The Girl Who Found The Darkness

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

 

            My eyes flutter open and see the empty space beside me on the bed. I sigh. This has happened the last few days. I would fall asleep cuddled next to Ben, and the next day, he would be gone.

            I look at my calendar and see that it’s December 31st, New Years Eve. I sigh and change into an All Time Low T-shirt and jeans. Then I walk out of my bedroom door, dreading what today will bring. I walk downstairs and into the dining room, where Chloe is already seated at the table. I sit down at my regular spot and an awkward silence hangs over our heads.

            “So…” I say, breaking the silence.

            “It’s been almost 5 months since we were captured.” Chloe says sadly.

            “Oh.” Is all I say. Five months? That short? It’s felt like five years honestly. Ugh.

            I start to say more, but David walks in and the conversation is cut short. After breakfast, I go back upstairs and stare at the posters on my wall. I have 2 Doctor Who posters, 1 Pierce The Veil poster, 1 Panic! At The Disco poster, and 3 My Chemical Romance posters. I especially like the Pierce The Veil poster because the band is hanging over this cliff and Tony, Mike, and Jaime are freaking out but Vic is just looking at the camera like a supermodel. It’s quite amusing.

            I basically just hide in my room until lunch. After lunch, as I’m walking up the stairs, Chloe catches up to me.

            “Hey.” She says.

            “Can I talk to you privately for a second?” Oh no. I know that when Chloe asks to talk to you in private, something is up. Something really bad.

            “Sure, of course.” I say, concern crossing my face briefly before I realize David is looking at us. I replace the concern with a fake smile.

            “Let’s go up to my room.” We walk up the stairs and into my room. I close my door and lock it, and then sit next to Chloe on the floor.

            “What’s wrong?” I ask worriedly.

            “When you, uh, fell,” Chloe says quietly, “David was heartbroken. When he brought you to the hospital and you died, he became even sadder. But soon, that sadness turned into anger. He- he thought that it was my fault that you died. He beat me. He… He… He…..” Chloe stutters and starts to cry.

            “Chloe.” I say soothingly.

            “What did David do?”

            “He… he raped me.”

            I feel like I’ve been stabbed repeatedly. David raped Chloe?! Why would he even do that?! She never did anything to him! He’s delusional!

“WHAT?!” I scream. I don’t even care if David heard that.

“That’s not all.” Chloe says softly. She slowly lifts up her shirt to reveal a scar similar to mine, except hers says Worthless.

No. No. No. No no no no no! I think. Why did it have to be Chloe?! I look Chloe in the eyes and see so much pain and sorrow hidden in them.

“Chloe, I am so, so sorry.” I say. I hug her and squeeze her as tight as possible. Chloe sobs into my shoulder as I soothingly rub her back.

This makes me so mad. Chloe would never hurt anyone, especially me. I suddenly feel like this is my entire fault. If I hadn’t of gone to that sleepover, David would’ve just taken me. Chloe wouldn’t have come here. None of this shit would’ve happened to her. Chloe had a life. She had something to live for. And now, David just had to come back and ruin it for all of us.