"Can I just be alone for a little?" I ask quietly turning my back on them once again. My emotions are raging wild and I need to get them back under control before I let anyone see them.
"Sure sweetie," Gladys says trying to sound cheerful. "We'll be right outside the door. Call when you're done." She and the guards leave the room and I sit staring at the piano for another minute before I reach out to play again. This time the tune is angry and wild filled with all the hatred buried deep in my heart. I crash my fingers down on the keys harder than I should and pour my soul into the music. I play a dozen different melodies linking them all together and letting them spill out of me.
Its hours before I'm so tired I have to stop. My fingers are sore and my arms ache but I feel better somehow - more content. "Wow that was probably the most depressing thing I've heard all day!" says a voice behind me causing me to startle and almost fall off the bench.
"Who the hell are you?" I demand turning to see a figure standing in the shadows of the room. I've been playing in the dark with only the light from the night sky outside for light.
I hear giggling as a little girl steps out from the shadows. Wait she isn't a little girl just a really short girl my age. She's tiny just a couple inches above five feet by my count. It's her eyes that make her look older, her face is delicate and all little girl innocent looking but her eyes are deep blue and have a much older look to them. Her black hair is loose around her shoulders but I can see a scar on her neck that her hair doesn't cover.
"My names Celeste but everyone calls me Cece," she says smiling at me. "I already know who you are so we can skip the introductions and get straight to our friendship!"
For a second I just stare at her then a laugh escapes my lips, "Are you serious? Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?"
She sighs at me impatiently while coming over and perching on the lid of the piano, "I told you my name is Cece. I'm a patient here and no I'm not a werewolf so don't bother asking."
"You're not a werewolf?" I ask confused. "What are you then?"
"Well my boyfriend is a werewolf," she says brightly. "I'm his mate so he brought me here to be treated for my heart condition. I have a weak heart and needed to have surgery. Right now I'm in recovery. I could have gone to a normal hospital but mister big shot alpha wouldn't hear of it. He demanded I go to a hospital where he could station guards around me and come visit me whenever he please not that he couldn't have done that at a regular hospital but now I'm here and I get to meet you."
"You still haven't told me what you are," I prompt warily.
"Oh right that!" replies Cece giggling. "Well most people call it psychic or a seer. I can see the future not always clearly but I can see it."
"Are you serious?" I respond blankly.
"Of course I am silly! My entire family has always had the sight and mine is the strongest of my siblings. I knew you were going to be here this afternoon because of the rain and decided that you needed a friend. You can't lock yourself away forever."
"The hell I can't!" I snap at her. "Besides it's not even my fault I'm locked up in here it's his fault!"
"That's not what I meant," she says shaking her head and hopping off the piano to come stand by me. "You've locked yourself away in here." She taps her finger over my heart. "You don't want to let anyone in anymore except your little girl because against all odds you want to live for her but at the same time you find yourself begging for death. Am I right?"
Her question is rhetorical - I can see it in her eyes. She already knows the answer to her question but she knows I need to have these questions asked because I'm too afraid to face them myself. I'm scared to losing myself again. That dead feeling I felt when I was on the bridge is lurking around the edges of my mind waiting for me to show weakness. It scares me more than anything in the world and I'm afraid that if people see it they'll never let me see Poppy again.
"What's wrong with me?" I ask in a broken voice, lightning flashes and a huge clap of thunder cracks in the sky shaking me to my core. I feel lost and suddenly very alone. Tears start to leak out of my eyes and the next thing I know I've broken down and am sobbing while some strange girl I don't even know tries to comfort me.
''Shh," whispers Cece as she pats my back and brushes my hair over my shoulder. "It's all going to work out. You're stronger than they think. . . Hell you're stronger than you think! Sure life sucks now but in the end you'll be happy."
"You do realize that I'm never getting out of here?" I ask Cece my voice shaky as I look up to meet her eyes. "He'll never let me leave. Not after I tried to kill myself."
"What so just because he said so you're going to let yourself waste away in here?" demands Cece as she tosses back her hair and puts her hands on her hips. Seconds ago she was comforting me and now she's challenging me. This girl is a constant surprise. "You may not love or trust him but you do love your baby."
"Poppy is the light of my life and I don't know if I could - could end my life now that she's in it," I respond as I spread my fingers across the keys and look down at them. "If I have to live I can only do it for her."
"Then do it for her!" Cece says throwing her hands in the air. "It's time to stop feeling sad for yourself and letting this darkness rule your life! It's time to embrace the light! - but only figuratively. Don't do the whole "into the light' shit."
I laugh for what feels like the first time in months as her face scrunches at her final words. Even she knows she's talking nonsense at the end there but it's still funny. Maybe she's right about us being friends. She's certainly right about me having to pull the tattered remnants of my life back together.
A/N
Wow it's been a while since I last posted anything for this story but I was inspired by PattyleFangirl who commented on my first chapter making me want to actually write another part for this story. So thanks Patty :D Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!
Healing Hurts
Start from the beginning
