Hostages (Book 2)

Chapter 42

"What?" Back up.

My brows furrowed and my eyes narrowed, "Did you say cut?"

She told me she didn't do that, she said she recovered with a scratch. But the knowing look in her eyes as she looked down and the picking at her nail polish on her visible hands told me she lied.

"Show me."

There isn't anything on her wrist. Nor her arms or legs so where are they? Her head raised up to look at me when she parted her lips to speak but I already knew what she was going to say next.

"Show me the cut, Aria."

She probably heard the anger in my voice and I felt it. She let me walk around with a light conscious because she told me she never self harmed, and now I can already feel the hatred towards myself coming back as I prayed that the cut wasn't severe. She sighed in defeat then pulled the blanket a little off her body, she slowly raised the hem of Louis' shirt up her sand colored legs and over her hips. She stopped it little above the end of her ribcage and there it was. A gauze pad with red splattered in the center from underneath, my brows knitted closer as I moved closer to her and grazed my fingers over the tapped edges before glancing up at her reaction. She remained neutral when I started to peel at the tape so I took that as an okay and peeled the white napkin off her skin.

My hand froze as did my eyes when 3 deep cuts shown on her flawless waist, my throat started to get stuffy and I felt like I was about to throw up. I heard her faintly trying to get my attention but my mind stopped working. They were deep till I saw the many layers of her skin that tried to heal the wound, they were straight lines like she concentrated when she made them and so aligned that it looked like she did it with a fork. Why were they so deep? Why were there so many?

I heard her whisper. "I'm sorry."

They looked painful and scary. . And she did it cause of. . . I quickly moved myself away from her, my eyes still stuck on her waist not even mentioning that she was nearly exposed on her lower half.

"Why would you do this!?" My voice wasn't loud but strained.

"How could you do this to yourself!?" My eyes snapped up to hers where I saw them widen as they looked in mine, and I knew why.

I knew because I felt my eyes sting.

"You told me you didn't hurt yourself this way. You said you walked out fine," I broke "Why w-would you do this?"

You can't even consider those cuts. They look like stab wounds! There's no way she's coming back from those without a trace. She pulled the bandage back over it and lowered her shirt when I asked another thing I noticed.

"And why are they still bleeding?" It didn't make sense.

"They look fresh."

She applied pressure on it then temporarily glanced away. "Since I started having the nightmares,a day didn't go by where I didn't reopen them." She replied lowly.

Does she mean. . . My eyes widened.

She saw the realization. "The latest time was last night."

And that confirmed my theory.

Her words stabbed through me and the tranquility I felt before all of this was gone. How didn't I see this? Why didn't I just leave her along the day we met? I thought it was past her, I thought Zachary helped put this behind her. But there was still a scar in her mind that spelled me.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so so so sorry, Aria. I didn't mean for this to happen. . I'm so sorry." I pleaded as I started to cry in front of her.

I shouldn't be the one to cry, because I caused it. I made her do this, this just like me hitting her except I made her inflicted upon herself. Those will now be some scars and all I have to say about it is sorry. A small word that won't equivalent to how awful I feel.