𝐑𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐬

Chapter 15 || Breathe

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Love live my pain

Long live my feelings

~Grow

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Rose woke up in an unfamiliar bed, her head pounding and throat dry. Breathing felt like sandpapers rubbing against each other and her head felt like someone was pounding on it with a hammer. She sat up in the bed and realized she was in different clothes.

Someone changed her clothes.

She reached for the water on the side table as tried to remember last night. Water soothed her a bit but as soon as she could think properly, everything rushed back.

Leaving for the washroom, feeling dizzy, someone grabbing her.

Trapped with Chris, pushing him away, Going for the lamp.

She remembered his hands violating her, his degrading sentences, his vile sinister look. She suddenly felt dirty, so very dirty. She glanced around the room and was about scream when she recognized the messy dark hair. She had no clue what had happened after she passed out. She didn't know what Chris did to her, no idea when or how Ian found her, and what happened to Chris. 

Feeling sick, she quickly scampered to the bathroom. A girl with messed up hair, swollen cheek, sunken eyes look back at her. She took off her shirt and came apart at the seams when she saw the purple-red bruised that scattered across her neck, collarbone, stomach, breasts. 

Trembling she removed the rest of her clothes and entered the shower. Increasing the temperature till the water was scalding. Her own skin felt filthy to her. She started scrubbing her to erase the feeling of his hands on her body. To erase how he had grabbed at her, how his hands roamed her body or his sickening mouth on her body. She grabbed at more soap and started scrubbing her body once again. She scrubbed till her skin was raw and red. Till it had little bruises scattered on her body, till blisters started forming because of the burning body. 

She still couldn't feel safe in her own skin, her own skin made her feel sick. She let out a scream and fell down on the shower floor. She couldn't breathe, everything started closing in on her. She was choking, suffocating. She was shaking, tears raining down her cheeks. She was trembling, screaming, shuddering. 

She didn't hear when the door banged open. She didn't feel when the shower stopped and when another body entered the shower. She didn't hear anyone speaking to her. She was choking, suffocating.

Some one pulled her closer to them. Some one forced her to look at them but she couldn't see them through her tear blurred eyes. She tried to quiet down, rocking herself, and she heard a deep velvety voice break through.

"- Rose, breathe, match my breaths, love please. I'm here, please, breathe, inhale, exhale-"

She opened her mouth and gasped, taking huge gulps of air. Ian went closer to her and cradled her in his arms as she tried to match his breaths. 

"- just like that, Rose, match my breaths. Inhale deeply and exhale for me, darling-"

She tried to match his breaths, feeling his chest moving up and down. She tried to quieten her palpitating heart, trying to match his slow and steady heartbeat. 

"-That's good Rose, breathe, you are safe-"

She slowly calmed down and she had stopped hyperventilating. But she couldn't stop her tears, they kept flowing.

"- its okay, let it out. Its just me, Ian-"

She kept crying, her hands fisting the material of his shirt as he rocked them gently. He covered her naked body in his arms as he looked at the small bruises and marks on her back. They sat there like that for what felt like a hundred years to Rose, when she stopped crying. She released his shirt and looked up at him.

He looked at her and gave her gentle kiss on her temple. He draped his shirt on her shoulders and slowly stood up, picking her up with him. He carried her outside and set her down on the bed as she croaked out, "Home".

"Yes, love. Drink this water first." He said handing her some tablets and water.

He helped her dress her up and then carried her to the car, thanking Neil on the way. They drove back home and the whole time Rose stared out of the window. On reaching home, she quickly walked up the stairs and Ian followed her up with a first aid kit.

She sat down her bed and he lifted the back of her shirt. He took some ointment out on his palm as he started applying it on the bruises and blisters.

 "D-Did he...?" She croaked out.

"No, I found you." He replied in a gentle tone.

"How d-did you f-find me?"

"I realized a while later and checked the rooms." 

"What happened to h-him?" 

"He is hospitalized for broken ribs, broken nose, slight concussion, dislocated jaw and shoulder." He informed her.

"Did y-you beat him up?"

"Of course."

"But w-won't they find you? Won't they take you away?"

"Don't you worry about that, love." He replied as he applied the ointment to last of her wounds. Pulling her shirt down, he started applying the cream to bruises on her legs and hands.

"What happened e-exactly?"

"As soon as you left, Layla confronted me. I realized a while later she was just trying to rile me up to distract me. And that's when I realized that you were late. And everything clicked in place."

"H-He knew", She hiccupped," He knew that we met with the victims."

"Shh baby, nothing is going to happen to them. I have my men keeping an eye on them and him as well." He said finishing up. 

He laid her down on the bed and covered her with the duvet as he said, "Sleep, you must be tired." It had been a long time since her last panic attack, he thought.

"...you?" She asked him, not wanting to be left alone.

"I can sleep on the couch if you want."

"Sleep with me." She requested.

"Okay" He smiled at her softly and got in bed next to her.

He kept a distance first, both facing each other. But she slowly slid towards him and he pulled her close to himself and they both drifted to sleep.