11:11 // Crankiplier

26.

Delilah's POV

I sat up quickly, a scream forming in my throat before my hand rushed up to close my mouth so I wouldn't make a peep. I clamped my eyes shut. Slowly I let my hand fall as I caught my breath and calmed myself down.

"Delilah?" Mark's deep voice pierced the silence. I swallowed the remains of my nightmare and did my best to keep my voice steady.

"Mark? What are doing up? I thought you were worried about how late it was?"

The three of us were still on the floor in Ethan's bedroom, and Ethan was still fast asleep. Other than the small window letting in the street light, the room was pitch black.

"Yeah well, I couldn't sleep." I listened carefully to his voice.

"Mark," I searched the darkness to find his figure, "are you okay?"

It was silent for a moment.

"No."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mark and I sat in the dining room of the home, both of us holding a glass of warm milk.

"You're depressed." I said after a few minutes of silence. Mark only nodded.

"I won't ask why. We all have our reasons." I smiled sadly and shook my head, taking a sip of my milk.

"But I will ask what triggered it." I kept my eyes trained on the center of my glass, as if the answer was there.

"Kristen." Mark whispered. I looked up.

"Who's Kristen?"

"The awful bitch that adopted me." Mark hung his head.

"Did she do something to you?" I asked softly. Mark stood up, his chair scraping the hard wood floor. He lifted up his shirt to reveal multiple bruises. I felt my jaw clench.

Those look like the ones I gave you, don't they?

Fuck off, R.

"Because I'm bi." He whimpered, answering the question I hadn't asked. He fixed his shirt and sat back down, lifting his glass of milk to his lips and downing the entire thing. When he was done he pushed it to the side.

"What about you?" He focused his gaze on my eyes. "What has you up at-" he looked at the clock, "3:27 in the morning?"

"Nightmare." I stated simply, hoping he would drop the subject.

"What about?"

I wish I could say I had lied, kept my mouth shut and pretended to be fine, but I couldn't.

I felt the tears start to prick my eyes again as I thought of R. The blade she'd plunged in and out of my core, repeatedly telling me I deserved it, after all I was "daddy's little girl."

Before I knew it I was full on crying. I attempted to stop my tears but I couldn't. I'd held in my sadness for too long, and this is what I got.

Mark stood up again and came over to comfort me, wrapping his arms around me in a hug. Normally, I would push him away and find some way to get him to do the same with Ethan, but I was too tired and too broken in the moment to think about that.

"Please, don't tell Ethan that it's come back." I sobbed. "He's so selfless, and if he has to worry about me on top of school and everything else, he won't take care of himself properly." Mark was silent for a moment.

"I guess you and I are pretty similar, huh? We've both been fucked up for a while, then everything was okay..." He trailed off, leaving me to finish his thought.

"Until it wasn't."

He pulled away and I dried the last tears from my eyes, Mark drying his own.

Why must you hurt everyone around you, Delilah?

"You can't tell Ethan about me either." He said quietly. I nodded.

"You know he already suspects something's wrong, right? For you at least." I added.

I looked at the clock. It was almost 4 a.m.

"So, why did yours come back?" Mark asked.

Fuck it.

"One of my friends...she was at a party and got...you know." I stared at the floor, not wanting to say out loud what had happened to her.

"Where you...when you were younger?" Mark asked. I chuckled dryly.

"Not exactly. I don't like to talk about it."

"Does Ethan know?"

I looked up and met Mark's eye.

"He's the reason I'm alive today. Of course he knows."

We sat in silence.

"Ethan is like a brother to me. He trusts you, and I trust you, but if you ever hurt him, I will break your fucking neck. Got it?" Mark nodded.