Hell's Fire (Sebastian Michealis Love Story)

Chapter 7

Demetria bit her lip hesitantly before standing up, her back to Elizabeth. She covered her breasts with her arms and looked down, her wet hair covering her face as Elizabeth gasped in horror and surprise.

    “What… what happened to you?” Elizabeth asked, tearing her eyes away from Demetria’s back. Demetria remained silent for a moment before quietly speaking.

    “There was a man… he was upset with me for some reason….” Demetria sighed softly, and continued on, her voice soft and quiet. “I don’t know what it was… but one day he took me right off the streets… and… he hurt me… day after day after day….” She bit her lip, trying to push away the thoughts of what happened in that dark room every day since that man picked her right up out of that dark alleyway. Demetria realized she had told Elizabeth the truth… but if Elizabeth was to be her friend, she must trust her, and tell her the truth. Yet… why didn’t she tell Sebastian the truth? She trusted Sebastian… right?

Lizzy got the idea that Demetria didn’t like to talk about it, and no longer wished to talk about it, and dropped the subject.

“No matter, you’re safe now. Now, let’s get you into this dress.” Demetria nodded, and Elizabeth turned away to grab the dress as Demetria got of the tub, standing on the cold linoleum flooring, her wet and suddenly cold hair sticking to the back of her neck and her face. Elizabeth turned around and handed the dress to Demetria. “I assume you can get that on yourself.” Elizabeth said, noticing Demetria’s stomach, but not commenting on it. Demetria nodded thankfully and turned away from Elizabeth, Elizabeth also turning away, grabbing her brush and Demetria’s former dress as Demetria slipped on the new dress.

    “Alright… what do we do now?” Demetria asked, turning back around so she was facing Elizabeth’s back. Lizzy turned around and smiled slightly.

    “I knew the dress would fit you!” Elizabeth said happily. Demetria smiled slightly and nodded. “Now, I suppose we head back to Sebastian’s room.” Elizabeth said, taking Demetria’s hand again, leading the older, yet more awkward girl out of the room. Lizzy closed the spare room’s door and opened the door to Sebastian’s room, bringing Demetria in.

    Sebastian looked up from his book, to see Demetria and Elizabeth walking back into his room. “I see you two ladies are done with the bath.” Elizabeth giggled and nodded, and Demetria simply stood behind Elizabeth, looking down at her feet. “Well, I’ll go and clean that up.” Sebastian said, putting a bookmark in his book, and setting it back onto the table. He stood up, and straightened his tie. Elizabeth nodded and Sebastian went to clean up the the tub and the water.

    Elizabeth sat Demetria down on the bed, and sat behind her. She started to braid Demetria’s hair, running the brush through Demetria’s hair one more time before separating it into three parts. She started to intertwine the parts, creating a braid like appearance.

“If you want… If you want to know about my time with the man… I’ll… I’ll tell you…” Demetria said, talking suddenly after her quietness.

“Oh… well you don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want.” Elizabeth said softly, finishing off braiding Demetria’s hair, by tying it off with a ribbon.

    “It’s alright… I want to…” Demetria said, and Elizabeth nodded slightly and Demetria took a deep breath and sighed softly. “Well… I think it was maybe ten or so years ago… I really don’t know… I lost track after five…” Demetria looked down at her lap-which Mr. Snuffums had now claimed as his bed. She gently pet Mr. Snuffums as she continued on with her story. “The man cornered me in an alleyway… he… he was mad at me for some reason, and said that he could finally get his revenge. I don’t really know what the revenge was for… but… he said it was my fault that ‘they’ were gone… I don’t really know who or what he was talking about… but he kept going on, and on, and on about it… He wouldn’t stop saying it…” Demetria sighed for a soft moment and closed her eyes, continuing on with her story. “Anyways… he just grabbed me, and dragged me to his carriage… at the time I was so confused, I had no idea what was happening.” Demetria frowned slightly, wishing she didn’t remember so much, before continuing on speaking. “He basically threw me into his carriage… I remember hitting my head pretty hard against the carriage wall and passing out… When I woke back up… I was in a dark and cold room… I remember feeling around on the wall for a light switch or something, but when I couldn’t find one, I gave up and sat on the ground. Eventually my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could make out a small bed in the corner of the room, and some other things in the room. It was maybe an hour later before the man actually came into the room and talked to me… I… I can’t remember what he said exactly…” Demetria paused for a moment, trying hard to think of what he had told her, only to be stopped with a headache when she couldn’t figure it out. She sighed and shook her head. “But that… that was the first night he…” Demetria took a shaky breath, hating to think of the night that it happened. Eventually she had adjusted to the pain of a whip, but soon he realized this and moved to a knife. In hindsight, she thought that it wasn’t the smartest idea, but he moved to untouched places that the whip couldn’t reach when she curled into a ball-dragging the knife across her arms and stomach… tender places that only caused her more pain then the whip had ever. “That was the first night he tortured me…” Demetria said, using the only word she could think of to explain what had happened to her in that dark, damp, cold room. The room where her only companions were the rats that dwelled in the corners of the room, waiting for the man to bring her food on the rare occasions that he did, only to snatch it from Demetria. The rats would wait till she was asleep to scamper about the room, looking for any scraps she could have left behind for the small amount of food she was able to stop the rats from getting.

    “I… I’m so sorry that had to happen to you Demetria…” Lizzy said softly, very upset with the man-whoever he was. “I would have never guessed…” Lizzy stated, her voice trailing off.

    “I… it’s alright…” Demetria said, turning to look at Lady Elizabeth. “It’s in the past right?” She said softly, before looking down at Mr. Snuffums who seemed to be slightly surprised by Demetria’s sudden movement.

    Elizabeth nodded slightly and hugged Demetria tightly and whispered softly in her ear. “You should get some sleep… you look awfully tired.” Elizabeth stated. Demetria nodded slightly and hugged back.

    Demetria mumbled softly, “You’re right… I am tired…” A yawn coming up only a few seconds later to prove her point. Elizabeth smiled and giggled softly before yawning herself, having caught the yawn from Demetria.

    “I’ll leave you be to get some rest now.” Elizabeth stated softly, getting off the bed, still holding Demetria’s ruined dress, and her own hairbrush. Demetria only nodded, thanked Lizzy quietly and laid down in the bed. Mr. Snuffums, being agitated my having to move again, only moved up closer to Demetria’s breast and fell asleep. Demetria closed her eyes and slowly drifted off into the land of sleep, hoping for no nightmares… only to be met by the ones she feared the most.