Never the Same

Chapter 28

"Do you need someone to help you?" She asks.

I manage to shake my head and I hope she understands that I don't want help. I do need help but not from anyone here when it's them who have gotten most of us into this predicament. No one should see me like this when I don't know what I look like after the beating.

Louisa, especially, shouldn't have to see any of this. The fact she has come out to here and has seen so many people tied up and beaten is making me feel awful. The fact she has to see me in the state I'm in is making me feel like I should have done better. I don't know what I could have done but I feel like I've let her down in some way. It's hard to explain but it's just the way that I feel. I know it's not my fault that I'm looking the way I am but she still shouldn't have to see me like this.

"Louisa, go." It's not a command but a plead. I'm pleading with her but it's ignored. I open my eyes again to find her tilting her head to the side and holding her teddy tighter. "Louisa, get out of here. You shouldn't have to see any of this."

"Are you okay?" She asks quietly again.

I take a deep breath and wince in pain at how sore it is to breathe so deeply. "No, but there's nothing I can do about that."

"I can get daddy to help you."

"You can't." I shake my head and tears fill my eyes. "Your dad can't help any of us."

"He can," she says boldly. "He'll come for us. He'll know where we are."

I shake my head again despite how much it hurts. "Louisa . . . I-I don't think he will."

"But he saved you before. He'll do it again. He always knows where we are before we do."

"That may be but I . . . I don't think that that will be the case this time around."

"He will. He told me he'd always find us." She looks down at her teddy and plays with the ribbon and charm that's around its neck. "He said that as long as I have this teddy, he'll know where I am."

"I know you want to believe that, sweetie, but-"

"He said that this bear is special. He said it holds something special inside of it that will tell him where I am if I ever get lost. He said that as long as I have this with me, he'll come for me. Everyone will come for me."

"You're a good girl, Louisa. So smart and so much like your daddy," I comment.

"Don't insult her like that!" Nadia quickly interjects, storming over to us. She grabs Louisa by the arm and hauls her away from me. "I told you to stay in the house. You don't ever leave that house without me, do you understand?"

"But she needs help!" Louisa shouts. "My daddy will come and help her."

"Your dad will not be coming to help anyone!" Nadia snaps. Her grip on Louisa's arm is tight to a point that Louisa drops her teddy bear and cries out in pain. "He won't even come to help you because I'm here now. I'm the only one who can help you like it should have always been."

"Please, let me go." Louisa whines. "You're hurting me. Please."

I carefully manoeuvre myself enough to look more directly at Nadia and Louisa. Louisa is trying her hardest to remove Nadia's hand from her arm but Nadia's grip only seems to grow tighter.

"Nadia," I start before coughing, "she's only a kid."

"She should know better than to treat her mother like that," Nadia scolds with a sharp tug on Louisa's arm. "She'll do well to remember who brought her into this world."

I laugh. An actual laugh that catches Nadia off-guard. I wasn't expecting to laugh but I have and it's the funniest thing ever that I've heard in a long time.