The Untold Story

8. Beauty had turned Beastly

"Kelsey please say something," Natasha begged from her position on the floor. Kelsey continued the pacing she had taken up some minutes ago, barely looking at her. 

"I need a minute," she muttered as she walked to the other end of the room.

"Could you at least stop pacing," Natasha groaned. Kelsey glared at her and continued walking back and forth across Natasha's room.

When Kelsey walked by right in front of her again, Natasha grabbed her hand.

"Kelsey."

"I said I need a minute!" Kelsey snapped, wrenching her hand out of Natasha's grasp. Natasha shrunk back against the closet door, shocked and hurt at her rebuttal.

"You had ten, can you please talk to me now?" she pleaded.

"Oh I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that the standard reaction time on the news of your best friend owning a gun is ten minutes. My bad," Kelsey snapped.

"Just say something. Anything!" Natasha said. Kelsey stared at her, breathing heavily.

"You had a gun! An actual gun, which you got from goodness knows where and did goodness knows what with..." she trailed off and stepped back from Natasha, horrified expression on her face.

"Oh my God, did you kill Henry?" It came out as a whisper but Natasha heard it and stared dumbfounded at Kelsey, tears welling up in her eyes. She folded her knees up to her chest and buried her head in her hands, crying . 

"Answer me damn it!" Kelsey screamed at her.

"I didn't do it!" Natasha yelled back, raising her head. She wiped furiously at the tears trailing down her cheeks and stood up looking livid. 

"Then why did you get a gun?" Kelsey pressed. She believed her friend hadn't killed Henry but she was still suspicious of her intent behind buying the gun in the first place.

"Was it because of Max?" her tone softened a little. Natasha nodded and Kelsey shook her head, considerably calmer now.

"Look, I get it. I'd have wanted to kill Max too and I would have if you hadn't dragged me away from him when he slapped you. But if someone slaps you, you bitch slap that warthog faced jerk right back, not buy a bloody gun," Kelsey said. "That was a rather rash and possibly stupid reaction."

"I was scared, okay!" Natasha threw her hands up in exasperation. " It wasn't just the slap! Max beat me up and left me for dead in my own living room and then his monster of a father came and told me to keep my mouth shut or else he'd destroy every single person I love! I was powerless, defenseless and all alone. I didn't know if Max would come back and beat the crap out of me or whether his father would send his evil henchmen to slit my throat instead."

Kelsey stared, astonished at Natasha who now had tears running down her cheeks. Her hands were balled into fists beside her and despite the shudders that racked her body, she continued to speak.

 "I couldn't go anywhere without looking over my shoulder the whole time, wondering if someone was tailing my every move to make sure I didn't talk. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I bore the weight of their memory on my own. I wished someone would see through me and all the lies I kept telling and save me but no-one did. So I saved myself. When I finally had the gun in my hand I could breathe again. For the first time I felt safe. I felt...powerful. I wasn't scared anymore." Natasha took a deep breath as she collapsed onto the bed, feeling drained.

 The revelation left Kelsey reeling and she joined her friend on the bed. She sat staring at the wall for a few minutes before reaching out for Natasha's hand.