//caesura//

\\28:Township\\

I wake up the next morning, to absent arms, half the bed is layered in a ball of sheets, but no Matty. After checking my phone I've determined that it's 9 o clock, not a usual time he'd be up walking around or for that matter doing something productive.

"Matty?" I yell out, grasping a hold of the side of the mattress, searching for my chair but it's downstairs, Matty carried me up last night. "Matt?"

I finally hear footsteps, coming down the hall, so I push myself up, throwing the covers off my half naked body.

"What are you doing up so early?" I ask, but as I look up I notice it's Tim standing in the doorway, Matty's father.

I immediately go to throw the comforter back on my legs, covering my body up, the panic in my heart swelling.

I have no idea if he had something to do with the torture I endured for almost six months or if he knows I know about him and Adam's connection.

I don't want to risk saying anything to him just yet, after all I'm so defenseless without the use of my legs, I was defenseless when it came down to Adam so I can't imagine how I'd be now.

"He's not here right now," he tells me.

"Oh ok, sorry if I woke you up."

"No, you didnt. I usually get some work done at this time of day." He takes a look around the room smiling and then back at me. "How's your legs doing?"

"Um, OK I geuss." I tell him, growing bored with this conversation, I'd rather just not be talking with him right now.

"Do you know where Matty is?" I ask him, and he grins, nodding at me.

"He's down in the Greenhouse or probably at the bar."

"At nine?" I question.

"He's a troubled boy, Joclin." His says, rubbing his hands on the doorway.

"Yeh, I know." I tell him, looking away. Hes not as troubled as people think, he's so much more than that, he's my savior.

"You're such a beautiful girl, Jocy," my ears perk up at the familiar sound of my nickname and it sends unwanted shivers down my spine. "It would be a shame if something happened to you, again." The moment this leaves his mouth I'm pressing my back against the headboard, looking at him intently.

His eyes move toward the stairs as heavy footsteps come trudging up. I can see Tim's face go red as Matty appears in the doorway, sweaty and red like his father's. He removes the ear buds from his ears and stares between us.

"Where were you," I casually question him.

"I was out for a run, why?" That makes perfect sense, he's covered in sweat and has on the tightest shorts I have ever seen him in and he's shirtless. His father made me think he was actually at a bar.

I shake my head, "You were gone I was just wondering."

"Oh ok," he says breathlessly looking at his father. "And you need?"

"Just checking on your girlfriend here, she was screaming and I figured since you seem to never be there for her-"

"What the fuck is your problem!" He screams, stepping forward. I go to get up but my legs are still spaghetti, and I can't stop him from ramming a fist into the spot next to his head. "Do you say shit just to get a rise out of me or are you really a narcissistic asshole." He screams louder, sending the house into one big vibration.

"You throw one more of those punches and I can send you right back to boarding school." He threatens.

At this point, Denise and Louis have come to take their places in the hall, Denise doing her best to come between her son and husband, and I watch sickenedly from the sideline.

"Please stop this, there's no reason for a screaming match this early in the morning."

"Your son's trying to kill me." He says calmly but Matty's chest is heaving.

"What is going on?" Louis questions, grabbing at his brothers arm to pull him back.

"Tim can't understand when he needs to keep his filthy fucking mouth shut."

"Matty!" Denise thunders, to shove out the shrills I cover my ears, throwing my head in my lap, but they slice through tenfold.

"He is your father and you can't talk to him like that." She defends.

"Oh God forbid I actually take a stand to him, because we all know you dont. You let him go around and fuck his interns, his assistants, who knows whoelse but I can't call dear old dad out on it?"

I assume Tim's face is flushed beyond compare at this point but I don't dare to look.

"Matty-"

"And we all know you have this sick little attraction for Joclin, you sulk into our bedroom like we don't know you're there but we know."

"That's insane." He says laughing him off, and I squeeze my hands tighter to my ears.

This is not good.

"Oh is it?" He bellows. "Fucking is it really? You're always looking at her with that sick grin, you honestly think she's gonna go for you. She's with me and you can't even respect that."

Denise continues to try to calm the ruckus but she's being screamed over and this time it's Tim's turn.

"You spoiled fucking brat, I don't think you know the true definition of respect. You've never showed anyone here an ounce of respect, so you don't deserve it, quiet frankly." The more he speaks the my heart start to shudder and the more my chest aches, something's not right.

"You let the girl you 'love', get kidnapped under your care, raped and beaten and this whole time you're sitting at home drinking sangrías. You're a pathetic excuse of a man, and the reason she's sitting in there right now, paralyzed." My heart stops all together at this point, my skin going cold at the feeling of complete annihilation from Tim's crippling words.

The sound of wet crunching echo's from the hallway and my arms go limp as everything clue comes blurry.

I've fainted. Oh God, is it over?

When I open my eyes I see white, blinding white, like the nights I spent isolated in Adam's white room. At first glance my heart starts to race, but the more I look around the more I notice that it's nothing like there. There's an actually IV in my arm, pumping something in my veins and miscolored wires attached to my chest. My head is throbbing and my arms feel raw.

From the other side of the room a door open, but my head feels to heavy to turn it.

"Joclin Hemet?" A tiny voice calls over to me.

"That's me," I laugh drly. "Can you tell me what going on? Where is everyone?"

"Well hon,"now she appears in front of me, her lab coat like a cloak, dragging to her tiny shins, contrasting her dark skin. " they're in the hall, we can't let them see you right now until we talk."

"About?"

She grabs a chair and pulls it around so that she's locking eyes with me.

"Well, you fainted and hit your head."

"Fainted?" I laugh again, only this time it's whole heartedly. "What do you mean, fainted."

She sighs," well it seems to have been a psychogenic blackout, it occurs during a stressful outbreak, which makes sense after what your finance told me."

Fiance?

"Matt?"

"Yes, Matt."

I shake my head. "And what did he say? "

"Well just that you were in the middle of a vicious fight, but that's all before they took him away."

"Who took him? "

"The police."

Are you fucking kidding me...