No Heroes Here.

20. Humpty Dumpty

Y'all, this book is doing some numbers, I might have to publish it. What's y'all thought on buying this for your own library?

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"Hit me now, bitch!"

Silence echo's through the club as all life freezes. "Stephanie put the gun down." Dawson says, easing towards me. I aim the gun at him to get him to move back.

"Stephanie, I love you, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Shut up Daniel, you aren't helping!" Dawson snaps.

"You shut up, pig, I love that woman and she knows it!"

"If you loved her, you wouldn't have hurt her!"

"It was a mistake! Stephanie believe me it was a mistake!"

Those words triggered the downfall of my mental wall, the wall that held all my broken memories.

I held my sore face in fright as I scoot further into the corner, trying to move far away from Christopher as possible. He had hit me. He had slapped me.

Tears poured down my cheeks as I watch him cry, slapping his own head, calling himself stupid. He looks me, sobbing, "Stephanie, it was a mistake, I'm so sorry, I love you! Believe me, it was a mistake! I am so sorry!"

He lowers to his knees and crawls over to me, stopping every few seconds to try and catch his breath amongst his sobbing. By the time he reaches me, I put my hand down. He places his head in my lap and cries out more apologies.

I accepted his apology.

"Sorry?" I whisper. "You're sorry?"

Omniscient POV

Its like a switch flipped. Stephanie's right eye twitched and her hands trembled. "Sorry." She repeated. "You're sorry."

Tee was standing a few feet behind her, making eye contact with Dawson, waiting for him to move towards her. She was mentally trying to tell him that she could put Stephanie down in seconds but all he was doing was shaking his head and keeping her at bay.

Daniel saw his Damage, what he did to the woman he loves. He sees it. But he doesn't see how she's crumbling. Dawson see's it though. He see's all of it. She's breaking down in front of them all and he's the only one recognizing it.

"You're sorry." Stephanie lowers the gun and the tension raises even more. The gun may not be aimed but it still holds a target. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry doesn't mean shit. Sorry, sorry, sorry," she says to herself, scratching her head with the barrel of the gun.

She's trying to get her thoughts together but its like they won't stick. She would grasp a thought and then her mind would let it loose. She's pulling and tugging at whisper thin strings, trying to put herself back together again.

Put himself together again.

She lowers the gun again, tapping it against her thigh as the only thought she could hold onto flows out of her mouth. "Humpty Dumpty." She looks to Dawson whose watch her intensely. "Humpty Dumpty, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall."

Her mind began to reform but it was all wrong, it's all wrong! She's placing herself into Humpty Dumpty.

"Humpty Dumpty had a great fall." She points to herself, "this is my fall."

No one is understanding what she is saying anymore. They finally see that her screws have been knocked completely loose. Dawson eases towards her, "you aren't Humpty Dumpty, Stephanie. You are Stephanie."

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall!" She's angry and she can't control it. She is now in the backseat of her mind, trapped in place, watching as her mental state disintegrates.

Lord help me.

"And all the kings men couldn't put Humpty together again!"

"I can put you together. Stephanie, I can put you together." Her mind freezes, she thinks she's back to normal. Wrong. "What, you think you a hero or something? You think you can save me." She laughs, tossing her hands up, making everyone take some steps back. She grasps at the strings again, gaining a bit of control, "you can't save me from me!" This is Stephanie, she's-- this is her. She points to her head, "there are no heroes here! I'm in hell-- Humpty Dumpty couldn't-- hell!"

Tee was moving closer, knowing that her best friend was losing a battle in her mind. She could no longer wait until Dawson saw an opportunity. She was going to make an opportunity.

Tee launches, arms wrapping under Stephanie's, wrestling her to the ground. She grabs the gun and slides it away from them all and sits on Stephanie's back. Stephanie's bangs on the ground, repeating, "no one could save Humpty Dumpty! No one!"

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Writing this chapter was difficult because I put myself in the position of my characters so that I can write more Effectively. Writing this chapter consisted of me sitting in my room, just as broken as Stephanie as if I was Stephanie. It was cruel and it was hard to return from. I don't know why I'm sharing this, but I just wanted to put that out there.