TRAPPED

Chapter Twenty: Connecting

!! TRIGGER WARNING !!
This chapter contains subtle mentions of a suicide attempt and self harm. Reader discretion is advised.

ASHER

All six of us ate pretty quickly, considering the fact we were all explaining what had happened to each of us. Brooke and April in the main room, the three teens in the two different rooms, and Phoenix and me. Penny and I both knew that something happened while we were gone getting the food, but we didn't want to overstep and ask what it was. It seemed personal. Once we all finished, everyone dispersed and sort of stuck to themselves. As for me, there was someone I needed to talk to. I walk over to her and sit down next to her.

She's still out cold. Her body is covered by a blanket, her head lying on the stiff carpet floor, and her arm completely covered in bandages. I sigh deeply.

"I'm sorry," I whisper.

"I'm sorry that I made you do this."

I stare at her face. Eyes entirely shut, the complexity of her face being colorless, her dark hair spread out onto the floor, her lips formed in a straight line.

"Why did you do it?" I whisper, quieter.

My mind flashes to when I was back in the safe, listening to her soft voice apologizing and asking me to take care of everyone. She sounded so scared. So sad. So defeated. And I couldn't do anything. I was stuck in place, barely able to move. I sat there, listening to her cry, and I did nothing.

I scoff. I'm pathetic. I'm still letting something from fourteen years ago control my life. My mind flashes to another image. That image of her lying on the floor, her own blood pooling around her. I remember the feeling of my heart dropping. I wanted to throw up the second I laid eyes on her.

I snap out of my trance of images and let my eyes wander down to her arm.

"Why? Why would you do it? Did someone force you to do it? Did you do it by your own free will? Or..did someone do it for you?" I think to myself.

I take a deep breath, then stand up.

"Please wake up," I whisper hopefully, before turning around and walking over to Penny.

I need to take my mind off of her for a minute. If I think about her any longer, I might end up not leaving her side until she wakes up. I sit down next to Penny, leg starting to bounce the second I take a seat. She looks at me with an expression of concern.

"You good?" She asks.

I nod.

"Are you sure?" She asks again.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just checking up on her."

Penny nods. I know she can probably tell there's something more going on in my head, but she ultimately decides not to pry.

"I should thank her when she wakes up," Penny states.

I laugh a bit.

"Shouldn't I be the one to thank her?"

Penny shrugs.

"If it wasn't for her, you'd probably still be in that safe and dead from lack of oxygen."

I stare at her and blink a few times at her bluntness.

"With you dead, I'd have no one. So, I'm gonna thank her."

I smile softly.

"Well, you made friends with Sam and June, right?"

"Well, yeah, but they're not family. You and Hunter..you're my family."