Philips (Sequel to De Santa)

Chapter Twenty Two

Loneliness. For the first time in a while, I felt truly alone. Nightmares of Arty plagued my sleep, taking my mental health back to square one. I knew Matt wouldn't hurt me, I knew I could trust him, but why was I acting like I was so afraid of him? Was I afraid of him? No, I was afraid of reliving the night I was dying to forget. "Chels?" My eyes fluttered open to see Jim standing in the doorway looking down at me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I croaked.

"Matt's been texting me all morning. Did something happen?"

"It's nothing...just personal stuff."

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"I already explained it to Matt."

"I know, but...I'm your brother." I looked up at Jim and saw Dad standing behind him, concern in his eyes. Did he send Jim in to try and talk to me? Did he think it'd work? I let out a sigh and slowly sat up in bed and sat against the wall, pulling my knees to my chest.

"You might wanna sit." Jim nodded and took a seat at my desk chair. "You too, Dad." Dad hesitated, but finally stepped into the room.

"You sure?" Dad asked.

"Just sit." Dad nervously cleared his throat and sat down on the edge of the bed. "What I'm about to tell you...just give me some time with it, okay?"

"Take all the time you need," Jim insisted. I took in a deep, nervous breath and finally let it all out.

"When I was staying with Trevor, I met someone...his name was Arthur, but everyone called him Arty. He came over looking for Trevor, but I refused to tell him where he was. He then gave me his number and rode off. I never called him, but it wasn't the last time I saw him. He came by after Trevor got done berating me about how I talked to him and how I invited Ron to stay for dinner. Arty offered to get me away for a while...stupidly, I agreed. By the time Trevor found me, I was already drunk. The Lost MC and I got along great. We were laughing, talking, having a good time, but then Trevor showed up and took me back home, shooting a few of the Lost in the process."

"Jesus," Jim muttered.

"That night stayed with Arty. He eventually came over with Wade, who was recently assaulted because he didn't know I was living with Trevor yet. Arty wanted information on me that Wade couldn't give him. Arty re-issued his offer to take me away from Trevor and I kicked him out. After that, I wasn't allowed to be alone in the trailer or go outside until Trevor returned from work. So, we instead opted for me working in the lab with them. One day we went to the Cluckin' Bell Chicken festival in Paleto Bay. We were informed when we were leaving by a Lost MC member that Arty had lost his shit. We went home, I took a shower and Trevor quickly ran to Ron's house."

"If he knew that Arty was after you, why did he leave?" Dad asked.

"He wasn't gone for long, just that small time frame was long enough. I think he was watching us, waiting for Trevor to leave. Anyways, I heard someone come in and I assumed it was Trevor. So I got dressed and when I exited the bathroom, Arty grabbed me and held me at knife point. We fought and he hit my head. Everything was weird after that."

"What do you mean weird?"

"It felt like the room was spinning, like I didn't have that much control over what I did...my body went into autopilot. Anyways, Arty tossed me onto the bed and I tried to crawl away and felt the gun under my pillow. I took my chance and kicked him off of me and grabbed the gun. He and I fought over the gun for a minute and when the perfect window of opportunity raised, I took it. I shot him in the head and he died on top of me."

"Jesus," Dad buried his face in his hands and sighed.

"And what did Matt do?" Jim asked.

"He kissed me...his hand went up my thigh and he tugged on the hem of my pants. I...panicked. For a moment, I wasn't at Matt's house anymore, I was back in Sandy Shores with Arty."