After a few hours I completely give up on sleep. I'm in too much pain for my brain to shut down. He could've at least given me pain medicine or something. I groan and roll on my side. Out of nowhere Todd starts to snore. I jump, thinking I had woken him. A sharp pain courses up and down my back. I wince and a few tears rundown my cheek. "Hey," Jade whispers from across the bed, "are you okay?" She looks over Todd at me. I shake my head. "Oh," she whispers.
"Hurts..like Hell. My back..looks bad?" I ask weakly, already knowing the anwser. I knew without seeing it it was a very bad second degree burn. At least it felt like it.
"Yeah, it does. It looks like it hurts. It looks really burned. It's really red and bubbly and some pieces of your skin is black," she whispers. I groan. I silently cry some more. "Have you slept any?" She asks. I barely shake my head in reply.
"I'm..in too much pain. You sleep. You..need it. It's okay," I whisper back. Todd tosses in his sleep, causing both me and Jade to jump. Oh no, we woke him up. Will he be mad? He is still for a while. We realize he wasn't awake. He unconciously throws his arm around me, laying it on my back. I cry out and jerk away, which makes the pain worse. His eyes pop open and he sits up.
"What happened?" He asks. I can't stop crying long enough to answer him. He keeps repeating the question. Jade decides to answer for me.
"You laid your stupid arm on her back. You know, the back that you burned the Hell out of." He turns and smacks her. "She's in pain," she says quietly, "she needs painkillers or something, please." I look over at him through my tears fully expecting the smug look he always has when I cry. Instead I get a genuinely concerned expression. Jade lets him out of bed. He comes around to my side of the bed. I sit up slowly on the edge of the bed, wincing and groaning at every little movement. He picks me up and puts me on his back. I wrap my legs around him. He takes me across the hall and sets me down on the edge of my bed. I look up at him, for the first time I've seen, sorrow fills his eyes. I can't really tell if it's real or fake, something tells me it's real, but I refuse to let myself believe he really has any emotions at all.
"You can sleep here," he says, bringing me out of my thoughts, "I'll go get you some medicine." He starts to walk out then stops in the doorway, "I really am sorry, whether you believe it or not. I got way too mad off and couldn't control myself. I just don't want you two to leave. I love you both. I wish you and Jade both would realize that. There's simple rules, but neither of you seem to grasp them so I have to do something." He leaves and a few minutes later comes back with pills and a glass of water. "Here," he says, handing me the pills and water. I swallow them. "Go ahead, lay down, sleep. It's okay," he says, brushing his hand through my hair. He kisses my forehead and walks out, shutting off the light behind him. I carefully lie down on my stomach. I close my eyes, but still don't fall asleep for a while, not until the medicine kicks in.
Sunlight hits my face. I slowly open my eyes. I yawn and raise up enough to look around. My back is so sore. "Good morning," Jade says. I can't turn enough to see her. She walks to where I can see her. She smiles, "Your back is healing okay, it's starting to scab up a little on the edges and smaller burns. By the way you do know it's been three days right? Because I mean you got up and ate and went to the bathroom sometimes but you seemed a little out of it. You seemed a little more self-concious this morning so I thought I'd ask." What? Three days? I lost three whole days? Then I assume whatever he gave me wasn't your average pain killer, most likely wasn't even a pain killer at all. I don't want her to worry.
"Yeah," I lie, "I know. I just try to sleep as much as possible because when I'm asleep I don't hurt. Has he hurt you? Where is he?" I do feel a little better though. I'm not in so much pain I can't talk. Where's Todd? He's probably gone again.
"No. He hasn't really hurt me too bad. Just a few smacks and such, no gashes or anything. He's been being a real ass lately. He's around. He's cooking breakfast actually I think," she says. We sit in silence for a few minutes. Todd walks in with breakfast.
"Good morning," he smiles, "you okay?" He asks, handing me breakfast. I wince as I sit up.
"What do you think? Huh? My back is burned. How do you think I am?" I snap back. He doesn't say anything but I can see the rage in his eyes. He stomps out of the room and slams the door. I pick through and eat a few things. Half because I wasn't hungry and the other half I wanted to spite him. My stomach feels sick so I lie back down. I close my eyes and fall asleep. The next three weeks pass pretty much the same way. Time goes by agonizingly slow. Neither one of them will let me get up because they don't the scabs to open or rip off.
Early October
"Hey," Jade says, shaking me gently, "wake up." I slowly open my eyes and stretch. I could've gotten up yesterday but they wouldn't let me. My eyes grow wide. Why does she have normal clothes on? She sees the fear in my eyes and laughs. "It's okay," she explains, "He's taking us outside. He told me to. He's been being a little nicer the past few weeks. Todd's already got breakfast cooked, so you'd better hurry. I love you." I hug her. I get up and put on a bra and pull a shirt on. I slide on some ripped skinny jeans and we head downstairs. Todd's sitting at the table waiting for us.
He smiles, "Good morning." I smile and say good morning back. We sit at the table and eat breakfast. Todd patiently waits for us to get finished eating. "I bought you some jackets," he says. I smile. "It's getting a little chilly." We finish eating and put our plates in the dishwasher. "Close your eyes," Todd says, "and don't open them until I say." Todd's footsteps fade, then quickly come back. "Okay, open them," he smiles then hands them to us. "I wasn't sure what either of you would want so I just got you both bomber jackets, " he smiles and hands us the jackets. I knew he was lying about not knowing what I wanted, but I wasn't sure if he was telling the truth about Jade or not. I don't know what all he does and doesn't know about her. I put mine on, it fits perfectly. I hate to admit it, but I love it. Todd puts on his jacket, a leather one I envy him for, and we head outside.
The cool mid-morning air hits my face. When I breathe in it feels like swallowing glass and I love it. I've always loved cold weather. Fall is here. I smile then a horrible realization hits me. We got out school in May. I've been here for four whole months. I shake it off and try to ignore it for now. I don't want Todd to see something's bothering me. "Where are we going?" Jade asks. He shrugs.
"Nowhere really. I just knew it's been a while since either of you have been outside. I just thought it'd be good for both of you," he answers. We meander around the property for a bit. I hadn't realized before how extensive it was. The leaves on the trees are changing and everything is so beautiful. Todd puts his arm around my waist, bringing me out of my daze and reminding me where I am. He kisses my forehead. I force a smile.
"Where's mine?" Jade mocks. I look over at her in shock and so does Todd. We stop walking and stare at her. "What?" She says defensively, "you said that we're here whether we like it or not. I thought about it for awhile and decided that if I'm gonna be here I have to learn to like it. So I thought maybe I could convince myself to learn to love you. You win." My jaw drops.
YOU ARE READING
Emerald Summer
Horror((Completed)) I stay on the floor. I sit staring at the bedroom door for hours, seething with anger at myself. The more I think the angrier I get. I know anger won't get me anywhere, especially here, except maybe dead. Still, I sit enraged. The whol...
