Loving the Broken

Chapter 18

"Rachel?" I hear Faith ask for me, 'Oh sorry, is she in there?"

"No, excuse me can I ask who you are? How do you know Rachel?" Lynda replies. Panic immediately fills me, this is the worst case scenario. I know that I'm already in a bad way and probably one beating away from never waking up again. Knowing this suddenly fills me with fear, a few weeks ago I wouldn't have cared, but for some reason I now feel as if I have a reason to live.

I manage to open my eyes and drag myself off the floor, looking around I see that Will is nowhere to be seen - thank God. I zone out of the rest of Lynda and Faith's conversation, my only focus is making it to the back door and running as far as my body will take me. But my eyes are struggling to stay open, my legs feel like they have weight on and moving them takes so much effort. No beating has ever been this bad before. As soon as my hand reachers the door handle hope feels me, I suddenly feel as if I can make it out of this alive. Feeling the warmth of the sun on my face just feels me with joy even more. However, the slamming of the front door brought me out of my trance. Shit.

I make a run for it, begging my legs to not give up on me. My mind only focuses on the one place I feel safe - the gym. I know Mr Scott with have questions, but he's the closest thing I have to a real father at the moment, he'll look after me.

Reaching the large metal doors to the gym was like reaching the gates of heaven, it my body gave up now I would be happy, I felt safe and at peace. It turns out, that that was exactly what my body did when my eyes fell on Mr Scott. As the black curtain fell over my eyes, the only thing I heard was him shouting my name.

Faith's POV
I know Xavier is worried about Rachel, but I still don't know why he can't go over and check up on her himself, he literally lives across the damn road! After parking my car outside I start the walk up to her house. I hear screams and shouting, and my nerves start to grow rapidly. Maybe there is something going on? I stand there for a bit, wondering if I should knock and interrupt whatever is going on, every family argues, and I don't feel like getting screamed at. I go against this thought though, if something is going on with her then she shouldn't be left by herself.

I knock on the door and I am immediately met with an absolute mess of a woman, there is no other way to describe her. She is so skinny she looks like she is just skin and bones, her skin is as pale as paper it's almost translucent, and her eyes have large, dark circles around them. But my eyes are not distracted from the heap that I see moving in the shadows, "Rachel?" I call out, hoping for a response. However, I am only met with the woman stepping to the side to block my view, "Oh sorry, is she there?"

"No. Excuse me can I ask who you are? How do you know Rachel?" She asks.

"Oh I'm a friend of her's from school, I'm Faith." I reply with a smile, I'm going to throw as much charm to this stone of a woman as I possibly can.

"Hmm, well she ain't here, so piss off" She replies bluntly. Jeeeeez, she got out of bed on the wrong side this morning that's for sure.

"Oh really? Do you know where she could be? Does she have any other friends she could be seeing, boyfriend? Does she do sports-"

"No. Now I'm not going to tell you again. Piss. Off." And with that, the front door is slammed in my face. Well she's a real charmer isn't she? I turn around and start making my way back to my car, but then I hear footsteps and another door slamming. Is that someone running? Turning my head to look towards the sound I see a girl limping away down the street, it looks like Rachel? I stand there in shock, I can tell she is pushing her body to the limit, I've never seen someone in such a bad way. Whatever went on inside that house is not good. Xavier was right, there is something going on, we need to save Rachel.

Xavier's POV
I sent Faith over to check up on Rachel this morning. I want to make sure she's okay and that she is safe. After seeing her at that fight my mind can't stop worrying about her. I'm never normally like this with girls, normally they throw themselves at me and I get bored after a few weeks. No girl has ever said no to me, but Rach is like a drug, I just can't stay away from her.

I sit in my large oak wood office. I know not what you expect in a small town house right? Well it isn't in that house. I have a mansion not too far away in the hills, 8 bedrooms, all en-suite, 2 pools, a library filled floor to ceiling with books. I suppose it is the only perk of my life. My father got it when he was in my shoes, it was where I grew up as a child with him and my mother, it was meant to be our forever home. However when he passed, my mother couldn't stand it anymore, the place was filled with memories for her and it was too painful. She decided she wanted to leave the old life behind her, she wanted a normal life for me and Lilly, so she brought a small townhouse for us and raised us as a normal family. Lilly doesn't remember our old life, and I'm glad she doesn't, she is too innocent for it. But for me, this is a good way to separate the two aspects of my life, and I don't want mum to have to go through anymore pain than she already has.

In the early afternoon I hear footsteps rush up the stairs, adrenaline fills me as I reach for my gun under the table, prepared for an ambush. However, when I hear the person get closer to the door I recognise the footsteps as Faith's, and I quickly relax. However I rarely see her rush, let alone run when she doesn't have to, so confusions fills me as I start to wonder what could possibly be wrong. She knocks on the door and quickly open it before I can ask her in, "Faith, what's up? Did you check on Rach?" I ask, hoping that she will say she did, I'm in need of an update for my peace fo mind.

Rachel takes a seat in front of me on one of the large, dark leather chairs there are, "Yeah I did... You're right Xavier, shit isn't right there. Her mum, or whoever she is, looks like a typical drug addict, she's so rude, oh my god you should've heard her! She was there being all like 'oh piss off'" Faith explains, in a God awful British accent,"Then guess what, she says it again! I have never met anyone so rude! Like God I feel sorry for Rach having to live with her! She didn't even invite me in! Like ugh she remind me of you if you don't have your coffee in the morning, but worse, like as if Archie pissed in your cereal, then also poured your coffee away-"

"Get to the point Faith." I interrupt her with, this girl sure does know how to ramble.

"Oh shit yeah sorry! Well anyway, I basically saw her limping out the house and running away, she looks a mess Xavier! I'm worried. But goddamn can that girl move fast, it looked like she had a broken leg and she disappeared before I could even register what I was seeing!"

"WHAT! She's in danger. Where was she heading? I need to find her!" I rush, grabbing my gun and keys on my way out, fuck knows what I could be walking myself into.

"I mean I think south, but she could be anywhere, we don't even know if she has any other friends here!" Faith says, while desperately trying to keep up with me.

"She doesn't." South? I know exactly where she's heading. The same place where every fighter feels safe. The gym.

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A/N - Hey guys! Sorry this update took so long to get to you, I lost my passion for writing a bit and didn't want to put out a bad chapter just for the sake of it. Hope you all had a good Christmas! I'll try to get back into the rhythms of writing again so that I can have more updates for you guys soon.