Tiny Crown

Chapter 21

Her legs burned as she ran, her chest was starting to ache, she probably shouldn’t be running. Looking down, she made sure there wasn’t anything she could trip over as she carried on running. The driveway carried on for a lot longer than she thought it would. Slowing down, she glanced behind her. Evan wasn’t following and she could barely see the house through the trees. She groaned a little as she felt her heart skip a beat. She needed to sit down but she needed to keep moving.

Looking back towards the driveway and away from the house, Emilia saw Nathan running towards her and her stomach dropped. Where was she going to run now? Could she run into the forest? Feeling her heart hitting against her ribs, Emilia realised she wouldn’t be running anywhere.

“Emilia!” exclaimed Nathan as he slowed in front of her. He grabbed her wrist. “What are you doing?”
Emilia tried to pull her wrist out of his hand. “Let me go.”
“You’re trying to run away,” said Nathan, gripping her wrist tighter.
“Nathan, you’re hurting me,” she hissed, still trying to pull her arm free. “Nathan, please.”

There were footsteps behind her. Evan. She didn’t know who she would rather deal with.
“Nathan, let go of her,” he said.
“She was trying to run away,” he said coldly, staring into Emilia’s eyes. She shivered, this wasn’t who she had made friends with, they were nothing alike.
“I know,” he said. “Now let her go.”

His hand rested on her shoulder, a reminder not to run. Reluctantly, Nathan let go of her wrist and Emilia pulled it to her chest, her other hand rubbing where Nathan had grabbed her.

“Leave.”
“I don’t want to,” said Nathan, lifting his head a little higher to look at his brother. “Emilia is my friend.”
“No, you’re not,” spat Emilia. She wanted to hit him, how could he think that they were friends?
“I know you don’t remember-”
“Yes, I do,” she said, interrupting him. His eyes widened. “I thought you were my friend but now you think it’s fine to let your mom murder me because I’m like your brother?”

Nathan stared at her for a moment before taking a step back. “I’m going.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
“Mom? Am I going to tell Mom?” he asked Evan. “Of course I am, I need to talk to her about some things.” He said it as if telling their mother was the obvious thing to do.
“What did you even come here for?” asked Evan with a sigh. His hand was still on her shoulder.
“It doesn’t really matter now, does it?” Nathan turned and started to walk off.
“Nathan!” Evan yelled after him. His hand left her shoulder as he stepped forwards, following Nathan a little. “Nathan!” Nathan didn’t turn around.

Evan was angry.

Feeling her heart skip another beat, Emilia whimpered. Her legs felt weak. Did she try to tell him? He was angry. She didn’t want to make him even angrier. She put her hand on her chest, it hurt, her heart was beating too fast. She needed help.

“Evan,” she whispered, closing her eyes for a moment. “Help me, my chest hurts.”
“Anxiety attack?”
She shook her head and instantly regretted it as she felt light headed. “Heart, too fast. It… it skipped.”
Evan stuttered and bit his lip as he thought. Glancing over his shoulder, he could see Nathan walking off. Sighing, he picked her up bridal style instead of over shoulder like he had done before.

He carefully carried her back to the house, through the front door, which was already open, and then upstairs. Walking past the room with the lock on the door, he turned the corner and took her to a bigger room, one with no lock on the door. It seemed like it was the master bedroom, Evan’s room.

Why was she in his room?

Gently, he set her down on the bed, near the middle. He ran his fingers through the curls of his brown hair as he stared down at her. What was he going to do?
“I’m going to get your medication,” he said. “Please, don’t try anything, please don’t hurt yourself.”
Emilia weakly nodded her head, she didn’t want to try to do anything, she was too scared she’d pass out again. “I’m not going to.”
“Okay,” he said, nodding. “I’ll be back soon.”

Evan left rather quickly, he didn’t bother shutting the bedroom door. His footsteps on the stairs were loud and quick. The front door shut loudly too.

Emilia stared up at the ceiling, hoping he wouldn’t take too long. She had no idea how long he would take but she desperately hoped he would be back soon. Her eyes started to flicker shut but she managed to keep them open. She couldn’t afford to close them, sleeping was a scary thought to her. Her hand rested on her chest as she waited, her chest was throbbing, it hurt.

She wondered if he had bothered locking the front door. Though she wished she could leave, Emilia was in no condition to get up and go to her Aunt Kat’s house. She’d get there soon. If Evan got her medication for her, she’d be feeling better and she’d have more of a chance to escape.

Emilia closed her eyes and tried to take deep breaths.