Losing Light

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I sat alone in my cell for days, screaming at night and crying when morning came. Gareth found my cell really quickly, and came everyday to plead for me to come out. I ignored him and continued on with moping on my bed. The guard brought me food, which was hardly touched.

Everything, absolutely everything, reminded me of Reyna. And it all hurt so badly. I kept punching the walls, which remained unbroken. The only thing that changed in the slightest were my bruised and battered knuckles. The guards noticed and brought over a doctor, who bandaged them up and talked to me gently.

"If you keep this up, you're going to break something." The doctor told me, while rubbing some sort of ointment on my wounds.

I ignored him. I always did. Sometimes I was too weak to keep on punching the walls, but once they scabbed over I was ready to punch the walls some more. I didn't know who to be mad at, and I hated not having anything to direct my anger at.

"Violet Ashford, you've got to get on with your life. You can't be living like this." Gareth says one day, around noon. His dark hair is sticking up in all kinds of different angles.

"Go away." I mutter. "Leave me to my misery."

He laughs quietly in amusement, but keeps it friendly. "What happened, Vi?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Why not?"

"Because it's awful."

He bites his lip and thinks for a second. "At least tell me who visited you."

"No."

"Was it Reyna?"

I turn away and bury my face in the lumpy pillow. Her name still made my heartbeat accelerate, but my mind kept reminding me of that day. Her name made me ache with hurt and longing.

"Aw, Violet..." Gareth says softly. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well, whatever. Sorry's not going to do anything about it, is it?"

"No." He admits. "But can you please give the guard the OK so I can come in?"

"Not feeling up to it."

"Violet, please? It's not very healthy to be alone for a week."

"A week and a half."

"That's even worse! Please, pretty please with a cherry on top?"

"Depends. Who's cherry?" I smirk emotionlessly. I think of...her, and then I stop. It almost feels disrespectful to talk like that.

I bet he's rolling his eyes. "Ha ha, very funny. Just let me in, will you?"

"I'm a lesbian." I reply in a bored tone.

"Violet!" Gareth whines. "Don't be difficult."

I laugh, but because I haven't talked in days, it comes out as a series of croaks. I turn over and see Gareth's smiling baby face.

"Let him in, please." I say to a passing guard.

She unlocks the door and continues to patrol the hallway between the cells. Gareth enters and wraps me up in a friendly embrace, to which I hesitantly return. His jumpsuit smells like hamburger and ketchup.

"You'll be okay." Gareth says.

I don't say anything. I just cling to him. I haven't affectionately touched a human body in so long. My loneliness had affected me more than I had thought.

"Do you wanna tell me what happened?" He says and sits down besides me.

I exhale loudly. "I don't think so. Not today at least." My voice is scratched. I couldn't talk if I tried, and I didn't even want to speak about the encounter between Reyna and I.

"Tomorrow?" Gareth persists.

"Maybe." I sigh.

He stands up, ready to leave. "Okay, then. I'll come back tomorrow. You'd better eat though, alright? You've hardly touched your food." Gareth ruffles my hair and gives me a light kiss on my forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

"Fine, Mom." I mock and close my eyes. I hear the cell door screech as it shuts to a close, and his heavy footsteps thunder away.

I really did appreciate him coming here, even if he was annoyingly comforting. Perhaps friends did have some sort of bright side to them, I think to myself as I chew on a roll. I wouldn't know. But maybe I would, soon.