Finding Melody

27: Scars

My eyes felt like they were mountains as I opened them to the blinding light. I could tell they looked red and puffy as ever, but that was the least of my concerns as I woke up in Dallas's room. My eyes wandered around the room, I had such difficulties sleeping in, that I ended up just not sleeping at all. The bookcase towered over the room, as I saw Dallas sleeping in the rocking chair, with a blanket thrown over him. I wasn't sure why he hadn't just slept in the same bed with me, we had done it so many times before.

He woke up suddenly flinching towards the bed and as he saw me watching him it looked like he was about to have a nightmare that he would play out and act as if it was chasing him now.

"You're awake", he stated, filling the space between the both of us. I nodded my head at this statement, clearing being awake covered the basics of it.

I felt like I should say something, anything, I needed to say something.

"Listen about last night, thanks for everything you said, what you did too, but I should... get going", I tried to say, looking at him strongly and he nodded his head as if agreeing with me. His smile stiffened, and so did mine, as I fumbled with the clothes that were on my skin, which weren't mine.

"Last night- you said something when you were about to go to sleep... you said 'why did he hurt me", he said, looking at my eyes to answer his guiding question, the one he so badly wanted an answer to. What was I to say? That it was Zeke, that he ruined my face, left marks on my skin for all to see. That it was someone I had let into my home, that I trusted. How could he have hurt me?

Dallas still waited on an answer, he seemed determined to figure it out himself.

"I meant she, it was a girl who smashed the bottle", I corrected my past knowledge and my horrible self for cry-mumbling which I wasn't even sure was a thing in the first place.

"I knew that", he mumbled to himself, still staring at me like I was a puzzle to figure out.

I started moving towards the door as I looked towards the mirror. Scars of dried blood and scabs lined my face, along with my body. I brushed my face with my hands, running over each scab and I felt its scaly self. My eyes started watering, as I fell along the side of the bed, he had turned me into someone I didn't recognize.

Dallas rushed to my side, scooping me up into his arms.

He held me tightly, holding onto me.

"Bambi, It's nothing that time won't heal", he tried calming me, wiping away the fray tears that ran down my cheek. But I was already set on this notion that the ugliest had come, that nothing more would suffice this, that this especially was the last pain I would feel for a while.

"I think you are just as beautiful as before", he whispered, softly into my ear, and I looked at him with that same smile I used to give Zeke before he left and became a new person.

"Mel", a small voice, sounded from the doorway and I turned to face Dallas's back. I couldn't let her see me like this, I couldn't let her look at me with these scratches and scabs on my face.

"Vi, I'll bring Mel downstairs in a bit, okay?" He said, speaking for me as she gave him an okay and I just know she thought about why I wouldn't let her see me. I was embarrassed that my own choices had led me here, I should've never gone upstairs with him.

"Isn't she going to be scared?" I bowed my head into his chest, as he shook his head.

"One time she had all of these cords coming from her nose, to her eyes, and she had to put stickers on her face, she won't be scared, I promise", he said, looking at me with a promising face. Now that I thought about it, she wouldn't be scared, I guessed she would have a lot of questions, considering her favorite genre is mystery.