ACROSS

13

So you could imagine the shock on both Matthew and Tina Knowles faces when they'd opened up their front door to the sight of their bleeding, teary eyed neighbors daughter.

Both parents rushed the disoriented girl into the house almost jumping out of freight at seeing their eight year old wide awake standing at the foot of the stairs.

Beyoncé's eyes stayed fixated on the girl for a good second trying to make sense of the sight before her.

She looked from the girl to her parents in a search for answers but upon realizing she wouldn't get any.. at least not now. She ran towards her best friend.

Onika flinched back at the sudden action hiding behind Tina whilst gripping on to the woman's night gown for dear life.

She was completely disoriented and out of it. She'd kept on glancing to the door every few seconds for fear of her parents finding out about her whereabouts.

Matthew seeing that the girl would most likely not be able to walk up the stairs on her own two feet picked her frail and fragile body up. It was obvious by how light she was that she was extremely underweight for her age.

"Why're you still awake?" Tina asks her daughter still in shock from the whole events of the past barely five minutes, glancing towards the clock in the living room to see it was just a little over 2am in the morning.

"I couldn't sleep. Is Nika going to be okay?" She asks not even staying for a reply as she follows her father who was carrying the crying girl up the stairs.

Tina followed closely behind not even having the heart to tell Beyoncé to go back to sleep.. she knew the girl wouldn't.

Matthew lead them into the guest room. "You might have to clean her up. I'm sure she won't be very comfortable with me in the room. I'll go prepare some warm milk in the kitchen for her." He spoke a little quietly to his wife so the two girls on the bed wouldn't be able to hear them.

Onika was sitting on the bed staring straight ahead at the blank wall not exactly focused on what she was even staring at whilst Beyoncé had her hands in the girls hands rubbing slow circles on the back of her palm. She had tears falling from her eyes now, matching that on the face of her best friend.

She'd always been very empathetic. Feeling bad or sad for a pain or burden that wasn't even hers to carry and everyone knew that about her but this scenario especially hurt Beyoncé.

She'd seen the burns, scars, marks and lacerations on the body of that of her best friend. It made her mad. It made her angry. Angry and feeling a deep resentment for whoever had done it to her.

She so badly wanted to punch their face in... but sadly she couldn't. There was only so much an eight year old could do.

Sighing Tina walks back over to the bed just as Matthew leaves the room. "Let's get you bathed baby." She smiles a small smile hoping to at least make the girl feel a little.. even if just a tiny bit feeling of safety but Onika just slowly nodded still having that distant look in her eyes.

Like one that had been severely traumatized.

"Can you please bring in some towels and a pair of your nighties?" Tina asked her eight year old who nodded getting ready to stand up but Onika was quick to grip her hand.

"No!" She screamed, that was the first word she'd uttered since she'd ran over here for safety. She didn't want Beyoncé away from her. Beyoncé provided her warmth and safety and comfort.

She couldn't leave even for a second..

"D-don't go.. p-please?" Onika whimpers holding on tighter to the girl who was quick to pull her into a tight hug shaking her head 'no.' "I'm not going anywhere." She whispers.