Grim

29

Azias' POV

"Mmm!" I hummed lowly to myself as I sampled the dinner Sapphire had been preparing. She had decorated our dining room in celebration of our success in finding Ace. She would've been in the kitchen still had she not caught me obsessively staring at my brother, hoping he'd wake soon. To force me to take my mind off of him, she sent me here, the kitchen, to see if the food was ready.

It definitely was, and I was feening to eat it. I turned off the stove and checked on the macaroni pie in the oven. That was ready too, so I turned off the oven and put the pie to cool off.

I then peeked in the fridge at the dessert she made earlier and had put to cool. I wanted to destroy those cupcakes too. Her food had no business looking or smelling this appealing! I licked my lips as I watched the cupcakes and figured that taking one before dinner wouldn't hurt. I slowly reached for one, and right as I was about to grab it, I was startled by Sapphire's voice.

"Stop!" Sapphire screamed, and I heard a glass break. Her scream sounded strained, as if she had been hurt and could hardly breathe. I left the cupcakes immediately and ran to the living room where I saw none other than Ace strangling my girlfriend.

"Yo!" I yelled as I ran over to them, and Ace looked up at me and froze. He had been hovering above her, and she was on the couch in the spot he had been in before whatever the hell was going on took place.

Ace frowned as he watched me. He looked at me as if he had seen a ghost. He hesitated before calling out, "Zy?"

Sapphire, who had tears streaming down her face wriggled from his hold as she continued crying. She scurried away from him, and in the heat of the moment, stepped on the broken glass that had been previously holding water.

I wanted to hug Ace and then ask him what the fuck he had been doing, but I also wanted to hold Sapphire and see to it that she was okay. I found myself doing neither. I just froze, conflicted about who I should have attended to first.

"Zy, is it really you?" Ace asked, his voice having a croak to it. I would have offered him water, but my girlfriend was currently bleeding from the glass she prepared for him.

As dry as it was, I thought I'd never hear that voice again.

I wrapped my arms around Ace, and I heard him sniffling as he hugged me back. "I'm so sorry this happened to you!" I sniffled. I was his big brother. It was my responsibility to see to it that he was safe, and I failed. I couldn't imagine the amount of shit he had gone through. Sapphire and I had seen old bruises on him when we brought him to our safe house, so I knew that he had been tortured and was still healing.

"You're really here!" Ace cried, his voice breaking, and I felt tears streaming down my cheek. Ace usually wasn't a softie. Shit, neither was I, but here we were in a brotherly hug and crying both relieved yet angry tears. "The Dumont's, they-"

"I took care of them," I let him know. "My only regret is that I didn't torture them first." We broke our hug, and I asked, "Why were you strangling my girlfriend?"

I looked over to where Sapphire had been when I came in the room, but she was no longer there. Her trail of blood looked like it was leading to the bathroom.

I had been so wrapped up in being able to talk with Ace that I forgot that Sapphire had been hurt. I needed to check on her and make sure that she was okay.

I walked off to find her, and Ace followed behind me to explain why he had hurt her.

Ace explained, "I woke in an unfamiliar place with the girl you said had been working for someone who was after you. Thought she was working with the Dumont's or that they handed me over to her so that she could take me to someone worse."