The Dark Hour

--------Ridge--------

Axel left and Lalna was sleeping on my lap. I was watching the movie Axel left on and sighed. While Skyla was talking to Astrid I dozed off for a second then I remembered something from my uncle's house and I woke right back up. The only one I even told about that was the police. That was only because I didn't have a choice. Even if they asked me about it I wouldn't tell them. It just- I didn't want to think about it. But there still was the trial and they might make me retell the whole story over again. The thought freaked me out.

It was getting late and Axel still wasn't back. I was starting to doze off when the door opened.

"I'm home." Astrid said walking in.

"Where did you go?" I asked rubbing my eyes.

"Out."

"Axel went out looking for you."

"Okay, you might want to call him." I groaned then grabbed my phone out of my pocket. I called him and waited for him to pick up.

"Please tell me that Astrid is home."

"Yeah, she's home," I yawned.

"Okay I'm coming home." He said hanging up. I sighed then dropped my phone on to the coffee table.

"He's coming home now."

"Okay I'm going to bed." She said walking away.

"Night," I called out.

"Night." I yawned then closed my eyes. I didn't want to sleep, but I was so tired.

~~~~

I woke up and I had to cover my mouth to stop myself from screaming. I tried to slow down my breathing then I heard a door open.

"Are you okay Ridge?" I shook my head.

"No, not really."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Are you sure, it always helped me when I had nightmares."

"It's w-weird." Astrid sat down.

"How weird?"

"Really weird, and it actually happened."

"Tell me about it. You might be able to sleep after you talk about it." I looked at Lalna, he was still sleeping.

"Ok, um so this happened after Axel left me at my uncle's house. My uncle's a homophobe and he thought that Lalna was my boyfriend cause of the way I acted around him. So I was alone for a while and I fell asleep and he came home with this girl. This girl was about his age and he hired her to um fix me? That's how he put it."

"That's horrible!" Astrid growled. "No one should be put through that!" I looked at Lalna. He was still sleeping.

"I don't want Lalna to know I don't want him to feel like this was his fault."

"Do you want to go outside to finish talking about it?"

"He's on top of me though."

"I got it." She said using her spell and levitated him up. I got up and she gently laid him back down on the couch. "Let's go talk so incase he does wake up he won't hear." I nodded then followed her outside.

"Ok, so um this girl tried flirting with me and I just politely told her I wasn't interested and my uncle um hit me with a belt."

"That's stupid, you shouldn't be hit just because you don't like women, your uncle deserves to rot in jail."

"It happened every time I told her to leave me alone. I have a bruise on my side from it. It wasn't because I don't like women, but she was twenty-five. I'm seventeen and it's just weird to me."

"That would of been rape since you didn't want it. Ridge you don't need to be fixed there's nothing wrong with you. Nothing happened right." I looked at the ground.

"Umm, she k-kissed me."

"Is that it or did something else happen cause I can go look for her and teach her a lesson."

"I don't want to talk about it." Astrid sighed.

"Was she there when the cops got there?"

"No, she ran."

"This is stupid. How people treat other people here it's stupid."

"Not all people are like him though."

"I don't care it's still stupid! No one should be treated like this or anything!" I shrunk down bit.

"It um, it happens."

"It shouldn't though."

"I know," I squeaked. Astrid sighed.

"Is that it or is there more?"

"There is more, but I don't really don't want to talk about it."

"Okay do you feel a little bit better?" I nodded.

"A bit."

"We should get some sleep we have school tomorrow."

"Ok, um good night Astrid."

"Night Ridge." We went back inside and I sat back down on the couch and Lalna sat up.

"Oh sorry," I whispered.

"Why are you up?" Lalna asked tiredly.

"Just a bad dream, I'm fine now. Let's just go back to sleep. We have school tomorrow." He nodded and we both laid back down. He laid on top of me and rested his head on my chest. I gently rubbed his back and he yawned.

"Night Ridge," He mumbled. I smiled and sighed.

"Night Lalna."