To Everything There Is A Season

July 12, Evening/July 13, Morning

Chapter has been edited. Thanks to @MichelePatten1 for pointing out the spots where things didn't make sense. This will teach me to write and post at 2 am (probably not). I added videos in the resource section to explain what the heck she is doing with the honey.

I could hear voices, but they were muffled and distant. I floated somewhere dark and warm. Then I could hear a gentle, rhythmic, thumping. I felt safe. I let myself continue to drift.

            I blinked. Why was I in bed? I'd been talking with Mr. Owen, then he took me down the hallway I wasn't allowed to go down, then the office and the room...my heart started pounding in panic.

            "Sang! Breathe with me. You are safe." A musical, baritone grabbed my attention. I felt my hand being lifted and placed against a firm chest. I tried to match my breathing to the rise and fall under my hand. My heart started to slow, and my breathing slowly returned to normal. I looked up to see who held my hand. Victor was sitting beside me on my bed.

            "Why don't you get ready for bed and I'll come back in and sit with you for a bit. Sean wants to check you over shortly, but he did say that he wanted you to take it easy this evening and stay in bed." Victor told me.

            "Alright, I'll be right back. Can we talk afterwards?" I asked softly. I didn't want to be alone, but I also needed a few minutes to just be alone.

            "Yes  , we can talk all you want. Go on now, I'll wait here." Victor smiled at me.

            I gathered my nightclothes and left the room for the bathroom in the hall. I took my time preparing for bed. My mind was full of what Mr. Owen had shown me. Why were there so many pictures of me in that filthy room? Did Jed take them? If he did, why? Are the pictures why he was always disappointed in me? Was the reality of my failure too much? What was Jed doing? Though   knew I had no right to Jed's secrets I couldn't help wondering. I finished washing up and getting ready for bed. I slowly made my way back down the hall to  room.

            Victor helped settle me into bed and then sat beside me, his back against the headboard. His arm settled warm and comforting around my shoulders. I leaned my head against him soaking in the comfort I'd never had before.

            "Did I do something to make Jed hate me? Did I lead him on? Is that why he took all those pictures? Am I a really a whore like my mother called me?" My hands trembled in my lap as I asked the questions on my mind.

            "No! Sang, Princess, you are not responsible for his actions. Let me tell you a story. I started playing piano as a little boy. I loved to make music. By the time I was five I was playing music that should have been beyond my two years of playing. I started writing my own pieces at six and my father discovered he could make money off my music when I was eight. I met the guys when we were in elementary school together before my parents came into money and moved me to another school district. By that point Owen and Sean had found us and we were moved to the Academy. The organisation we work for encourages its members to follow their dreams and they facilitate accelerated education. That meant that I could learn anything I wanted, while still playing the music my parents wanted me to. I had a number of really scary fans when I was in my teens. I had money, local celebrity status and I've been told I'm not bad looking." Victor smiled down at me on those words. Not bad looking was an understatement. I was starting to love looking into his eyes and watching the flames in them rise and fall with his emotions. His lean face was classic in its beauty, his high forehead and aristocratic nose would have made him look haughty if it wasn't for his warm smile and eyes that burned.

            Victor's hand smoothed down my arm in a comforting manner before he continued his story. "When I was sixteen, the guys and I were placed in a public high school. The story we gave people is that we were to be role models of proper behaviour and academic excellence. Really, we were there to figure out where the funding for the school was going as it wasn't being used to better the school or provide proper academic opportunities to the students. We hadn't been in the school long when we started having some problems. The administration of the school wanted us gone, so the principal was having teachers follow us around. In the middle of that distraction I started getting weird phone calls and pictures sent to me. The pictures were of me as I was out with various friends. Turned out I had a stalker living in my house. One of the maids my parents employed decided that I was perfect for her and that we were destined to be together.