among the fallen leaves

Chapter Ten

Hunter heard a scream from his spot at the kitchen counter. It was about 9:00 pm, and he knew Aurelia would only be awake from this point forward. Almost dropping the ice packs and juice, he raced up the stairs to her room, only to find her curled into herself, shaking as tears rolled down her cheeks at a fierce rate. Putting down the items, he sat beside her shaking frame, prying her hands off of her eyes.

"Hey, hey 'Re; it's okay, you're okay now," the boy whispered, his own voice almost cracking in the sheer panic at how badly she was shaking. He continued, whispering softly placing a light kiss to her temple, repeating over and over again, "you're okay now. I'm right here. I'm always going to be right here...you're safe." He couldn't help but let a few tears of his own stream down his face.

Aurelia cried, her mind repeating the same, haunting words to her over and over:

Down, down, down...so far down...down, down, down...

She hadn't realized she was whispering this phrase out loud until Hunter asked her what she was saying, an eerie chill making its way down his spine once he understood the words. Ines came into the room only three minutes later, her breath coming to a stop as she took in the scene unfolding in front of her eyes.

Aurelia's eyes were a bright shade of pink and white, her tears pouring out by the second, bruises on her pale skin; she looked even worse than she had in the hospital, the mother thought. Ines slowly moved towards her daughter, who was curled up on her bed, back against the headboard as shaking breaths heaved in and out of her chest.

The rest of the night was spent with the two whispering comforting words to Aurelia; eventually, she had calmed down. It was near sunrise when she awoke to the sounds of her mother speaking quietly from—what, to her—sounded like the other side of the room.

"Augustine, I think we need to come home. Aurelia had a horrible night, she was crying and screaming, and I thought—" her voice broke as a sob racked through her body, "Augustine, I-I thought she was going t-to throw up or pass out, o-or have a stroke; the way she was shaking, she—she needs to see someone about it." Aurelia couldn't hear her father's complete response, but it was something along the lines of just give her a day...two...adjust...in pain...she's going to...fine, Ines.

There were a few more muffled words the girl couldn't quite make out but heard her mother respond with, "Yes, I'll have her call you when she's awake. Just don't mention what happened last night. She's sleeping so peacefully now; I'm almost scared of what state she'll be in when she wakes up again. I don't ever want to see her in such distress, I thought, I was going to throw up from how upset she was. I've never seen her like this. Hopefully, a phone call with you will help, even a little bit."

Aurelia's attention was turned towards a hitched breath that came from below her head, Hunter, oh God, what did I put him through? Her thoughts raced for a moment as she heard her mother promise a phone call to Augustine later in the morning before Ines hung up and left the room, quietly shutting the door behind her.

It was so far down, wasn't it? A voice masking as her own asked her—no, shouted at her as the image of blood-stained fingertips came to memory. Before she could venture any further into her nightmare-tainted memory, she heard a small groan coming from the boy beneath her head. Another one, then a low, sleep-filled "shit," escaped his mouth as he moved a bit, fingertips gently squeezing at her side, the other hand placed on top of her own on his chest. She felt a gentle kiss being placed to her head before he took a deep breath; she took this moment to breathe in, too, the salt-scented air filled her lungs as it filled his, the same.

Comfort. She felt nothing but comfort this time. Maybe it was from his arm being securely wrapped around her frame, or maybe, she thought, maybe it was just bad luck last night. Maybe it was pent-up stress that combined with the painkillers.