Tessa's POV
When I woke up, it was dark. I couldn't see a thing, and I couldn't feel Louis next to me. I tried to move my arms, but they wouldn't budge. Something was restricting their movement. I was sore all over; there was a crick in my neck, and my head was pounding worse than if I had a hangover. The panic I had become accustomed to over the past couple of weeks began to settle in. Why couldn't I see anything? Why was I in pain?
Suddenly, I was back in the past.
The whip cracked against my skin again. I had long ago lost the power to scream and to cry. That only seemed to further infuriate him.
"You bitch! I need to hear you!" He yelled, cracking the whip another time across the tender flesh of my body.
"Please." My voice was so quiet and barely audible.
My vision was covered, so I couldn't see what he was doing. He had said it "heightened the experience." If that was up, then I wanted to go down. There was scuffling somewhere behind me, and then something slapped against the backs of my thighs. Since I was hanging by my wrists, the force of the bow caused me to slightly swing.
"This is called a paddle." He instructed, demonstrating its use yet again. "You need to become very familiar with it." He started hitting the paddle against me all over my body. So much for the body being a temple. My breasts and other female parts were covered by a thick strip of leather, but it still hurt when he hit them. He paid most of his attention on my breasts. He seemed to like the way I winced fiercely whenever they were hit. "You're so hot, tied up like that. The things I could do to you." He grabbed my chin with one of his hands and brought it up. I could only assume it was to his. I was so short that even being suspended above the floor, he was taller than me. He kissed me and took my bottom lip between his teeth. He sunk his teeth into my lip, bringing blood to the surface. He pulled back, then he licked the blood clean off my face. It was sick and disgusting. The next thing I knew, he slapped me across my face hard enough for my head to snap back. The slap was so hard; I could feel the bruises starting to form already.
"Why the fuck did you shudder, you worthless piece of nothing! You are lucky that I decided to take this task upon myself and decided to do this for you! You deserve everything I do to you!" I didn't remember shuddering, but he was angry. I could only hear his harsh breathing. "Fine. You don't want to answer? I can do much more, darlin'." That time, I did shudder; a fact that did not go unnoticed by him. I could hear him moving around the room.
Suddenly, I was hoisted up higher. The chains holding me up were cutting into my wrists. Before, I could stand on the tips of my toes for some time to alleviate the pain, but now I couldn't reach the ground at all. "You are nothing, just a worthless piece of scum. I'm doing the world a favor by getting rid of you. No one will ever find you." The despair, which was worse than all of the physical pain, crashed in and I began to believe his words.
"Tessa? Tessa, what's wrong?" I heard a familiar voice, but when a hand touched me, I flinched and screamed. I started thrashing and realized that I could move again. I reached for my face and ripped the mask off. Once my vision was returned and clear, I saw I was still in Louis' room. The person with the familiar voice had been Liam. He had backed away from the bed I was lying on with his hands up. When he saw that I had calmed down, he came and sat on the edge of the bed nearest to me.
When he moved his hand to scoot closer, I flinched away, and a look of extreme hurt washed over his face. Liam was one of the few who knew exactly what had happened. I had only told my family, him, Caralyn, and one of my three friends from New York. I was too afraid to tell anyone, but half the world already knew, just not anyone who knew me.
"Tessa?" Liam whispered. I could hear the pain laced through his voice. I knew Liam would never hurt me, but I had no control over it. I was still stuck in the mindset of the nightmare.
"Liam, I am so sorry. I swear, I didn't mean to." I tried to make it up to him by getting up from my seated position, even though it hurt like hell, and reached out for him. When he didn't respond, I crawled next to him and placed my arms around his neck. He finally responded when I nuzzled my face into his neck. "Liam, I'm sorry. I know you would never hurt me." I whispered into his neck.
He started to rub circles into my back, which helped to relieve my tense and overworked muscles. I was in so much pain just by sitting up. "Are you okay?" Liam asked.
Before I could respond, Louis, Jesse, and Caralyn came bursting into the room. When Jesse saw Liam had the situation under control, he went back to whatever he had been doing. Louis and Cara came into the room and took a seat, Cara on the bed and Louis on the desk.
"We heard a scream." Cara said as she took the seat next to Liam and I.
"Took you long enough." I scoffed as we rearranged ourselves and beckoned Lou over. We arranged ourselves into a diamond shape where we sat criss-cross applesauce. "It was nothing. I just got scared because I couldn't see anything and forgot where I was."
Louis nodded as if he decided my answer was acceptable enough for him. "Well, before you tell your story, you most definitely need to take a shower. You stink worse than my feet after football practice." He joked. "Plus, you need to get your head checked out." He was serious that time, which confused me. I didn't remember anything happening to my head.
"Wait, what's wrong with my head?" I asked in a panic. When I tried to get off the bed to see for myself, I tripped and fell to the floor. All three of them rushed to help me. They led me to the bedroom that conjoined Louis and Jesse's rooms. I looked in the mirror and slowly took in my horrendous appearance. I looked dreadful. My hair was a tangled mess, there was dried blood all down the side of my face that came from a deep gash, there were dark bags in the shape of crescents underneath my eyes, my skin was ghastly pale, and I looked half dead. No wonder Liam didn't respond when I tried to comfort him; he probably thought I was dead or a zombie.
Cara immediately understood what I was thinking just by seeing the look on my face. She reached behind me to turn on the water in the bath tub. "Okay, here's what's happening. I am going to help Tessa take a bath whilst you two are getting some medicine for her head and clothes for her to wear." Commander Cara took charge and ushered the boys out of the bathroom even though Liam complained.
"Come on! It's not like I haven't seen her naked before!" He brought me back to the memories of us dating when we were sixteen and losing my virginity to him. He just had to bring it up right after I had the nightmare. Louis dragged him out the door by his ear, grumbling about "sisters" and "sex." In any other situation, I would have laughed. The door was shut firmly behind them.
Being too weak to stand on my own for very long, I had taken a seat on the edge of the bathtub. Whilst the warm water filled the tub, Cara helped me to get undressed and sink into the water. I was covered in grim, cuts, dirt, and bruises. I was sickened just by looking at my terrible, abused body. The water helped a great deal. I could feel the dirt and grime rubbing off my skin. Cara reached over and poured some soap into the water, creating white, poufy bubbles. I felt like a little kid for the first time in years. I sank up to my neck in the water, and saw that the water had turned a light shade of brown. The bubbles helped to cover it, but it was still noticeable.
Cara grabbed a wash cloth and started gently rubbing the wound on my head. I wondered where and how I had gotten it. I winced when Cara accidentally pressed down to hard. "Sorry!" She whisper-yelled. Luckily, it hadn't broken open. Soon enough, I was mostly clean and Cara was helping me out of the bath, wrapping me in a fluffy, pink towel she had found. I used Cara's arm for support and we made our way back to Louis' room.
"Okay, everybody out!" Cara yelled, causing everyone to jump. Everyone was Louis and Liam, who had been talking animatedly about something. They shuffled their way out and Cara helped me to get dressed. I could tell Liam tried to pick the clothes, but Louis stopped some of it. They had chosen a striped tee-shirt that I hadn't worn since last year, a pair of gray joggers (Sweatpants), and Liam had definitely chosen my underwear. Louis had probably gotten grossed out by my collection that he gave Liam free reign. The black lace bra with matching panties that left almost nothing to the imagination were definitely something Liam would choose.
I finished dressing and collapsed on the bed as Cara let the boys back in. They all sat around me and I sat back up, leaning against the headboard. "So what happened?" Louis had to be the one to break the silence.
I sighed and closed my eyes whilst I started to tell my story. "I was at the café with Noah, then I overreacted and got upset over nothing. I ran away until I couldn't run anymore and got myself lost. Still upset, I climbed on top of this rock in the ocean and fell asleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and tried to call you two." Liam and Cara sheepishly stared at the floor. "Then, I call Lou and I don't really remember what happened after that."
Louis decided to take over. "When I got there, you were being tossed around in the water. You were unconscious so I went out and got you. I took you back to the house, and you wanted to sleep in my bed, so here you are." Louis' eyes had glazed over at the memory and it was scary how serious he was.
Then, a thought occurred to me. "What did you tell mom and dad?" I asked him.
He waved it off. "I told them you had a nightmare. No big deal!"
"Well that's not entirely untrue." I muttered. The only one who didn't freak out was Liam since he was there.
"What?!" Louis yelled, angry that I had kept this information from him. Caralyn was just as angry.
"It was nothing. Just a little nightmare." I said innocently.
"The question is, what was the nightmare about?" Cara raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow. My cheeks burned under all three of their scrutiny. Liam hadn't had a chance to find out the details of my nightmare, so he was suddenly all interested, too.
"Guys, it was nothing. Don't you guys get nightmares sometimes?" I flopped onto my back and shut my eyes again. I was so incredibly tired and felt really sick. "Where's my phone?" I asked abruptly.
Louis thought about it for a second, and then his face lit up when he remembered. "Oh, yeah!" He jumped off the bed and ran to his desk. He shuffled some stuff around before finding my phone under one of the various piles of clothing he had stacked up on the desk. "Here you go!" God, how was he so chipper? Thankfully, it only had one crack on the upper right hand corner from when I had thrown it.
I checked my phone and saw that I had three new messages from Liam, Cara, and Zayn. Liam and Cara were just trying to return my calls, so I checked Zayn's.
Zayn 3:36- So like when do you want to catch up? Xx
It was only sent about half an hour ago. My eyes bugged out at the time; it was four in the afternoon. I had missed work! "Woah! Why did you not get me up for work?"
Louis looked pointedly at me, as if it was a stupid question. "Oh, I called the scary boss lady when your alarm was off. I told her you were sick and she was fine with you staying home." I relaxed once I processed his words. I sent a text back to Zayn.
Tessa 4:03- tonight? my place? 9? x
Zayn 4:04- Ill be there. Until tonight ;) Xx
I turned my phone off and went back to the conversation in front of me. Liam and Cara were talking to Louis about when they should leave. "You guys can go right now if you want. I'm just going to sleep and get high off of pain killers." When I saw the look on their faces, I added, "I really appreciate what you guys are doing, but I think I'm good. Plus, I 've got my big bwother here to take care of me." I leaned into Louis' shoulder.
Liam decided I was right, and both he and Cara got up to leave. I got up, even though it was very painful, and hugged them both. "Thank you guys so much." I whispered into their ears.
"You better text us later!" Cara threatened as she went out the door. I smiled and laughed, and watched my two best friends get into Liam's car and drive away together.