He Did This To Me

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

After dinner I decided to knock off early. I crawled under the covers alone because Ella wanted to stay up later with Erica and Chrissy. Colton left as soon as I went to bed.

The warmth of the blanket encircled my body and cradled me perfectly. I was almost asleep when the door slid open to my room. I assumed that Ella was just going to crawl in beside me. Instead, nothing happened. There was no movement of her moving into the bed.

"Ella?" I asked leaving my eyes shut. No response. "Come to bed now baby. It's late."

"I'd rather sleep on the floor." Ella said coldly. I sat up and looked over the edge at her lying on the floor.

"What?" I eyed her suspiciously. "What's going on Ella? You're not acting like yourself anymore."

Ella let out an humorless laugh. She wasn't smiling at all. "I have no idea what's going on! You took me from my Dad and brought me here! I want to go home! I want things to be the way they were!"

Her sincerity was mind blowing. I'd never heard anything like this come out of ANY two year old's. Her eyes were so intense. She was too little to just be hormonal. This was real hate I was witnessing!

"The way things were wasn't reality Ella. In a few days I'll see if there's somewhere else we can stay. You can see your Dad when things cool down a bit, but we aren't going to go back to living there." I said firmly.

Ella rolled over so she wasn't facing me. " I hate you."

If Ella really did hate me, then I had no one left. I could always go back home to my parents, but I wasn't sure if they'd want me anymore. After all, I am twenty.

Maybe it would be best if I dropped Ella back off with Sal. It seemed like he's who she'd rather be with anyway. I love her with all my heart, but if I let Salvatore have her for the majority of the time, then maybe she could be happy.

In the middle of the night, I excused myself to the washroom. I snuck around my sleeping Ella who seemed to be very disturbed in her sleep. It hurt me to watch how pained her face appeared. Like she was dreaming of something horrendous.

In the washroom, I scrubbed my face with a sponge. I didn't realize how hard I was scrubbing until I rinsed. My flesh was a very pink color with blood slowly coming off on the washcloth I had chosen from beneath the sink. My whole face was raw and sickly looking. I didn't try to put any cream on it, because I felt that the pain was deserved.

On my way back into the room, I noticed that Ella had moved. She was now sitting on the bed staring out the window. I watched her for a minute. Ella was whispering something I couldn't hear clearly. I only picked up a few words, but they were frightening.

"Dead... Hidden... Home..." I couldn't place any of the words. What did she mean by dead? What did she need to hide? Did she mean she wanted to go home?

I couldn't find the answers in my head, but I had made up my mind. First thing tomorrow, me and Ella were going back to Salvatore's place. I needed answers, and I needed them soon.

After about twenty more minutes of muttering, I noticed Ella crying. Tears were pouring from her eyes unlike I'd ever seen before. She said "Goodnight." and crawled back to the ground. When she fell asleep, I snuck back into bed and pulled the covers up.

The last few days my little girl had grown up so much. Who did she say goodnight to? No one she ever knew had died, if she was giving a prayer, and no one else was in the room. Thinking through all the theories wore me into exhaustion, until I was finally falling into a slumber.