𝘔𝘖𝘕𝘖𝘊𝘏𝘖𝘗𝘚𝘐𝘚 ❁ 𝘑𝘑 𝘔𝘈𝘠𝘉𝘈𝘕𝘒 & 𝘒𝘐𝘈𝘙𝘈 𝘊𝘈𝘙𝘙𝘌𝘙𝘈

𝘚𝘌𝘝𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠 𝘕𝘐𝘕𝘌

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
❝ hurts like a bitch ❞
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

𝘚𝘺𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘦'𝘴 𝘗𝘖𝘝

"No, Rafe! Stop!" I scream in pure fear as he catches me, grabbing me roughly "Rafe, Rafe, stop!"

My big brother shoves me harshly and my body hits the edge of a large container filled to the brim with water. He grabs me by the throat and leans me backwards as I gasp, grabbing his arm.

"It's- it's... it's Sylvie" I choke out desperately "It's your little sister, Rafe. Please- please don't"

"What about me? Huh? You'd have me fry" He stresses, tears running down his face.

"Rafe, no!" I shriek as he sends my whole body backwards.

I'm submerged within the freezing cold water and I thrash around wildly, trying to fight my way back up for air. Rafe holds me down by my neck and I hold off the need to breath, kicking and punching at the boy in panic.

Just when my head starts to feel as though it's going to explode with the pressure of being held under the water, Rafe rips me out of the water and I gasp in breaths greedily, clinging onto him.

"You brought this on yourself, runt!" He cries out in a manic state.

"Rafe! Rafe, please!" I sob uncontrollably.

"This is on you! Your decisions" He warns me, pushing me down again.

I scream and my cries are muffled by water, causing me to choke and splutter violently. Inhaling the water at an alarming rate as I throw my limbs around aggressively, fighting for my life.

"This is what you get, Sylvie" I hear my brother's muffled voice as I claw at his arms, screaming with all the air left in my lungs.

I grab at the sides of the container, desperately trying to pull myself out of the water but Rafe holds me down with all his strength and he completely overpowers me.

I inhale another large gulp of water and choke on it, little black dots clouding my vision. My eyes flutter closed and I lose all the fight I thought I had, allowing myself to sink down in the water.

Instead of wasting my last breaths fighting the one thing that I have always feared, I let myself think of my happy place and JJ's smiling face pops into my head. I'm sat with the love of my life and all my friends at the chateau. We're all happy and nothing bad has ever happened to us.

I feel myself drifting in and out of consciousness, finding peace in the fact that I'm going to die, when all of a sudden Rafe's weight disappears and I'm pulled out of the water, into a pair of warm arms.

"Sylvie, are you okay?" Topper Thornton's voice snaps me conscious and I choke, coughing up a shit ton of water "Come on. Come on. Are you okay?"

The blonde kook pats my back as I cough up water and makes sure I'm stable on my feet before rushing over to where Rafe is laid on the ground. In my dazed state, I watch through tears as Topper starts laying into my brother and he lays there, taking the punches without a fight.

"Topper, enough!" I plead, not being able to take anymore.

Topper grabs Rafes shirt and lifts him up by it, my brother limp and bloody.

"If you ever touch her again, I'm gonna kill you. You got that?" The Thornton boy threatens Rafe, punching him again "You got that, Rafe?!"

The boy lets my brother drop to the ground and rushes back over to me, gently taking a hold of my arm to check me over.

"Sylvie, are you okay? Can you breathe?" He questions me in concern and I nod, still gasping for air.

I reach out and wrap my arms around the blonde boy in front of me gratefully, needing to feel the warmth he's emitting. He wraps me in a warm hug and the feeling of safety causes me to let out a sob.

✯¸.•'*¨'*•༻❁༺•*'¨*'•.¸✯

The sound of clanging jolts me awake and I gasp, bolting upright from the bed I'm laying in. My eyes land on Topper who is stood with a tray of food in his hands and a warm smile on his face.

"Hey" He breathes out and my hammering heartbeat slows in relief "How you feeling?"

"My throat hurts like a bitch" I admit in a raspy voice "What time is it?"

"I don't know. Why?" He asks, sitting down and placing the tray in front of me.

"I need to go. My friends will be worried about me" I explain, starting to get up but Topper gently catches my arm.

"Wait. No" He protests with a concerned expression "You're not going out there where your brother almost killed you. Okay?"

I look at him in confusion, wondering where all this concern for my safety has come from and I have to remind myself that he's helped me before, he's not a bad person.

"Just...You're safe here. Have a little food" He pleads his case and I ease back onto the bed.

"Yeah, okay" I nod in agreement and he smiles, clearly pleased with himself.

"Oh, here's a phone so you can get a hold of me and I can get a hold of you" He says, holding up a shiny new iPhone "I just wanna make sure you're safe"

"Thank you, Topper. I mean, not just for the phone but for everything" I smile gratefully, accepting the gift from him and he shrugs me off.

"It's so good to see you. I haven't seen you since you dipped from school. I heard Sarah and John B are back" He speaks casually.

"Yeah, they're alive. It was a big shock to us all" I tell him truthfully.

"How are they? I can imagine it was really hard for them. Y'know, being presumed dead and all" Topper questions and I can tell he's more interested in hearing how Sarah is than John B, he's just too scared to directly ask.

"They're okay. It's pretty rough right now with the trial, but I've got hope" I answer.

"I'm sure everything will work itself out" He says reassuringly and I smile in response, really needing to hear that right now.

"Yeah, I'm sure it will" I repeat confidently.

"Well, eat up" He encourages me, standing up "I'm gonna get the Malibu ready. Just let me know if you need anything, okay?"

"Okay" I nod.