We Are Without Hope

Chapter 8

"H.O.P.E
Hold On, Pain Ends."
--Unknown

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When everyone left, I took Brandon up to my room and closed the door.
"I need to run out to get our clothes. But first I need to learn how to swim. Could you please ask Sarah if she could get someone to teach me? Don't tell her why. Just say I want to learn for fun." I signed to Brandon.
He nodded and signed back to me. "I'll ask now."
Before I could stop him, he ran out of the room giggling.
I sighed and laid my head on the pillow. Thoughts of how I got here tumbled end in and out of my mind. I daydreamed, staring at the ceiling, before falling into a rare peaceful sleep.

***

A small body pounced on me. I groaned from the sudden weight and tried to get them off. The body on me started stabbing my shoulder with their finger until I finally opened my eyes and rolled over.
Big Mistake.
As I turned over, someone threw freezing cold water onto me. I shrieked and jumped out of the bed, causing me to trip on my covers and fall on my face.
I groaned in pain and a small voice laughed, soon joined by a loud, echoing laugh. My eyes finally opened and I turned around.
I saw my little brother Brandon and Stefan looking at me, laughing their faces off.
"Haha." I said sarcastically.
My arms moved the covers off of myself and I stood up. I glared at Stefan.
"What do you want?" I huffed.
"Your brother said you wanted to learn how to swim." He replied, still trying not to laugh.
It was this point that I realized what they were both wearing. Stefan had green and black swim shorts, and Brandon had red swim shorts.
Something was thrown at me. I picked it up and realized it was a bikini and a one piece. They were brand new since the tags were still on them.
"Choose one and meet us outside." Stefan said before he and Brandon headed out of my room.
I closed the door and walked to the bathroom. I quickly dried myself off and changed into the one piece. I put the bikini in a drawer and headed outside.
I walked to the edge of the pool and looked for Stefan and Brandon. I couldn't see them anywhere.
And then I heard light footsteps. Before I could move, Stefan pushed me into the pool. I tried walking across the floor of the pool and failed.
Stefan brought me back to the surface and made me sit at the edge, with my feet in the pool.

***

After 4 hours of Stefan not letting me stop learning the basics of swimming, I had finally learned the basics of swimming.
"Can I go inside?" I groaned.
He smirked and nodded, leading me to the kitchen to get water for the both of us.
After he poured water for both of us, he pulled out bread, peanut butter, and grape jelly. He started making two sandwiches.
"I'm not hungry." I blurted. He looked at me questionably.
"When did you last eat?" He asked.
I looked down and said, "This morning."
"Before or after you didn't eat and continued to starve yourself for more than two days?"
"Before." I said without thought.
Stefan yelled in anger and I realized what I had just admitted to doing.
He stomped up to me with a glare in his eyes. I tried walking back before my back met with the wall.
I gulped in fear before he started yelling at me.
"FIRST I FIND YOU IN MY F---ING ROOM F---ING CUTTING YOURSELF WITH MY F---ING BLADE AND NOW YOU TELL ME YOU'VE BEEN STARVING YOURSELF FOR TWO DAYS! WHAT THE F--K IS WRONG WITH YOUR F---ING MIND?!"
I started to cry, before responding to him in a quiet, yet strong and angered voice, "You don't know what it feels like unless you actually lived it. You have NO right to yell at me unless you have gone through the death of your own mom, the suicide of your best friend, after finding out that her parents both sexually and non-sexually harassed her, and then the beating that I got everyday, and taking every hit for my brother, who is the only person I have. So NO SIR. You DO NOT. I repeat, YOU. DO. NOT. Get to judge me until you lived my f---ing life."
I stormed out of the room, noticing that the everyone in the gang and my brother heard our fight.
I shoved past everyone's sympathetic stares and ran to my room. I closed it and locked it, also propping a chair up against it.
I changed into a normal t-shirt and some shorts. I crawled into the bed, before looking out the window to see it was dark out.
I smirked and waited for 30 minutes. I then crawled out of bed and opened the window. I crawled to the roof and got into the same position I was in yesterday, and jumped into the pool. A big splash was made and some of the house lights turned on. I quickly swam to the top and ran for my life to my old house. I looked behind me to see no one chasing me. I let out a cry of joy and started to run faster.
I finally reached my house and quietly walked in. I grabbed Brandon and I's stuff, or at least as much as I could carry, and headed back out the door.
"Summer stop right there." A scruffy voice called, just as I was heading out the door. I sped up my pace and my dad yelled at me to stop.
"Summer I will shoot you." My dad said, and then I heard of a gun clicking into place.
I turned around and saw my dad holding a gun and aiming at my head.
He held out a glass of water. "Have some water, you seem dehydrated." I stared at it, not trusting it. "Oh come on do you really think I'd poison you if I'd want you to help me?"
My senses weren't that strong due to how tired I was, so I took the drink and swallowed it. I was dizzy for a second before my dad started talking to me again.
"I want you to shoot the leader Jayden." He said to me.
"No." I boldly said.
"No?" My dad asked before laughing. "Oh so you think that after spending so much time with them they will actually treat you any better? Oh no. You did didn't you?" He laughed even harder. "Sweetie they are just waiting for you to heal before they kill you." Tears started to fall from the corner of my eyes. "Just shoot them for me okay darling?" I nodded my head and he added the gun to the top of the pile I had in my arms. "Oh and don't worry, we will get your stuff from there later."
I started to head back to Jayden's house. Once I got there, I put our stuff next to the door and grabbed the gun off the top of the pile.
I swallowed the worry I had and stood up straight. I quietly ran up the stairs to Jayden's room. I opened the door and clicked the gun back into place. Jayden opened his eyes at the sound and widened his eyes at the sight of me with the gun.
"I'm sorry Jayden." I told him, before I shot it at him, closing my eyes in the process.
There was no sound of pain and I looked at him. He was sitting up and glaring at me. The bullet I had shot was now in the wall behind him. He stood up and quickly grabbed the gun out of my hand. I was too shocked to fight back. He threw the gun in the hallway. I ran towards it and clicked it into place again. I shot at him and he dodged it. He started to panic when he realized that he was now trapped, one of my bullets would get him now.
I aimed the bullet at his head, moved the gun into place again, and moved my hand to the trigger.
I screamed in pain as a blade slashed my arm. I dropped the gun and cradled my arm, my vision blurred and I started to sway.
"Jayden you okay man?" I heard someone ask him.
I looked at the voice and groaned in frustration. Stefan had slashed me, and he saw me do something bad again.
The world seemed to suddenly tilt 90 degrees and I groaned in surprise.
"Stop groaning." Stefan said to me before slapping me. He picked me up by my hair and forced me to look at him.
As his ice blue eyes met mine, he almost dropped his blade.
"IT WAS SUMMER?!" He yelled
He cursed in frustration and told me to stand up. I stared blankly at him and groaned again. He forced me to stand and a wave of nausea hit me. I stumbled and fell.
"Summer?" Stefan said.
I closed my eyes in pain, my stomach felt like a volcano was exploding. I threw up.
Stefan's voice echoed throughout the hallway as I fell, yet again, into a deep sleep.