Where We Stay

Chapter 4.1 - My Fourth Reason

Chapter 4.1 - My Fourth Reason

I was standing outside the window of a house that still haunts my nightmares. First everything was silent, I could only hear my ragged breathing. My eyes widened when I heard strangling, and then strangled screams.

“PLEASE! NO! PLEASE! NO! STOP!” a girl’s voice rang in my ears, the room was dark and I could only make out the silhouette of two people. I felt my legs shook underneath me, I felt like someone was grabbing hold of my lungs making it hard to breathe. All I could do was stare at the scene before me. I heard a trunk open, one figure - a boy - opened the lock. My insides did a flip-flop at the memory. I bit my lip, trying to stop myself from crying out. Tears were flowing free down my eyes. Her eyes were blindfolded.

“NO PLEASE STOP! DON’T DO THIS! PLEASE I BEG OF YOU!” she pleaded. She was pushed roughly to the floor until she was on her hands and knees. He kicked her so that she was on her back, coughing and pleading. He straddled her, taking her hands and tying it together. You could see her struggling trying to fight him off, kicking and thrashing. He tied her feet as well and pulled her up. 

He leaned close to her face. “SHUT UP!” he yelled, taking a piece of cloth before gagging her with it muffling her screams. He leaned his head close to her ear. “You belong to me now.” he whispered.

He pushed her inside the trunk. He pushed her head down and locked the trunk. You could see it shudder as she tried to free herself. There was a brief strike of lightning in the skies above, a signal of an incoming storm. I couldn’t breathe when I saw his eyes, looking out the window, staring right through me. He moved forward, walking towards the window. For a brief moment fear flashed through me, my heart raced with anxiety. “No.” I whispered. “Don’t come near me.” I took a couple steps back, and hit against something hard. Before I could turn around a pair of hands clasped around, and I started struggling. “NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!” I yelled, thrashing. “GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!” But the arms held me closer and tighter.

“It’s okay, I’m here.” I heard a voice whisper, I stopped thrashing, and looked to see who it was, finding Constantine staring at me with a worried expression. I looked around me again, we were at a different place now. We weren’t outside the house, I didn’t make out where we were since my tears blurred my vision as I sobbed like a child.

I felt Constantine’s arms closed around me tighter, I feel his chin on my head, muttering comforting words. “It’s okay, I’m here.” he repeated. “I’ll protect you.”

“Not him Constantine, please don’t let me go through that. Please. I don’t think I can make it out sane if I see that happen to me again. Please.” I pleaded between sobs.

“I’m sorry.” he whispered, he sounded so genuine I looked at his face to see he wasn’t faking it. "I can't do that." 

“Please, I don’t want to go back.” I sobbed. I saw his eyes hesitate before lifting a shaky hand to my face and wiped my tears away with his thumb. He skin was cool, he seemed unsure if he should be doing it. His thumb was gentle on my skin, barely making contact.

"It's just a hurdle that you need to get over, it’ll be over before it even starts.” he reassured. I shook my head. He held me within arm’s reach and he stared at me intently. “It’s okay, I’m here.” he whispered. “Trust me.”

As soon as these words slip from his mouth, we disappeared.

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