Silent Battles

Part 9 | Unraveled Threads

As I stumbled out of the café, the familiar tightness gripped my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs. The cool breeze hit my face, but it wasn't enough to pull me out of the memory crashing down on me.

It wasn't just Aiden's invitation. It was the word party, and all the memories it dragged with it-the memories I had locked away, yet they resurfaced whenever I was caught off guard. My mind spun, pulling me back to a night I'd never forget.

*Flashback*
I was 19. It was supposed to be a simple night out-just a school party with a few friends, nothing major. I was anxious, sure, but my friends had convinced me that it would be fine. "Just come and have a good time," they'd said. "You'll love it."

I didn't love it.

One of them was Daniel, someone I had known since high school. We weren't best friends, but we were always cool with each other. He'd never given me any reason to feel unsafe.

It was fun, for a while. Until it wasn't.

As the night wore on, the room got louder, and the drinks kept flowing. I wasn't much of a drinker, but Daniel handed me one anyway. "Just one, it's not gonna hurt," he said with that easy smile. I trusted him.

One turned into two. And then everything began to blur.

The lights were dim, music blaring, and I had stayed too long, long after my friends left me. It was just supposed to be a drink, a little fun, but I felt the room start to spin, the edges of my vision fading as I lost control. That's when he found me Daniel.

He acted concerned at first, asking if I was alright, but his hands... his hands didn't match his words. They were too close, too rough. I tried to pull away, but I couldn't move, couldn't even think clearly.

I remember his arm around my waist, guiding me away from the noise and into a quieter part of the house. "You okay?" he asked. His voice sounded muffled, distant, like I was underwater. I tried to answer, but my head felt heavy, and the room spun in slow circles around me.

I don't know when the hand on my waist started to feel wrong. When the closeness stopped feeling like a friend helping me out and turned into something darker. By the time I realized what was happening, I couldn't push him away.

The rest of that night was a blur of panic, helplessness, and shame.

"Daniel... stop," I managed to whisper, but it was like he didn't hear me-or didn't care.

My body felt paralyzed, my words trapped in my throat as he kept going, his hands rougher, pushing boundaries that should never have been crossed.

The betrayal stung more than anything. This wasn't a stranger. This was someone I trusted. Someone who used my trust against me.

When it was over, I didn't cry. I just numbed out, hollow inside, vowing never to let anyone close enough to hurt me like that again.
*End of Flashback*

I never told anyone. Not my friends. Not my family. I just locked it all away, pretending it never happened, but the fear stayed. Parties weren't safe anymore. No place was. Every time someone suggested going to one, that fear would claw its way back up, choking me, until I couldn't breathe.

The memory slammed into me with full force, and I stumbled to the side of the street, pressing my back against the cold brick wall as if that could ground me. My heart was racing, and I gripped my arms tighter around myself, trying to make it stop-trying to remind myself that I wasn't there anymore.

I was safe. I wasn't with him.

But even now, a year later, the feeling of helplessness hadn't left me. I was still that girl-frozen, unable to stop what happened, carrying the weight of that night with me.

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Authors note
This was so sad to write . Sending love and light to everyone who had to encounter this. Choosing the bear all the time