Forever.

Chapter 25: I would get it

Claire's P.O.V. (The next day)

The air I'm breathing feels unnatural and fake. I take a deep breath of it and immediately start coughing. The coughing sends a dull pain to my side, but I ignore it.

I reach up to my face and pull a mask off of it. Once the mask leaves my face the air feels normal.

I slowly and hesitantly open my eyes and sit up. Another wave of pain is sent to my side, but I continue to ignore it. When I sit up I get tangled in wires that are all connected to me.

I do not want to be here. This place is where Eric kidnapped me, and then he did stuff to make me end up right back here.

He beat me again.

He kicked me again.

He touched me again.

I can't get the feeling of his hand on my arm out of my mind, and it makes me cringe. I pull my knees to my chest, drop my head, and let the tears go. They soak my cheeks immediately and I choke on the sobs in my throat, but I don't let that stop me. The lump in my throat disappears and the sobs fill my head.

A hand falls on my arm and I throw it off with force because it feels too familiar in a bad way.

"Claire?"

I look up and see Braden with a worried expression on his face.

Oh my god. I just threw his hand off of me.

"I'm sorry." I barely choke out before I drop my head and start crying again.

"Oh, Claire." He says as I feel him sit down on the bed. He wraps his arms around me, but I just can't be touched right now. I hate the feeling of human contact, because of Eric.

I break out of Braden's embrace and lift my head again.

"Don't touch me!" I yell. Braden stands up, with his good leg, and places his hand over his mouth. I see his eyes gloss over as he slowly lowers his hand.

"Oh, Claire." He says at a whisper. "What did he do to you?" He asks, but I can tell that he's not directing the question specifically at me.

"Ca-Can you leave?" I ask.

"What?" He asks shocked.

"I don't want you here right now." I say seriously, even though I don't mean to.

"Okay, I'll come back later." He says sadly. "I love you." He says as he grabs his crutches. I can see on his face that he's waiting for me to say it back, but I can't. He releases a sigh and leaves the room.

He's right. What did Eric do to me? I totally just snapped at Braden for no reason. I would usually never do that to him, or anyone for that matter.

I hear a few knocks on the door, and I look up. Derrick comes in while holding his phone to his chest.

"Derrick, I don't want to see anyone right now." I say.

"I know, and I'm sorry. But I have your brother on the phone." He says.

It's Jake. We both went through this before, but me still worse than him. He's probably confused about what happened since he's not here anymore.

"Okay." I say as I hold out my hand for the phone. He gently hands it to me and takes a step out in the hall. I put the phone up to my ear. "Yeah?"

"Oh my god! What the hell happened?" He asks loudly.

"Eric found me." I say.

"I know that, but how? What did he do?" He asks.

"To get out or to me?" I ask.