Safe With Me |18+

Interruptions.

He pulled me up on my feet and didn't take his eyes off me. "What's the pit?!"

I shook my head. "I can't say it now. Please, Caleb-"

"You gotta tell me."

"Please, I just need to call Elora! Make sure she's safe!" I said, with tears slowly filling up to the brim. He frowned and nodded, pulling out his phone.

"Here. Use it. I saw you leave yours on the bed." "Fuck." I shut my eyes and I sighed. I took his phone and I dialled Nina's number.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Nina! Nina oh my god-"

"Cora? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Nina, he's back. He's made bail, Nina. He's back home." I sobbed. "How is that possible?!" "I don't know. He must've had outside help. Please, Nina, keep her safe. I don't want her anywhere near that man!"

"Hey, calm down mi amore. She's gonna be okay. If anything happens we'll head down south. I promise." "Okay."

"Where are you now?"

"I'm with Caleb. I'm safe. I just ran from the house."

"Alright. Just stay low. As long as he doesn't know where either of you are, you're safe."

"Okay, please Nina, keep her safe."

"Don't worry, Roe. It'll be okay."

I hung up and I handed Caleb the phone. He took my hand and made me sit on the couch.

"Hey, it's gonna be Alright."

"It's not. Caleb, he's gonna come back and look for me."

"Why?"

"I'm his puppet, he needs me." I said, staring at him with my tears flowing down. He cupped my cheeks and brushed his thumbs under my eyes and wiped the tears away.

"You're safe with me. Tell me. What do you know?"

I stared at him searching for some cruel entrapment in his eyes but all he held was genuine concern and sorrow.

"When I was 9, dad took me to this illegal place, I couldn't tell where it was but it seemed like it was a warehouse. There were angry people shouting everywhere. There was chanting and screaming.

He had a blindfold on me and never took it off until the voices grew louder. When he took them off, I realised I was in a ring, the audience stood above us on a higher level. The fighters were in a pit.

My dad had pitched me in to fight the other contestant, who was 13. He was tall, he was strong. He knocked me down to the ground. I did what I had to do. I gave him an uppercut. He fell back. He lay unconscious. I was bleeding all over the fucking floor.

After that, dad saw me as a prize money and took me there often. With every knockout, he got money in the bag. He used me. Until mom left. He didn't even remember about the pit."

I sobbed, thinking about how gruesome it felt for me to even take those thousand hits.

"Fuck, Cora." He wrapped his arm around me and I buried my face in the crook of his neck, crying.

He held me for a while, rocking me back and forth and never letting me off his hands. After I'd calmed down a bit, he pulled away and looked at me.

"He's gonna pay for what he did."

I shook my head and I sighed, leaning back on the chair.

"He was gonna do it to El. But I told him to take me instead. Every time. That's why I looked fucked up even more on most days than I do. And when I said I didn't want to, he'd get mad and hit me. I just want her to be safe, Caleb."