WITH YOU- I Never Had A Choice ✔️

CHAPTER FIFTY NINE

AVERY

I open the door in slow motion and step in. My eyes fall on Julie lying on the hospital bed and a shudder runs down my spine. Dylan's hand immediately falls on my lower back, giving me silent support and encouragement to move foreword. I take a step towards Julie. She is lying on her back with her eyes closed. Her face looks thin, her eyes have dark circles under them as if she was deprived of sleep for many days now. I walk towards her bed and take a seat on the metal chair beside her bed. Dylan had stopped at the doorway and now stands beside Mike. I reach out and put my hand on Julie's, careful not to touch the IV channel. Her eyelids flutter and with a groan, she peeps through her squinted eyes. Circling the room, her eyes finally land on me and a warm smile stretches across her face, with the frown disappearing. My chest tightens at the tiredness shadowing her face. However, I force a smile and whisper, "hi."

"Hey," she greets in a thick raspy voice.

"How are you feeling?" I ask, keeping my voice low.

"Better now." She smiles again, fighting against the heaviness in her eyes. I feel bad for waking her up. She needs the rest. Before I can open my mouth, her smile slowly disappears and a look of worry crosses her face. "Are you ok?" she asks.

Frowning I nod. "Why would I not be?"

"He said he would kill you," she says, her body getting a little tense. She shudders and I tighten my grip on her wrist, just to give her silent assurance.

"He?" Dylan speaks up. Julies eyes move to him and her look changes. She clearly didn't expect to see Dylan here nor did she notice when he came in.

"Yeah..." she says. Slowly she takes in a long breath, looks at Dylan apologetically and says," I am sorry I ran off that day but I had no other choice. He threatened to kill my family."

"Oh, Julie." I shift closer to her. My sister is someone I've always seen having control. She never looked as vulnerable as she does now. It seems like this incident has taken that confident edge away from her.

"It's alright," Dylan says with a little nod. Then looking at me, he says, "I got Olivia for you."

A blush creeps up my neck. My family still doesn't know about the present equation between me and Dylan. I see Julies eyes widen evidently and she turns her head towards me. She is looking at me for confirmation so I nod. A grin spreads across her face and the tiredness in her eyes seems to go away a little. At that moment, her lower lip quivers, bringing tears to my eyes too. She looks at Dylan and says in a hoarse whisper, "thank you so much."

"You don't have to thank me," says Dylan. I look at him and he gives me a nod and a reassuring smile. I look back at Julie and run my hand over her cheek.

"Who did this to you?" I feel my throat clogging up but more than that, I feel anger vibrating in my veins. Seeing Julie in this way explains why Dylan is always so afraid and cautious about me.

"I don't know..."

"Julie," Mike cuts in. "There are a few questions that I have to ask you. Will it be ok if I do that in front of them?"

"Yeah that's not a problem," she says. I hear the fear in her voice. As if she is too afraid to be alone. Confirming my thoughts, she wraps her fingers around my hand. I hear her silent plea and put my other hand on top of hers.

"Okay," Mike nods and walks towards the edge of the bed holding a pad and a recorder. He places the recorder near the table towards Julie's head and then flips a page on the notepad. "Can you tell me the last thing you remember before you were rescued?" Mike's voice doesn't have a friendly edge that I always hear. It is more towards the serious, a little scary side. Maybe it is his work voice.

"It's all blurry," she says. "He came in around noon, I didn't know what time it was but it seemed to be the middle of the day, and said, 'I don't need you anymore, then injected something in me." She gulps and closes her eyes and I can only imagine how much pain she was in.

"Okay, what else can you recall from then. Any signs? Maybe his dress? How did he look?"

"He wore a...black leather jacket. I didn't see how exactly his pants were but his feet were small." She seems to think a bit then adds, "I never saw his face. He always kept it covered with a crooked grey mask and he wore gloves always. Even his hair was always under a black net type thing." Mike nods. I look at Dylan who is staring into the blank space with a frown. His hands crossed across his chest and his fingers gently tapping on his biceps. "His voice was hoarse, seemed like his head was inside a pot."

"That might be an effect of the drugs you were given. They were strong hallucinogens."

"I figured," she says. "I always saw everything blurry."

"Do you remember anything from the wedding day? After you left the church?"

"Yes. I left the church right after Dylan's car arrived just when I was out, I felt something hard hit the back of my head and the next thing I remembered was waking up in the cabin." Mike looks at Julie with a frown and nods her head repeatedly, his mind preoccupied with thoughts.

"Okay. If you recall anything else, let me know," he says after a pause and turns off the recorder.

"Sure," Julie nods.

"I think you should take some rest now," Dylan says.

"Yes. You'll probably be out by tomorrow or Thursday," Mike says.

I look down at her then slowly kissing the top of her head, I say, "Take some rest. I'll be back."

She nods and closes her eyes then we leave. Stepping out into the lobby, I release a long staggered breath. Dylan wraps his hand around my shoulders and turns me. I bury my face in his chest and hug him. His hand starts moving up and down my back but he says nothing.

"Avery." My aunt's voice makes me pull away and turn around. "Did you visit Julie?" I nod.

"She is asleep now."

"Okay..."

"They will release her tomorrow or Thursday," Dylan says. "Why don't you guys join us for Christmas at my parent's house?" My body stiffens immediately. I didn't realize this year Christmas was supposed to be different. If I celebrate this year, yet another promise would be broken.

"We would love to but..." My aunt's eyes flick warily at me before she continues. "Our old friends are visiting us. We spend Christmas together." I know who the old friends are, Marc's parents.

"That's fine," Dylan says. My aunt excuses herself and goes towards the other end. That's when Dylan notices the shift in my posture. Stepping to my side, he asks, "are you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, absolutely." I turn around towards the exit and say, "I just realized I didn't buy gifts for anyone this year. Can we stop on the way back home?"

"Sure, whatever you want baby." I smile at him but that doesn't reach my eyes. I know he notices it too but to my advantage, he doesn't say anything.

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I had to! Don't look at me like that. I couldn't stop myself from writing. I really tried though. It gives me the energy to do other stuff.

Anyways tell me what you think. Do you still remember the characters? Or has it been too long?

Btw I was writing something else too. Some other story. I suddenly got the idea. Although I don't want to lose my focus from here, it was quite nice. I wrote the first chapter. Don't know when I'll post it if I finally decide to do so.

ALWAYS LOVE YOU, my honey bees. (Yeah I am going to go crazy with names)