The Broken Ones

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"What did you need you to tell us?" Valeriana asked Alesia.

Valeriana, Frankie, and Johnny had returned to the university after hours to talk with Alesia. Luckily for them, the library was open until midnight which gave the four a place to escape the coolness of outside. They had managed to find an empty study room where they could talk in private.

Alesia paced nervously, she kept her head down as she walked up and down the length of the room. She was too ashamed to look them in the eye. "I sorry I'm being so weird," she muttered.

"What is going on Alesia?" Frankie asked concerned.

"I don't want to tell you, but I have to," Alesia admitted. "I have to tell someone."

"Alesia, calm down," Valeriana told her as she grabbed Alesia left arm.

Alesia didn't try to fight Valeriana grip on her. She took a deep breath. "There is no point trying to sugar coat it, I was abused as a child."

Valeriana gasped loudly. She dropped Alesia's arm and covered her mouth with her hands. Johnny didn't make a sound. Instead, he avoiding Alesia eyes.

"I know," Frankie told Alesia.

Alesia turned to her taller friend. "You do."

Frankie nodded. "I know your mother was Leah Anderson."

"How long?" Alesia asked.

"Since last week, when I was researching female killers," Frankie explained. "Your name is in every police report on Leah Anderson. There are not many Alesia Floros that live in Melbourne and are eighteen."

Alesia nodded. "That is a good point."

"I also know you took the piece of paper that had her name written on it so I won't find out." Frankie continued. "That way I didn't say anything."

"You don't know everything Frankie," Alesia informed her. She turned to look at Valeriana and Johnny. "There a lot about me that you don't know. I sorry that I dumping all of this on you but you guys are the only people that I trust enough to talk to you."

Alesia took a deep breath again and began to tell them everything.

From her mother's alcoholism to the cause of her Aquaphobia. But her story didn't end there. She told them about Maya and how she had let Maya down. She told them about Aiden. How they had once been close like siblings but now he hated her with a passion. Alesia told them everything that led to her being friends with Angelica and how they stopped being friends. She told them about Katarina and Amelia, everything she had done to those two girls and what they did to her. Alesia told them about Grace and how she had let her down.

Alesia told that she was sick, mentally ill. She explained the panic attacks and the large dosage of medication that she took to stop them. She told them about being afraid of dying yet having an overwhelming desire to be nothing. She told them about how it felt to look in the mirror and see an enemy looking back at her. An enemy that had already stolen too much from her.

Alesia told them about how she had been sick for so long that she could no longer remember how it was supposed to feel to be well.

"I don't know what to say," Valeriana told Alesia after she finished her long, sad tale.

"You don't have to say anything," Alesia answers. "Just listening is enough."

"You didn't deserve what happened to you," Frankie told her.

"I know," Alesia replied. "No one deserves it."

Johnny didn't say anything. Instead, he just looked blankly at Alesia. Alesia felt that he wanted to say something comforting but just couldn't find the right words to say.