Then And Now

Chapter 18- "Safe"

Narrator-

Savannah climbed onto the provided bed carefully, then snuggled her body with the sheets. Lying on her back, Savannah played her finger-pads against each other while staring at the ceiling. Gulping every once in a while, Savannah's lenses moved about the darkened roof, while attempting to determine the best way she should move on, which then begged the question what should she move on from?

When sleep pricked at the corners of her tired eyes, Savannah turned on her side and shut her eyelids. Sighing, and muttering a soft prayer, it didn't occur to her that Nathan and his pain and anger was the main subject. Praying that he'd find peace within himself, and that she could find it to forgive him for his treatment both in the past and now, Savannah lost her consciousness in the words of her bedtime devotion.

Across the walls of wood and dry cement, Nathan also laid on his back with a permanent frown, and a pain in his chest that refused to subside since Savannah's departure. Breathing in soft huffs with his knuckles tight at his side, Nathan's teal domes glared into the darkness coating the ceiling above his heavy head, while the muscles of his heart swelled and pulsed in a bitter, burning pain. Not an ache, but pure pain.

What had he done?

Nathan gulped.

What had he done?

Unable to keep himself together, Nathan gripped his hair, and his emotions unraveled quicker than a freshly wrapped ball of yarn caught on a nick.

With his nose red at the tip, as if allergic to the tears which ran down his face, over the outline of his ears and onto the mattress below, as well as the thicker globes draining down the back of his throat, Nathan sniffled and closed his eyes. But that within itself was an error.

Pulling his eyelids shut proved to only ignite a spark of images, like a projector flashing on, and all he saw was Savannah. From the first time she smiled at him in high school, to the determined look on her eyes earlier that evening.

Let me help you... she had said.

And Nathan wept harsher.

Where was the fault? Where was the flaw? Where was the hate and spite? Where was the thirst for justification for all he had put her through?

He missed it. In Savannah's eyes, Nathan failed to capture the yearn to revel at his humiliation. He failed to catch glimpse of the monster he himself claimed Savannah to be. The threat. The destroyer of egos and dreams.

Savannah wasn't that.

And now Nathan was awful. Covering his face with his palms and drawing in a breath, all Nathan could hear was Savannah's last plea.

Let me help you...

#

The sound of a heavy boom on the wooden floors of Nathan's home is what startled Savannah from her sleep. Opening her eyes with a gasp, Savannah's heart skyrocketed naturally, as she attempted to orient herself.

The hum of a soft groan reached her ears and Savannah's eyes widened.

Jumping out of bed, Savannah grabbed her phone and rushed out of the room. She hurried down the hall to Nathan's door and didn't worry about knocking. Turning on the bedroom's light, upon entering the space, Savannah's body exploded into a ripple of goosebumps as a shock of horror rendered her captive and excited, while her steps halted instantaneously.

On the floor, just at the foot of his bed, in the direction of the bathroom, Savannah found Nathan. He laid on his back and clutched the thigh above his injured knee, while his teeth were gritted, his eyes closed tightly and wrinkled at the corners.