Fearless

The Kids Aren't Alright

Chapter Six: The Kids Aren't Alright

Rebekah stirred from her peaceful slumber. Her eyelashes fluttered before she opened her blue and green eyes. Her makeup was still smeared from the night before. "Michael... Oh god my head hurts. Everything hurts. What happened?" she asked me. I handed her a tall glass of water.

"Well you got drunk at the party, and a guy took you into the upstairs bathroom and tried to rape you. But I beat the shit out of him before he could actually do any real harm. I broke the towel rack so I could get the handcuff off of it. Then I carried you downstairs and got back to Aaron and Sam. They had gotten a handcuff key for the handcuff that connected them together. So I took all of you back here." I told her. Rebekah raised a hand to her head.

"Wow, you really are a cockblock," Sam said as he passed by my door frame. Rebekah shot a glare at him. I went over to the door and slammed it closed. I sat back down on the edge of my bed.

"Why?" she asked. I was taken aback by her question.

"Why what?"

"Why were you so determined to get me out of that bathroom? Why did you leave me on the other side of Canada? Why did you stop talking to me? Why am I scarred this way? Why won't you look at them? Why do you hide your emotions and push me away?" Rebekah asked. I stared into her eyes and blinked at her. She tore her eyes from mine. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. It's probably just the side-affects of my hangover."

"No, you deserve to know." I said. Rebekah looked at me with hope in her eyes. "I didn't want anything bad to happen to you again. I wanted to protect you from more pain. I left you on the other side of Canada because I didn't have another choice. I stopped talking to you because I thought it would be easier than to face what I did. You're scarred because of me. I won't look at them because I put them on you. I hide my emotions from you because I'm afraid that I'll lose you again because of them. I push you away because I don't want to hurt you again. I can't hurt you again." Rebekah crawled on my bed and sat down again, closer to me.

"How did you give me these scars?" she asked softly. I pushed myself off of the bed and tugged on my hair anxiously.

"I can't tell you that." I said, desperately wishing she would understand.

"Why can't you? Is it because you're afraid?" she asked.

"No. I'm not afraid. I'm fearless, and I want you to know. But telling you will put you in even more danger, and it will put Aaron and Charlie at risk. It's not really my secret to tell." I told her. I could see her through my mirror. She looked sad, like she thought that I was making an excuse not to tell her. I spun around on my heel.

"You already know, at least, you had the biggest clue ever." I said. "You don't even know that I gave you the clue, because I didn't mean to. Remember the night of the storm? When you went into the woods?" I asked her.

"Where I saw those two wolves." she said. I nodded eagerly.

"What does this have anything to do with that?" she asked. I growled deep in my throat and tugged at my hair some more. "What do those wolves have to do with anything, Michael?"

"Fucking hell! I wish I could just spit it out! Just yell it for the whole world to hear, but I can't!" I yelled into the mirror. I lashed out and kicked the bottom of the mirror, shattering the reflective glass. As my foot hit the glass, my shirt rode up high enough for Rebekah to see the edge of the gauze on my side.

"Michael!" she gasped. Rebekah lurched up from the bed and lifted up my shirt. "What happened?" she asked me.

I twisted to look down at her. She pulled the medical tape and gauze away from my still healing wound. "What the hell?! Did you get shot?" she asked me, worry in her voice.

"Is that from an arrow?" she asked, her hands close enough to the puncture to make my flinch in pain. "Answer, now." she demanded. I gave her a torn look.

"When did this happen?" Rebekah placed the gauze and tape back on my wound and let my shirt fall down over it.

"The night of the storm." I told her. She let out a frustrated noise that sounded like a muffled scream.

"Alright, I'm done interrogating you. I'm going to go clean up, take a shower and get this makeup off. Where's the bathroom?" she asked me. I pointed to the door on the side of my room. She disappeared behind the door with a promise to be back shortly.

Aaron and Sam pushed my bedroom door open and plopped down on my bed. "What happened to her last night?" Sam asked me, sending worried glances at the bathroom door. I went over what happened after I left them on that couch with water.

"Do you know who he is?" Aaron asked me. I shook my head.

"She made me let him go. If she hadn't made me stop, I probably would've killed him." I admitted.

"You should have fucking killed him! Now he's going to have all three of us on his ass." Sam said through clenched teeth. As he kept going off about our murder plan, I was listening through the sound of the water running in the bathroom. I focused my hearing and heard Rebekah crying. I pushed myself off of the bed and went over to the bathroom door. I knocked on it softly.

"Rebekah?" she didn't say anything. "Is everything alright?"

The water shut off and after a minute, she peeked her head out of the door. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. "What do you want Michael?" she asked me. I pushed myself into the bathroom. She closed the door behind me and clutched her towel closer. I walked around her and sat down on the closed lid of the toilet.

"I'm sorry about what happened. I'm sorry I didn't stop him sooner. I'm sorry I didn't kill him then and there. I'm sorry I can't give you the answers you need. I'm just, I'm sorry." I told her. My eyes lowered so they were fixed on her neatly painted toenails.

Rebekah stepped up to me and then sat down on my lap. She held my face in her hands gently. "There's nothing for you to apologize for," she whispered. Then she pressed her lips to mine gently.