Love, Scarlett | WATQ WINNER

02 | that chemical romance

THEY SAY THAT you always get some premonition when something wrong is going to happen to you.
But she did not have any foreboding of the awaiting storm while she walked with a happy skip in her steps towards the abandoned hut.

The hut, made of sticks and straws of trees that were long dead, was her escape. Her escape from everything in this world, those nonsenical glances, pitiful stares and meaningless words. The hut had a little window to the side. She would often lay in here for hours and hours until she couldn't hear the watch ticking anymore, until the screams she heard at her house were no longer ringing in her ears. She would stare at the stars through that small window.

She had come here with Rhett once, when she was a crying, blubbering mess. She had brought her only hope into her haven. He had consoled her, sat with her till the break of dawn and repeated words of love to her.

Oh how that had backfired.

This day was no different from the others, her dad wasn't home and her mother was knitting. But she never went home, she came here directly from school, too afraid to face her own house.

She had entered the hut with a wry smile on her face and eyes that were too bright to be hers. She didn't notice the shadow in shadow sitting in the corner, but when she did it was too late.

Two guys came out and held her, not in the way you embrace someone to give them solace, but in the way that you break them.

Against her will, she was impaled, again and again and again until she was too broken to breathe, too seared to see, and too messed up to move. She was burnt and bruised and busted, but no one cared.

She lay there that night, looking at the stars from the small window, wishing that she could be one of them, far away from here, far away from anything and everything that she ever called hers.

The worst part of it all was she knew both of the guys. One was Rhett, her Rhett. She didn't even want to think about the 'how's or 'why's of him being there. She was too scarred right now.

And the other guy was Josh, Rhett's best mate. She had met him and hung out with him during the lunch breaks when Rhett would call her over, proud of his girl (but she never really fit in with them). Josh would make witty remarks and make her lips curve upwards with a light feeling going in her body, even though she felt anything but happy. With sandy hair and blue eyes and a smile that could charm you from miles away, Josh was every girl's dream.

Night after night after that unfortunate evening at the hut, she would lay in her bed with her eyes closed, but never really asleep. Her hands would twitch, and legs would shake in a desperate attempt to get rid of the memories. But you couldn't do that, you could never get rid of your memories. They were here to stay, embedded in your mind like a chemical trace. She wouldn't sleep even though she was tired as hell everyday. She couldn't sleep.

Because, Josh became her nightmare.