A World of our Own | K.TH *COMPLETED*

Save Her

After I take a quick shower to clean the blood off of my body, I hurry to the nightstand beside my bed, where my phone lay open from last night.

127 messages, and no reply.

And worse, at the bottom of the page, the Read sign shows that he's read every single one of them. Yet, he hadn't given me a single letter as a reassurance to let me know that he was there.

But of course not. He hates you now, remember?

Blowing out a soft breath, I ruffle my soaked hair as I type two entries. Just two, nothing more, nothing less. Trust me, there's a million messages I want to send him, to tell him. But I'm afraid that he'll block me, and then I'll have no way of getting it back.

My fingers fly across the keyboard as I form each and every word with care, making sure that it's necessary for the message. I want to write paragraphs and paragraphs of asking for forgiveness, but all I really have is a few sentences. In the end, I come up with two blocks of text, and without giving it too much thought, I press send.

Now he knows.

If he even reads it.

Pulling back my hair into a ponytail, I fling a jacket around my shoulders and head out for the door. I remember how to get to his mother's house from the first time V took me there, and I follow my memory as I turn corners and walk down narrow alleys.

It's a wonder that I don't get lost.

By the time I get there, I've given up on the ponytail because the chill had become too harsh on the tender skin of my neck. When I see the familiar doorway, my blushed cheeks brighten up.

Be brave.

Taking a deep breath, I raise my hand and knock— quickly brushing my fingers through my tangled, moist hair. I didn't want to be seen as ragged when his mother came out to check who it was.

It's not his mother at all.

The breath I breathe freeze in the air as the last person I want to see comes out to answer the door. When his eyes land on me, he immediately pushes me outside, closing the door tightly behind him.

I had been rash. I had been stupid, blinded by my desire to make things right. I hadn't thought things through, and now I was paying for my dumb actions.

I'd made a serious, serious mistake.

A panicked scream tears from my throat when his hand claps over my lips, with such brutality that my head jerks back harshly.

"You're more stupid than I thought," he hisses as he drags me into the shadows of an alley. Another scream fills my throat as he pushes me against the wall, but his hand hasn't left my lips yet, and I can smell the distinct stench of alcohol and smoke.

No.

No, no, no.

Without warning, pain explodes on my shoulder as he slams his hand against the fragile skin. His breath is hot against my cheek, his disgusting face inches from my own.

I never should've come here—

Another instinctive cry leaves my mouth as he flings my body to the ground, his foot driving into my stomach like a heated poker. Tears fill my eyes as I taste blood on my lips.

I didn't know.

I couldn't even take a few strikes, and V had suffered through countless hours and hours of this torture— all for the sake of his mother.

"Don't faint, girl. Not yet."

With a smug, sick grin, he kicks me in the side so hard that a agonizing spasm travels through my entire body. When the ruthless beating stops for a few, heavenly seconds, I don't even have the energy to cry out for help.

Nobody would come, anyway.

Pain screams through my shoulder as I move my arm to touch my right cheek. The skin is raw, and my fingers come away drenched with thick crimson.

Then he slams his fist into my head, and everything goes as dark as night would be if there wasn't a moon and stars to look upon.

V's POV

Everything is darker than before.

It was for the better.

Unthinkable rage burns through me as the voice rings through my head, and my urge to choke the life out of that damned thing gets so powerful that I find my own hands wrapped around my own neck.

Then a burst of light interrupts the darkness, and I see that its source is my phone. Two messages— and unsurprisingly, it's from her.

Don't look at it.

I don't listen to you anymore.

V—

I'm sorry for being this way. If I was a normal, unbroken seventeen year old, everything would've turned out so much better. I completely understand why you want to stay away from me, and I won't bother you. Not anymore. But I wanted to tell you that you're the best thing that ever happened to me, and I will never forget my love for you.

Pure numbness spreads through my body as I read the last few phrases of her message.

She loved me, and I loved her back.

Stop this atrocity.

Shut the fuck up.

Without hesitation, I continue onto the next text message, and the numb emotion is quickly replaced by panic and fear. The phone drops from my hands as I struggle up to my feet, not even bothering to throw on a jacket as I rush to her apartment.

When I slam my fist against my door and she doesn't answer, I realize I'm too late. I only let terror drive my feet as I run out of the apartment and towards my mother's house.

And I pray that I'm not too late.