Saving Tessa

Ch. 2

Everything is silent and calm.
A feeling of something wrong causes me to open my eyes. Above me is a ceiling the color of sand. I sit up and see people standing in a line a few feet before me
I'm in a bed and the sheets are tangled around my legs. It's not my bed. It usually isn't my bed but this bed is uncomfortably familiar. Everything smells like home; but not the good version, the one that was my only escape while I was in that prison. Immediately I am terrified; more terrified than the first time I was there. The people in the line are still just standing there. They are starting to get upset. They all hold rolled up dollar bills and stare as if they are waiting for something; waiting for me. I suddenly feel a hand on my shoulder. Damien's voice appears in my ear as almost a whisper but I'm sure everyone near us will here.
"That was fun. Here." He whips out twenty dollars crumpled up in his hands and tosses it into my lap.
"What-what is this for?" I question as the bile rises in my throat.
"It's for the fun, of course. No point in getting dressed. That line goes on for miles."
My body feels bare all of a sudden and I look down to see that I have no clothes on. My hands furiously grab around me looking for anything to cover my body. I'm hyperventilating as each sheet and blanket begins to disappear from around me each time it's almost within my grasp; becoming unreachable. The bed lowers and rises next to me as Damien stands up and buckles his belt around his loose jeans and makes his way out of his bedroom when another man walks towards me. In the background I hear Damien speak.
"Good bye, T-"
"-ess. Hey."
A hand grabs my shoulder and gently shakes me.
"Tess, it's time to wake up. We're here." Jax's voice is so different from the ones in my dream and I'm so relieved. His fingers feel like feathers against my skin and it takes all of my resolve to get me to open my eyes and break the moment.
He stands right above me with a big grin on his face.
"There she is. I thought I'd lost you to sleepy land." Jax reaches over me and unbuckles the seat belt before taking my hand and leading me out of the truck. My feet hit the ground and I almost fall over but he catches me just as I lose my footing. It has stopped raining so the sound of crickets are the only noise filling the dark space as we begin walking up the driveway of a peach colored one-story building. I survey the building and decide that Jax and his family seem like they are really just genuinely nice people. This also has to do with the cute little garden gnomes that are scattered across the yard and the Welcome Home mat that feels like rough grass on my naked feet. Jax pats around his pant pockets for a key and swiftly pulls out a copper one with bunny ears and a tail on it. I don't mean to laugh but I can't help myself.
"My mom picked it out for me," Jax mumbled in defense.
"It's very cute," I mention with as straight of a face as I can conjure.
In a matter of seconds, he opens the door and walks into the darkness of the house. I quietly remain on the mat as he makes his way through the house in search of a light. A loud thunk sounds from inside before Jax comes tumbling back out the door. "Darn coat rack..." His smile is warm and I can't help but smile back. He flips back around and continues into the newly lit up house. When he looks back at me and stares I realize he meant for me to follow him in. I swiftly begin to make my way into the building.
The house itself is very... homey. I know this instantly because of family photos that adorn the burgundy walls. I quickly look down when I remember I am barefoot and curse to myself as I see the footprints that my dirt-covered wet feet are leaving on the carpeting beneath me. Jax laughs from in front of me.
"Don't worry; I can clean that up before my mom gets home from work tonight."
I nod and begin to blush since he cannot see my face from where he is standing.
"What job does she have?" I question. The only activity at this time of night that I am accustomed to have to do with wearing revealing clothing and hoping that it will all go faster than usual. When Wren goes silent, my heart nearly stops. He sighs and turns around to face me. He slowly puts his hands into his pockets and leans against the wall right next to photo of what looks like him at about 5 or 6 years old as well as an older girl appearing to be 10.
She looks almost exactly like Jax only female. The most prominent difference is that she seems really unhealthy. Her cheek bones are sunken and though she is young, her eyes look much older. It's obvious that she was not doing very well. Jax coughs and I quickly look towards him. I can tell he noticed me eyeing at the picture and I immediately feel bad. It was extremely rude of me to be looking through his photos like this. Right as I was about to apologize, Jax began to speak as if he had already read my mind.
"It's alright. Photos are meant to share memories, aren't they?" Even as the words leave his mouth I can tell it is not something he enjoys speaking about. "That's Margaret; she's my older sister." –I began to wonder if he has other siblings- "Anyways, to answer your question my mom is a bar tender. She doesn't get out of work until about three o' clock in the morning." With the way he spoke about it I knew he did not approve.
He would probably be disgusted to know what you were resorted to, I thought to myself.
He smiled again before continuing to delve deeper into the house and turning left where we came upon a staircase leading into what seemed to be a basement. The hallway split into two parts which lead me to believe that that's where the remaining rooms are. We walk down the stairs and when he stops at the bottom, he enters a room and closes the door behind us; my shoulders tighten.
We are in a male's bedroom. I can tell because of the sport posters that cover the walls of the room. Towards the adjacent wall sits a queen-sized bed.
Jax gently placed his warm hand on my arm and I relaxed.
"Stay here, I'm going to go grab some blankets from upstairs real quick."
I calmly nod as he begins making his way out of the room and once again shuts the door.
A door leading to a restroom stands before me and I quickly make my way into the darkly lit room. I expected to look a little out of sorts after the night I had, but I somehow appear ten times worse than my previous assumptions. The girl staring back at me is a ghastly figure. Her dark curls are a matted mess from the rain and the makeup she was wearing is only noticeable by the faint streaks of mascara that emerge at the end of both sides of her face.  I search the neat bathroom for a wash cloth and then began to immaculate the dark lines from my face. As I run my fingers through my knotted hair, Jax walks into the restroom with a pair of blue pajama shorts and a pink tank top.
"There's a pair of underwear in between the two." His brow furrowed as he brought attention to thenunderwear. "I'm going to go ahead and sleep upstairs on the couch. You can use the bed in here for tonight. Goodnight." He handed the pile to me before exiting the bathroom.
After he left, I slowly slid the dress off of my body and peeled the soaked satin material off of my itchy skin. The dry clothes were extremely comfortable and just about my size. I wondered to myself if they belonged to Margaret. I stumbled into the bedroom and my feet drug across the floor slowly as my eyelids became noticeably heavier. The silence that I was now emerged in was so different from earlier that night. Now that I was finally freed of that place, I began to understand just how strongly the need to leave had been.
Everything really is going to be okay this time. They told you to leave; that they had no use for you anymore.
The voice still nagged at my subconscious, But what about Damien, huh? You don't really think he's done with you, do you? Maybe it's good if he is.
I tried to convince my mind that the past would stay in the past, but the more I tried to reassure myself; the less I actually believed it. My body ached for the bed and as soon as I gave in, I began to quickly fade into the darkness. I had only enough to time to pull a blanket over my body before I lost myself in the shadows of my mind.