Secret Heart: Other Realm, Frost Family Series, Book 3

Lock 26

WARNING: PLEASE READ BEFORE STARTING THE CHAPTER!

This chapter may trigger people who have suffered abuse. Most specifically sexual abuse.

PLEASE, before you read this Lock, be aware that if you are sensitive to this sort of thing, this will be in this chapter and the next one. I will be sure to put a warning on the next Lock as well, to help remind everyone. I am not going into GREAT detail, but there is enough detail it may end up triggering someone.

So, I have to say that this section has really been hitting closer to home than I'd like to admit. But I didn't want to lie to you guys. I felt like if I changed it up and "pretended" that all of this stuff had never happened to Girl (Willow), I'd just be...lying to spare your feelings.

On that note, I do apologize, I know this is a Big, Bad topic to bring up. But I feel it's a important part of Willow's character that you all needed to know. So, without further ado...We shall begin the sections of the story I have been both wanting to get to to get over with, but also dreading since the very beginning...

Please...comment and let me know what you think. Also, trust me, I expect a LOT of cussing/screaming at certain characters.

                                                                                                                                                                                     
As quickly as she'd open the door, she shut it once more. Letting out a shaky breath, she put back all the locks. "N-no...I c-can't..."
Behind her, the music throughout the house continued. Turning, she tried to smile. "I'm fine here. It's fun, being at home by myself," she reminded herself. "No one can tell me what to do. I can do whatever I want to."

Doesn't that include going outside when you want to? A small voice in the back of her mind nagged at her. At the thought, the feeling rose even higher. Letting out a choked noise, Girl placed a hand to her chest. Gasping, she shot to the back of the house, to the window. Pulling back the curtain, she froze.

On the third floor front window of the building, there was the man. He was staring out his window, just like she was. It didn't look like he was looking at her yet though. Very slowly, she started to lower the curtains, to step back. But, abruptly, his gaze dropped and their eyes met.

She sucked in a breath. H-he saw me! she shrieked in her mind. He saw me! I turned him into a demon! Wincing, she gripped the curtains in her hand tighter, waiting for him to transform into a monster, like Father said. The man would grow horns, and have fire come out of his mouth, covered in hair with animal feet.

But as their gazes continued to clash with one another, something inside Girl began to...change. It was just a small change. So small, in fact, that she didn't even realize what it was or consciously sense it. Very slowly, she loosened her grip of the curtain. The man's eyes moved away from hers. He turned and walked away from his window. Girl watched him go, feeling more alone in that one moment than she could ever remember feeling before.

For the first time in her life, she suddenly had a longing for other human contact, besides Father. And even more mysteriously, something about the man in the window was calling to her.

Shaking her head, she dropped the curtain in her hand like it was a snake. She saw other people. She saw 'the boys', Cedric and Jason, when they came over with Father. She was just being silly. She wasn't completely alone in the world. She was just alone in the house for now.

Stepping away from the window, she glanced around the empty house. She took three more steps away from the window. Suddenly the feeling in her tugged violently. She let out a sobbing gasp as her food from earlier came up in an awful, disgusting mess. Feeling dizzy, she barely stopped herself from collapsing into the mess she'd made. Staring down at it through blurry, tear-filled eyes, she began to sob.