Chimera | H.S Mature

9.

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*Harry's POV*

"Harry?" Daniella called as I shut the front door behind us both and began walking away from her. My knuckles were stinging and the gash in my side was beginning to leak fresh blood into my destroyed t-shirt. I just wanted to be alone.

Daniella sighed from behind me as I made my way to the bathroom to clean myself up. It wasn't the first time I had arrived home, beaten, bruised and bloody, and always with no explanation. But there was no explanation I could give her, not one she would believe at least.

I locked the door behind me and let out a deep breath before looking at myself in the mirror. I had yet to see what I actually looked like, but from the stares and muttered words that followed me as I went to collect Dani from the therapist, I knew it wouldn't be good. My face was relatively blemish free, only the odd speck or smear of blood here and there from where I had touched my face in the aftermath. My knuckles were busted and bleeding, the jagged broken skin was raw and tender as I tried to touch it. Along my left arm scratch marks from my own nails zig zagged their way across the skin, and down my left side a long open wound could be seen through the rip in my shirt. It was fine but deep, and stung like hell.

I hissed through my teeth as I started to run my knuckles under the cold running tap, the pad of my thumb gently massaging the ripped skin as I cleared away the dirt and blood from the wounds, the cool clear water dotted with flecks of pink as my thumb massaged back and forth. There was little I could do for the rest of my wounds. I bathed each in water to try and stop the bleeding and clear up the marred skin. I removed my shirt and tossed it in the small bin beneath the counter before reaching into the cupboard for the small first aid kit I kept there, wincing when I reached with my left arm and stretched the skin around the cut on my abdomen. I switched arms.

I ran an antiseptic wipe along each cut and slowly bound them in clean white bandages, the one around my waist was stained red moments after I had secured it. I sighed and looked at my reflection in the mirror once more, questioning the reasons why it had become so normal to bandage myself up and wondering how it had become possible for his control over me to become this strong.

Weak he muttered. I ticked my head to the side to silence him.

From the other side of the door, Dani's voice could be heard softly. I frowned and decided to investigate, quickly slipping into my room to grab a fresh shirt before I padded back into the lounge.

Dani sat on the couch, her legs were tucked beneath her as she pressed the phone firmly to her ear. My phone. Her back was towards me as she spoke, answering the person on the other end of the line with quiet words of assent, firing back the odd question of her own here and there:

"So you can't tell me anything over the phone?" she asked gently, before sitting in silence and nodding, muttering a small 'ok' into the handset. I hadn't take the time to properly assess her since I had picked her up from the session, my selfish mind too wrapped up in my own problems to really see if there had been any change in her. I had asked briefly how it went and I think she said it went well, adding something about how she liked Doctor Williams I think. But she could tell I wasn't in the mood to talk and the rest of the journey home was in silence.

But as I watched her now, her back to me and generally unaware of my presence, she seemed lighter, less tense. Her shoulders were not so weighed down with the weight of what she was facing, of course she was still tense, but more relaxed in how she was sitting and talking to whoever was on the end of the line. For several days, Dani had jumped out of her skin at the mere sound of my phone ringing, she had refused to speak to anyone who called, including our parents, but here she had not only registered that my phone was ringing, but she had taken it upon herself to answer the call in my absence. I felt a small bubble of hope swell in the pit of my stomach. Maybe all was not lost quite yet.

She hung up the phone with a quick 'bye' before locking it and placing it on the coffee table. I cleared my voice to make myself known to which she jumped, but not as violently as I had expected.

"Who was that?" I asked, taking a few steps towards her and taking a seat on the arm of the chair beside her.

"I'm sorry, I wouldn't normally answer your phone, but I saw that it was Detective White who was calling and since you were in the bathroom I didn't think you would mind" she said gently.

"No it's fine, what did she say?" I asked. Dani's eyes were bright, a glimmer of hope shining through the soft pool of green as she gazed up at me. She turned her body towards mine, keeping her legs crossed beneath her and placed both her hands gently on my thigh. I reached down and took one of hers gently.

"She said that they have a lead! She said that a car had been seen on CCTV driving away from where it had happened and they were tracing it, but she wanted us to come in to see if we could give her any more information. To see if I remembered anything from the pictures" she explained, her small hand gripping mine tightly as she flashed me a small smile. It was brief and faint, but it was the closest Dani had come to offering me one of her big, beaming grins in a long time, so I was more than happy to take it.

Inside me, he stirred with apprehension.

"Ok, so are we heading over now?" I asked, doing everything I could to not squirm in discomfort at the new feeling taking over my senses.

"Yeah, she wanted to see us straight away. I hope that's ok?" she asked. I laughed.

"Of course it's ok! Let me grab my coat and we'll head over" I said and she nodded, rising from the chair and padding across the floor to the front door where she slipped her shoes back on. I rushed to the bathroom to grab my jacket which I had flung on to the counter and went back to meet her at the front door. I was about to open the door when Daniella grabbed the sleeve of my coat and pointed towards the window.

Sheets of heavy rain had begun to hammer against the glass, the force of the droplets causing them to ricochet back off. Dani sighed.

"Wait here," I said, gently removing my arm from her grasp, "I'll go get my car keys"