Ifreann

21

  Islas POV
 
  I jump up and open the door and gasp. Ailm is on the ground and her shirt is ripped. I run to her
 
  "Oh Ailm what did he do? Did he?"
 
  She cries into my arms. Her body is trembling as I help her to her feet and bring her to the bathroom and set her on the toilet.
 
  "Hang on ok? I'm going to get the stuff we need and lock the door"
 
  She just nods. I run back to the room and pull the cushions from the couch and throw them into the bathroom, I grab blankets and cushions and pillows then I go to the fridge and pull out food and juice, I grab bottles of water and snacks then I go to the small wardrobe and I nearly fall on my face. It's full of women's clothes, all our size. I grab jumpers and bottoms and socks and I return to the bathroom and lock the door. It's a tiny room but it's better than being out there. I throw the cushions into the bath to make it more comfortable and I put the blankets and pillows on top. Ailm is shaking so I pull the bag of weed from my bra and light a joint.
 
  "Trust you to have weed in your bra"
 
  She giggles,
 
  "I put it in there when I woke up, I forgot it was there until right now. I grabbed it in case we didn't have any rolled and you know how lazy I am so Jake rolls them all for me and puts them in here. We have enough to get high and sleep and probably enough for a few days if we are careful with it"
 
  I take a large pull and give it to her, she takes it eagerly and I sit on the floor in front of her and pull on a jumper and sweatpants.
 
  "He really did have this all planned out didn't he"
 
  She points to the clothes. I nod and hand her the same stuff. She gives me the joint and I climb into the bath with a cup to use as an ashtray. I notice the small vent above the toilet so I climb up to look through it. I open it slightly and try to break it but it won't budge. I try to see through it but it's too hard and it's dark outside. Humans have shit eyesight. I groan and go back to my spot in the bath and she climbs in beside me and we cuddle together then I ask her.
 
  "What did he do to you?"
 
  "He tried to—"
 
  She cringes and shakes her head then continue's
 
  "I fought him back and he kissed me. I hate him so much. I feel so dirty."
 
  I squeeze her tight and sigh
 
  "I talked to Jake, I was able to actually speak. I told him everything, including that the apartment is spelled and from the outside it looks normal"
 
  "How did you talk to him?"
 
  She sits up and looks at me.
 
  "I held his hand and talked. It's the only way and I don't think he even heard words. He just knew what I was saying, he said that we should do what we need to do to survive this and they won't hold it against us"
 
  She squeezes my hand as tears run down my cheek. She lays against me
 
  "Next time we go out there we should try to pull the tv in here to"
 
  I chuckle and nod
 
  "Yeah that's actually not a bad idea. I saw books in the cupboard, should I go grab some?"
 
  "We both will. Is there anything else we need? I don't plan on going out there again until we need to"
 
  "Let's just go get everything we can see"
 
  We jump out of the bath and listen at the door. I open it slightly and peek through. He isn't there so we run out and grab books from the cupboard and I look at the tv.
 
  "Leave it. We will just read for now. Anything else?"
 
  "I wonder did he get chocolate"
 
  She shrugs and goes to the food cupboard, she pulls out a few bags and shrugs and throws it over her shoulder. She walks to the door and tries to open it but she screams and pulls her hand away.
 
  "Fuck! Don't touch the door"
 
  She lifts her hand and it looks like a burn. I take her into the bathroom and run her hand under the cold tap and search for bandages. I find bandages but no cream so I go back into the apartment and smile when I see the aloe Vera plant. I pull off a few large steaks and return to the bathroom. I use a plastic knife to rip it apart and I place it opened up on her palm then I wrap it in the bandages. She has tears in her eyes as I finish up and lock the door. I help her into the bath and get in beside her. I hand her the bag of food and she goes through it and pulls out a sandwich. She opens it and takes a bite and hands it to me. I take a bite and suddenly I'm no longer hungry. I force it down my throat and groan, handing it back to her.
 
  "Not hungry either?"
 
  "No. Shall we read something?"
 
  I give her a random book and I take the other, pride and prejudice. I roll my eyes but open it, lighting the joint and I read snuggling under the blanket with Ailm right by my side. I knew I could get through this as long as I had her. I could get through everything as long as I had her.
  ————————
 
  Ailms POV
 
  3 days later..
 
  "What do you both need? Tell me know or you won't get anything"
 
  I groan rolling my eyes at the door. We hadn't moved from this room in days.
 
  "Weed, get us weed And more books some chocolate aswell"
 
  Isla shouts out to him
 
  "And don't forget to get the papers and stuff to make joints and don't skimp we smoke a lot"
 
  I finish, she snorts quietly smiling at me.
 
  "And that's all?"
 
  "That's all the important stuff"
 
  I answer back
 
  "What about food? Have either of you eaten yet?"
 
  I roll my eyes like he cares
 
  "I told you we can't eat without our mates, your basically just killing us slowly. It's strange i thought psychopaths liked to kill quickly"
 
  He growls and bangs on the door
 
  "Isla I told you I don't want to kill you so get that into your head!"
 
  "You say that but you are so maybe stop contradicting yourself and I'll believe you"
 
  She spits back, I smirk and lean back against my pillow and close my eyes, exhaustion taking over. I wonder if humans are always this tired, if they are it's painful to be human. I feel my spirit leave my body as I crave my mate. My heart hurts at just the thought of him. I missed him so badly my entire body hurt, it hurt to breath without him and eating went out the window a long time ago, if it wasn't for Chris's daily visit I wouldn't know what day it was. It was confusing to be in one room all day everyday, the window has a light outside it so it always looks like daylight so we never really know when it is, especially now that we sleep so much. We take turns to sleep too afraid he will barge in and take advantage of us when we are out cold. I hear the door open and close and my body instantly relaxes when the echo of his feet leave the apartment. Everything goes dark and suddenly I'm by his side.
 
  "Hey baby"
 
  I smile he can feel me now even before I touch him, he looks exhausted sitting at the end of our bed so I go to him and run my hand over his head, he smiles and lays back against the bed
 
  "I miss you"
 
  I touch his hand, my heart hurts for him, damn my heart hurts for me too.
 
  "I miss you too, sleep I will stay with you"
 
  His chin starts to shake and he rolls over on the bed so I get in and face him, I lay with him holding his hand with my nose to his
 
  "I can't do this for much longer it's hell. I love you too much and it hurts so bad"
 
  I sob and cry, I may not cry tears but I feel the tug on my heart as he cries for me, he cries for both of us.
 
  "Me either, why can't they find the apartment?"
 
  He wipes his face and sighs
 
  "I don't know, they have broke down almost every door in that town and nothing"
 
  I cry harder holding his hand, unsure of what to say
 
  "Don't cry baby, I'm so sorry I feel so useless"
 
  "I'm the useless one, I can't even lift my arms above my head"
 
  He sobs into the pillow, a knock comes to the door so he wipes his face and raises up slightly
 
  "Who is it?"
 
  "It's Ella alpha, i've got your dinner"
 
  I sit back and frown, who the hell is Ella and why the hell is she near his room
 
  "Come in"
 
  Come in? Did he just invite a strange girl into our room? What the actual fuck is happening here. She walks in with a smile plastered on her face, in a red summer dress. She has bright blonde hair, curly and bouncy. She's tall and skinny, definitely a model type with high cheekbones and a perfect complexion. She lays a tray on the bed beside him, she brought him toast? Fucking toast? She came to bring him fucking toast!!!!! She places her hand on his shoulder and bends down to look at him
 
  "How are you holding up?"
 
  "Not great"
 
  She adds another hand and squeezes his shoulders
 
  "She wouldn't want you suffering like this, you should do something. Blow off some steam or you know take your frustration out on something like last time"
 
  My jaw goes slack, my heart explodes. Did she just imply that he did something with someone? How could he? Heartbreak is a funny thing. My entire world stops and I gasp falling back. I feel something like a knife of acid Pearce my chest. Deacon falls forward clutching his chest.
 
  "Leave now and don't come back"
 
  He spits at her, she stands back shocked walking away as he stares daggers at her, he swings around and he looks straight through me literally.
 
  "Ailm I stabbed a punching bag, that's how I got rid of my frustration I would never and I mean ever even think of another woman I love you not anyone else please please believe me"
 
  I sob of relief tears through my chest and I take a breath for what felt like the first time ever. I fall beside him and rest my head on his knee. He gasps in relief
 
  "Who is she and why is she in our house. In OUR room?"
 
  He's tense but takes a calming breath
 
  "She is Jake's cousin. She came to help and she is just use to being like that around us but she won't ever come in here again I promise. Do you believe me that I would never ever even think of another woman?"
 
  I feel foolish and stupid but at the same time I'm glad I witnessed that because she was clearly suggesting something else
 
  "Before me were you with her?"
 
  He shakes his head
 
  "No never, why?"
 
  "I don't trust her. I don't want her near you. I don't even want her in this house. She wants you. I can see that. She was suggesting you use her to release your frustration. If I even scent her in this room when I come back I'll kill her"
 
  He chuckles shaking his head
 
  "That's the first and last time she will ever be in this room as for kicking her out of the house get Isla to tell Jake. He will probably punch me if I say anything. His mood is similar to my own in that sense"
 
  I sigh holding onto his hand while I talk
 
  "I'm sorry it's just hard. It's all hard"
 
  "I know baby, I won't hold it against you I love you way too much to care about any of that shit"
 
  I could feel my consciousness pull on me so I stand and kiss his head, he smiles so I lean down and kiss his lifts, his eyes water and he touches his lips
 
  "Iv got to go. I love you so much"
 
  "I love you too, be careful and I'll chat you later baby"
 
  I close my eyes and I feel the familiar suction like pull on my chest and suddenly I'm opening my eyes in the bath. Isla smiles at me yawning
 
  "How was it?"
 
  It's only then that I realise I was crying, I shrug sadly wiping my face
 
  "Jakes cousin was their and she came into our room and grabbed his shoulders and said that I wouldn't want him to suffer and he should let of some 'frustration'"
 
  I cried, Isla gasped and then growled
 
  "Please tell me he sent her packing?"
 
  I smile and nod
 
  "Yeah he did but I don't like her, he said for you to tell Jake to make her leave because he's in a bad way and will only argue with deacon"
 
  "Consider it done. Bitch needs to learn her place"
 
  I chuckle and wipe my nose. I sigh bored looking around for a book but iv read them all.
 
  "I'm going out to take the tv in"
 
  She nods and stands to her feet following me as I get out of the bath, we listen quietly at the door and after a few minutes we decide the coast is clear so we sneak out and I pull the tv into the bathroom as Isla grabs the bag of groceries from the table and the remote. We scurry back in as I role the tv along the floor the echo was so loud it almost hurt my ears so I moved faster afraid the noise would attract our kidnappers.
 
  We get back in our tub and turn the tv on, there are just 2 channels so I choose the movie one a film called ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES comes on so we settle down and we watch it cuddled up together. We watch it and we cry, we cry our hearts out. Every toxic tear I let fall made my eyes open just a little further, just a little brighter. I held my best friend and I realised that if there is no light in the darkness that we make that light. We can make it brighter. We have each other and we can make each other smile but we had to try. We needed to ignore the darkness and fight for the light because the only people who have the ability to give us light right now is each other so that's what we decided to do. We decided that even if we are locked in this damn bathroom that we have each other. We have our memories. We have our future but we needed to make it through this hell and if we are going to get out of it and right now we can decide if we get through it in pain or we can get through it in laughter with happy hearts and smiles on our faces because no matter what happens we have each other and that will always be infinitely better then having no one. So we cried those toxic tears and when we were done we smiled. Because even now through everything there is always brightness in the darkness we have just got to look for it and if we can't find it we have got to make it.
  ——————-
  1 week later..
 
  It had been a week of hiding in the bathroom with Isla. It was tiny but comfortable. We spent our time reading random books and only going out when he dropped stuff off. We moved the tv back out deciding that movies made us way too depressed so instead We slept taking turns after he tried to get into us. He won't do it if we are awake though so now we only sleep in shifts. He said he doesn't mind waiting for us to come out because we aren't going anywhere and he's waited all his life. That gave me comfort but it also scared the crap out of me because he really does think he's going to get away with this.
 
  The boys and my family had searched high and low and now I was paranoid that we are wrong and we are spelled to think we are somewhere we are not. He would come everyday with food, drinks and weed. But at least we had each other. My hand had finally healed and it looked back to normal now and I wondered if there was another way. Today I would visit grandma Caron for a while and see if she has had any word back from her witch friends. We could communicate now. If we held their hand and talked they could hear us and I often wondered how and why we could do it. Did the witch know we could do this or did she make it so we could do it. Either way it was a secret and only a select few knew we were doing it and we rarely talked out loud about it. Today Isla had asked for pencils and paper so we could draw. Or write So we were waiting patiently for him to arrive with more supplies to kill the boredom of sitting on our ass all day. We longed for the bed but we knew we couldn't risk it. I heard a knock at the bathroom door and I froze
 
  "What!"
 
  "I won't be here tomorrow, I brought enough supplies for 2 days."
 
  "Where are you going?"
 
  I ask intrigued, how can he walk around so freely? I didn't understand it.
 
  "It doesn't matter but everything you need is in the bags at the door. Be good"
 
  I hear him retreat, then I hear the door open and close. I don't move, I just listen. Far too many times did we act too quickly and he almost got into the bathroom. But if I wait he always moves and this place echoes like crazy so we would know. After around 20 minutes I took a chance and opened the door. He's gone so I relax and pull the bag into the bathroom and push the rubbish bag back out then I close the door quickly.
 
  I opened the bag and started to pull everything out, he had weed, double the usual amount and 2 pipes, no papers. I groan. I hate smoking weed like that. Next I pull out 2 books to read then a pencil case full of pencils and rubbers and sharpeners. Then 2 artist books. He had snacks and sandwiches. I grab the book and the weed and climb back into the bathtub and pull everything closer as Isla wakes up.
 
  "Hey, what did he bring?"
 
  "He got you the art stuff and more weed but no papers. He got us pipes instead and he won't be here tomorrow so everything is doubled"
 
  She pulls out the pencil case and opens it letting everything fall onto our blanket. She grabs the pencil sharpeners and grins.
 
  "Yessss!"
 
  "What?"
 
  I ask her, she smiles and points to the blade
 
  "I'm making a knife"
 
  My heart pumps in my chest in excitement
 
  "You're a fucking genius. What do we need to do?"
 
  She holds one of the plastic sharpeners by the bathtub and she smashes her silver cuffs against it hard, shattering it into peace. She puts them all in her hand and I move everything else back into the case
 
  "Leave the rubber out"
 
  I nod and do what she says then she grabs tissue and drops the pieces on it and looks through it all and pulls out the little blade, it's small but sharp as hell. She grabs the rubber and pushes it into it then tears a tiny bit of fabric from her shirt and ties it around it tight. She pulls up a pencil and uses the blade to cut in the wood trying to split it. She saws at it then stops taking a rest and takes the weed and the pipe.
 
  "I'll do more later. I'm so tired. These things must make us sleepy"
 
  "Yeah me to"
 
  I answer her yawning
 
  "Go to sleep hopefully it will be made when you wake up"
 
  I close my eyes and snuggle down into my spot and let the darkness take over. Happy that we might actually have something to defend ourselves with.
 
  ——Ailms dream——
 
  I wake up and smile at Isla, she's looking at me, it's weird because we can see each other in a way. It's like a tiny ripple in the space around us. Maybe we have too much time to focus on it and that's why we see each other or maybe it's because we are both wearing chains. I think of gran and suddenly I appear in front of her
 
  "Hey sweetheart"
 
  I smile because she always knows when we are there. She's with deacon today and I go to him and touch his hand
 
  "Hey deacon I miss you"
 
  "Hey baby"
 
  I turn and go to gran and grab her hand
 
  "Is it possible that the place we are being kept is spelled to look like the street?"
 
  She frowns and thinks for a moment
 
  "Yes. It's very possible and actually it makes a lot of sense"
 
  "Is it possible that the witch that made our cuffs added a spell so we could come find you? That this was her plan all along? That she wanted to help us?"
 
  Gran stands up frowning
 
  "Yes, that is very possible. In Fact it makes perfect sense. Why did I not think of that. But why would they help take you then help you?"
 
  "Maybe he threatened them"
 
  Deacon stands up and walks to gran
 
  "What is she saying?"
 
  "She thinks that she was wrong, that the witches that spelled the place, made it look like they were in a town and that the witch was threatened and had no other choice but made it possible for them to come back in spirit"
 
  "So she might not be in a town at all? How do we find out where they are?"
 
  "When I touched the door it burned me, it took 4 days to heal"
 
  He growls and slams his fist on the table
 
  "What the fuck do we do? Do not touch it again, Ailm."
 
  "We got art supplies today so Islas making a shank with a pencil and sharpener"
 
  He chuckles and looks at me
 
  "That's good, make as many shanks as you can"
 
  Gran shoots up smiling
 
  "Try to scrape off the spell on the doors and windows"
 
  She grabs a pen and a piece of paper. She draws symbols on it and I recognise one immediately. It's on my cuff.
 
  "Are any of these on your cuffs?"
 
  "Yes the third one"
 
  I answer her and she grins
 
  "That means the witch knew what she was doing. Scrape every symbol but that one and they might break"
 
  Deacon sighs and asks me
 
  "Can you go to him like this? Can you go and see where he is?"
 
  "I'll try I'll be back in a minute"
 
  I think of Chris the monster and suddenly I'm in a truck, he's driving and is wearing a red baseball cap. I look around and I see a map under me. It has a circle around a small town in Alaska? What the hell? I look in the mirror and gasp, he's driving a lorry. I think of the back of the lorry and suddenly I'm inside it. A huge freezer box was inside and there were symbols all over it. It had smaller freezers around it. I thought of inside the container and I nearly dropped. We are in the container. We are in a damn lorry. I think of Chris again and I see we are driving on a highway. I wait until I see a sign and nearly take a heart attack when I see we are in British Columbia. I memorise the road and go back to deacon. Even in spirit form my body shakes in shock and as I see him I reach for his hand and he relaxes a little but I don't not this time.
 
  "We aren't in a town. We are in a lorry, The back of a lorry in a spelled container and we are driving through British Columbia heading to Fairbanks Alaska"
 
  He gasps and looks to gran
 
  "Holy fucking shit. Get Arden on the phone now"
 
  "Baby is there anything else?"