Damage Me

Chapter 20

I'm standing in the corner of Aaron's bedroom, almost completely concealed by the darkness of the room, while Aaron sits on the edge of his bed telling Juliette to wake up.

"Wake up." He whispers, about to touch her face.

A sharp intake of breath and she opens her eyes, but doesn't sit up.

Aaron jerks his hand back, his chest rising and falling, looking flustered.

"Good morning," Juliette says.

She sits up, leaning against the bed frame, and closes her eyes.

When she opens them, she looks at Aaron.

"You saved my life." She says.

Suddenly she focuses on the room, and she begins to panic, clutching the bedsheets, and inching away from Aaron's touch as much as she can.

"It's okay—It's all right—" Aaron is saying.

"What am I doing here?" Juliette says, frantic.

"Why did you bring me here again—?"

"Juliette, please, I'm not going to hurt you—"

"Then why did you bring me here?" Her voice begins to break. "Why bring me back to this hellhole—"

"We had to hide you—" Aaron exhales, looks at the wall.

"We?" Juliette asks, momentarily confused.

I take a small step foreword, so she can see me.

She startles a moment, then relaxes, if only a little.

"Why did you have to hide me?" Her focus is back on Aaron.

"No one knows you're alive," He says, turns to look at Juliette. "We had to get back to base. We needed to pretend everything was back to normal and we were running out of time."

She looks under the covers, at her clothes.
"Did you..." she hesitates, holding the hem of her shirt. "Did—I mean—my clothes—"

Aaron smiles. Looks at his palms. "No, the girls took care of that. I just carried you to bed."

"The girls." She whispers.

She tries to get out of bed, but can't.

"Warner." She says, frantically looking at my brothers face. "What happened? What's happening with the battle—?"

"Please," Aaron says, gripping her shoulders.
"You need to start slowly; you should eat something—"

"Tell me—"

"Don't you want to eat first? Or shower?"

"No," She says. "I have to know now."

Aaron looks down at his hands, spinning the jade ring on his finger in circles. "It's over." He says.

"What?" Juliette breathes. She's blinking a lot but I don't know if she can tell.

"It's over." He says again.

"No." She exhales the word. Aaron nods.

"No," She say. "No. No. Don't be stupid," She says to him. "Don't be ridiculous, Don't lie to me goddamn you," but now her voice is high and broken and shaking and "No," She gasps, "no, no, no—"

And she tries to get out of bed, getting tangled up in the bedsheets, and falling flat on her face landing hard on the ground.

Aaron tries to touch her, to help her, but she screams and slaps his hands away. She's crying, the sound muffled by the carpet.