Haphephobia

Chapter 27

Silence rang like a thousand bells in my ears while I waited for someone to say something. I felt my heart dropping into my stomach, red rage clouding my vision as I realized the true nature of this situation. Things had already gone from bad to worse to living hell.

"I- I- Aaron-" Ava spluttered. She'd gone white as a sheet of paper. She didn't have to look this way. She wasn't supposed to. Looking back at William, who looked ready to beat someone up, we gave each other a silent nod. I took a deep breath. Blood was pumping in my ears as I went before I changed my mind.

Flying into the room, I tackled Aaron, caught unguarded, to the ground. I saw he was crying a little bit. How sad. My fist flew up into the air, and before I even could think about what I was doing, I'd repeatedly punched Aaron in the face. Slowly I got angrier and angrier as he refused to fight back; his eye'd swollen, his lip was cut, his nose was bleeding...

"Aaron, you asshole!" I screamed, part of me hoping he'd react. Nothing. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him up, then quickly shoving him back down again. He groaned, but otherwise sat silently as he bled into the ground.

"Ben... what..." I heard Ava say, quietly. I turned around, having actually forgotten she was even there. Tears now marred her beautiful face as she looked at me with shock. Either that, or...fear. Damn it, what had I done? I'd never forgive myself if she was afraid of me.

I stood up, trying hard to ignore the blood on my fists and the groaning of Aaron as he tried to contain himself on the floor. I tried to block out the tears streaking Ava's face and the look in her eyes as she tried to understand what I'd done. Tried to comprehend how on earth I possibly could've...

I leaned forward, my arms outstretched, to hug her. To touch her hair and to tell her that everything would be okay, and to let her cry on my shoulder when she knew that it wouldn't. The moment when she completely tore at the seams and everything came loose.

But as I approached, and finally was just within her reach, she turned away. Out of the room. Down the hallway. She picked up speed and I watched as she entirely ran from the house, more tears than ever now pouring from her eyes... 

I swiveled around and regarded Aaron, the nastiest look I could muster sitting upon my face. I pointed at him.

"You... You are a sick bastard," I spoke, waiting for one moment to see the look of defeat on Aaron's face before bouncing on my heel and running to find Ava.

I wish I could ignore the fact that he'd done nothing to protect himself against me. How my violence had practically failed to affect either of us in an way, except push Ava further from both he and I. I tried to ignore the fact that Aaron had one of the most terrifying powers out of all of us, and how he'd probably made himself that way. It made me wonder what else he was capable of; what else he could lie about in the way that he simply sat down and took my beating like it meant nothing to him. Like I was so insignificant that I wasn't even worth bothering with.

And most importantly, it made me wonder what lengths he would go to in order to take Ava away from me. He couldn't have her, that was one thing I was sure of. What I wasn't sure of, however, was how I planned on keeping that from happening. 

"Ava? Ava!" I screamed, now having reached the dense, dark woods surrounding the back of Aaron's home. Momentarily I felt hopeless, like there was no way in hell I'd ever find somebody in these woods at this time of night. Particularly someone dressed in so much green.

Then it occurred to me that I wasn't like normal people. I took a deep breath, focusing on the look Ava wore when she discovered what Aaron was hiding. The despair and the fury and the hopelessness mingled with fear.... The blackness...