Under His Roof

chapter seventeen

Before you comment something offensive about Kimberly or Julian, I want you to imagine it's you in their shoes, and then somebody you love in their shoes. Then afterwards, tell me what you've ever done to help or to raise awareness for people who were/are victims of  ----  (i won't spoil it).

That's all.

✎_ _ _ _ _ 

"Get up."

Kimberly's room door opened forcefully and the cold air from the house wafted onto her already freezing body. Julian walked into the room, suit ripped, tie missing, and red-faced. He was holding his left arm tightly against his chest and didn't even bother trying to hide the bloodstain surrounding it. He looked eerily calm for the state he was in and the words he had just said. Kimberly barely had time to take it all in before he was speaking again.

"Kimberly, get up." He walked around the bed and pulled the covers from her body. "Get dressed. Quickly."

"Get dressed? For what?" Kimberly was already out of the bed as she spoke. She could tell that this was something important, both from the tone of his voice, and the current state he was in.

Even so, Julian kept his mouth closed as he moved out of Kimberly's way so she could get to the dresser. He had a habit of not explaining himself in tight situations, and Kimberly was beginning to find it increasingly frustrating.

Julian walked over to the door of the room, each step fast paced and controlled. "We're leaving." He finally answered her.

"Leaving? Julian, Why?"

Now he turned to face her, his expression a mix of anger, fear, and frustration, but with an unsettling layer of calmness blanketing it all. He didn't have to speak for her to know exactly what this was about. She could tell just from the look on his face; it was Freddy Slim.

She hadn't told him that they'd spoken, but somehow, he knew.

"He knows where I am, doesn't he?" Kimberly asked.

Julian gave his head one slight nod. "He has a man posted outside the compound right now."

Kimberly's breath shallowed, "H – How are we going to get out then?"

Julian ran a hand through his hair roughly and shrugged, as the frustration seeped through his voice. "I don't know, Kimberly!  All I know is that if we stay here, he'll kill you."

Kimberly took an involuntary step back at Julian's words.

She had been admitting it to herself all day, she knew what Freddy had promised her her own death, but at the back of her mind, she believed that Julian would find her a way out of it. Hearing him admit to the both of them that Freddy Slim very well could kill her, made it truly sink in.

She was being watched and tracked by a man who could snap his fingers and order her death. She wasn't safe. She would never be safe. If Freddy got his way, she may very well never get the chance to see her parents, or Melitta, or anyone else she knew, ever again.

Kimberly looked up at Julian whose hands were now turning paper-white as he held onto the door frame, leaned his forehead on it, and closed his eyes.

She fumbled with her jeans, trying to pull them on faster, and when she was finally dressed and packed, she put on a jacket and joined Julian at the door. He was still in the same position as before and Kimberly couldn't help the pain she felt at seeing him this way.