Sterling Silver (Sterling Hunter Series Book 1)

Chapter 40

Tabitha woke up exhausted and tired and drained. Her face was coated with dry tears from waking in and out of a delirious sleep and remembering what had happened to her mother. Flashbacks of the night the police showed up at their door and told them her dad had died came back to her. The sickening feeling of dread in her stomach. Her heartbreaking in two. The realization that she would never see one of the most important people in her life ever again. How her heart hurt too much to think, to breath. It all came rushing back and Tabitha couldn't stop it. all she could do was curl up under these unfamiliar blankets and hug herself, trying to squeeze all the pieces of her brokenness back together.

The tears had stopped hours... days... ago but the horror and shock did not. She felt distant as if the whole world had gone black and gray and she was just a bystander, watching from afar. Her mind replayed the scene over and over again. The ripping of her throat and her mother's. Alistair's red glinting eyes haunted her every time she closed her eyes. The blood everywhere and the feeling of it dripping down her skin. Tabitha wished she could wake up from this nightmare. She wished it was a nightmare. She wished she could wake up in her own bed and go downstairs to find her mom sitting at the table and flipping through Facebook and filling Tabitha in on the latest family gossip.

But it hadn't been a nightmare and Tabitha had woken up too many times already to find that nothing had changed. Her life was still one big mess. Her dad dead, her mom dead, two of her siblings away. One of them unaccounted for. Her best friend exposed to the other half of Tabitha's life. No doubt Chelsea wanted an explanation... 

But before the heartache and misery could get too bad Tabitha burrowed under the blankets and squeezed her eyes shut forcing herself back into sleep despite the nightmarish dreams that awaited her.

She slept and slept but even through her sleep she could hear Derrick telling her to wake up, telling her that everything would be ok. They would figure it all out and he wasn't going to leave her again even though somewhere in the back of Tabitha's shut down brain she knew that was a lie.

Chelsea saying that she forgave her for not telling her the truth.

And Sebastian begging begging begging for her to wake up. To eat. To do something. To say anything because he loved her.

It wasn't until her body forced her to wake up that she finally heard, really heard, Sebastian talking to her. Her stomach cramped and rumbled with hunger since she couldn't remember the last time she had eaten, and her throat was parched from not drinking anything for who knew how long. Tabitha stayed frozen under the blankets waiting for the tears to come back but... they didn't. They had abandoned her. Her one line of defense, her excuse for pretending the world didn't exist had abandoned her. Sebastian's hand was on her leg, tracing circles over the blanket and skin as he spoke.

"... and I love you Tabitha. We're going to get through this. You're going to get through this. Your siblings are worried about you. Chelsea's worried about you. I'm worried about you. I lost both my parents in a matter of two years. I know what you're going through so just please... You don't have to say anything or do anything or even eat anything. You just have to wake up and show me that you're still alive under there."

He was pleading with her. Tabitha swallowed the lump in her throat, took a deep breath and pulled the covers back. Sebastian's eyes widened as they met hers as if he was surprised she had actually listened to him. He gave her a grim, relieved smile, his hand moving up her leg and resting on the hand she had pulled free from the confines of her blanket. all the bite marks and blood were gone but she was still in so much pain. Not physical. Tabitha vaguely remembered blood seeping into her mouth. Either Alistair's or Sebastian's. Either way it had saved her life and closed off her wounds. No. Her pain came from the heart. A broken heart who had lost too much.