Runt (Completed & Editing)

That Day

***WARNING!! Graphic violence contained in this chapter. You can skip this chapter and still understand the rest of the story. WARNING!!***

Nova’s POV

 

I stared silently out of the window of the car while Shane sped down the freeway. When I wasn’t watching the scenery fly by I was sleeping. I was so tired both emotionally and physically that I didn’t have anything left in me to fight it. Shane respected my silence, only keeping his hand on my knee so that I knew he was still there even when nightmares kept me turning over in my seat. One nightmare was particularly horrible. In it, I kept reliving that day. That day that Reggie came up behind me in the lobby of the hotel, grabbed my arms, and dragged me to his room. That day that he took everything from me. The nightmare continued on, gradually getting more vivid and more terrifying.

 

The dream started the same way that day had, bright and cheerful, full of promise and happiness. Then my phone vibrated with a call. It was my brother and he asked where we were meeting for lunch. The same way he did that day. I was just as confused as I had been on that day. I glared at Shane the same as I had on that day before I stormed from the room and down to the lobby. I felt the hands grab me the same as they did that day. I struggled until I heard the same rough voice growl a threat in my ear. He dragged me to the alley behind the hotel. The same hotel that we had stayed at that day. He pushed me up against the same brick wall and growled the same vile things to me.

He hit me and I could feel the pain in my cheek. He continued to hit me until I collapsed to the ground. Then he started to kick me. I could taste blood, my blood. The same blood that I tasted that day. He started to rip my clothes and I struggled against him just as I had that day. I cried for help as tears raced down my cheeks. No help came. Just as no help had come that day. When my clothes were hardly clothes he beat me some more. I felt each blow to my ribs. Each kick to my stomach. Heard each groan that he let out as he hurt me. When he was trying to catch his breath he would reach down to me. I was in to much pain to notice the bile rising in my throat as someone other than my mate touched me where only my mate would touch.

I felt each touch. Each movement he made toward me. Each horrid caress. I tried to turn away but he would pick up my head and slam it into the cement when I did. The crack that my head made was a funny noise. It was the same noise I heard on that day. The crack was more of a thud inside my head. Then everything went blurry. It was almost as if I had been dunked under water. I could hardly see. Just how I could hardly see on that day. Someone called out, just as someone did on that day.

He stopped, looked at me, and smiled. That same smile that he wore that day and so many days before that. That same smile that was plastered on the face that knocked my books out of my small hands in the hallway. The same smile that mocked me from the inside of my own locker at the end of the day at school. The same smile that chased me around the playground before he would pin me to the ground and shove my face in the dirt. The same smile that haunted me throughout my life. Reggie’s smile. The smile that haunted my days, my nights, my nightmares, all until that day. And on that day, it became a permanent fixture in my mind. After that day, I will never be able to forget that smile.

I forced myself from the ground, just as I did that day. I stumbled and fell several times, my brain foggy and spinning. I managed to get back into the hotel. The same hotel that we were staying at that day. I somehow got to the elevator and eventually to my room. By then the spinning had gotten worse, and the pain in my head had gotten to a point that all I could do was sit on the edge of the bed and stare unseeingly at the wall. Shane walked into the room, the only reason I knew was because of his smell. Black spots had invaded my vision along with all of the blurriness. I saw a small amount of his face as he came closer to me, but his scent was so strong. As strong as it had been that day. I ran to the bathroom to vomit, my stomach was so weak. I didn’t know what to do other than fade into oblivion. The same thing I did on that day.

I jerked awake as the nightmare peaked. I stared up at the ceiling realizing that I was in Shane’s bed. It was dark outside and the clock next to the bed said 1:30 am. I shook my head, frantically trying to rid my mind of the flashbacks. I turned to see Shane sleeping soundly next to me. His was only wearing his boxers. I blushed, covering him up with the giant comforter. I curled into his side and he wrapped his arms around me pulling me closer. I ignored the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach and the terrifying images in my head and tried to fall back asleep.