It's hard to believe that I haven't seen you guys since October! Gah, I've been so busy, but I'm sure you guys would rather read the story that hear about my schedule :3 So here's the next chapter—enjoy, lovely readers.
MPOV
Darkness engulfed me until I could feel nothing but the bitter cold constricting me and the tension in my ribs as they stretched past their capacity to try to accommodate my guffawing breaths. My heart was thundering in my ears as I struggled to sit up; there was a steely rod locking me down in the dirt, unrelenting in its grip. Scrambling thoughts tried desperately to come up with a solution, but all I could focus on was Brian.
He was there, I knew it. Somehow he had captured me, and this time I wouldn't be able to escape. Twisted with a lust for vindication, he would torture and mutilate me until my sisters wouldn't be able to identify my body. It would be a closed-casket ceremony as the girls I tried so hard to protect, lowered me beneath the gravelly dirt.
The thought made me struggle harder. Kicking and squirming, I vehemently attempted freeing myself, memories of Ella and Angel prominent in my head. Not a minute was going to pass where I would not fight for them. For them-
Suddenly, the inky black was replaced with a searing white that struck through my retinas and pierced my skull. Cringing, I tried to recoil back, but was still held in proper place. After a moment of painful adjustment, I could view what was in front of me.
Max, stop moving. There's someone watching us.
Fang's phone. That wasn't a steel rod pinning me down, it was Fang's arm. Grabbing the phone from his grasp, I sagged into the ground with relief as I tapped a message back to him.
What's going on? The phone was traded.
We fell asleep on the cliff. When I woke up, I saw someone move back into the shadows. I think they're still here.
Brian. I knew without a doubt that it was him hiding in the tentacles of shadows, waiting for the right moment to strike. And this time it wouldn't just be me facing the consequences. Fang was now dragged in; I was not about to lose the only person to treat me with such kindness…such gentleness.
No, I decided adamantly. Brian would never hurt Fang. I wouldn't allow it.
Taking a firm hold on Fang's hand, I peeled his arm off my waist and leapt up, yanking him with me. There was no time to pause and explain my plan to him; the window of opportunity for escape was almost shut. Instead, I took off sprinting into the trees, Fang's phone my only light.
Breaths coming out in ghostly puffs, I couldn't help but be reminded of that night, just over a year ago. The scar ribboning my torso ached as a painful memory that worked hard to propel me faster, the distance between us and Brian growing the harder I ran. Red tinged my vision as determination settled as a stony pit in my stomach.
With scary precision, I managed to drag us from the hands and teeth of the forest in three minutes flat. I was disorientated at first having had popped out at an unusual angle, but once my eyes locked onto Fang's pitch-black house, I regained my momentum and raced for the beacon of safety. As we rounded the home towards the front, the sound of pounding boots thudded after us, accentuated by the snow layering the grass. Energy poured into my muscles with a punch of adrenaline. I forced us to go faster, tearing around the corner and stopping at the doorstep for only a second so that I could dig into a stunned Fang's pocket for the house key I always see him fiddling with. Grabbing hold of the key, I stabbed it into the lock and nearly ripped the door off the hinges as I swung it open. Fang was pushed inside the dark, barren house, I followed with the door locking behind me, then all was silent.
Wind howled eerily outside as we watched the first sprinkles of snow begin to filter down, through one of the grand windows lining the sun-room's walls. There were too many vulnerabilities downstairs, too many places that would reveal our cover to Brian in an instant—we had to move.
Brow furrowing, I tapped a quick message to Fang expressing my thoughts. He nodded grimly, took up my hand again, then led me past the creaks and groans of the stairs leading up to his bedroom. Slowly, I caught on as we tip-toed through the silent home: Fang's heavy blackout curtains would be perfect to hide behind.
My nerves were skittering beneath my skin, jumping from muscle to muscle and making me twitch. As soon as Fang had his bedroom door closed, he wrapped his arms around me and squeezed, his body the only sensation in the shadows that encased his room. Ever so hesitantly, I brought my arms up to wrap around him, too. When a bang outside rang through the bones of the house, I turned swiftly to bury my head in his chest.
I couldn't even tell you how long we stood as perfect statues like that, our minds succumbing to the ebony atmosphere and conjuring up horrible delusions of the smallest skitters being the blade of a knife dragging across the siding of the home. Our hearts were lurching and pounding with erratic, stuttering paces. I seriously had to focus on keeping my breath regular; otherwise I would have started hyperventilating.
The only thing keeping my mind from drifting into the abyss of memories that highlighted Brian, was Fang's arms around me; the methodical way he rubbed circles into my back with the gentle skim of his fingertips. I clung to him with my eyes clenched shut and my mind turned off. Drowning in the fierce curve of Fang's muscles molding protectively around me, I attempted to focus on the fact that the night would end eventually. Someone would come home soon.
As if on cue, the lock on the front door clicked, and someone called out: "Fang! Are you home? Why are all the lights off?" The voice vaguely called forward the one memory of Mrs. Xavier that I had. Peeking out from the cover of Fang's chest, I just barely had enough time to see a flood of light come from the crack under the door before it swung open, exposing a smiling Mrs. Xavier.
"Honey—" The second she saw us, her smile drooped into a sneer. Untangling myself from Fang, I stepped several paces back and averted my eyes away from the scowling woman, hands clasped tightly behind my back.
"What is she doing here?" she demanded, arms taut across her chest.
My eyes glanced off Fang, seeing him loom with his stance as a muscle twitched in his jaw. Narrowing his eyes to slits, he took one step towards me, a silent defensive gesture. Tense silence constricted around us, strangling me. I stirred awkwardly, prepared to just push past the woman and walk out.
Suddenly, Iggy's strawberry-blond head popped up behind his mother. Laying a gentle hand on her shoulder, he said, "Let her go, mom."
No one moved. My eyes were wide, watching a silent exchange occurring between the two in the doorway. After a long moment, the mother huffed and, with a quick glare tossed my direction, turned to walk back downstairs. I looked to Iggy with relief flooding through my gaze.
"You should get home; your sisters are looking for you," Iggy said, a soft, crooked smile lifting his lips.
Nodding, I threw one last apologetic glance at Fang, then brushed past Iggy to hurry downstairs. The front door was wide open, no doubt an invitation from Mrs. Xavier that I welcomed gratefully. Without a doubt, I understood the message she was conveying to me up there: she didn't like me, and I wasn't welcome to be in her home. Thanks to my mother.
The backs of my eyes stung as I felt the weight of the stress from the past few days fall on my shoulders. Every ounce of me wanted to collapse beneath my blankets and not wake up until graduation—until Ella and I were eighteen and could adopt Angel, taking her away from the horrors of my mother forever. Ella would attend college, and I would give Angel the life an innocent child like her deserved. Staying strong until then would be the hardest challenge I'd have to face.
Pasting a smile on my face, I swung open the door to my house and was immediately bombarded with the comforting hugs of my sisters. Their worrisome chatters bubbled up in the expanse of the home, warming my heart against the frigid memories of Brian stabbing at my mind. Not wanting to worry them further, I soothed their accusations into laughter as I told them about Fang and I accidentally falling asleep outside. After explaining explicitly to them that nothing happened, I excused myself to go take a shower.
As it usually ended up, the warmth of the water did nothing to calm my nerves or silence my thoughts. I rinsed off as quickly as I could, ready to just end the day already. Even breathing was becoming taxing.
Sighing, I plopped down on my bed twenty minutes later. My hair was sopping wet beneath me, soaking through the thin cotton of my tank top and making it stick to my back in a way that made me squirm. Tendrils of wind were brushing against my damp skin from my open balcony, raising goosebumps. Beneath me, I could practically feel the elegant calligraphy of Brian's handwriting burning into my back from the tiny card stashed under my mattress.
Though I shifted over to flick my light off, I knew I wouldn't be getting any sleep that night. Tears were pricking at the backs of my eyes again, a craving for shelter beginning to web through me. After that night, it was blatantly obvious that I could not refuse his presence any longer. Brian was truly there, lurking in the shadows, buttering me up with stupid mind games before pouncing on me and tearing me to shreds. There was no way I would be able to escape him a second time, that much I was positive about. This time when we faced, I would lose, and it would cost me my life.
As the tears finally spilled over and wound down my face, I realized that the only reason why I truly wanted to keep living was so that I could protect my sisters. Remove them from the equation, and honestly death didn't scare me all that much. During my brief brush with death the last time I encountered Brian, death seemed actually sort of…peaceful. I had been spending my entire life in pain and fear up until that very last second. Then suddenly a sweet, syrupy relief was poured over me, feeling like the tender kiss of an angel. I couldn't see anything, and there was a ringing occupying my hearing, but I knew that I was not alone. Someone's hand was there, resting on my shoulder and guiding me back home.
That was as far as I got, though, before the light consumed me. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in a lumpy hospital cot all alone. My mother had packed up my sisters and went off to the next state with them, planning to retrieve me once the hospital deemed me healthy enough to be released. The only people I saw for the next two weeks were my nurse and a burly old cop who tried his hardest to get me to talk, even when I was stubborn as a mule in keeping my mouth sewn shut.
That was when I decided to stop talking altogether unless it was to my mother or sisters. It was easier that way. Safer.
Blinking thoughts of that time out of my mind, I shifted to my other side and stared blankly out my French doors. The weather had calmed down considerably since I had last checked, allowing for the moon to peek through and illuminate the ground beneath my balcony. I wondered absently if I would survive a fall off the pretty marble structure. At the very least, I would get another two weeks alone to myself at the hospital while I healed. Would it be worth it?
A sharp vibration from within my sheets made me jump as a gasp lurched from my throat. Pressing my hand to my chest in a moot effort to calm my heart, I rummaged through the blankets until I found my cell phone. Fang had sent me a message: How are you feeling?
I didn't even want to think about how he would react if I confessed about contemplating my death mere moments before. Would Fang care if I died? Something in me doubted he would. Sniffing, I wiped away the tears with the back of my hand, and tapped in a quick reply just to get him off my back.
Fine.
Do you always cry when you feel fine?
Alarmed, I shot up, eyes wide as I focused in on the open balcony door. Across the way from me, Fang had his balcony doors open as well, his muscled arms resting casually on the banister as he gazed up from his phone at me. Feeling absolutely ashamed that he had seen me so weak—heard my sobs in the empty night—my cheeks flamed up as I felt even more tears threatening to overtake me. What was happening to me? When had I become so weak?
A buzz, as if he was reading my mind. Sometimes tears aren't a sign of weakness—they're a sign of being too strong for too long. It's okay to let your guard down.
I wasn't even sure how to respond to that. How could I describe to him that there was a man hell-bent on killing me, and that was the reason for the scare we had earlier that night? How could I tell him that the scars and bruises mottling my skin were a product of my mother's deteriorating sanity? How was I supposed to express the feeling of drowning and suffocating beneath a mountain of responsibility, pain, and constant fear? I could barely admit to myself that this was what my life had succumbed to; there was no way I would be able to admit it to Fang, the first person to ever show me kindness after…that night such a long time ago.
Come out here.
Warily, I peeled myself off the bed and padded out onto the balcony. My plush sweats dragged forlornly on the ground, the only source of warmth in the cold air that instantly engulfed me when I walked out. I wrapped my arms around myself, absently fingering my stitches as my phone began to buzz with a mass of new text messages. As my eyebrows knitted together, Fang locked eyes with me, a stern smile tilting up the corners of his mouth.
You listen to me, Little Bird. I believe in you. You are such a strong, invincible person—I can see it there in your eyes whenever you space out and get tangled in your thoughts. I don't know what pain you're dealing with, but I know that it isn't fair. Someone with a soul as bright as yours deserves to smile every second of every day for the rest of your life. Whatever it is that you are dealing with, I am going to be with you every step of the way, reminding you just how amazing you are. You will get through this—I promise. But for tonight, if you need to cry, that's okay. It will only make you stronger.
Shutting my eyes, my lip began to quiver. My knees shook as my heart swelled and my skin warmed against the winter chill. Trembling, I let every single one of my guards down as tears spilled down my cheeks, curled around my jaw, and dripped to the freezing marble below. I sunk to the ground, one hand clutching my mouth against the sobs choking out of me; one hand clasping my chest as if I was afraid it would unravel.
My entire mind was vacant, void of any thought or worry that had been haunting me moments before. For the first time in my life, I stopped thinking for once and just felt. Felt the kindness behind Fang's words; the gentleness pooling in his eyes whenever we met gazes. Up until that moment then—a minute in time that would forever remain suspended in the stars—I never felt worth anything; I was under the miserable assumption that the only reason why I was put on this earth was so that I could take beatings away from my sisters. But in that instant, I felt as though I had true purpose in life; like I was made to be the binds in my family and the reason why they would someday get the chance to be happy. I was a crumbling pillar slowly building herself back up in order to save the two people dearest in my heart. And I would not fail. Not now.
Now, I finally had someone to keep me going.
His arms somehow found themselves around me. I didn't know how he had crossed the space onto my balcony for a second time, and I didn't care. All that mattered was the comfort that those strong arms provided when nothing else could, pulling me close and gathering me into him as someone would when they found something dear to them that had previously been lost. I buried my face in his shoulder and hung on to him as if my life depended on it. Because, really, it actually kind of did.
I hope that was emotional enough for you guys. It certainly took a multitude of sad songs to dredge inspiration from in order to write ^^
R&R if you please(:
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Hope you enjoyed!