I still need to proof read this and change any shitty details but I'll do that later because i want to uplaod it now. Song is Last Days of Summer by Silverstein. Really fits this. Hope you enjoy because I'm honestly doubting this chapter. Love you guys x
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I knew that I wasn't going to walk in to find Hunter sitting normally like nothing had happened, no. So after deciding that going in empty handed wasn't going to help anything, I walked back into the kitchen to make some coffee. Chris forced a smile before heading out to the hall, leaving me alone with my thoughts which were obviously taken over by Hunter.
He didn't deserve this. Why the fuck was this happening, especially to him? Yes, Hunter could be an absolute bastard at times. But it was because of everything that he had been through. He literally couldn't control his outbursts and there was nothing wrong with that. So why the fuck was this happening? His Dad, his disgusting worthless piece of shit Dad, who had spent 14 years abusing him in so many horrible ways, was coming back for him. Had he not been through enough suffering?
I shoved those thoughts to the back of my mind, trying my hardest to focus on pouring the water into Hunter's cup without spilling it everywhere. After adding a few spoons of coffee and a million sugars, the way he liked it, I grabbed the handle with shaky hands and made my way through the hallway.
Opening the door, I held my breath. I knew that Hunter was going to be in a state and I was not going to judge him for that. I just had to be there for him. He needed to cope in his own ways and he needed to get everything out of his system before he could even attempt to understand what was happening. He wasn't coping though, he was hurting.
He was hurting himself.
The cup dropped from my hand and smashed into pieces on the floor. I didn't even hear the crashing of it, my mind had already gone into autopilot and the only thing that I wanted to do was rip the blade away from Hunter.
"Hunter, stop!"
"No!" He screamed, digging the razor further into his skin and letting it rip wide open. Blood poured out immediatley, even more as he cut over unhealed burns. He tried to kick me away, backing himself up against the wall and dropping the blade in the process as he used his bloody arm to shield his face.
I took my chance and crawled forwards to grab it, shoving it away to the other side of the room and mentally noting to dispose of it later. I looked at Hunter, knees curled up to his chest and his arm spilling out blood faster every second. I panicked, running my hand through my hair for a split second before darting over to my bed. In the drawer beside, i remembered the pack of tissues I'd shoved to the back.
"You promised," I hissed as I knealed down to Hunter and pried his hand away from his face, revealing his teary eyes. I pushed the tissue hard down against the 3 open wounds, applying as much pressure as I could and changing the tissue once it got too wet.
"H-had to," he whimpered. He scrubbed his hand desperately at his eyes, his lip quivering violently. "D-Dad..he..he'd want me to. Told me to. He was..h-he,"
"He didn't tell you to, Hunter. You're upset, you're imagining it. You're safe here, ok?"
"I'm fucking not!" he cried, swatting his hands at his thighs and digging his nails into them harshly. "Can feel him, c-can't get him off,"
"Hunter," I soothed, trying to take his arm back to clean it. it wasn't bleeding much anymore and even if it was, he didn't care.
"Get off me!"
I held my arms up, staring into his terrified eyes. He didn't even aknowledge me, it was like he was seeing right through me and I didn't know what to do. I wanted to get Chris but I wanted to help him myself. Chris was busy anyway, and upset, maybe too upset that Hunter would just get worse.
"Get off! Get off, get off!"
"Hunter, I'm not-"
"Dad," he groaned. "Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad-"
"Stop it!" I cried, shoving my face directly into Hunter's. "Hunter, snap out of it. You're safe. Hunter, I swear you're safe. You're here with me, with kat, you're safe, I'll never let him hurt you please just come back, ok? Come on,"
"Wanna die," he whimpered; making me feel physically sick as he repeated it over and over again. He grabbed my shoulders, showing me that he was still there somehow, and he stared at me in desperation. "Can't..can't go back. Wanna die. Can't hurt me if I'm dead. Please, please kill me, please-"
"Hunter, stop," I begged, my own tears covering my face in seconds. I pulled him closer to me, not thinking twice before pressing my lips to his and holding him there for a few moments. I pulled away an inch, whimpering against his mouth. "Baby please don't say that, please Hunter, come on. Please Hunter, we're gonna get through this. I've got you, I've always got you. I swear to God if you weren't here I wouldn't know what to do. I want you here, I need you here. God Hunter, I love you so much please, I need you,"
For a few minutes, it was only the sound of our breathing that filled the room and I had never felt so insecure in my life. I wasn't really sure what I'd just said, but I knew that it wasn't just adrenaline. I meant every word. I had to have meant it. It had just taken me so long to realise it.
"Love you," he murmured, his breath brushing against my face. "Love you. I love you. Kat-"
"You don't need to say it," I whispered. "I just want you to come back to me, you with me? You ok?"
"Love you," he said again, and I shook my head, not believing the words that were coming out of our mouths. "Kat, I love you. Kat, I love you so much,"
Before I knew it, he was the one kissing me. It was so passionate and desperate and the urgency from both of our sides was just overpowering everything. For a moment, John wasn't there. For that moment, everything was good. All that was there was me and Hunter, holding each other, and that was when I knew that we could do this. We had to.
"Shit," Hunter cursed, eyes dropping to his arm, still bleeding.
"Fuck," I jumped up, leaving him sitting on the floor as I ran back to the drawer, digging out the plasters I kept there for this reason only. When I got back, I cradled Hunter's arm in my hand, tearing open the tape so that it could fit fully around all fresh wounds. I patted it a bit, making sure that it was tight before planting a kiss on top without even thinking what I was doing.
"That's nice," Hunter murmured; voice sleepy and dazed. I knew how self conscious he was about his scars and how bad he felt when he made new ones.
I just forced a smile. "You're still beautiful,"
"Mmm,"
"Tired?"
"Wanna stay up, with you. Don't wanna leave you," he mumbled, lips pouting a little as I stood up with him trailing along with me.
"I wont leave you, you know I wont." I assured him, leading him over to my bed because for some reason, he felt more at ease in mine. After tearing back the blankets and laying both of us down, I turned to face Hunter, his eyelids fluttering.
"Go to sleep," I sighed, trailing my hand along the side of his face. "I'll be here the whole time,"
"You sleep too," he protested.
"I will, after you."
"K," he murmured, his eyes closing almost peacefully. "You meant it? What you said?"
"Course I did," I promised. "It's ok if you didn't-"
"Kat," he groaned, and I could practically see his eyes roll even whilst closed. "Love you, ok?"
I nodded, smiling a little. "Ok,"
*
I didn't expect to sleep at all that night but hearing Hunter say those simple words just sent me off. Even though my dream involved John standing at the foot of the bed and sent me jolting up at 5 in the morning, seeing Hunter sleeping peacefully at my side was enough to calm me down.
I'd seen pictures of John before and he scared me. He was tall, taller than Chris, and he had too many similarities to Hunter for my liking. They had the same green eyes, even though John's were filled with hate whilst Hunter's were filled with hurt. They had the same shade of pitch black hair, the same ivory skin and the same facial features.
I couldn't imagine how hard that was for Hunter. He had a hard time facing himself in the mirror anyway.
"What you thinking?"
"Dunno," i murmured; staring blankly into Hunter's eyes as he did with mine. "What about you?"
"You,"
"Me?"
"Yeah,"
"What about me?"
"You helped me last night," he explained. "Thought Dad..John. Thought John was here. Felt like he was. And you just made it go away. That's never happened before,"
"Just wanted you to be ok," i admitted. "Hate seeing you like that. I dunno what to do. I just..I'm just so happy you're ok now,"
"I'm ok," he confirmed. "Scared though. But ok,"
"That's good," I smiled. "Do you want a shower? Might make you feel better,"
"You gonna come in?"
"Wouldn't be a proper shower if I didn't,"
*
Chris didn't need to be told that Hunter had cut himself, he already knew. After giving Hunter an endless lecture, he hugged him and really, that seemed to make it better. Chris was on edge, and my Mom never being around was adding to his stress. He'd been on the phone most of the night, and he looked like death.
Me and Hunter decided not to tell him about last night, not wanting to cause him any more pain.
"It was him," Chris murmured as we sat down at the kitchen table. He looked at me, then at Hunter, his eyes staying there. "John's in Alaska,"
I nodded, my hand tightening around Hunter's. "And?"
"He's got Dr Wiles,"
"What the fuck?"
"I don't know, no one does." Chris admitted. "The last John was seen, he was driving a car with Wiles in the passenger seat."
"You think he's trying to use him to get to Hunter?"
"All Wiles had was those files. That's all he knows about Hunter. John can't get any more information out of him because he doesn't have it,"
"Can you stop talking about it like I'm not here?" Hunter muttered, eyes angry.
"Hunter, I don't know how to talk about it without upsetting you."
"I'm upset anyway. Just say it,"
"Hunter-"
"Just say that he's coming to find me, I already know it."
"He might not-"
"What else would he be doing?!"
"Ok," Chris said quietly. "Ok, I think that John is coming for you. He's going to try but he's not going to find you. We're not going to let him,"
"How?"
"Basically, you're gonna be under house arrest. I'm not taking any chances, so no parties, no school, nothing. I'll make everything as comfortable and as easy as possible in here, ok?"
"How am I gonna smoke?"
Chris laughed, one falling from my lips as well. Hunter's psychotic father was coming and all he was thinking about was how he was going to smoke. Typical Hunter.
"Kat, do you have a problem with Hunter smoking in the room?"
He looked at me with an innocent face, huge eyes and a curled lip. I couldn't have disagreed anyways, there was no way I could say no to this face.
"Course not," I forced a smile. "So is that it? You're not worried about anything else?"
"Can we lock the doors?"
"All the time,"
He turned to Chris. "What if he comes for you? If you're on your way to work and he comes and he..he-"
"Hunter, don't worry about me." Chris assured him. "Police know everything that's going on, they're keeping an eye out for him. If they see him, they'll tell us. And that's when we stay in and, really just wait until he's caught. Which wont take long. You don't know how seriously the Police are taking this. They have absolutely no tolerance for people like him. So don't worry about me, ok?"
"What about when you're doing night shifts and Lisa's at work and no one's here and-"
"One of us is going to be here at all times, ok?"
"Ok," he nodded; his voice barely a whimper. "M'sorry,"
"Why?" I murmured, turning my head so that I could face him properly.
"Cause it's my fault he's coming back. If you get hurt then it's my fault,"
I shook my head. "Hunter, never say that again. It's not your fault, nothing about this is your fault. It's his, it's John's. He's the one doing this, he's the one choosing to hurt people again. Don't blame yourself, ok?"
"K,"
I could see that Chris was going to say something but he was cut off when the front door opened. Hunter squeezed my hand tighter and I heard his breathing speed up, calming down again once he saw that it was just my Mom returning from work.
She flung her coat onto the hanger and kicked her shoes off before coming through to the kitchen to stand next to the kettle. She barely made eye contact with me and absolutley none with Hunter. I knew that she'd seen our hands intertwined but I didn't care. She didn't and would never understand.
"What's going on, Chris?" She asked, probably noticing the atmosphere in the room.
Chris cleared his throat, awkwardly standing up. "Remember Dr Wiles?"
"Of course I do, he was Kat's old therapist." She remembered, making me think vaguely of the days I had to speak to him about my Dad's death. Cringing away from the thought, I focussed back on Chris.
"He was Hunter's too. And John's taken him,"
Mom stopped, standing still for a few moments, the look on her face hidden until she turned around to face Chris.
"What?"
"John was caught on CCTV, getting into a car with Wiles in the passenger seat."
"But why, why Jeremy?" Mom demanded, referring to Wiles by his first name, her face red and eyes starting to glare back and forth from Chris and Hunter. "Why would John want anything to do with him?!"
"Probably trying to get information about Hunter," Chris explained. "Lisa, why are you getting so upset about this?"
"Why aren't you getting upset about this?!" She screamed, Hunter flinching at the side of me when she turned to face him with a glare that I'd never seen before. "This is all your fault,"
"Lisa, what are you-"
"This is all your fault!" She yelled, advancing towards Hunter who stared back at her with a completely clueless expression. I pulled him up, trying to get us both out of the room but halted when I felt a hand on my arm, tugging me away from Hunter and nails digging into my skin.
"Mom!"
"Lisa, stop it!" Chris commanded, taking me into his hold and pushing me behind him. I clutched my slightly bleeding arm, focussing on it for half a second before I realised that my newly turned psychotic Mom was advancing on Hunter.
"You little shit!" She hissed, a hand wrapping around his wrist. He didn't really struggle and his eyes dropped to the floor. He looked completely lifeless, like he'd just been waiting for this to happen.
"It's all your fault! An innocent man is getting hurt right this second, because of you! A man I care about! And it's all because of you! I'm tired of you ruining everything! You've ruined my daughter, my husband, everything and now you've just gone and taken away the most important person in my life! I can't pretend to deal with your shit anymore!"
And then the last thing that we expected happened. Mom raised her hand, twisting it to the side before slamming the back of it down on Hunter's face. The slapping of skin made my eyes widen and it took me a moment to even realise what had just happened.
"LISA!"
Chris had her by the waist in an instant, dragging her through her stuggles out of the room. He couldn't even comfort Hunter so as soon as the kitchen door was closed, I raced over to him.
"Move your hand," I murmured, taking hold of the shaking limb before guiding it away from his face. Hunter's eyebrow had clearly been cut by the ring on my Mom's finger, and a small trail of blood dripped down the side of his face. "I'm so sorry, I never thought that she'd do that. Hunter, I'm so sorry-"
"Deserved it," he murmured.
"No you didn't," I snapped. "Don't you dare say that,"
"Now Chris is gonna get in a fight with her,"
"Yes,"
"He's gonna find out. And it's gonna be my fault. And she..she-"
"Hunter," I soothed; dragging my hand back and forth through his hair. I sat him down, taking the seat next to him as well. He looked like he was just going to burst out crying and I didn't know what to do other than try and find out why. I knew my Mom hitting him must be a serious trigger but there was something more.
And Mom said that Wiles was the most important man in her life. Did Hunter know something about that?
"Hunter, you can tell me., it's ok,"
Hunter didn't notice when the kitchen door opened and after quickly shooting a warnin#g glare at Chris, he stood back against the wall, focussing entirely on Hunter as I did.
"She was sleeping with him,"
I didn't know what to say to that. My Mom..my Mom was cheating on Chris? She was cheating on the most perfect man that she would ever meet? How could she do that? How could she do that to him? To me? How could she?
"How did you find out?" I asked, my voice shaking as I caught a glimpse of Chris covering his eyes with his hand. I focussed back on Hunter, taking his hand as he bit his lip.
"Came home from school early," he stammered, rubbing his eye with his free hand. "And um, I saw them, and..uh,"
"Did they threaten you?"
He nodded, barely able to force out words. "He..he hit me. And she said that if I told Chris, then he wouldn't believe me and he'd get rid of me and I was scared. I'm sorry, i'm sorry-"
"Don't be sorry," I whispered, wiping away the single tear dripping down his face. "It's not your fault. it's hers. You've got nothing to be sorry about,"
"Please don't tell Chris," he begged. "He wont believe me. He'll get pissed off and I..I can't-"
"Hunter,"
Hunter recognised the voice immediatley and I could see the fear all over his face. He cried out, trying to muffle it with biting his lip once more but it didn't help. I couldn't stop myself either, just knowing what my Mom had done, what Wiles had done, and Hunter didn't tell us because he was scared. It just broke my heart.
"Hunter, it's ok." Chris assured him, quickly coming to Hunter's side and taking him into his arms. Hunter couldn't even refuse, he just let himself fall into Chris' chest and sobbed endlessly for at least 10 minutes. Chris continued to murmur into his ear, saying how he wasn't mad and how proud he was of him for finally telling the truth. It was tugging at my heart and I wasn't sure what to do apart from cry silently myself.
"She's out of this family. As of tonight, you don't have to worry about her anymore. Ok?"
"But Kat-"
"I don't want anything to do with her," I mumbled. "I wanna stay here."
"And you can," Chris promised. "I don't know how we're going to do this but we will. We've made it this far, ok?"
"Yeah," Hunter nodded, sniffling and rubbing his eyes repeatedly. "Really sorry,"
"I'm not," Chris forced a smile. "I'm proud of you. You were so brave,"
"But now you're upset,"
"Yeah, I am. But not at you. That's what you were worried about, right?" Hunter nodded, tugging at Chris' shirt. "Well, I'm not mad at you. I just wish you'd have told me sooner,"
"Tried. Got scared,"
"I'm guessing that's why you always call her a whore?"
"Yeah," he whimpered.
"Well, I know now. You've got nothing to worry about with her, ok? I'm not sure how well she's going to take being kicked out so I want both of you to go into your room and not come out until I let you know what's going on. Ok?"
"Yeah," I nodded, watching as Chris gave Hunter one final hug and kissed his forehead gently. It made me smile a little, knowing that even though Chris must be absolutley heartbroken, Hunter was still his top priority.
"Come on," I urged, taking Hunter's hand and pulling him up to his unsteady feet. He clutched at me as we headed out of the kitchen, Hunter eagerly stepping into the bedroom and leaving me a few feet behind. I didn't blame him. He looked terrified. He felt like now it wasn't only his Dad trying to hurt him, it was Wiles and my Mom as well.
I shut the door behind me, stepping forwards to wrap my arms around Hunter's waist. He burried his face into the crook of my neck, his hands circling and rubbing up and down my back.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "I can't stand seeing you like this. I promise you though, it's all gonna be over soon, ok? Soon, you'll have nothing to worry about. You'll be happy,"
"I'm happy with you," he mumbled into me, lifting his face up so that he could press a kiss against my lips. His mouth was salty and wet from tears but i didn't care. Because when he kissed me, everything that was going on seemed to stop. There was no John, no nothing.
Just us.