Don't Leave

Chapter Fourteen

The feeling of the ship accelerating back into space causes you to shuffle in bed, slowly wiping your eyes. Your eyes are crusted over from crying yourself to sleep the night before, and the book of bedtime stories was still clutched tightly against your chest.

You shifted yourself upright into the bed, looking down at the book – feeling tears threatening to fall down your face again. The ship was beginning to accelerate faster, and you couldn't help but wonder if you were about to go into hyperspace.

Pushing yourself out of bed, you could bring yourself to let go of the book in your hands so you kept it against your chest as you slowly pushed yourself to go into the main area.

Sliding the door open, you noticed Ben sitting white-knuckled at the dajirk table – he had placed the ship into autopilot. The more you stared at him in the doorway, the more you noticed how disheveled he was; tears were still resting gently against his eyes, the dark circles around his eyes had gotten worse – as if he hadn't slept at all the night before, he was sitting with his head resting gently against his hand with his eyes closed. You were careful not to make any noise, in hopes that he was finally sleeping.

"What are you doing?" As soon as you stepped through the doorway, Ben's eyes shot open and met yours.

"Ben – I," you watched as he gripped the edge of the table harder, grimacing at the name you had just called him. "Kylo, I – "

"Save it." Ben snapped, turning his attention to the game pieces that laid in front of him.

You made your way slowly to the table, placing yourself down at the table in front of him and laying the book in front of you. You watched as Kylo's eyes starred at the book, shifting his gaze away as you watched him grow uncomfortable at its sight.

"Did the chaos you cause make you forget how to listen, (y/n)?" his eyes met yours once more and you could see the fresh tears making their way down his cheek.

He pushed himself up from the table and walked back to the pilot's seat.

You continued to sit at the table, pondering the game pieces in front of you. Even though Ben, or Kylo or whatever he wanted to be called, was not even twenty feet from you, you couldn't help but feel alone.

Memories from your childhood flooded back to you; all the moments you felt alone.

***

"Get over here Lyra!" You could hear you fathers voice echo through the hallways of your empty house.

"You need to hide so he doesn't take you too." You stared at your sister in disbelief as she pushed you underneath the bed, pulling the blanket over the edges to ensure you couldn't be seen.

As you sat there, the sound of your father's footsteps became louder and louder, echoing through your head.

The door swung open and Lyra immediately began to scream. Under the small opening between the blanket and the floor you could see your sister's feet being dragged through the bedroom floor; her feet slamming into the floor as she screamed and writhed in your father's arms.

You remained under the bed as you heard the screams slowly disappear from your house. The feeling of dread is looming over you as you kept yourself under the bed, too afraid to leave.

As hours passed, you remained under the bed – too frightened to leave, in fear that your father would be standing waiting to take you next.

The nighttime came and there was never a sound that came. The fear that your father had sold your sister became more realistic by the second.