~Ashton~
I carried Esther to my room and laid her down on my bed, tucking her in like a child. She had finally calmed down in the car once we were away from the station but she still wouldn't tell me what triggered her to have a panic attack like that and after a few minutes of me driving she had fallen asleep in the passenger seat.
I turned away from her to go call George, the chief, to ask what happened before I came into the room as I didn't have time to get the story before I took Esther home but when I tried to walk away she grabbed my hand, stopping me. "Stay with me," She almost whispered. "please."
"Of course." I kissed her forehead and laid down next to her, pulling her closer to me. She cuddled into my chest and soon fell back asleep.
As she slept I tried to recall anything that could've made her have a panic attack but I couldn't think of anything. Nothing had happened in the short amount of time that she was in the room that I knew of except Matthew Aldine was brought into the interrogation room but that's it. I didn't understand why that would cause her to have a panic attack, though.
I knew there were things in her life that she wasn't telling me and I didn't want to force her to tell me but at this point I needed to know so I could protect her from it. I couldn't help but feel like it was my fault, after all I was the one who had brought her. I finally decided to ask her about everything when she woke up since I didn't want this to happen again.
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I was still laying with her in bed a few hours later when she finally woke up. "How are you feeling, darling?" I ran my fingers through her hair as she stretched out.
"Better." She sighed as she continued. "I'm sorry you had to deal with all that. I really didn't expect that to happen."
I lifted her chin with my finger so she would look at my face. "Mae, it's not your fault. I don't want you to feel like you have to apologize to me for stuff like that. I want to be there for you." I left a light kiss on her lips.
She didn't say anything for a while and it seemed like she was thinking about something. "Thank you, Ash."
I kissed her once more and finally asked the question that had been gnawing at me for the past few hours. "What caused you to have that panic attack, Mae?"
"It's a long story."
"I have the rest of the day off from work, darling. I have time to listen and I need you to tell me so I can help you. I can't help if you don't tell me the full story."
She sighed again and got up from the bed, walking towards my closet. I was sure she was going to tell me to forget about it when she spoke up, surprising me. "Let me change into comfortable clothes first then I'll tell you everything I can."
I nodded, telling her I understood as she grabbed some of my clothes and walked to the bathroom. I got out of my bed and started to pick clothes up off the floor and throw them into the laundry bin in the corner of my room, trying to distract my impatient mind.
Esther walked out of the bathroom as I was picking up the last of the clothes and tossing them in the laundry bin. She walked over to my bed and sat back down in the same spot she had slept in, pulling the grey comforter up to hide her face in. "Darling, why are you hiding?" I softly asked as I sat next to her and pulled her into my arms.
"I'm nervous, I've never told anyone else the details of it and I have no clue what you're going to think."
"I'm not going to judge you, if that's what you're thinking, Mae. I'm never going to judge you for something you've gone through."
She nodded and took a deep, shaky breath as she began to explain things to me. "Three years ago Indi and I went to a fall festival that was about thirty minutes away from here. We were there almost all day hanging out since we hadn't seen each other in a while due to my grades not being the greatest. I was getting mostly C's and B's and I wasn't allowed to hang out with Indi until I raised them. Anyway, I didn't notice anything suspicious until we were leaving the festival. It was around 6pm when we left and I saw a car follow me out of the parking lot but I didn't think anything of it at the time since quite a few people were leaving at the same time as me and Indi. We each had brought our own cars so I was following her home until we had to part ways.
After parting ways with Indi as we got into town I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the same car that followed me out of the festival was still behind me. I shook it off and thought that someone else from our town had gone to the festival too and got stuck following me home so I drove straight home, not bothering to check my back mirror again." She paused, letting out a shaky breath. "God, that was the worst mistake of my life. I look back at it now and wonder how I was so stupid."
"You didn't know whatever happened would happen, darling, you weren't stupid." I softly assured her, running my fingers through her hair while she continued.
"I turned into my driveway that night and watched the car slowly roll past my house and then all of a sudden it sped off around the block. I thought it was weird but, again, I shook it off and walked inside. For a couple weeks after that I always felt like I was being watched but I could never figure out why until one night I walked into my room and saw a man looking in my window. I screamed and my dad came running into my room to see what was wrong. He saw the man too but we couldn't identify him because of the glare from the lights in my room shining on my window. We called the police but by the time they got there the man was long gone. The same thing happened two more times in the next two weeks. I would catch the man looking in my window but he left before the cops could get there."
She stopped to take another deep breath before she continued again and this time I saw a single tear roll down her cheek. After wiping it off with my thumb I lightly kissed her cheek, hoping to reassure her it was alright and I was here for her now.
"After a week of not seeing that man I thought he had finally left me alone so I decided to go over to Indi's house but since my car broke down and we hadn't fixed it yet I had to walk. I didn't think anything of it at first but when I was halfway there I noticed someone following me and when I glanced at them over my shoulder I realized it was the man who had been stalking me. I tried to subtly pick up my speed but he picked up speed too, keeping the same amount of distance between us. I tried to turn a corner and run away from him and down a side road but when I turned the corner one of his friends was there and the friend grabbed me and put a cloth over my mouth which made me pass out.
The next thing I knew I was on the cold hard ground of a warehouse where that man and his friend tortured me for four days while my parents and the police tried to track me down. Anything you can think of, was done to me. They hit me, kicked me, punched me, whipped me, and the man even stabbed me once when I got on his nerves. By the time the police found me I was at a very unhealthy weight and barely had any energy as they didn't give me food or water the whole time I was there. The man and his friends had fled the scene before they got there and the police never found him."
Esther had tears running down her face that I was trying to wipe away but more would fall before I could wipe all of them off. I pulled her head into my chest and continued running my hands soothingly through her hair as she cried in my chest.
It killed me to imagine my Mae beat up and bleeding on the floor of a warehouse. I wanted to kill the bastards who fucking laid their hands on her. "Darling, look at me," I lifted her head off my chest and made her look at me. "I need to know what exactly causes your panic attacks so I can make sure they don't happen again."
"I don't know exactly. Sometimes it's just little things that remind me and then all the memories come back at once and I start to panic but sometimes it's other things like if I think someone has been following me for longer than necessary, things like that."
I nodded, silently telling her I understood. "So what triggered it this time? It seemed to be pretty bad when I came in."
She looked into my eyes and took another deep breath almost like she was trying to gain the confidence to say her next sentence. "The man that walked into the interrogation room is the man who stalked and tortured me." She all but whispered.
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Author notes:
Okay, I need yall's help. I've been looking for some cute pictures to add to the beginning of each chapter but I can't find any good ones. Do y'all know any good websites to find free pictures?
[Edited 3/19/22]
xoxo ~ Alex