Trapped

Chapter 10: Tag, You're It

As Anastasia climbed the stairs to her apartment she could no longer feel her legs, her lungs burned like literal fire, but what was killing her most was her own twisted imagination. She could feel Julian already breaking her down. Climbing on she imagined herself opening the door and finding Julian; she pictured herself inches away from knocking on the door when Julian grabbed her; she saw an apartment full of the bodies of Eric and her friends. She shook her head to clear away that last horrible image because her door finally stood in front of her.

She couldn't hesitate, she would drive herself insane. She realized that she wasn't breathing as she took out her keys and unlocked the door. She opened the door cautiously, peeking her head in to make sure everything was okay but also anxious to put the safety of a locked door between her and Julian. She heard herself shriek as a loud voice rang in her ears.

"Hey!" Eric shouted excitedly, "there you are. I was wondering where you got off to." his smile quickly disappeared as he took in her appearance. Red eyes, out of breath, covered in bruises; she knew she wasn't a pretty sight. She was about to collapse into a puddle of tears when she noticed the rest of the group was gathered around behind Eric. Suddenly she felt self-conscious, and worst of all she had no idea what she could tell them. She tried to communicate with Eric with her eyes, and was unsurprised yet frustrated when it didn't work.

"Anya, what happened?" his voice was full of raw emotion, and she could hear in his voice that he had taken a guess already. She tried to hold herself together but she could feel her walls breaking. "Screw it." she thought, "he's already found us. What else am I afraid of?"

She let out a long breath that she had been holding since opening the door, "Julian" she whispered. Her friends were clearly confused, their eyes were darting between her and Eric, but they could tell something was serious and so far had decided to stay quiet; which she appreciated. Eric, however, cursed and stalked across the living room. He raked his fingers through his hair, holding his head as he moved. Anastasia was waiting for him to grab her and tell her it would be okay, but he didn't. As he paced Anastasia recounted the story, and while she focused mainly on talking to Eric she knew the rest of the group was hearing it all. As she finished her story she felt herself shaking hard, her tears were already beginning to streak back down her face.

After a moment of silence a voice stuttered quietly from the other side of the room, "Anya, you okay?" December asked, her voice motherly and soothing. She meant to say yes, to hold it together, to reassure everyone.

"No," Anastasia's eyes welled up with another round of tears as she finally let herself feel the full weight of everything that had happened in the last hour. She only took a couple steps before slumping to the floor and pulling her knees up to her chest. Her whole body shook as violent sobs coursed through her, and she could feel someone who was probably December put her arms around her. Everyone stayed excruciatingly quiet as Anastasia cried all of her fear out. Finally, her weeping stopped and she wiped her eyes. Her face felt as bloated as a water balloon and she excused herself to the bathroom to clean up as much as possible.

Eric still hadn't said a word but he knew everyone's eyes were on him now that Anastasia was gone. Something inside Eric hardened, he decided it was time everyone knew the truth. And he did mean everyone.

"We should have told you guys sooner," he started off slowly, "but we were hoping the past would stay in the past." he muttered angrily as he began the story of Julian and Anastasia. She came out looking a lot better, but still definitely ragged, towards the middle of his story and waited patiently as he continued. Every so often someone in the group would curse, or gasp, or ask questions; but for the most part they were too stunned to speak. As Eric finished up with Julian being released a couple weeks ago he turned to Anastasia, hurt and worry in his eyes. He would do anything for her, and that meant having the courage to tell her the truth.