When Love Walked In

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

That summer two years ago changed everything for me. They changed me. So many things had happened that year. I had (unknowingly) met Damien and possibly made a friend. I was anticipating the start of my high school like and making a fresh start. But before that I would be going to Paris. I loved Paris and being part-French on my mother’s side played a big role in my love for the city. I even became best friends with Victoria and gotten close to her family, especially her older brother. But after what happened, I hated the place. It only brought back painful memories for me.

            I was thirteen years old. I was young and I was stupid. I was still learning. I was just a kid; a kid who was excited about going to high school and changing her life. I made my first friend. I had my first crush on a guy who I knew nothing about and never got the chance to see; someone who I only talked to over the phone with and had a really cute panda strip. 

            I was crying now, the tears spilling down my face. Damien wiped the tears from my cheeks with his warm hands and pushed the hair out of my eyes. “It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. . .”

            Damien only nodded and waited patiently for me to continue. “. . . especially not my parents. My dad, he . . . thinks it’s his fault but it’s not . . .”

            “Of course it isn’t,” he said.

            “It happened so fast. They just came out of nowhere . . .”

            Damien looked anxious now. “Its okay, Amber.”

            I swallowed the big lump in my throat. “They . . . They raped me. . .” The three words I fear most. Three words I haven’t heard in two years.

            His hold tightened on me significantly. “What?” The green orbs I had grown so fond of turned a stormy black.

            “They pushed me down the stairs . . . locked me in the basement. They would chain me to the wire bed I had to sleep on. They . . . They . . .”

            It all came rushing back at me and I clutched at my chest. “And . . . I killed him . . . I remember my bony fingers wrapped around the cold, steel handle . . . and stabbing him, over and over again. Even after he was dead and his lifeless eyes stared back at me . . . I couldn’t stop.”

            Damien was staring at me with his eyes wide open. They were still a storm of angry clouds. His hands shook violently in mine and his body looked constricted, as if he were trying to keep himself from bursting. “Amber . . .”

            “I was only thirteen, Damien. Why did I have to go through all of that when I was only thirteen?” My shoulders were shaking and my sobs came out hiccup. I was swimming in tears and Damien was my lifejacket.

            He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me flush against him, smoothing my hair. He didn’t say anything and I’m more than thankful for that. I only wrapped my arms around his neck and held on for dear life, letting his jacket soak up my ocean.