The Angel's Guardian

Chapter 5

I'd tried staying up to wait for Marie to come home, but after midnight or so, it became apparent she wasn't. So I ended up just going to bed. I was so exhausted from the lack of sleep yesterday night that I barely had time to set an alarm before I fell asleep.

I was woken up the next morning, not by my alarm, but rather someone in the kitchen. I groaned and rolled over to check the time - 6:29 - and shut off my alarm. I lay there for a minute, just staring at the ceiling and listening to the shuffling footsteps and the sound of running water. You know how when you've lived with someone long enough, you can tell whose walking around just by the sound of their steps? Yeah, well whoever was in the house, it wasn't Marie. Most people may have flipped out - and I probably would've too, but I wasn't really awake yet - but I just cursed, rolled out of bed, grabbed the closest easily-usable-as-a-weapon object - a large, sharp knife I'd stolen from the kitchen when I'd still used self-harm - and crept out of my bedroom.

I pressed my back up against the wall and dared a glance around the corner. No one was there so I continued on my way, some part of my half-asleep brain playing the theme song to that spy movie I'd seen last week. As I approached the doorway to the kitchen, I listened to the shuffling, calculating where they were standing. Once I was sure I knew where to point the knife, I jumped out from behind the corner and held the blade towards the intruder. Just as the man turned to see who had ambushed him, the cloud of fatigue finally cleared from my thoughts and I froze, finally registering what I was doing.

He was as tall as me, maybe an inch or two taller. He had black hair with shots of gray through it on the sides and brown eyes. It was hard to determine how old he was, but I would've guessed somewhere around Marie's age or a little older. He wore a black t-shirt and boxer shorts and his hair was tousled, leading me to believe he'd just woken up. He'd obviously come home with Marie after I'd gone to sleep, but my brain just wouldn't accept that. All it could do was panic.

He studied me a moment as I tried to think of an escape plan, but my feet wouldn't move. Then he smiled at me and stepped towards me. Why couldn't I move?

"You must be Jax," he inquired. Then he raised his hand and held it towards me, a civil enough gesture. But it didn't matter whether I knew it or not. All I could think was "he's going to hurt me". The knife fell from my grasp and clattered to the floor as I dropped to my knees, my whole body shaking with fear. Shock crossed his features and he reached down to help me up, but all I saw was a hand reaching for me - and the knife. I whimpered pathetically and shot my foot out to kick the knife away from us, then pushed myself across the floor, away from him, until my the back of my head cracked against the wall. My breath came fast, too fast, until I became dizzy and I couldn't breathe at all. My heart ached horribly in my chest and my eyes flickered around hopelessly, looking for somewhere to hide. But I was cornered. I couldn't register his worried expression as he came to kneel next to me. He placed his hand on my shoulder and I flinched further back into the wall, ignoring the pain in my spine. I curled up into a ball and covered my head and neck with my hands.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I yelled, knowing that apologies wouldn't help. I knew what was going to happen next, so I just sat there whimpering to myself as I waited for the first hit. But it didn't come. Instead, I heard hurried footsteps on the stairs and soft, worried voices - I was too scared to listen to what they were saying. Why couldn't he just get this over with?

"Jax? Honey, it's okay. It's me now," I heard Marie's coaxing right beside me, calming me down enough so I could breathe again. I lifted my head just enough to peek through my hair to make sure the man was gone. He was. I whimpered again and practically tackled Marie, desperately wanting to feel secure again. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and sat there for a minute until my pulse returned to normal and the shaking went away. She pulled away and brushed the hair out of my eyes to make sure I'd calmed down. "No one's going to hurt you okay?"