Run To Me | BAK sequel

4.

"Where?" Rosie's stubbornness was muffled by her thumb that she stuck between her teeth making you scowl but not say anything. She was in a bad enough mood and the tear streaks that stained her face were proof of it.

"It's a surprise."

You smile thinking about where you were planning to drag your girl too- a place she'd been begging you to take her too for months especially after seeing the advertisements on the television.

"Promise it's not grandads?" She sticks a little pinky out and you take it without hesitation, giving the pinky a little squeeze before pulling away. You try to ignore her saliva that touches your palm, remembering that you'd had worse in the past.

"Promise." You smile and Rosie crawls over- you almost let out a sigh of relief seeing the girl drift further away from the edge of the bed.

"Now," You start. Finally being able to reach her, you toy with the curls that sat on top of her head- some hanging freely and some tangled between others. "We need to sort out these curls."

"Cut them o-"

"No!"

-

The therapist stared the small girl down. Little brown curls littered her forehead like springs as she fiddled with the teddy bear in her hands. It was a little bit tattered at the edges, a certain spot of fur matted together but it was the little blue bear that she'd had since birth, the one that hid at the bottom of her junior school bag because she refused to go to school without it... some days. Some days she preferred the small, white and slightly creepy looking elephant.

Her hands. Red, raw, bloody. Your own daughter, falling apart right before your very eyes.

"Rosie?" The therapist asks, trying to come to eye level with your daughter but it was difficult. Despite her blabbering on about how independent (without actually using that word) and brave she is, she struggled to even look into the eyes of a stranger.

"Rose?" You whisper, bobbing your knee up and down to get the small girls attention. "Can you talk to the lady please?"

"I don't want to be here." She mumbles, bottom lip falling into a pout. "I wanna go home. Mom- I'd rather be at grandads." She grumbles the last sentance, eyes falling hard and sharp.

You take one of her hands in your own, thumb gently running over the little pink and white hello kitty band-aids. She doesn't seem to notice, looking at the pile of kids toys that sat in the corner of the room.

"Harper just wants to help you like she helps me." You try to prevent your voice from shaking and almost fail too if it weren't for a quick side eye from the therapist. "She's nice, sweetheart."

Your daughter was never difficult, on edge definitely and you partially blamed yourself. She'd been bought up seeing you hide in a shell both of your old self and one of pure fear and terror, merely smiling and sometimes not even leaving the bed. On those days your daughter would lay next to you, a rerun of teen titans or how to train your dragon on Netflix. She surely heard your screams in the very middle of the night and saw you freak out whenever she was too loud.

"No, mum." Your daughter looks up, her glassy eyes finally off of the teddy bear. She begins wriggling around in your arms, the small girl grunting as she fails down your lap. "I wanna play with the toys."

You were unsure but eventually sigh, letting her go. The four old jumps down, little legs making their way towards what children would call 'Heaven'. There were lego pieces and board games and the odd Rubix cube but your attention was directed towards her little hands, the size of a large tomato but that didn't worry you, what did was the fact that her hands were the color of one.