Leading Her from the Darkness

CHAPTER 13

TW: Details of violent assault after the fact

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"Austyn! Are you okay? Austyn, please talk to me," a voice rings through my ears as I feel someone shaking me, bringing me back from the darkness that consumed me - blissfully ignorant to the events that had previously transpired.

I can feel that I'm now sitting down with my back propped up against the wall behind me. Opening my eyes, I attempt to blink away my blurry vision and instantly wince at the pulsing pain in the back of my head. I reach up to touch it, only to yank my hand right back down as I feel the warm stickiness matted in my hair. I look down at the blood covering my fingertips and it causes my stomach to turn, instantly making me nauseous.

I cringe at the sharp pain in my hand when I curl my fingers into a fist to hide the blood, redirecting my attention to my now bruised and bloody knuckles that are swelling more and more, every second I stare at them.

Oh, fuck... what did I do?

As I'm looking down, I see hordes of feet surrounding me out of my peripheral. I raise my head up hesitantly, only to be met with multiple concerned faces staring back at me. But then my eyes fall on Luca, who's crouched down, balancing on the balls of his feet directly in front of my curled-up knees. He must be the one who was shaking me back into reality just moments prior.

"What happened?" I inquire with a cracked whisper, my voice strained by how hard my assailant had squeezed my throat before Rachel switched out.

There are times when she comes out in a fit of protection or anger induced by some jackass, where I can remember small flashes or can track my movements. But if she comes out during an incident that will most likely cause further trauma to my already damaged psyche, then she locks me out of those memories completely. And I get it, but it can still be terrifying coming back to front, with no idea how I got there or what happened in the moments leading up to it.

"You don't remember?" Luca's gaze fixates onto me as concern extends over his face. His anger radiates heat off of his body, as I see him take multiple rapid and ragged breaths as his eyes give my chest a timid once over.

Luca shrugs off his leather jacket and drapes it over me like a blanket. I briefly pull it back and peek underneath to see my cami ripped open down the middle, exposing my black bra along with old scars and a massive new bruise forming on my ribcage. I hastily pull the jacket back over myself as I feel my cheeks heat up in mortification.

As if I wasn't embarrassed enough already...

"I remember being grabbed by a man who covered my mouth and then slammed my body against something really fucking hard, making me hit my head," I take a shaky breath before continuing. "He started choking me," my voice squeaks out, and I try to swallow the pain, but that only causes me to feel the bruising on my vocal cords more so. "I couldn't breathe."

"You don't remember anything else?" Graham asks, kneeling down next to Luca.

All I can do is shake my head in response. I know Rachel switched out as I was being attacked, which they have no business knowing, but I remember nothing afterwards.

"I'm so sorry, Austyn. I shouldn't have let you go alone after the shit that happened earlier." Graham runs his hands over his face, seemingly frustrated with himself, looking down at his hands.

Due to the fact that it hurts like hell to talk, I grab his cheeks gently between my blackened hands to lift his head back up to look at me. I shake my head, silently telling him that it was not his fault.