Pay the Price

Chapter 13- First Night

Connor went to Myrah's room at one in the morning, feeling like something was wrong with one of his siblings. Myrah was royally pissed off at being woken, but when Connor explained what he was feeling, she also felt as if something wasn't right.

Both left her room, trudging up the stairs to the third and top floor, where they went to their brother, Christopher's room. It was locked to prevent any searching Zandailias' from getting to him. Connor unlocked the door, opened it, and both him and Myrah went inside quietly.

They had to ensure he was okay, but they knew, somehow and someway, that he wasn't. He absolutely wasn't okay. He wasn't going to be okay in a very, very long time.

Christopher's room was dark. Blinds closed, all doors closed, lights out, everything that could produce light was either off or covered. One wouldn't be able to see their own hand a centimetre from their face. It was completely pitch black. Christopher was like a vampire, wanting to always be in the darkness.

Myrah felt along the wall, finding the light switch. When she switched on the light, Connor and Myrah found Christopher lying on the floor. He was sleeping in the foetal position, his hands clawing into the carpet. He didn't even have a cushion under his head. He was far too used to sleeping like that.

Slowly, Connor approached Christopher, sitting by him. He waited for a few moments, then very carefully touched Christopher's hand to gently wake him. Christopher jumped, looked over at Connor, and backed away. His eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of his skull from how wide they were, and he seemed as if he was about to cry.

"Hey, Chris." Connor began quietly. Christopher wanted to run, but he felt frozen. Like he was a kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar. He eventually started to cry, but he didn't realise it. "Oh, Chris. What's scaring you?"

"Please don't hurt me." Christopher whispered, backing away further, going into a crawling position. Crawling was faster than shuffling. Myrah went over, but also kept a fair distance.

Christopher was absolutely petrified that he was going to be beaten for absolutely nothing, and he wanted to be completely alone. Being alone meant that there was no one to hurt him. It meant he was safer than usual. He also wanted the lights out. The dark was comfortable.

"Why would we, Chris?" Myrah asked, a bit hurt that he'd think they'd hurt them. But she didn't understand that he would behave the same way with everyone. Not just them. He was scared of everyone.

"He's scared." Connor told her, and Myrah understood. "He doesn't trust us. We also don't know how often he was woken up and beaten right afterwards. He needs to be comfortable and safe in his own sleeping space." He continued.

Connor understood very well that Christopher didn't trust them. He also understood that they didn't deserve his trust either. They had to earn it. Christopher was traumatised, of course he wouldn't trust anyone. It would take a lot of effort to earn the trust.

'What have we done to earn his respect? Nothing. He needs to trust at his own pace. Not ours.' Connor thought to himself, then shuffled closer to his brother a bit more.

"There would never be a time where we'd hurt you." Connor began, "we'd never think of laying a finger on you with the intent of harm. You don't deserve to be hurt, you don't deserve to be in pain, you don't deserve the abuse. You don't have to trust us, I know you won't for a long time, but I promise we won't hurt you. We're here to keep you safe." His voice was low, and his tone seemed to calm Christopher down.

He still didn't have confidence in his siblings words, but he felt somewhat safer. Connor carefully lifted Christopher off the floor, then lay him on his bed. Christopher didn't lash out, but he did mildly panic. That was where Myrah stepped in.