Selena

22 | Scars

SELENA MONTGOMERY

"About a year ago, I was dating this guy. Of course, Adam didn't approve because I was his little sister dating one of her brother's men. I loved him a lot, I really loved him Selena. As much as you love Adam and he loves you. I wa-"

"Wait, what? I don't love Adam. What are you talk about?"

"If I could see you two together it would be even more obvious. You both have a physical and emotional connection. When Adam introduced you, his heartbeat......" She trails off and then giggles.

"Can we just continue the story please?" I narrow my eyes at her suspiciously. 

"Right! Where was I...oh, yeah, got it. I was deeply in love with him and I thought he felt the same way, but he didn't reciprocate my feelings. On Christmas, he kidnapped me. He told me he was only dating me to try and overthrow my brother's business. My brother had just taken over for our grandfather so everything was a bit unstable." 

"I was with him for four months. It felt like years. He tortured me everyday. Sometimes I would pass out for multiple days from exhaustion and he would torture me while I was unconscious as well. I could still feel it all."

"He sent Adam my fingers, and then my hands, then my forearms, and finally the only flesh still hanging from my shoulders. He cut out my eyes after that. I lost a lot of blood, but he kept me alive. That's when my brother found me." Felicity says it all with no emotions, blunt and straightforward. Not sugarcoating a single word. 

"Did he not demand anything of Adam?" Felicity shakes her head. 

"That's the problem. He wanted nothing. He didn't want Adam's business he wanted to see him suffer instead. Adam offered him everything after he received the first finger, but he turned it down. We still don't know why..." She trails off again as I try to process it all. I wasn't expecting something so gruesome. 

"Now, I think it's your turn to tell me a story." Her redirect was fast, but not missed.

Oh crap, I actually have to live up to this deal, but I guess because she paid up it's my turn now.

I mean I've told Adam one of my nightmares, but that was only about my parents and it was one of the earlier physical abuses.

"It's a long story so you better get comfy."

"Ever since I can remember, my parents have abused me verbally. When I was around five years old, my mom started beating me and pushing me around. She was addicted to drugs and was always high or passed out. I don't think I ever saw her sober. She even forced me to get high when I was really young. My father always yelled at me too, but when I was around seven he started to hurt me too. He would cut my skin, use me as a punching bag, and put out his cigarettes on my skin."

"He was a drunk most of the time. But unlike my mom, I saw him sober. He was a really angry and cruel drunk, but he was worse sober. On top of that, when I started high school I was instantly every kid's target. I was mostly bullied by the popular crowd."

"They did silly things like tear up my clothes, write names on my locker, trip me, and just make fun of me. It was still hard to take. Not worse than my own parents doing it to me of course. Then on my first day of eleventh grade..."

I take a deep breath trying to calm my breathing and Felicity's face has no expression. Not saying whether I should stop or go on. I don't know why but it's so easy to tell her everything. Just let it all pour out. But I know I can't tell her about New York. I'll have to stop it at Clay. He may have stripped me of my innocence, but New York turned me into a monster. So I continue.

"A new kid shows up on a motorcycle. He had tattoos on his arms and is smoking a cigarette. His name was Clay."

Saying his name out loud makes me freeze. Afraid of his presence being summoned. I don't whether he's alive or dead, but hopefully it's the latter.

"He had a sidekick Brody. When we first met he saved me from the 'populars'. He wanted to know my name and whenever he would talk to me his voice got kinder, softer, and gentle. When I finally told him my name out of fear, he loved it. Though he loved my first name he loved my middle name even more, Katrina. He called me by it all the time. He looked so dangerous, yet when I was around him he lightened up and smiled. He always would say I was his precious angel.

One day, I didn't show up at school. My father had taken the day off at work and invited his pervert friends from work. He made me stay home to serve them, more than just drinks. Clay showed up just in time to save the day. He pulled out his gun and kicked all the men out of the house but his own and my father.

Brody attended to my cuts and bruises while Clay took my father into his study. There was yelling and afterwards Clay had gathered my stuff into a suitcase and we were leaving. Later, I moved into his gang's house and that's when everything changed.

He started to get really possessive saying that he owned me. He would never stop talking about the day he would take away my innocence. The things he would do to me was a whole different level. It hurt so much."

I choked on my tears they just wouldn't stop and when Felicity tried to move closer to me I continued.

"He got more and more tattoos all about me. He made me watch and give him a show while he was getting them done. One tattoo he got was the most painful. He got a skull on his back and above the skull's empty eyes was a sideways K. K for Katrina. He tattooed me as well with his own brands.

The day he took my innocence was the worst of them all. The only thing I had left to myself he took. My virtue and dignity. He never stopped and every day after that one he raped me. This was all in the same year Felicity, the same year.
But I had been making a plan. To escape. I finally did it after school was over. He wanted me to carry his children and I cried so hard that night he just left me alone.

I jumped out the window and ran. Ran until I reached a bus stop. The driver, a kind old lady, said I could hop on and the next stop was New York City. The first thing I did when I got there was to find a knife and scrape off the flesh where Clay's tattoos stained my skin. I still have the scars. They are faint, but remind me of my freedom."

For a while Felicity didn't say anything. "I still have nightmares about him too. When I was little I was afraid of the dark and now I don't know what to do. It's always surrounding me. It's all I see–"

"and so you surround yourself with light. That's why you are always happy. But just so you know it's okay to have nightmares if you didn't I doubt that would be healthy." I finish her thought. 

She laughs and her laugh is so contagious I just have to join in.

We stop suddenly when we here an

"I'm home!"

and Adam barges through his bedroom door.

He looks back and forth between me and Felicity. From my tear stained cheeks to her rosy ones. A confused and really cute look passed across his face.

"What did I miss?"