The Fire Within

Chapter Three

*THUMP* it's three in the damn morning. what in the world are my brothers doing up? I thought they were all sleeping. "Shit" I hear and that scared me. I don't know what that noise was, but I'm pretty sure it's alive. I get up and look towards my door and it's closed, I usually close it, but I don't see anything. I can't actually see much because of how dark it is and the only lighting I have is the moonlight.

I look towards the window to look at the moon and I notice my window open and I never have it open. So I grab the bat that's next to my bed, if you're wondering, I play softball, volleyball and I'm also a cheerleader, that's why I have a baseball bat next to my bed.

I get up to turn on my light, but a strained deep voice says, "please don't turn the light on." I got very scared because someone just broke into my room, I was going to turn the light on despite what the intruder said, but I stopped in my tracks when the voice said, "princess, please don't turn it on." and every ounce of fear left my body. "Alec?" I whispered. What is he doing here? At three in the freaking morning!

"Hey princess, I'm sorry for making so much noise, go back to bed," he says with a strained voice on the floor. Something about the way he said princess just didn't seem right to me so I walked towards him. "What's wrong?" I said right before I bent down to help him up, "JJ, please just go back to bed I'm fine."

I flinched when he said that and I guess he saw me flinch because he caressed my cheek and said, "I'm sorry for yelling at you princess, I just... I don't want you to see me like this." His hands were so cold and I don't know why, but I leaned into his hand and closed my eyes. Even with his hands being cold, he still made me feel safe.

He sounded so tired and I was worried, so I said, "you're cold, go take a warm shower, I'll go grab a pair of clothes for you." I stood up and helped him get up. I still couldn't see his face because he was hiding it and I was curious. Nonetheless, he walks into the bathroom to take a shower and I walk downstairs to get him clothes.

As I was walking out of my room, I couldn't help but think, 'why doesn't he want me to see him like that? Like what?' i was so worried that I didn't realize that I took a long time to get to the room with the new clothes. I look through the boxers and sweatpants and realized that I don't even know what size he is so I mentally slapped myself.

Then I remembered that one day we went to the beach and he forgot his bag at the house, he borrowed a pair of Mason's pants, so I grabbed medium Fruit-of-the-Loom boxers and a pair of grey Nike pants and retreated back to my room. Halfway to the stairs, I noticed that the Theater tv is still on so I made my way there to check on everyone when I walked into the room I couldn't help myself but to smile and take a picture of them.

Hunter and Leina, and Uncle Trevor and Mia were all snuggled up, and the rest of the guys were all cuddled up in the middle of the couples. They looked very cute and peaceful. I shut the tv off and hurried back to my room. I walked to the bathroom and heard the shower off so I knocked on the door and went in.

I wasn't prepared for what I was about to see, but it broke my heart. Once I saw him, I probably looked like a ghost because it felt like all the blood had drained out of my body. Every tear that fell from his eyes, every bruise that stained his skin, and every cut that scarred his body was a stab to my heart.

It disgusted me how his uncle can hurt him. I didn't notice a tear escaped until I felt a warm hand wipe it away, I looked up and seen Alec's face filled with pain, anger, and worried. "Hey, hey, it's okay, I'm okay, don't cry princess, I don't like to see you cry. You're too beautiful to cry." he hugs me as I looked up to him with no words. A

All I could think was, 'why would anyone want to hurt such a beautiful soul?' i couldn't say anything to him, so instead my hands did the talking. I went to touch his face but stopped because I didn't know if I would hurt him, but apparently my hand had other ideas because I touched his face just slightly. Once my hand caressed his face, he leaned in and closed his eyes. I wish I could just take all his pain away, all his bruises and cuts. I kissed him on his forehead as he opens his eyes. I gently guide him towards the counter and told him to hop on.

I walked into the bathroom closet to get out the first aid kit so I could clean his cuts. As I'm walking back to him, I see a tear escape his eyes and my heart breaks even more. I get to him and lift his head by his chin and wipe the tear that escaped. "I didn't want you to see me like this princess, I can't let you see me this way." he said as he grabbed my hands, "I don't care what state you're in Alec, I want you to come to me whenever you need me you hear me?"

I tell him as I band-aid all his cuts. "Ever since my uncle took custody of me, he's been drinking a lot. Too much for my taste, but it's my fault. I'm the reason why my parents died, and he blames me for killing his sister. She was my mother too! I loved her just as much as he did. He still blames me though and with the rate that he drinks, it makes everything worse. It started two months after the fire. It started verbally at first, then it got physical, nothing I couldn't handle. Then.." his voice was weak and very shaky.

I finished bandaging all his cuts so I put the first aid kit away and walked back to him and said, "you don't have to tell me everything tonight." he looked at me and pulled me towards the counter between his leg, "no, I want to tell you everything right now. Your brothers all know, but they don't know how bad it is." and that is when everything clicked, now I know what was that feeling I get every time he had to leave so suddenly and why he couldn't come tonight.

It made me mad, it made me want to go over to his place and kick his uncle's ass, but I couldn't because I know that it won't make any difference. "It's okay princess, I'm fine," he said with a weak smile. I couldn't help but notice how light his eyes were and right there I knew, I needed this boy in my life.

I kissed him on his cheek lightly and placed my left hand on his cheek and my right hand on his chest while his hands were resting on my waist. "Then," he started again, "then he got very violent and the more I fought back, the harder he would hit. He started using broken glass to hit me with. I don't know why he hates me so much. All I want is my mom and dad and I can't. They're dead because of me." he finished and I felt tears rolling down my cheeks.

I wiped it away and looked up and said. "It wasn't your fault, you didn't start the fire, you didn't know that they were going to rob your house. Don't try to tell me if you hadn't forgotten your essay at home that they would still be alive because that's not true. You couldn't have possibly known that a bunch of idiots was robbing your house. You don't deserve what that soulless ghoul is doing to you. I don't care what you say, my brothers already asked me this and they were going to ask you tomorrow, you're moving in with us and that's not up for discussion, and if Hunter or Uncle Trevor has to adopt you they will. You deserve better. If your mom was here, she would say the same thing." We just stared at each other for a few seconds before he put me onto his lap.

As we sit there in the bathroom, I laid my head onto his shoulder and close my eyes, I hadn't realized how tired I was until I yawned. "Let's get you into bed princess, it's late and we both need the rest for tomorrow," he said as he carried me back to my bed.

With sleepy eyes I tell him, "can you sleep with me tonight." he puts me down in my bed and I scout over for him to get in. Once he's settled in, I moved closer towards him, so he wrapped his arms around me and kisses me on my forehead. I was falling into a deep slumber when I thought I heard him say, "I won't let anyone ever hurt you. I wish you knew how much you mean to me Jaycee-Jax Konstantinova Katerina Elizabeth Petrova." and with a kiss to my forehead, I fell into a deep slumber.