Salted Caramel Coffee (COMPLETED!)

Chapter Eleven} L¡ę$

"Are- are you kidding me?" I shout, my voice quaking. "Your abusive aunt is the woman the my own mother sent me to live with?"

     "Hey!" Black jumps in, a finger pointed sharply at me. "I am not abusive." She turns to Blaze, her face turning a brilliant shade of red. "Don't lie to her! Stop turning her against me!"

     My jaw nearly hits the floor as I glare at her. "Not abusive, huh?" I storm over to Blaze and brush her hair away from her face. Her scar somehow seems more prominent than ever, the line a milky white on her pale skin. "This seems pretty abusive to me."

     Black's jaw clenches so hard that I can practically hear her teeth grinding together. "You don't know anything." She hisses.

    "I know what Blaze told me, and that's enough to know that you need to leave. Now."

     She hurt Blaze. How could she possibly possibly do such a thing? Who in their right mind would ever harm such a sweet girl. All Blaze has been to me so far is kind and generous , and I can't imagine a single situation in which someone could find a reason to touch a hair on her head.

     I know I've only known her less than a day, but so far I trust her more than I trust Black. There's just a vibe around her- a glow- that makes her feel like a small ray of sunshine. She just... feels trustworthy.

     "You need to get in the car now." Black says quietly. The volume of her voice scares me, the low sound echoing in my ears. I want her to scream at me, I want her to yell. At least then I can yell back at her. The way she's talking to me now though, it just makes me want to sink into the floor.

"No." My hands clench into fists, my nails digging into my skin. "Absolutely not."

Black closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, her whole body shuddering with it. "Emma, if you don't get in the car, I will call your mother right now." She nearly whispers. "And I know that she will have no problem sending you to The Graveyard."

At that, it seems like all the air has been sucked out of the room. No... she wouldn't do that to me, would she?

The unspeakable place that Black threatened me with is a conversion camp for "Girls with Relation to Activity (such as hobbies), Vanity, Yearning for Alternate work, Radical behavior, and Disobedience." GRAVYARD gained the nickname The Graveyard after a seventeen year old girl died there about five years ago. The rumors say that she didn't even die from the electric shocks they give. She supposedly was worked to death, taking her last breath in the middle of the fields.

Of course, those could be lies. But I'm not about to be the one who is shocked when it turns out to be true.

The truth is, nobody knows what exactly happens at The Graveyard unless they've been there. All I know is that it changes people. Jess said she knew a boy who got sent there under the category of Vanity, and apparently he hasn't been the same since. She said he smashed all the mirrors in his house, threw them out the window, and hasn't looked in one- even for a second- after that.

"You wouldn't-"

"She would," Blaze chokes from next to me. I watch, helpless, as a tear rolls from the corner of her eye to her chin. "Emma, you have to go."

     I look down to see her hand clasped in mine, squeezing it so hard I'm scared it's going to break.

     I trust you.

     All of my energy goes into letting her hand go, and taking a step forward. My lifeline... it's gone. She's gone.

     Tears pour down my face as I walk with Black to her car. I collapse in the leather seats, holding my head in both of my hands. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening.

There's a moment of silence before anyone speaks, where the only thing you can hear is the sound of me gasping for breath through my fingers. The engine doesn't rev, Black doesn't tell me to stop, and I don't even hear the click of a seatbelt. It's terrible.

"Emma-" Black starts calmly, but I cut her off immediately.

"No." I spit, lifting my head. "No. Don't talk to me. Don't try. Don't even look at me, you bitch."

I wipe my nose with my sleeve, staring straight ahead. Beside me, I hear a shuddering breath and a sniff. There's a short pause before Black says anything again.

"You have every right to be mad at me, especially after what you probably heard from Grace."

     "Stop calling her that," I snap, "her name is Blaze."

     "Okay, okay." Black says, gripping the wheel tighter. "I don't know what she told you, but I promise you it isn't true. I never laid a finger on her."

     "Bullshit." My words come out slurred and heavy, as if I've been drinking. "I saw the scar." My lower lip begins to tremble again, my voice breaking. "How could you do that to her? How?"

     I can hear Black's voice become ragged, and I feel her start to shake next to me. "You don't know what happened." She whispers. "You don't know anything."

     I throw my hands in the air, twisting in my seat to look Black in the eye, both of our faces tear streaked and red. "Enlighten me, then! Tell me what incredible reason you have for giving a child a six inch scar on her face. Her face, Black! What reason do you have for that?"

     "She's bipolar, Emma." Black finally chokes out. I sit there, at a loss for words, my mouth hanging open on the ready to shoot out a response. 

     But nothing comes out.

     Except-

     "What?"

     Black pushes her hair back with her fingers, a small sob escaping her. "She refused to do anything but sit on the couch everyday and sleep. She wouldn't go to work, she wouldn't eat, nothing. It was terrible. She stopped getting paid, and I didn't know what to do. So I told her one day, that if she didn't go to work that I'd send her to The Graveyard." She shakes her head. "Her reaction... it was worse than her depression."

     A tear runs down my cheek, dripping into my lap.

     "She had a horrible episode, throwing things and screaming at the top of her lungs," Black continues, "I- I didn't know what to do. And then she threw the vase..." she trails off. "I don't remember how she got on the floor, but suddenly she was screaming for help. There was this huge gash that ran from her hairline to her cheekbone where she cut her face on the glass."

     I'm dumbstruck, my whole body draining of energy. This can't be right, can it?

     "Everything that happened, it was... Blaze's doing." She says, turning to me. "I would never hurt her."

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The lies that lie beneath her skin
     And in the heart of her kin
    The hair that's harmed on their heir
    Is way to much for the brother to bear
    A tear in time is enough for two
    To creep inside and for trouble to stew
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     First things first, I'd just like to say that I don't know much about bipolar disorder. I tried to do some research on it before I wrote anything, but I'm still no expert. If you see anything that you know is wrong, ALERT ME SO I CAN TAKE IT DOWN. If anything offends you, I'll try my best to fix it so that it doesn't. I have no intentions of offending anyone here💞 second, lol I was actually crying while writing this chapter. What do you think? Love you all,

     -Shayna