Taint, Time and Tangents✔️

≑ Chapter Twenty-Three

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Cover on the Multimedia made by: prettyinBLUEx15 (whocares).   

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 C H A P T E R    T W E N T Y - T H R E E

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CALLIE 

Empty.

If there would be a word that could describe what I was feeling right now – if there's even any – it was that simple five- letter word.

I felt empty.

I felt ridiculously drained and now slowly starting to feel numb as my insides gnawed what little emotions were left within me.

I stared at the opposite wall, unblinking, as I contemplated that it was so wrong for me to feel this emptiness because right from the beginning, I was never complete... never filled with anything. I was just a hollow shell- pretending to be intact, feigning contentment- yet inside, there was nothing other than a huge space of solitude and desolation.

Everything was just my wishful thinking- a misleading flame in this gullible heart, for I have the mind of a typical girl who gives meaning to one simple glance, one simple smile - the heroine who was always the one getting hurt at the end of the story.  

A sudden muffled howl from the wind outside followed by violent rattling of the closed windows was what pulled me back to my senses, back to this merciless world. A familiar surge of sickness and panic drowned me as snips of what happened last night flashed on my mind.

Shivering uncontrollably, my cold hands pulled the edge of the thick blanket closer to my neck, covering completely the frail, damaged body underneath which was mine. With the lights out and windows shut, silence was my only companion.

It was pitch dark but it was still not enough.

I closed my eyes tightly, my lips shaking as I tried to drive away the sickening memories of last night out of my head. But it was not helping in any way, knowing that the four walls surrounding me were the same walls that had witnessed how my dignity was stripped away from me.

I was on the verge of crying again - if there were even tears left- when my eyes were blinded by a sudden flood of light. Creaking of hinges and light steps against the floor invaded my ears as I adjusted my vision, my heavy eyes hurting in the process.  

"You didn't touch your food."

I didn't have to look up to know who it was.

His voice was still mellow- gentle as always- but for some reason, a hint of sadness and guilt was mixed with it.  

My eyes, now accustomed to the lights coming from the small bulb overhead, stayed on the small junction between the wall and floor on the left corner of the room. I didn't want to look at him or to look at anyone else. If it was because of I felt weak, ashamed or angry- I didn't know.

A pair of legs behind denim pants crossed my line of vision and stopped just a few feet from the edge of the bed but I still let my eyes be fixed on the wall, unblinking.

I heard a deep sigh before Eight spoke again, "Eat."  

A brief sound of glass being placed against a wood made me think that he brought another plate with him filled again with bunch of food that I don't even feel like looking at.