Epiphany

Chapter 43 Part 1~Your

I was afraid. Afraid that this was a dream, a realistic one, in which I would wake up in the same uncomfortable bed I slept in, in the dreary house I thought I’d finally escaped from. I wasn’t looking forward to waking up, knowing that the person in front of me was a figment of my imagination. Because it was impossible for a spark of light to appear out of nowhere in a pitch-black room with no windows or light bulbs.

It was impossible.

It was also impossible for something as good as this to appear all of a sudden after a hope-sucking incident. Or, at the very least, it was impossible for someone like me, who attracted only bad things, to have a good thing happen to them.

It was one bad thing after the other. Accidents after accidents. Trauma after trauma, with no time to breathe for air. It was suffocating, but I had almost gotten used to it that I began to brace myself for the next terrifying event, fully aware that it would be even worse than the last.

But now this? The person in front of me cut the chain reaction of bad events, like scissors snapping a slip of paper.

Soft hands slipped to my jaw as she stared at me for a full minute, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks as she forced a smile that relaxed every muscle and nerve in my body.

Her hands on my skin, despite being as cold as ice, warmed my face. Her tears that flowed down her face confirmed to me the fact that it couldn’t be her who tricked them into catching me instead. I knew it. It couldn’t be. No mother would’ve done such a horrible, revolting act. It was someone else.

“Alyssa, dear…” She drew me into her embrace. One that I was so desperate to obtain. It had been so long since someone held me like that. “I'm so sorry… I… I thought they would never harm my family… They protected us all these years…”

Her embrace around me tightened, sending a warm sensation throughout my aching body. It was like medicine given to ease the ache in my muscles, numbing the dull pain.

“When I knew you were taken, the first thing I did was come back here.”

She mumbled more apologies, arms never loosening around my torso, afraid that I might get taken away again.

“Alyssa…” She sniffled, her silky voice wobbling. “Did they do… anything to you?”

I stayed silent.

Or more accurately, I couldn’t say anything.

Was she even real?

“Alyssa?”

She drew back to look at me, hands refusing to leave my shoulders. Her chocolate eyes were covered in a shiny layer of tears and they widened when they studied my face and neck.

She gasped softly, fingers brushing my neck and whispered in disbelief, “They hurt you…”

Her fingers were now under my eyes. “Your eyes… did they strangle…?” She gritted her teeth, unable to continue the sentence.

“What matters is that you're… alive and thank God for that.”

But Julia isn’t!

“Alyssa, we need to move before my fa—someone catches us.”

“Your father?” I cocked my head.

A look fell upon her and she knew then that I knew everything about this whole thing.

“You don’t have to worry. Alyssa, I’ll protect you from now on.”

I always did. You never!