Away

Chapter6

We stay like this for who knows how long. He has stopped whispering, but is playing with my hair. It feels so good. Erin was the last person to do this.

He has his back against the wall and his knees are bent and his legs are spread. I have propped myself up between his legs, feeling warm and happy and loved, really loved. It is so strange to be this intimate with a man who broke my leg. A man who is holding me captive. A man who I don't even know.

But it also feels right. It makes me happier than I knew I could feel.

I haven't felt like this since Erin...

My arms hold my not broken knee close to my center, and I bury my face into the fabric on my leg, holding back the tears.

His hands come around from behind me to hold me close again. He pulls me into his chest. "What is it, love?" His accent is so beautiful and makes his voice so much more special.

I don't know why, but I feel like if I was going to tell anyone in the world, Louis is the one I should choose.

I take a shaky breath. "My brother. He was the only one who I felt safe with. He's the only one who made me feel safe and happy."

Tanner chuckles. "How do you feel with me?"

"The same," I breathe.

"Is that good or bad?"

"Good. Great, actually."

"And why's that, love?" He doesn't sound prying or angry. Just curious.

"Well, our dad.... he wasn't very.... And Erin..... he tried to take care of me." I know that it is insane of me to feel okay with telling him this.

"It's okay, love. You don't have to tell me." His voice and his gentle kisses on the back of my neck only make me want to tell him even more.

"Our dad had.... problems. And he never took care of us. Actually he did the opposite...he" my voice cracks and the tears rush down my face.

"Sh sh sh" he soothes, stroking my hair. "It's okay, darling. You don't have to tell me."

"But I want to." I take my hands and wipe my eyes.

"Are you sure? I don't want you so upset."

"I'm sure." I take a deep breath. Despite what my body wants, I drag myself away from him and turn around to face him.

Looking at his face, I see Louis pouting. I laugh and say, "Don't make that face at me, mister."

He sucks his lip in quickly and winks at me.

"Well, one of the most important days was probably the day when I started needing to have someone with me when I slept."

He looks at me, his face a stone.

Taking a deep breath, I think to myself, 'Here goes everything.'

*FLASHBACK*

When I stepped inside, I found my senses had been incorrect: my father was home.

He wasn't yelling, but he was home, which was much, much worse.

I wanted to run away, but no one besides Erin and myself knew.

I shut the door without a noise, a trick Erin had taught me.

Erin had replaced squeaky floorboards, oiled hinges, trained me. He did everything possible to keep me safe from our father and what our father was capable of.

But it was not enough.

I was so careless that I let my bag hit the wall. I was focusing only on the stench of all the mixed alcohol, and let my bag scrape the wall.

"Erin? That you?" my father's voice boomed through the otherwise lifeless house.

I froze. What was I supposed to do?

"N-No, Daddy. It's me, Cerulean." I could hear the shake in my voice.

He stepped around the corner, his large frame blocking the window behind him. He had a half drank bottle in his hands.

After taking a swig, he looked at me blankly. "Well, where is he?"

"I-I don't kn-know." I wasn't lying.

"Tell me the truth, girl." He couldn't even remember my name. The name that Erin had told me he had chosen specially for me.

Before dad drank. Before mom died. Before I was born.

"I really don't know where he is!" My voice was squeaky and afraid. "He's usually home by now..."

My father grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him to the kitchen where he pulled a pair of handcuffs off of the kitchen table.

He took my now-bruised arm and locked the cold metal tightly around my wrist. He quickly attached the other end to the refrigerator door handle.

He shoved me onto the ground, but my wrist stayed suspended, causing the metal "bracelet" to bite through my skin, grinding onto the bone. Blood dripped onto the linoleum floor.

I cried out in pain, which made him smack me with the metal handle of our broom.

"We can just wait here for him then," his low, menacing voice echoing through the empty house.

He beat me when I started to cry, and many times I fell asleep, only to be woken by the hard metal stick beating my bruises.

Erin finally came home at 2:34 AM, pounding in, yelling, "Where is she? What did you do to her?"

When he saw me his jaw dropped. I must have been quite a sight. A bloody, bruised, snot covered 8 year old, with parts of the bone that made up her wrist exposed, lying on the ground.

Our father stepped up between us, blocking my view from the only person I trusted to come save me.

"What do you want? I will give you anything for her. I swear." My brother's voice was full of anger and desperation.

"I want you to give me all the money from your paycheck this month, Anderson. I already emptied out the cabinets and the fridge."

"Okay, here. Take the money and go. Just leave." I heard rustling as my brother pulled out the money and handed it to him.

Our father grunted before clomping out of the house.

Erin waited until we heard a car beeping down the road as loud as possible. We both knew it was our father, off to get even more drunk.

When we were sure he was gone, Erin jumped and got the key and dropped to his knees beside my and unlocked me.

He held my body tightly as I sobbed, whispering how sorry he was. He cradled my body in his arms and rocked back and forth.

My body was numb from everything, and the last thing I remember is Erin putting me in his bed, swearing he would never let this happen again as long as he lived.

*PRESENT*

Louis' face has remained unchanged the entire time.

"Did that man-your father-did he.... Did he touch you?" Louis asks quietly.

"Touch me... how?"

"Touch you, like rape."

"No. That was his only boundary."

"Good. That would have been even worse. You were 8?" Disbelief hollows his voice.

I nod, looking at the floor.

He moves over to me, wrapping me in his arms again. "I will NEVER let them get you. I swear that. I will die before they lay a hand on you. I will save you."

He lets go and stands up abruptly. "My shift is almost up."

Louis walks towards the door. "Cerulean Anderson, I will protect you, since Erin can't."

I have a feeling that he knows. I don't know how he knows, but he knows. Erin is dead.