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“No, he kissed me, and I…”
“You did fuckin’ what, Ell?” I growl, trying to speed her up.
“I kicked him in the balls,” she tells me, and I swear I can almost hear the proud smile I imagine on her lips, it feels good to picture her smiling after what I saw today. It even causes my lips to tweak up into a tiny grin.
“That’s my girl,” I whisper, pressing my forehead to the mirror in front of me, letting relief cool my blood. Ella seems to have a way of instantly setting me calm.
“Nyx, please tell me where you are. I miss you.”
“I got to go,” I tell her, my voice turning colder. I shouldn’t have called her, it’s another selfish fucking act that could have major consequences.
“Please Nyx, don’t hang up. I need you. I need you so bad that I can’t even breathe,” she breaks into sobs, and I have to bite down on my fist to hold in the noise my throat’s threatening to make. I wanna scream and tear down the walls. But more than anything I wanna to comfort her, to wrap her up in my arms and tell her everything is gonna be okay. The fact I can’t, sends my fist hurtling straight back into that damn wall again.
“Don’t give up on me, Ell,” I blurt the words out before I hang up and launch my phone at the wall. I shouldn’t be asking that of her. I shouldn’t have called, I shouldn’t have reacted to Luke like I did. But that girl brings all the wrong out in me, and there just ain’t no right without her.
It’s been a week since he called, and hearing his voice was just as painful as it is reassuring. Since I heardhe got released from jail and that the charges were dropped, I’d been waiting for him to come for me.And after two months of waiting, I was just getting my head around the fact that it wasn’t gonna happen.
During dark times I’d wondered if something bad had happened to him. somehow managing to convince myself that Nyx loved me so fiercely that death would be the only explanation for his absence. It sure made it easier for me to accept him not showing up.
He hasn’t called again, and he hasn’t picked up any of the calls I’ve made to him either. But those final words he said before he hung up have stuck in my head.
“Don’t give up on me.”
I don’t want to give up on him, but the inevitable is drawing closer and closer and I can’t just sit back and wait for it to happen.
“Do you ever wash that thing?” Mom looks down at Nyx’s hoodie in disgust, the same one I’ve been wearing almost every day since we’ve been apart.
“Of course I do,” I snub her, burying my head back into my textbook.
“You should come to the mall with me, have you got anything from the winter collection yet?”
“Jeeez, Mom, there’s more to life than fuckin’ clothes,” I snap, swiping up my books from the table and heading up to my room.
I lock myself in and take a long warm bath, then decide to have an early night.
Keeping up this pretense is exhausting, I’ve not put a foot out of line over the past few months, refusing to give Father an excuse to punish me.
The trick has been to stay out of his way, to become invisible. But he’s just waiting for me to slip up. I can feel his tension brewing, he’s just looking for that excuse.
I get into bed and have no trouble falling asleep. My body tired, and my mind worn out from over thinking.
Nyx comes to me in my dreams again, and it feels so real that I even shiver when cool air licks at my toes. A chill traveling all the way to my neck when he opens my balcony door and steps inside.
I wait for him to lie down beside me, but tonight he just stands, watching. I blink my eyes to try and open them. Then jump in shock when I realize this isn’t a dream. My balcony door is open, and standing in front of it is a huge dark figure, his face covered with balaclava. And it’s not Nyx, the eyes peering back at me through the holes are too evil to belong to him.
They take a few steps closer, and when my mouth opens to scream. I’m quickly silenced with a huge hand that slams over my mouth and pins me down.
“Good to see you again, Ella,” the voice is low and scratchy as it sends fear quaking through my body.I automatically wrap my arms around my bodyfor protection.
“You seehow easy it was for me to get to you?” he whispers. “You should tell the judge that.” The strong hand covering my mouth and nostrils starves me of oxygen and I thrash out in panic.
“Tell him to get me what I need, or it will be his pretty little treasure who pays the price.” Suddenly, something he says connects in my head. Pretty little treasure, I’ve heard that before. And now I’m certain that the man who had come out of Father’s office all those months ago and called me that, is the man threatening me now. I remember how nervous he’d made Father and it terrifies me. No one makes my Father nervous.
“I think I’d have fun with you, Ella,” he tells me, and I shudder when his wet tongue slides against my cheek. He releases my mouth, and while I’m gasping for air, he disappears out the balcony doors he came through. I leap up and throw my dressing gown on, before rushing across the hall, and thudding my fist against my parents’ bedroom door. Father swings it open furiously.
“What's going on?” He eyes me up and down and I pull my huge fluffy robe a little closer to my skin.
“That man, who was here. The scary looking one, he was just…” I try to form the words as tears spill down my cheeks and the shock of what just happened hits me all at once.
