Ephemeral

Give Her to Me

When I was with Aidan...when I had been trapped to him -- I remember quite vividly that I had wanted to bide my time and keep my eyes open for any possible escape routes that I could take. When I was together with him, my circumstances were severe and he would sometimes taunt me, though he had never treated me the way that Rafael had and was continuing to.

In these traumatic times, especially when I was able to internally reflect...I couldn't help but compare the two of them – seeing the similarities and somehow upon much mental deliberation...Aidan seemed to be the lesser of the two evils I had been confronted with.

The things I had been forced to see during my time with Rafael was extreme in nature and graphic – I had seen my half-brother's death and dissection taking place directly in front of me. I had seen Sofia die in front of my eyes and wasn't able to do a single thing about it. Even when Isabella had that infection, Rafael was the one that inflicted the illness upon her in the first place in order to gain my trust.

Aidan, no matter how you shine the light on him, was still a horrible and heartless person.

I wasn't providing any justification towards the misdoings he brought on others or the deaths that he caused himself but...

Rafael was in an entirely different league where he didn't care if my mind was shattering into small, irreparable pieces.

These past few days after Xavier's death...I had reverted to day dreaming, much like I used to do up in Michigan after I had been rescued from Aidan's clutches the first time. However, unlike those particular times, my day dreams now didn't focus on self-loathing. Instead, I would think about Xavier and how he interacted with my family.

I wanted to imagine examples where we could be happy together –

Halloween – he could dress up in funny costumes and Bella would probably encourage him.

Birthdays – to catch up on the ones that he missed when we weren't a family.

Easter – dyeing eggs together and joining my father, Bella and I in a small feast.

Christmas – exchanging presents, taking monumental pictures, and cheering to the New Year.

Now, that would never happen – it would never happen and...

I slowly blinked my eyes, slipping into consciousness for a brief moment. I could feel the air expand in my chest as I took in a shuddered breath, and felt the firm steel of the chair I had been seated into. I could see a plate of rice in front of me and I struggled to breathe as tears filled my eyes once again.

Reality was so cruel-!

It took so many things away from me...!

"You didn't eat again..." Rafael's voice came, and I flinched at it.

He walked into the room while looking down at me, only causing me to squirm under his gaze. I quickly looked down and looked at the plate in front of me with wide eyes. Taking the metal fork to the side of it, I shakily brought it to the plate where I lost the feeling at the tips of my fingers. It caused my fork to fall from my grip as it clattered against the plate loudly.

I went to quickly retrieve it but found that his hand landed on mine –

Even though it was clean and didn't have a bloody rubber glove...I could only think back to when it had been bloodied by Xavier's blood.

I breathed in – panicked about the sight that my mind conjured up.

Noticing my slight mood shift, he leaned in closer to me and placed his other hand to my cheek. Tilting my head up gently, he forced me to look at him. "Calm down, Arianna..." He said in a deceivingly gentle voice. I swallowed nervously, unsure of what he was going to say or do next. Just from his touch on my body...it made my skin crawl.