No Choice {GaLe}

Chapter Twenty-Three

I felt like a floating balloon. A floating balloon that was drifting off somewhere that no one else knew about. I felt like I was drifting away from the world, as I felt Gajeel's burning eyes on me, and my mother's infamous smirk. Although I would've loved for it to stay that way, the time had to come where I ran out of air, and I needed to come back down. When I was deflating my entire world seemed to run out of air, like it was crumbling down. And I couldn't do anything to stop it.

"Is this him?" My mother inquired, twirling a loose piece of dirty, sky blue hair around her slim finger.

"Who are you?" Gajeel growled, stepping closer to the rusty old table where my mother and I sat. I heard a faint giggle come from her, a demonic giggle that someone would use when taking someone else's life. The giggle soon turned into a monstrous laugh that erupted the once simple tone that was spread in the room. Even Gajeel seemed to be thrown off.

"You don't know?"

I thought I saw his red eyes flicker back to me for a split second, but it could've just been my imagination.

"No, I don't." This time, I could swear on my life that he looked my way. The emotion that shined through his eyes were a mixture of sadness, slight anger, and confusion. His eyes were communicating what the constant emotionless look on his face couldn't. I almost didn't want to know what he was feeling at this point. In fact, I would've loved it if the ground swallowed me whole. At least then, I wouldn't have to go through this.

"This horrible excuse for a daughter hasn't told you? Well then, you really have been a good girl," She mused, looking over me and widening the never-changing smirk on her face.

"What the hell is going on?" He roared, replacing the once hard line of his lips to a wide, open circle.

"Gajeel, please calm down--"

"How can I?" his anger seemed to slowly drift away, replacing it with a sadness that I could feel in waves, "I don't even know who this is, or why you're here. You ran out of the house! You had gashes on your back, glass in your chest, bruises everywhere, burns, and I don't even know how or where you got them! I know I didn't even know who you were then, but I wish I could've helped you..... or at least saved you from whatever did that to you,"

Tears threatened to spill, and I felt my trembling hands resting in my lap.

"Hah! Those were good times.... good times," She laughed, looking up at the ceiling and smiling like she was a child, daydreaming about cookies.

"What did you just--" Gajeel couldn't even finish his statement by the time a man dressed in a black uniform burst through the door, sending a deafening echo throughout the room. The man who was trying to hold Gajeel back looked over at him, raising a brow.

"Bill, she may have to go to court after all......."

"What do you mean?" The other police officer, Bill, asked.

"When we were inspecting her house, we saw that there were security cameras. We... um.... looked at the footage...."

I felt my heart stop beating and everything around me seemed to just..... stop. I could feel myself slipping away from reality, leaving everything entirely. Complete darkness could've been taking me over and I would've noticed it at all. Was I alive? Was I breathing? Did I move? I honestly couldn't remember any of these things. My mind felt clouded.... and it felt like it would never be cleared.

"It was mortifying." The man shivered, looking like he was looking back to what he saw. He saw the abuse. He looked around the room, widening his light blue eyes when he saw me.

"Miss I am so, so sorry! That must've been... I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine! R-Really!" I breathed, shifting my position in my chair. He saw her burning me, hitting me, throwing glass at me..... what was I going to do? I had asked myself that question a lot lately, but this seemed to be the time where I really needed to answer it.

"What are you talking about?" Gajeel managed to ask again, he must be utterly confused. And I wanted it to remain that way.

"Sir, when we were looking at the footage--"

"Stop! Don't tell him anything!" I ordered, getting up from the chair.

"Levy, don't."

"No! There is no way you're seeing that footage. Gajeel, please...... just trust me,"

I could not let myself lose him... he's all that I had. If he saw that footage, who knows what he'll think... or do.

"Trust you?!" he glared at me, grabbing both my hands and bringing them up to his face, "how could I trust you when I don't even know whats been happening? Levy, I've been in the dark this entire time. I need to know."

"You don't understand! After you see this....."

"Levy, no matter what's on that tape, nothing is going to change," He smiled that crooked smile that always sent my heart racing. I let the corners of my moth raise, curling my fingers over his.

"Miss? I'm sorry to interrupt but..... we have to make sure that the girl in the footage was you..."

I sighed, letting go of his hands to look at the man dressed in black. Nodding, I walked over to him, hearing Gajeel follow me. As we walked through the door, I heard my mother's laugh and some chains clanking together.

The entirety of the walk towards the screen room, it was silent. Gajeel was walking right next to me, while we were following the two, scared-looking police officers. The one that actually saw the footage kept glancing back at me, and not trying to make it subtle either. The other was constantly whispering things to the other one, who seemed to just nod or shake his head in response, never verbally saying anything back.

After many whispers and awkward glances, we finally came to a stop in front of a door that looked different from the rest. Unlike the others, it was pretty clean, and the paint looked fairly new. The edges weren't filled with oozing rust or piles of dust. The man in black shuffled around in his pockets, eventually bringing out two keys, bound together by a metal ring.

"Ladies first," He smiled, opening the door. I nodded, smiling slightly before going into the room. There were large screens covering most of the light brown wall. In the middle lay a desk, with multiple keyboards, empty coffee cups, papers and files scattered across it. I heard footsteps coming in, and the door closing.

"Miss, I'm going to put on the footage, please tell us if it's you."

I shakily nodded, feeling my hand being grabbed by a much ruffer one, Gajeel's. Although Gajeel was holding my hand, that couldn't have braced me or him, for what we were going to see.

----------------------------------

Hello everyone! Guys......... I am so sorry that this chapter was so late! I promise I have a good explanation. So I'm moving, and it's been super hectic these past few weeks. I also had a very hard time deciding what was going to happen in this chapter. Trust me, my original plan was way different then what you see before you now XD