Ronnie lay on the bathroom floor, staring up at the ceiling. If I don't move, if I stay like this forever, nothing can touch me. Nothing can hurt me anymore.
Her body felt drained, her bones aching, her muscles sore. Even the marrow of her bones wanting nothing more than to sleep.
Forget and sleep.
"Yeah," Ronnie muttered to herself. "Sleep."
That's all she wanted to do. Sleep.
But she couldn't close her eyes. She knew what she'd see if she did.
Ronnie felt her chest move up and down with each intake of breath, could see the motion becoming steadily slower, the breaths becoming longer and deeper.
Was she falling asleep?
"Please," Ronnie whispered, pleading. "Let me sleep."
"Ronnie?" Roxy called out to her. She'd come back into her sister's bedroom to find Ronnie lying across the bed, her face buried in a pillow. Roxy sat down on the edge of the bed, within arm's reach of her sister.
She didn't want to be any nearer.
Not just yet.
"Ron?" Roxy uttered her name once again. She wanted to reach out, to rouse her, to touch her sister's form.
But what if Ronnie didn't want that?
What then?
With shaking legs, Roxy lifted herself from the bed and began to move towards the door.
"I'm awake," Ronnie whispered, drawing her sister back into the room. "I'm sorry," she told her, her words being said into the pillow she hugged to her.
Roxy felt her heart break beneath her chest, the shards of glass embedding themselves into every single part of her soul. Everything was falling apart. Everything she knew and believed to be true, it wasn't. The very foundations of her world had shattered and everything she knew had come tumbling down upon her.
"I'm so sorry, Roxy," Ronnie repeated, her sobs restricting her breathing.
"Why?" Roxy asked, her bottom lip trembling as she watched her older sister crying her heart out.
"Because I let him."