Chapter 20
Summer's POV
He slapped her cheek hard, the sound echoed through the room; Louise cried out in pain and held the side of her face as she fell to the floor. I couldn't watch this anymore; I couldn't stand here and do nothing like I did with the other girls. If he killed me too then that's fine, maybe he would be doing me a favour anyway.
I reached out to grab another vase, it wouldn't kill him but that really didn't matter. My fingertips barely grazed the glass when Poppy grabbed my arm roughly and pulled me backwards. I struggled in her arms but she had a tight grip of me. Louise stood up; shaking slightly, her back and arms were pressed against the wall and her eyes wide with terror. I don't think I've ever seen anyone so scared before, she looks how I fell all the time.
He stepped forward again but stopped and reached his hand up to his head. As soon as he saw the blood on his hand it started shaking and his body stiffened. Before I could blink he launched himself at Louise and started punching and kicking her continuously. She tried to block him with her hands but it wasn't working, he was too strong.
I screamed and thrashed around in Poppy's arms, trying to get free to help Louise but she wouldn't let go. Rose grabbed me too and together they held me so tight I could barely breathe.
Blood started pouring form Louise's nose and mouth, the blows to her body were deafeningly loud and I burst into tears at her painful cries. She curled up in a little ball on the floor as he kicked her in the side and back. He then grabbed her hair and pulled her up; she screamed in pain and gripped her stomach. He punched her in the face again and let go of her hair as she fell, slamming back to the ground with a loud thud.
She seemed to gargle and spat blood out as she pressed the side of her head, whimpering in pain. He continued punching and kicking her. I was screaming and crying as I tried to get out of their grip. My heart was beating too fast and I felt sick. Why won't they let me help her? I wanted to shout something at them but I couldn't form words.
He suddenly stopped again after about five minutes and wiped his face frantically, he must have felt the blood trickling down the side of his head. He stumbled backwards still wiping his face; he looked like he was going to be sick. I watched his face as he stared at his bloody hand; he gasped and ran up the stairs, slamming the door behind him.
Rose and Poppy released me as soon as he'd closed the door; I ran over to Louise, she was lying limp on the floor. My hands were shaking as I reached out to brush the bloody hair out of her face; the blood was sticking it to her skin. Her face was red and swollen, her body was covered in cuts and her were eyes purple and swollen shut.
I started crying harder. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I whispered, putting my hand over the large cut on the side of her head and pressing down hard to try and stop the blood pouring out.
Rose and Poppy very calmly grabbed all the cleaning supplies and another body bag and started to fill a bucket with water. I gripped Louise's hand and slumped down further on the floor with her. Would anyone know who she is? Would she get a proper funeral?
Poppy laid the body bag down on the floor next to her and put her hand on my shoulder. At that point I just wanted to get in the bag with her, I wanted it to be over now, I couldn't take any more. I sat up straight and stared at Louise, she made a strange gargling noise and her fingers twitched in my hand. "Louise?" I whispered hopefully. Oh God she was still alive! "Louise!"
"Rose, get the first aid kit!" Poppy shouted. Within seconds Rose appeared beside us with a small green box. There wasn't much in there, just a few bandages, some plasters and antiseptic wipes. Poppy grabbed the wipes and started cleaning her wounds. I kept pressure on her head as the cut was still bleeding, leaking out around my fingers. Rose quickly bandaged up the cut I was holding. I sat there just holding her hand, I had no idea what to do and I'd never felt so helpless in my whole life.
Within minutes the major cuts were bandaged and the smaller ones had little plasters on them. Poppy cleaned the blood away from her eyes, nose and mouth with warm water. Louise was breathing heavier now and whimpering in pain, she made no effort to open her eyes or say anything but that was probably for the best. The blood made the whole room smell metallically and made me feel sick.
"Let's get her into her bed," Rose said as she gently took hold of her legs. I supported her shoulders and head, and Poppy held her back. She whimpered again and held her stomach as we lifted her as slowly as we could. I wouldn't be surprised if she'd broken some ribs, he'd kicked her in the stomach, side, back and chest quite a few times.
I blinked hard, trying to clear my blurry vision. I was still shaking slightly and terrified that he would come back down here. Would he finish what he started? Louise was alive now but for how long? I couldn't help thinking that cleaning her up was just a waste of time but there was no way we could just leave her, we needed to at least try.
We got her into the bed and gently lifted up her top. I gasped as I saw the dark red and purple marks that covered her chest, she must have broken ribs. "Poppy can you get the painkillers Clover brought down for Lily?" Rose asked as she examined Louise's broken body further. I looked at Rose confused. "We said you were ill last night, he brought you some painkillers," she explained. I nodded numbly and stroked Louise's hair.
We pulled the cover over her and put the pills beside her bed so when she woke up she could take them. "What are we going to do?" I asked them both as we all sat watching her sleeping.
Rose sighed, "I'm not sure." She sounded so helpless and it scared me to death.
Poppy must have sensed something was wrong with us as she grabbed both our hands and squeezed gently. "We'll think of something, we just need to stick together." She didn't convince us or herself but we both nodded and smiled at her. All we had was each other.
We stayed sitting on the side of Louise's bed for almost two hours, he didn't come back down as I thought he might. Rose left the room to clean up the kitchen so it was just me and Poppy left in that room watching her broken body breathe in and out in shallow breaths.
"Do you think she's going to d-die?" I whispered, stuttering over the word die. Louise couldn't die, I'd only known her a few hours but down here that seemed like years, she understood what I was feeling, and she called me Summer, most of all she didn't deserve to die.
Poppy shrugged, "I'm not sure. She has so many injuries and lost quite a bit of lot of blood but she seems to be doing okay." I smiled at her latest attempt to make things seem better than they were and give us all hope.
I wiped away a fresh tear that was rolling down my cheek and took a deep breath. I wasn't going to let her die; I'd stay here all day and night looking after her until she got better. We just needed to find a way of getting more pain medication down here, all we have is four tiny pills that wouldn't even last one whole day! Maybe I can pretend to have a headache or something and get him to bring more pills down.
"Poppy we need more," I said, holding up the little white pills. "She's going to be in so much pain when she wakes up." I blinked again to clear my vision; something I seem to have to do a lot down here. The thought of her lying here in pain for weeks before she started healing was awful.
"I know. We'll get Rose to talk to him, maybe she can explain that Heather was just scared and didn't think about what she was doing. She has the best chance of convincing him to help her." I nodded in agreement, he did seem to like Rose the most, maybe because she has been here the longest and won't say a bad word against him! Whatever the reason I didn't really care, I wasn't the favourite and that was all that mattered to me.
Lewis would always tell me I was his favourite person in the world. I smiled as I remembered the first time he said that to me; I thought he meant I was his favourite girlfriend! He laughed his head off and teased me for weeks for thinking it, although it really wasn't funny at the time! I knew he would never cheat on me though. I wonder if I never get out of here if he'll find someone else? How long will it be before he thinks I'm dead and moves on? That thought hurt more than anything. Selfishly, I didn't want him to be with someone else, I wanted him to wait but then I didn't want him to be alone and unhappy for the rest of his life.
Poppy left the room to talk to Rose and see what they can do to convince him to help Louise. I held her hand and watched helplessly as she took quick shallow breaths, occasionally she would make tiny croaking noises, like she was fighting for breath. "Please hold on Louise," I whispered, stroking her hand gently.
She didn't move at all, if it wasn't for her chest rising and falling and the strange little noises she was making you would think she was dead. She looked dead. The bruises on her face and arms were getting darker; every inch of her skin was black, red and purple. Her face was so swollen now that I was surprised she could still breathe at all. The cuts on her lips had stopped bleeding, leaving dried blood behind, I didn't want to leave her to get tissue and water so I'd have to wait until Rose or Poppy came back in.
We cleaned Louise up again once they both came back. Most of her cuts had stopped bleeding apart from the big one on the side of her head so we changed the bandage, making sure it was tight against her head. It wasn't bleeding as much but slowly the white bandage turned red, I was really worried though, what if it doesn't stop bleeding soon?
"I'll talk to him alone when he comes down, you all stay in here and make sure you hide those pills, he thinks you've had them Lily," Rose said, looking anxious. She was worried about what he was going to do, we all were.
After half an hour we heard the cellar door open, I jumped and gripped Louise's hand. Rose quickly left the room and I held my breath. Poppy moved to the door to listen and I stayed with Louise. "I can't hear," she whispered, pressing her ear harder to the door. I closed my eyes and prayed that Rose could get through to him.
A full hour later we heard the cellar door again, Poppy ran back to the bed and we watched the bedroom door waiting for Rose. She walked in smiling. "It's alright," she said happily.
"What?" I said in shock. It's alright? He wasn't coming back for her? Poppy's mouth hung open in shock, none of us actually believed he would leave it.
She sat down at the end of the bed. "I explained that she was scared, that she thought that he was going to kill all of us and was just trying to protect us. He started mumbling for about ten minutes, I couldn't understand a word of what he said." She shuddered and continued, "Eventually I managed to convince him that she didn't know what she was doing, that she hadn't understood that we're a family." I clenched my jaw, we are not a family and we never would be!
"So he's going to help her?" Poppy asked, still clearly stunned.
Rose bit her lip, "He's agreed to letting us help her. He won't be bringing any medication down for her as punishment." I sat there frozen. He's going to leave her here in pain?
"Okay, well it will be fine. We'll look after her, she'll heal in time. It's going to be okay." Poppy looked like she believed her words that time and I did too. It was going to be horrible, she was going to be in pain for a while but she would eventually heal.
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:O He didn't kill her!!!
The new cover was made by Carmen4603 thank you hun it's awesomazing! haha!
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