A Life Stained by Scarlet

Chap. 10 - His thoughts

I know its not that great but its only the third time I've drawn on my IPad. Sorry not sorry.
*Noah's POV*
    I walked into the room expecting to be greeting by the bubbly and happy Crystal, but to my surprise she was freaking out in her sleep. Saying things like, "Make it stop, This living hell, and Please help" seeing her toss and turn like that worried me. Her small figure reminded me of my childhood friend who suffered from ansonia. Without thinking I lean over her on the bed, she keeps squirming with tears streaming down her face. I try a still her, but at the contact she swiftly forms her right hand into a fist and punches my shoulder pretty hard. Then she jolts awake when I wince at the sudden pain.
When her rare ice blue eyes open, I couldn't help but stare, it was like I was in a trance. She breaks the stare and her checks turn a little pink and I notice the position we're in and snicker at how she turned her head. I release her wrists but I stay on the bed to see how she's going to react. She slowly sits up and pulls her hoodie over her hands. Then uses her right hand to wipe away the tears on her face. She's sniffling and her breathings funny. Once she finished wiping away her tears she brings her knees to her chest, puts her arms around her legs, and buries her face into her hoodie.
She wouldn't look at me, but I couldn't look away. She looked so fragile, like a doll with how her hair covered her one eye. I finally stand up and look at her again. (This is a perfect opportunity to get back at her from the first or second time we met!) I plaster a big smirk onto my face. She plays right into my hand when she sneers at me, "Don't give me that look, all I did was do as you asked." I crossed my arms and shot her a glare. "Huh, I asked you?" She glared back. (Oh, this is going to be fun.) "Well, maybe not me directly but you were crying out, "Make it stop, This living hell. Help me, make it stop." You repeated "make it stop" a lot. And since I helped you by waking you up from your "living hell" I should get to know what that was all about."
"You understand what living hell is, right?" (What dose she mean, do I understand?) She rolls her eyes and sighs. "Well, you didn't save me from my living hell, you dragged me back into it." She straightened her right leg, draping her left arm over her left leg but her arms are still connected. She also picks up her normal pissy look that she gives me. Not going to lie, she lost me. So she wasn't going to tell me? "Stupid!" She sneered at me again making me mad. She mumbles something but I couldn't understand what she said. But it was clear she was mad because I did hear her, Tch, me.
    "You don't need to be such a bitch about it, geez." I snarl at her. "Oh, like you've been so kind to me." She swivels her head as she speaks and sit criss-cross on the bed. "To be honest Noah, if you would have kept your trap shut, I would have thanked you, but at this point I would have rather been left alone. Then had to have this conversation with you." She cracked her knuckles once she finished talking. "Trying to intimidate me now, pipsqueak?" She practically jump off the bed, challenging me.(Isn't that cute she thinks she's scary) "I wouldn't wasted my time on sometime as useless as that, unlike you who thinks he's hot-shit because the higher-ups want him here!" I glare at her. "So, this is what Mia was talking about. She must have pushed your buttons and pissed you off, just like I'm doing know. Aren't I right?" "Ha, that bitch can go screw herself, she caught me at a bad time, but I didn't do shit because she's not a rookie like you."
(Ooo~, she's actually getting mad and why did she say a rookie like you instead of a rookie like us?) "Interesting chose of words, because last I checked you're a rookie to, and that bitch is a ranking officer." "So somethings can penetrate that thick skull of yours. I mean it was pretty obvious to me that you didn't give a fuck about the rules when I first came." She takes a step towards me. "And if I really wanted to I could crush you right now." Her fingers began to twitch. "I'd love to see you try and take me down, Little firecracker." I take a step towards her challenging her and to tower over her. We're only inches apart, I can feel her breathing on me.
    When I mention that name her left eye starts to twitch.(This is too much fun!) She takes a deep breath and the twitching stops and she shifts to the left. "I heard that we're doing some combat training tomorrow in pairs. And if you think you can keep up, I'll take you on right then and right there." "Deal, but its your funeral." We glare at each other both not willing to submit by breaking eye contact. A minute or two passes and I'm first to break the stare. She smiles and cheerfully gets her clothes and walked to the bathroom. Making sure to bump into me as she walked past.
   Once I hear the door close I sigh. What have I done, I didn't mean for it to go this far. I was just trying to help her then it all went south so fast. It's her fault for getting so riled up, I mean I didn't even think she could, she's always so happy. I barely know her but she was bubbly from the moment I met her. She comes out of the bathroom with a triumphant look on her face.
I couldn't even look at her without feeling sick. All that I wanted to do was help, my body moved on its own, I didn't have time to react. When I saw her crying all I could think of is how she used to have terrible nightmares and could barely sleep, but Crystal only had them now, not at night. "Goodnight~" She cooed as I shut off the lights. Tomorrow was going to be a pain.
    It was like 2 in the morning when I woke up because of a rustling noise in the room. I turn on my bedside lap so I could actually see something. When the room lit up the rustling stopped for a bit then continued. I scan the room to locate the source, once I finally realized what it was my eyes widened in surprise. It was Crystal, she was tossing and turning furiously in her sleep. When I got up she flinched a little but continued to toss and turn.
    Once I got to her bed I was about to reach out and wake her up, but as I reached out she turned to face me. I immediately pulled my hand away but relaxed when I realized she was still asleep. Taking another look at her face put me on edge. The normal smiley, really excited expression she always wore was now one of pure pain and sorrow. I look closer and notice she's also bitting her lip.
    It hit me, (She's refusing to scream!) She starts tossing n' turning again and I slowly reach out my hand. My hand touches her arm while she's laying on her back. At the contact her whole body stiffened, then she curled into a ball and started shaking. (Well, that didn't help. When she-his friend- had nightmares knowing someone was there always calmed her down but on Firecracker here it has the opposite effect. And I don't want to wake her up because last time that didn't go to well.) He thinks back to all the times he helped his friend to try and come up with something. (I got it, she said this always calmed her down.)
    I reach my hand out again and this time I touch her head. Again she flinches at the sudden touch bitting down on her lip so hard it started to bleed.(I hope this works!) I start to stroke her hair as Mela had once told me to do when I couldn't calm her down. She was still shaking terribly, but after a while she stopped but remained in a ball. After a few more strokes she slowly went back to laying flat, but once she was flat tears started rolling down her face.
    She was still bitting her lip so no sound was made. Just looking at her reminded me so much of Mela that without even thinking I lower myself to her level and softly said, "It's ok I'm here, let it all out. You can trust me, I promise." My words must have triggered something inside of her because she quickly turned to me and started crying softly into my chest as she gripped my right arm. I continued to stroke her head as she cried. (Mela said when I would talk to her when she had her nightmares that it felt like her dad was there. That's why she would calm down.)
    Crystals grip on my arm tightened and she barred her face into my chest even more. At first I could only hear mumbles but once I understood what she was saying I was totally lost. "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry. Could you forgive me. What have I done. I'm so sorry." She kept saying she was sorry but what for? Her next words took me by more surprise, "I'm sorry momma, papa, bro-" she burst into my tears. I wrap both arms around her hugging her into my chest. (What did she do to make her this sorry?) For the next 10 minutes she cried sometimes mumbling apologize.
    Once she calmed down and laid flat again I saw blood still running down from her lip. Again without thinking I reached out and whipped the blood away with my thumb. At the sudden contact her eyes flew open and she looked at me. I was about to apologize but stopped when I looked into her eyes. Her face was red, eyes puffy, and blood on her chin, but her eyes where cold as ice and unusually dark. Her once bright ice blue eyes looked like a dark blue with no shine to them. It sent shivers down my spine but she never moved, or made a sound, just stared at me with her dead eyes.
(What the fuck! She looks scary as hell right now and it doesn't help that I'm maybe two feet from her face.) She looks around the room then back to me, studying me. She slowly brought her right hand to her face and touches her bottom lip while staring at me. She pulls her hand away and looks at it, her eyes widen when she sees the blood. In a unrecognizably low voice she asked, "What happened?" I just stare dumbfounded at her. She turned so she was laying on her side facing me. She whipped the blood off her fingers then slowly reached out to me and cupped my face with one of her hands.
"Your the one." (I'm the one? What?) "What do you mean?" She runs her thumb across my cheek and her eyes brighten a little, "Your the one who called out and..." She touched her lips then grabbed the little cross neckless she always wore, "... you cared?" The way she said it puzzled me. "Why wouldn't I?" (This is obviously not her talking, she's in some trans.) I touch her cheek but she doesn't flinch like before, in fact she puts her hand over mine. Her hands are warm and soft. Her eyes flutter, "Because, I'm not..." Her hand drops onto my arm and her eyes are closed. A minute passes and just before I pull away she mutters, "Thank you." I smile slightly, "Ya, ok." Her eyes never opened so I'm betting she's asleep.

A/N
Hope y'all appreciate this, its 2084 words long.😭😅