The Touched And Untouched {Lumax} COMPLETED

Intervene

Hope y'all read the trigger warnings.

Two weeks later Max was sitting in her bedroom, reading the book Lukas bought her. It was the third time around, and she couldn't help but think of him. Everything was quiet, peaceful. She was starting to really get into her book, then a knock on her door made her jump. She slid the book under her pillow. Neil was crazy enough to notice the slightest things. Like a new book. He couldn't bother to remember Susan's middle name, but he had a sharp eye on Max.

"You awake, Maxine?" It was Neil.

Max felt like crying or throwing herself out the window. She looked at the time. Her mother had a magical way of falling asleep by 9:00 PM and sleeping through anything. Convenient. If Max pretended to be asleep, it would still happen. She opened the door and forced a smile.

Neil had groomed her since age 8

"Your mother is asleep, Billy is out." Neil said. It was a code. He taught it to her by age 9.

Max nodded. She was real good at numbing herself when she needed to, to survive. The sexual abuse had dwindled as she got older. Neil probably feared she was getting closer to growing common sense, getting braver to rebel against him.

Neil walked in and shut the door. He never had to lecture Max anymore. He already drilled the rules into her head.

Don't tell your mother.

Don't tell anyone in this family.

Be quiet.

If you don't like it, pretend.

Unfortunately he forgot to tell her not to tell friends. And it was even more unfortunate that Max lied when she did tell. Lukas thought this happened once, mildly. He had no idea how severe it really was.

Max crawled back onto her bed and laid down. She pushed her face into the pillow, and slid a hand underneath it. She rested her hand over the book Lukas bought her. Holding on to the love Lukas gave her was the only way she'd make it through.

Neil was just crawling in next to her, putting a hand on her inner thigh, when the front door opened and closed. Neil got off the bed and cursed. "Sounds like Billy forgot something." He stood and waited. As if he would continue to assault Max as soon as he was gone. At least Neil had the decency to not let Billy catch him with a sexual hand on Max.

"Max!" Billy sounded irritated when he swung the door open. He was startled to see his dad just standing, looking at the door. "Sorry... what's the deal?"

"I'm just talking to Max about her grades." Neil sounded so convincing, so good. "What do you want?"

"I can't find my keys, Max cleaned the house yesterday." Billy looked at Max.

"I didn't move them." Max said softly, trying to keep up with the act. But when Neil wasn't looking she mouthed 'Don't leave' to Billy. Her eyes glossed over when he gave one quick nod.

"Well, I guess I'm not going then.." Billy shook his head. "We could watch basketball instead?" Neil and Billy don't bond, but on occasion they watched TV together. Sometimes they'd even fix Billy's car together, but that was rare.

Neil looked back at Max and then scoffed. "Yeah, I can talk to Max later." He headed out into the hall.

"Coming, I just need to use the bathroom." Billy called as Neil headed to the living room. Billy looked at the girl, her legs squeezed tightly together. "Did he do anything?" Billy whispered angrily.

Max just started to cry. No one had intervened before.

"Max, fucking answer me."

Max shook her head. "He didn't."