Afraid to Love

Chapter Eight

DO NOT SKIP; Author's Note: Hello everyone! I am back from the dead as you can see and finally blessing you with another new chapter. I apologize for being on a two month and one day hiatus, but I have my reasons. I have been involved in two car accidents since I posted (I am fine and everyone else involved is as well), been focusing on training my horse, working on college applications, and I finally got a laptop. I had previously been writing on my phone and it was getting too complicated for me and I decided to wait until it was easier for me to work with. I do sincerely apologize, as it is not fair to all of you to leave you guys hanging like this. With all this being said, I hope you can all enjoy the new chapter!

"What's a pretty little thi-"

I woke up with a scream, my body covered in sweat and my thoughts racing. My ear piercing scream rang through the thin air, and I threw the covers off my body as my body went into panic mode.

All I could remember was his grimy hands all over me. The feel of his calloused hands that were covered in years of dirt was absolutely repulsive.

With the sound of my screams, Axel came from around the corner and engulfed me into his arms, holding me tightly against his body as I screamed and tears cascaded down my cheeks.

"No, No, get off me! Get your disgusting hands off of me!" I screamed, trying to fight against Axel as I struggled to breathe correctly and my body started to sweat even more than it already had been.

Axel rocked me back and forth in his muscular arms, "Ariella! It's okay. It's me. It's Axel, you're in a safe place." He promised, his arms squeezing me tightly as he pressed his lips to the top of my head.

As soon as I heard Axel's voice, my heart stopped racing and I turned to look at him in the eyes. I had to make sure that whiskey brown eyes were looking at me and not beady blue ones that held nothing but evil.

When I saw those gorgeous brown eyes laced with concern, I wrapped my arms around Axel and sobbed into his chest. "Axel I was so scared," I cried out, my legs instinctively closing tighter together as I tried to keep myself away from everything that could potentially hurt me.

Axel rocked me back and forth, humming a small song to attempt and keep me calm. "I know, Sweetheart, I know." Axel said softly, his eyes narrowing at the image of the man touching me with his greasy hands.

"D-Did he rape me?" I whispered, my head still buried protectively into his chest, trying to hide from the world.

Axel shook his head. "No, he didn't. I got to the dirty bastard just in time before it happened. Ari, I was worried sick about you." Axel said, lifting my chin to look him in the eyes. "I didn't let him get you." Axel said firmly, letting me know for sure that the old man didn't get to me.

I looked at Axel as my body visibly relaxed and I let a sigh escape my body. "Oh thank god," I said, the feeling of disgust slowly leaving my body. It still had me shaken, but for some reason, in Axel's arms, it seemed to calm my nerves and keep my heart rate from spiking too high.

It was then that I noticed that I wasn't in my teal colored bedroom. I was in a plain white bedroom, a few boxing poster covering the wall and those really cheesy posters with the girls in the pink bikinis halfway on the motorcycle. The covers were black, and surprisingly clean. The entire room was surprisingly clean. The clothes were either neatly folded on top of the dresser and obviously in the drawers, or in the clothes hamper right next to the dresser. There was no TV in the room, but there was a desk with a fancy looking computer on top of it and a few books and papers scattered about on the top of the mahogany colored desk. The floor was immaculately clean, and it was then that I realized I was in Axel's bedroom.