Truth and Light

Chapter 17

I fell to the floor inches from Gabe's feet, "Alina!" I heard him cry in terror. I looked up and there he stood, his breath coming in puffs. Terror and agony were etched on to his face.

"Gabe!" I yelled. I stood and threw my arms around him.

"Sunshine, what happened?" Gabe buried his face into my hair, and I buried my face into his throat, he smelled so good, like home.

"I grabbed our cord," I told him, and his body froze. "The Darkness, my Uncle, he took me. I was so afraid, I wanted to be closer to you, so I grabbed the cord and pulled. It's fine, he didn't hurt me," I told him. Uncle hadn't hurt me, at least not physically. My body trembled, and Gabe held me. "How long was I gone?"

"Only a few minutes," Gabe said. His eyes were wide, tears streamed down his face.

I tried to feel the cord between the two of us, to feel what he was feeling. I was shocked. Gabe had lived through the memory of Duncan. He had seen the beating, and he had spent the two days of being tied to the bed with no one coming to save me.

I couldn't even look at him, my shame was a living a thing. It ate at me from the inside. I had let Duncan do that to me, and I hadn't left. Why hadn't I left? What kind of horrible person lets someone do that to them and just stays? I felt dirty, like I hadn't taken a shower in years and that everyone could see the filth that clearly stained my skin.

"Sunshine, look at me," Gabe said as he took my chin in his hands and lifted it, so my eyes were meeting his. "That wasn't your fault, he hurt you, controlled you. What he did to you is on him. It makes him dirty, not you."

Finally, I let go and just sobbed, great huge sobs that racked my whole body. Gabe gathered me into his arms, pulled me into our room and held me until I had no more tears to cry. He didn't rush me, he didn't push me to talk about it, he just held me.

Gabe walked me to the bathtub and deposited me on the step to the tub. He filled it with hot water and vanilla scented bubble bath. He removed his clothes and then mine. They were still damp from the ocean and my skin itched from the salt.

Once the tub was full, our clothes were off and our bodies were submerged into the heavenly scented tub I started to describe everything to Gabe, including the charred field, the servants made of glass, Darkness' demands for me to break my soul bond and finally the force field that protected me from him.

Gabe didn't talk but continued to rub soap all over my body. It smelled divine. We didn't talk, just stayed in the steamy room, enjoying the feeling of each other and the warmth of the room.

He poured shampoo in to his hands, rubbed them between his palms, and then told me to turn around and lean my head back. His soapy hands massaged the shampoo into my hair, washing all the way to my roots. After my hair was satisfactorily washed, he used his hands like a cup and rinsed all the suds from my hair. I don't remember anyone ever washing my hair, and it felt amazing.

After all that happened today, I just relaxed and floated in the water while Gabe held me. He continued to wash me, spending a lot of time on my stomach, rubbing it with soap and gently rinsing me off.

Finally, it was time to get out, my fingers were all pruney and the doctor's visit came back to me. "Will you tell me what the pills the doctor gave me are for?"

I was nervous that something was wrong with me. Once Gabe was out of the tub and dried, he helped me out of the tub, wrapped me in the biggest, fluffy, grey towel. When I was finally dry, we laid on the bed together. Gabe gathered me in his arms and held on tightly.