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Pretty chill chapter, hence the song
Aurélia
"Why do I always have to talk to them?" I groan, complaining to Silas. "You don't, it was a question. I'll gladly handle him myself if you don't want to," he smirks at me playfully.
"Yeah that would be great, thanks." I pat him on the back making my way out of the kitchen. "Suit yourself, I'll be back, love you," he grabs my hand and pulls me around for a kiss.
"Love you too, have fun," I say before heading back upstairs to my room. I calm myself down, taking some deep breaths before picking up my Laptop.
I signed myself up for an online therapist. It was an impulsive move, something I did after my last, moment. Honestly, I'm glad I did it. I feel like this will be good for me, right now I'm just experimenting though.
The only person who knows is Camilla, she talked the Paula, the therapist before hand to give her a bit of background info that I might not have thought about.
"Hello Aurélia," She smiles through the screen. "Hi," I say nervously. "I know how intimidating it can be to start therapy, but I want you to know this is a safe space for you to share whatever you'd like," she kindly articulated.
"Okay, thanks. I don't really know where to start," I tell her honestly. "That's fine, maybe just tell me what made you decide to get into therapy?" She encourages.
"Well, it was one night after I'd seen someone, I was feeling a lot of stress and anxiety, but also anger and sadness. I tried to ignore it and just go about painting, which is something I do a lot, but as I progressed the feelings kind of took over and I fell into a state of panic." I describe the last night a was feeling off.
"I understand, seeing someone who negatively affected us in the past can bring back a lot of negative emotions, even ones we thought had pasted," I observe her jotting down some things.
"The painting, did you finish it?" She inquires. "Yes, I don't have it with me though," I frowned. "That's okay, describe it to me," she's asks.
I think about how I said it to myself last, what I'd interpreted the painting as. "It's a person trapped. I don't really know what's trapping it. It's clawing at whatever is trapping it. The thing doesn't care. It's tightening its grip. It's moving in, closer and closer and it's not resisting." I describe it while visualizing the painting in my mind.
"Aurélia, what is trapping the person?" She pushes farther for the full answer. "I don't know," I say while my eyes stay closed.
"Yes you do, tell me." She asks again. "It's," I think about it, I do know I've known for a while. "It's thoughts, she's trapped by her own mind," I confess.
"She. That's a woman. Is that woman you?" She elaborates. "That's not me," I protest. "Are you sure?" She basically argues.
"Well, maybe it is. They don't face a face. They are just a silhouette," I give her more detail. "Aurélia, deep down you do know. Tell me who the woman is," she insists.
"It's, she's me. That's me. I feel like that. I feel trapped by my thoughts, I feel strangled by my mind. Those are my thoughts," I admit.
"How does the painting make you feel?" She presses. "I, it makes me feel angry, it gives me anxiety to see because I don't want to be like that, I don't want that to be me," I open up.
"It's difficult dealing with the scars other people left on us, but we can learn to cope. Maybe painting could be one of your coping mechanisms. Do you feel it's a good way to express your feelings in a safe way?" She suggests.
"I don't know, when I did it last time I kind of just felt more angry after I finished," I recall the pure rage I felt as the ugly color of mixed paint stained my skin.
"I see, well we are about if of time, thank you for being willing to share, that takes bravery and will be helpful in your journey with your mental health. Please, feel free to write things down that you would like to discuss with me next time we see each other. Enjoy the rest of your day," she finishes the session politely.
I smile as we get off of the call. I stand up from my bed and make my way downstairs. I feel like we didn't make much progress, but I'm still willing to work with her.
My phone buzzes from in my pocket and I pull it out to see Liyah calling. "Are you home?" She huffs, her breath moving fast as if she's excited or something.
"Yes, why?" I question, suspicious of what she's planning. "K I'm coming to the door, my hands are full let me in," she hangs up. She was outside the house before she knew I was here.
I walk toward the door and look out the peek while to see her looking right back at me. My face turns from neutral to extremely confused as she enters.
"What the actual fuck Aaliyah," I say looking down to see two ferrets, one in each hand. "Here take him," she shoves one in my hand. I almost drop him as he squirms around in my arms.
"Why do I have a ferret in my arms Liyah," I say slightly annoyed. "Basically, I saw this guy outside the store, he had this big car full of animals right?" She starts her story.
"So basically, he said that he was trying to get rid of them quickly and whatever he didn't sell he was just doing to drop at an animal shelter, thats terrible right? He didn't actually have much left, I was considering buying every animal he had but some lady came and bought the lizards he had," she pauses to take a breath.
"So I just asked him to give me whatever he had left and he brought me these two cuties! They are ferrets if you didn't know, this one's a girl and that on in your hands is a boy," she squeals excitedly.
"Why did you bring them here?" I ask confused. "Because, that one's for you," she says in a duh tone like it was obvious she just decided to buy me a ferret.
"Um, Liyah im not so sure," I tell her. "Aurélia, did you want him to end up in an animal shelter, most likely living there for the rest of his life?" She guilt trips me, and unfortunately it's working.
"Fine, I hope you know your buying me what I need for him," I roll my eyes. Only this girl would bring me a ferret in the middle of the day.
"So what are you gonna name him? Let's give them matching names," she asks excitedly.
Silas
"Noah, I'm going to ask you once more, is that stronzo still alive? Is he hiding from me?" I snapped. This bastard begins to laugh.
"Scared? Maybe four years ago when you were something to be scared of. Now? Not so much. He's coming for you, more specifically you girl. Ever since he laid his eyes on her, he's been planning of doing unspeakable things," he smirks, being able to tell it's getting to me.
I roll my head around a little to relieve the tension in my neck. "I didn't come here to play games with you, if you want to end the day like this, it's no problem to me at all," I shrug my shoulders.
I go over to my table of assorted knifes, finding just the one for the situation. After picking, I find a couple nails and a hammer.
I take the first nail and dig it into his left hand, steading it before using the hammer to push it into his hand and a bit into the chair to hold him into place. He lets out a horrific scream at the feeling of the hammer pushing through his hand.
Once it's nice and tight, I take things and move on to his other hand doing the same thing. I look up at his face to see the beads of sweat running down the forehead. His head is draped forward he's breathing heavily.
"Quite frankly Noah, I'm done playing games. I will find Marco and his bastard of a brother and kill them both with ease because I'm not going to let either of them do anything to Aurélia." I explain to him while nailing his legs to the nail.
"Fuck you," he spits breathlessly. I chuckle at his weak attempt to make me feel some type of way. Once he's in place how I planned, I take my knife and position it right above his knee at an angle.
I get in lined up almost perfectly before beginning to slide in down his skin. As I pass up the knee it's a jagged cut, leaving some skin behind but of course I expected that. When I reach around his tibia area the knife glides smooth as butter, exactly why I picked this one.
He groans in agony yet he can't do much because of how little energy he has. His teeth grit together trying to suppress the pain but I know for a fact that's doing little to nothing.
"Stop! Stop, please I'll tell you anything you want to know just for the love of god, stop." Be begs as tears stream down his pale face. I decided to pity him a little, I finish off the leg before hoisting myself up.
"I'll be back tomorrow with questions, you'll have the answers, right?" I say making sure we are clear. "Yes, yes." He huffs out before leaning his head back to relax.
All these people keep trying to tell me what I should do, how to handle my business. They tell me I should act like my old self. That's dumb, I was a teenager who was angry and I have no reason to return to that state of mind.
I can see what I was doing didn't even work out for me, Marco is alive. I've grown for them, I'm smarter. I have to be smarter if I want to keep Aurélia safe and out of this.
-
I pull my keys out of my pocket and slowly open the door. Once I step in, I pause lifting my shirt to wipe my face.
Once I drop the shirt, I notice out of the corner of my eye Aurélia staring at me from the kitchen. I smile just a little at the thought of her getting flustered seeing my stomach.
She thinks just because she's not white I can't tell when she's blushing, but that's far from the truth. "Silas, come here we have a surprise!" I internally groan at the sound of Aaliyah's voice because I know whatever the surprise is, it's something I'm probably gonna dislike.
I slowly step into the kitchen to find Aurélia and Aaliyah both with their hands behind their backs, hiding something. I look at Aurélia confused, but then I hear a strange animal sound that I'm not quite familiar with.
"Aurélia, that means he happy, I looked up the sounds they make earlier," Aaliyah turns to her and says with a big grin.
"What do you guys have?" I say confused on what type of dog or cat makes that noise. That's what I'm assuming it is at least.
Aurélia brings her hand around the front, revealing a ferret being held by her. I'm slightly concerned but more so confused. "Why do you have a ferret in your hand Tesoro?" I say calmly, knowing it was probably Aaliyah.
"Well, Aaliyah was helping these poor animals get homes. This one is mine. Isn't he cute? His name is Mars!" She smiles unsurely and holds the ferret out for me to touch.
I look back at her unamused. "So you telling me this stinky thing is ours?" I sigh placing my hand on my forehead. "Yes, he's nice though, pet him," she insists.
As I reach my hand out hesitantly, the thing hisses as me and retracts, pulling away from me. I narrow my eyes annoyed at the animal. "bene allora. puzzi comunque. cattivo ratto," i scrunch my face up.
( well then. you stink anyway. Bad rat )
"Oh, I guess he just doesn't like you," Aaliyah chuckles. She reaches her hand out next to touch him just for him to have the same reaction. "What? You just liked me earlier," she gasps.
"I guess he doesn't like you either," I tease. She turns her face away from me, now focusing on her own ferret. "I guess I'm the only one he likes," Aurélia grins proudly while he snuggles into her.
"Wait, how did it go?" Aurélia asks. "Well, he didn't answer any questions today but he's willing to share some information with me tomorrow," I say proudly.
"That's good, hopefully it's something useful so this whole thing with Alex can be over and I don't have ever face Amelia again unless it's with good intentions," she alluded. "I know Tesoro, I agree I never want to see Alex or Marco again," I add.
"Wait, Marcos alive?" Aaliyah says with complete shock in her voice. Shit, I forgot she was here. "Do not tell anyone that or I will kill that stupid rat of yours along with you, understand?" I threaten.
"Fine! No need to get that hostile. I'm leaving, see you later Réli," she smiles at Aurélia. "Bye, see you later." Aurélia smiles back.
Words: 2297
A/N:
Me bc y'all are abt to find out the big secret:
Btw, Ik the picture I used for Aurélia is more of a light skinned girl, but I've always imagined her brown skin so Ik just keep that in mind while ur visualizing her. Sorry I didn't let you guys know soon 😂.