A/N: 3,000 reads! 134 votes and 128 comments! I cant even. Thank you guys so much.
Dedication goes to Mammoetje (yes, I've started dedicating to commenters, because I just love them so much rright now) for her amazing comments and awesome support AND from being from Neverland!!!! AAAAAHHHHH, okay she's actually from the netherlands, but I like Neverland better, so there!!! No, but really, I find that just absolutely fasinating. Please tell be if you are not american! I will fangirl so hard.
CHAPTER TEN
Open Wounds and Desperation
I didn’t know.
When William carried her in, that night, he didn’t say a word about what had happened when he’d picked her up. And she was fast asleep in his arms.
I was completely unprepared that night; when the screaming started, there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t even touch her.
And it was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do, see, or hear.
And I had no idea why.
~Claire Pia
*July 8, 2013*
Screaming. It was loud and raw and terrified. Terrifying. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I knew that it was me; I was making that horrible, wretched sound. But I couldn’t seem to stop. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. No, that wasn’t completely true; I could think.
But I wished that I couldn’t.
Where was he?!? I kept grabbing at the wood of the wall and the floor in the corner, but he wasn’t there. He wasn’t there. My eyes darted frantically, not even avoiding the bed that I hunched and cringed and curled away from, trying to find him.
Because if he wasn’t here, then nothing would stop it from happening.
Pure terror made my eyes dilate, and by the time Claire found me, I was incoherent. I didn’t recognize her, fighting and clawing at her touch, pulling as far from it as I could.
Desperate, she must have called Mrs. Bransen, but I would not even calm for her. Like an animal that’s been beaten until it doesn’t recognize those that it once loved, I didn’t know even her.
And, all the while, my screams continued to rip the air.
* * *
It had been almost three hours and Roza’s nearly inhuman screams still shook the very foundation of the little duplex. Mrs. Bransen had long since left, unable to stomach the ripping sound of the small girl’s purest terror and utter pain.
The worst part was, she seemed to be saying something, asking for someone, but her fear and desperation garbled her words so much so as to make the meaning indecipherable. And no one could calm her.
Claire stood in the doorway, unable to pull herself away, her face blanched and deathly white, dark circles bagged under her eyes.
However, when James came back out of the kitchen, a cup of herbal tea in either hand, Claire’s head snapped up.
William. William had been the last one to speak to Roza before-
She was across the room in an instant, her cell up to her ear before she could even fully process her actions. As she heard the dial tone start up, she thought better of it and put the device down on the table, putting the phone on speaker instead.
