Devil

-31-

-Esla-

I could barely reach my front door before cops flanked me. "Esla Lavigne?" I hugged my body, nodding with fractured sanity. My mother opened the door and cried out to my father. One of the cops came inside with me. I was glad to see that it wasn't Detective Rick nor the other cop from the hospital.

"What happened?" my mother cried out, wrapping her arms around me. "Mom," I said numbly, letting my face drop against her chest. I could barely breathe, and it seemed that I was out of tears. Was I in shock, or just emotionally muted altogether?

"I'll give you guys a moment," the female cop cleared her throat. My father's overprotective grasp wrapped around my mother and I as he enveloped us into a bear hug. "I love you guys," he whispered shakily.

"What happened?" he then asked me, and my eyes shied away from his.

"The cameras were knocked out in the wing she was in," the cop informed us. "Emergency exit disarmed, and a teacher was reported missing. I suspect she was a witness to...whatever happened to your daughter."

I sniffled, burying my head back against my mother. "Esla, tell us what happened to you?"

"I can't," I whispered.

"You can, just-

"I can't," I repeated back, more firmly, my voice still barely above a whisper. "She might still be in shock," the cop stepped forward. "Was it the people who hurt your father? Or anyone you recognized?" she asked in the same breath. Everyone looked at me with expectant eyes.

I turned away and headed upstairs, my entire body feeling shaky.

"I just need time...to think," I said to them, then kept walking.

"Do you think she left on her own?" I heard my mother asking.

"I highly doubt your daughter escaped school to escape a write up or a detention," the cop deadpanned. "Someone must have kidnapped her and traumatized her."

I closed my bedroom door behind me and started taking off my clothes. I felt around for my phone and realized that it was missing. I numbly thought about how I'd probably never get another one because no one would be able to afford it. Oddly, that was the thing that started the waterworks. I cried as I stripped off my shirt and my underclothes.

It was an ugly cry, and it was loud, and warm. I wiped my face with my old shirt, seeing my stains of blood on it and swiping at my face again with my bare hands. I felt contaminated. I heard a knock at my door but I shouted at them to go away. I felt powerful in that moment- like those stereotypical teenagers in the films that were rude to their parents.

Then that feeling died and I felt guilty about everything I had put them through. Should I have lost the fight on purpose? Should I blame my own stupidness for getting in that car with Devil and Nicotine.

I gasped.

Nicotine said I could tell the cops about them. I felt unsure now. Despite the torture I had been through, they didn't seem like bad criminals, they were the good kind that just did bad things. The kind that gave kids change but still robbed other neighborhoods, right? The kind that protected their hood, and stole from the rich right?

They were just trying to clear a threat from ruining their businesses, I just happened to be in the way, and so did Thomkeesha.

And Devil's lips had made me feel ice and fire.

I closed my eyes and pressed my pants against my naked waist, dipping my head low like I was praying.

What do I do?

I threw my clothes into the bin, and went to the bathroom, deciding to run myself a nice bath. That's what I needed to soak away my indecision and grime. I had my chance and Nico's sympathy to ask her about the money and I had ruined it all because I couldn't get my anxious mind together.

I stepped into the water and got in; knowing that people were waiting for me downstairs felt irrelevant. I dipped my face into the water and screamed, letting the water rush into my throat and out through my nose. It burned and it was bitterly cold. Like ice and fire. But that only reminded me of Devil's kiss. I lifted my head up and my ears pounded with water.

I shook my head, gasping for air and choking. Fire and ice. Ice and fire. Fire and ice. Ice and fire. Fire and ice. Ice and fire. Fire and-

"Esla," my mother burst into my bedroom, then a moment later into my bathroom, where I shook with sudden fear. "Esla, are you okay?"

I shuddered, my my body soaked as I cried out for my mother and she held me. "It's okay baby, Mama's here. You're safe," she assured me.

Ice and fire.

Fire and ice.

I woke up, and I immediately looked down at my legs. My sheets were matted in blood and stitched stubs were the remains of my legs. I could still feel the ache on each limb, and the motivation to walk. I looked up at the sound of heavy breathing and there was Devil in my closest, holding my bloody legs and laughing like a maniac. The maniac she was.

I started screaming, my body shivering as hands wrapped around me and repeated my name soothingly. What?

My eyes opened and I saw my mother holding me. I was laying in bed with my favorite night clothes on, inhaling the scent of my mother's natural perfume.

"Mama."

"Hmm?"

"I wasn't kidnapped."

If you're trying to find tags that don't have a lot of books under them to write in or just even to read #sxf, #fxs, #stems, #femxstem, #stemxstem, and I believe #stemxstudxstud have some good reads. I have a few books on my old account and new account under these tags as well!

Old account: DatAnnoyinStem and any book most likely with a PicsArt lookin cover lmaooo. I have other accounts: one I wrote a book call Rose or sumin on it, another was Vehemence, the Phone, another was Cartilage, but I've come A LONG way from those accounts.

Make sure to comment and enjoy!