𝐇𝐄'𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄

ᴇɴᴛʀʏ #43 | ɪɴᴄɪꜱᴇ

043 | Incise

I was glad that she was sentenced to life in prison... but this is just gruesome.

(Y/N) stared down at her phone as she rode with Shreya and Amar in their car back to the house after her extended stay at the hospital to make sure the wounds on her back weren't infected. Currently, she was looking at a news article about Roselle, the police finding her in her holding cell dead. Her body was completely ripped apart, blood staining all around her body with her head placed in the center of all the carnage, her eyes gouged out with the word 'sinner' etched into her forehead.

Roselle is dead...

It's almost as hard to believe as her kidnapping me and Kana...

Yet it's true.

Shivering at the thought, she jumped slightly when Amar wrapped an arm around her shoulder, giving her a comforting smile as she completely melted into his hold. With Amar, with the person she thought of as her closest friend and brother supporting her, she knew she would be able to get through any sort of hardships that would be coming her way. Even when facing the prospect of going back to school after such an event, she knew that Amar and Jess would help her.

Jess...

Her frown returned.

I still haven't been able to properly face her... and now will I even be able to?

Such thoughts consumed her the entire drive back to the house, eating away at her until deep into the night before she finally fell into a fitful sleep. However, sleep didn't last long since her dreams were scrawled in nightmarish images of being back in that dark and dank room where she couldn't move unless she wanted to rub her wrists raw, of Roselle whipping her again and again with a wicked laugh, or of being plunged into an icy and deep pool of water that wouldn't allow her to claw to the surface for a breath of air. Waking up screaming, cold sweat clinging to her skin and sticking her nightshirt to her body, she inhaled and exhaled over and over again until both Shreya and Amar rushed into the room and turned the light on, showing her that she was safe.

But she didn't feel safe.

Even if Roselle was now dead, what she did still haunted (Y/N).

Due to her nightmares not waning and her condition not improving due to that, Shreya gave her an additional three days to herself at home before she had to go back to school that next Monday. As she now walked through the crowded halls, feeling everyone's eyes on her, Amar not too far behind her in a protective way, she exhaled softly.

Everyone is looking at me...

They know, don't they?

How?

I know Amar couldn't have possibly spread it... unless he told Jess and she in turn told Valen who maybe...

I don't know.

Quickening her pace, she then asked Amar, "Is Kana back yet?"

"No," he answered, seemingly not affected by that news in the slightest as he instead pulled her closer to him to avoid the groups of students who didn't care who they bumped into. "She's still recuperating in the hospital. Her wounds weren't as severe as yours, but the psychological trauma..." He trailed off, continuing, "The doctors aren't ready to let her go yet, and her parents are fine with that. They don't want Kana to push herself too much."

"Right..." she mumbled. "Maybe I'll visit her this afternoon after school."

"I should come with you."

"So you can see her?"

"Uh..." he blinked down at her, as if startled that she suggested that. "Y-Yeah. Right. I want to go with you to see her... and also to make sure that you are safe. I don't want..."

She set a hand gently on his arm when he lost his words, saying a brief goodbye before moving toward her English classroom. As soon as she walked through the door, an almost indiscernible silence fell over the students within, only muttering under their breath towards friends as they eyed her walking toward her seat.

She could only keep sighing at their behavior.

I would be gawking too.

It's not every day a kidnapping survivor returns after almost two months of being absent.

Settling down in her seat, Nicolai and Jian already there, she was expecting some sort of reaction—some sort of reply to her presence—and surprisingly received nothing. Jian merely greeted her with a smile while Nicolai didn't even look on her, his expression almost void of emotion as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the floor.

Strange.

I would have thought that they would show... something more when seeing me.

Shaking such thoughts away, (Y/N) proceeded to turn her attention to Mrs. Young who had started class by that point. What she didn't realize was that as soon as she turned her gaze to the front, both Nicolai's and Jian's eyes were back on her. Even though he had greeted her with a smile, Jian couldn't help but feel dirty. He told her that she reminded him of Mei, his little sister. Yet, just like her, he hadn't been able to protect (Y/N) when she needed it the most.

He could see it in Nicolai's eyes too.

Jian could see that no matter how much Nicolai tried to ignore (Y/N), something about her would always draw him in, always make him worried for her. Maybe he didn't know what or why just yet, but she had that effect on him, and the same could be said for Jian. As he propped his chin up with the palm of his hand, his grey eyes as bleak as the rainy weather outside, he couldn't help but feel as if it reflected his mood as well. (Y/N) was back, yes, and that in itself was good news for him, however he could still see it in the way she winced whenever she suddenly moved around too suddenly, or whenever she accidentally leaned back in her chair.

She was hurting.

And he couldn't do anything about it.

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To be continued...