a future of my own.
Cynthia barely opened the door, looking at her friend through the small crack and preventing Holly from seeing the bruising on her neck, the cuts on her face, and the wounds on her arms. "What?" Her voice was nasually from the almost broken nose, and her heart squeezed as Holly silently lifted up a small bowl of soup, a sad smile on her face.
"I brought you some soup, you sounded pretty bad over the phone… you sure you're okay?"
Tears welled in Cynthia's eyes, and she nodded, "yeah, I'll be okay, I'll be back at work tomorrow I promise."
I spent months agonizing over giving police proof of his crimes and the abuse and waited till the case was falling apart to hesitantly offer the one evidence Ashton couldn't make disappear. The scars on my body.
"Discarding the case?! Are you serious?!" Holly gawked, staring wide-eyed at the lawyer in front of them.
"We have no proof, we're not even sure who the victim is," the lawyer sighed, "for all the judge knows this could be a hoax."
"This isn't a hoax!" Holly said, "please believe us! This is a serious matter!"
Cynthia took a deep breath and spoke shakily, warily eying the man in the back of the room, a police officer who Cynthia knew Ashton knew. "I… I have proof of Ashton's abuse," she spoke softly and reached up, undoing a few buttons of the button down shirt, her hands shaking.
"Hold on young… lady…oh my Starclan..." The lawyer trailed off as Cynthia pulled the shirt away from her skin. Visible above the dark fabric of her camisole was deep bruising like she had been beaten repeatedly, the bruise going up her chest and toward her neck. In fact, when Cynthia lifted her head, making the skin under her chin visible, the bruise, hidden by makeup on her neck, followed, ending with bruising just below her jawbone. Holly breathed in sharply, especially when Cynthia pulled a tissue from the nearby box, used the water in her glass to wet it, and dragged it along the side of her face near her jaw. Where distinct finger like bruises rested as if she had been held down and she struggled violently.
The lawyer stared at her, Holly had kept the victim a secret the entire time, and now it was clicking into place. She gestured to Cynthia's sleeve covered forearms, "the scars?"
Cynthia wordlessly rolled up her sleeves and showed them to the lawyer, where the various knife scars, rope burn scars, and undisclosed mystery scar lay. Cynthia's lower lip wobbled, "I… I'm not a victim," she spoke weakly, clinging onto the idea that she wasn't a victim, that she was her own person. "I didn't want to be seen as a victim when I know A-Ashton has eyes everywhere."
I nearly lost my life that night, where Ashton had been told what I had said in the legal consultation room. Luckily I made it to Holly, who honestly saved my life that night.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Holly snapped frankly and wrenched open the door to deliver a tongue lashing at whoever woke her up, only to have Cynthia lurch forward. Holly lifted her arms and caught Cynthia under the arms as her knees buckled, "oh my StarClan…"
Cynthia's hands shakily curled around her arms, and Holly was horrified by the amount of blood on her hands. Cynthia's hands were stained almost completely red with the first liquid and she wheezed, barely able to breathe.
"Cynthia, what happened?!"
Cynthia gave a weak groan before she licked her chapped lips and croaked out a few words, that didn't make sense to Holly. "Help… the… baby…" her head drooped dangerously and she wheezed, struggling to breathe.
"What? What baby Cynthia? What happened to you?"
Cynthia just weakly groaned, unable to speak.
"Finli! Call an ambulance!" Holly shouted up the stairs a moment later as blood bubbled up at Cynthia's lips and she heaved for breath only to shudder and vomit blood. "Cynthia!" She shook her friend terror in her eyes, "where are you hurt?!"
Cynthia's blue eyes were glassy and unfocused, but she managed to release Holly's arm and weakly gestured to her chest at her sternum, blood still bubbling at her lips. Cynthia's eyes then rolled back and she started hastily knelt before she scrambled to grab her keys from the small box near the front door and flipped on the lights.
"What exactly is going on Holly? I need to tell..." Fill came rushing down the stairs, green eyes worried with his phone to his ear. Only to see his fiance sitting over Cynthia, cutting into Cynthia's blood-soaked shirt with the small pocket knife before she tore the fabric and pushed her jacket over a wound Fill couldn't see.
Panic shown in Holly's eyes as she looked over at him, hyperventilating. "Are they on their way yet? She's been stabbed Finli!"
Cynthia's convulsing had weakened and now stopped, where she moaned in pain and her head lolled a little to one side.
Final spoke rapid-fire into his phone as Holly addressed Cynthia with tears in her eyes.
"Stay with me, Cynthia! Stay with me!" Her voice cracked, "my best friend isn't bleeding out on my living room floor tonight! You have to live to see the wedding! I can't do it without you!" Holly's tears fell onto Cynthia's bloody skin, and yet the blue-eyed woman's eyes slid slowly closed as the blood loss overtook her.
Ashton was apprehended and sentenced to jail for attempted murder, leaving me with one final gift besides my scars and health problems.
"Ashton's in custody," Finli said quietly as he entered the hospital room and moved to sit beside Holly. "How is she?"
Holly sat there for a few moments, silently holding her unconscious friend's hand with her green eyes on her face. When she did speak, what came out of her mouth startled Finli. "I found out what she meant when she said 'Help the baby,'" Holly turned her head to fix teary green eyes on Finli's face, "they ran a pregnancy test on her and Finli…"
Finli's eyes widened and he stared at Holly even as she dissolved into tears at the fate that had befallen her friend.
"She's pregnant, and Ashton's the father!" Holly blubbered before she released Cynthia's hand and buried her face in Finli's shoulder, "Cynthia's forced to carry that man's child!"
Finli held Holly close, his eyes falling on the unconscious face of the one they were talking about, his heart aching.
Cynthia looked so peaceful unconscious and safe from the horrors of the world she faced every day.
When Ashton was put in jail I had thought it was over, but life had one more cruel joke for me.
Holly sniffed and looked down at Cynthia's head who was fighting against a sedative to stay awake, tears still trickling down her face. Holly silently held her hand while Ivory stood next to her, holding the small bundle that was Cynthia's son Flynx.
However, Cynthia's blue gaze was focused on the smaller barely moving body the doctor had set on her chest and tucked under the hospital gown. Flynx's twin sister Lixa, the twin that wouldn't survive the night. Lixa looked nothing like her father, she was her mother's daughter with faint freckles, tiny button nose, and tufts of golden blonde hair like Cynthia's sister. She was too weak to open her eyes more than once to reveal them to be the vibrant green Cynthia's family was known for.
Cynthia breathed shuddered sobs as she let her head fall back against the pillow and shut her eyes like she wanted to stop being tortured.
"I'm sorry Cynthia," Holly murmured and brushed her friend's bangs from her sweaty forehead. "I'm so sorry this happened to you."
Every time I looked at Flynx in the beginning, his multi-colored eyes and hair that stuck up in tufts reminded me of Ashton, and it scared me.
"H-he looks like Ashton," Cynthia stuttered to her friend, clenching the glass between her hands, "one of his eyes are icy blue and his hair sticks up the same way."
Holly looked sympathetically at her friend, "I know he does, I was there when he was born Cynthia, but you can't shun him for looking like his father, you chose to keep him. He will help you heal, but only if you try."
Cynthia looked at her friend, "how? When all I see in him is his father? The man who tortured me for years."
Holly smiled, "because he's yours, your flesh and blood. You may not have had a choice in it, but he's your son. You can teach him to be kind and compassionate, and he can be your pride and joy Cynthia because he's yours."
I spent three years sealing myself off from the opposite gender, refusing to be anywhere near a guy including my own father and brother. I suffered against nightmares, trauma-related flashbacks, and even lingering medical problems. However, I then met this one guy, Holly's brother.
I found myself unable to stay away from him, I was drawn to him like a magnet. My heart wanted to be with him, but my head was terrified of what would happen if I did let him in. I didn't want to be a victim again, my body couldn't take any more abuse.
Yet… I couldn't help it.
Never once did I wish Flynx wasn't born, yet every day for the rest of my life I couldn't help but wish that Leon was his birth father. The strong blonde who fought tooth and nail to be with me and show me that what Ashton felt for me and had done to me wasn't love.
Keep tuned for the full chapter! If you're excited to review down below and let me know! I'm pumped to write this, this has been a long time coming and my writing skills are finally good enough, in my opinion, to do this story the justice it deserves.
Get ready for a chapter filled with fluff, awkward moments, surprises, angst, and moments that make your heart break for the characters!
Up next, "Her Second Chance," the full chapter.
Keep in touch!
~Caylee Mitsuko