Quinn O'Connell was the pretty girl in pink, the homecoming queen and all-around straight-A student. Most people saw her as uptight, narcissistic but most importantly... They saw her as a control freak with her perfect blonde hair and patronising sm...
⚠️ Warning: sensitive content. Please read with caution or skip to the next chapter.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The boiling water of the jacuzzi provided absolutely no protection from the smirking monster opposite her as it battered her body. But the constant, steady stream of the pelting waves kept her sane. After all this time, Quinn O'Connell had become a master at switching off, from disconnecting her mind from her body so she could get just a moment of peace. But lying as a living corpse was weak in her mind, allowing for it all to happen was weak in her mind.
He was so eagerly confident, body on show and drink in hand because he knew that it didn't matter who she told, nobody was ever going to believe the popular blonde girl over the mega-rich mayor, it was his security. And he knew that no matter how she tried to deny it, Quinn O'Connell needed Jensen Hargreaves. Without him, she had nothing. As she watched him sip his drink, resigned to her fate as the back of her head seared in pain from the earlier van incident, she couldn't help but wonder where she would be in that moment if she had only just told the people in the hospital. She could've told anyone, Bella, Jackie, Charlie, Edward... Carlisle. The doctor encouraged emotions in her that she never thought possible. Quinn didn't think that she was capable of being attracted to anyone, not with her experiences and so, of course, when she did happen to take up a fancy, they were an older, respected gentleman who was wildly out of her reach.
Life wasn't kind to Quinn O'Connell.
"You're awfully quiet" he was smirking even now, knowing that from any of the windows of the manor house, the servants could see the strange circumstances taking place outside. He trusted his staff and Quinn could only hope that one day, that would be his downfall. The blonde girl had long ago accepted that saying nothing at all was far better than speaking, self-preservation was the most important thing to her.
It happened in an instant and she was completely unprepared but in anticipation. The sooner he started, the sooner it would be over. That was the unfortunate moto Quinn O'Connell lived by as she was slammed into the side of the hot tub, her chest forced up against the course side, aching head held down violently. All she could do was allow it to happen because, in the brief moment that she struggled, it only granted her a painful grasp on her upper arms.
Jensen Hargreaves had his way with the pretty blonde thing as she lay there quietly, head pressed down and tears tumbling like a torrent but otherwise unmoving, safe for the ripple of his movement. The quiet took the pleasure out of his sadism but her tears fueled it.
It felt as though it went on for eternity as Quinn O'Connell stared at the bright green ferns illuminated in the false blue light of the hot tub, ignoring the world as the stars twinkled. When it was over, finally, he dragged her upwards and she tumbled forward onto the harsh grey patio, it stung her wet flesh as he smashed her head down onto it. The last thing Quinn O'Connell saw that evening was the green ferns swaying in the harsh biting breeze before she was out cold.
--
The first sensation that Quinn recognised when she awoke was a harrowing numbness, the kind of lack of feeling that makes you fear you have met death. And when her splintering pained eyelids peeled back, using all the energy she had, her blue eyes saw nothing for the longest time. When she finally saw the swaying shape of the ferns yet again, she thought for a moment that it was all hallucination until she could find the force to flip her agonised body over and stare at the sky, the moon was bright and beautiful among the stars and she stared at it for the longest time because if she passed on there, under the milky white moon with the swaying ferns, she would be content.
Only when her body forced her to shiver, did she bring back the fight. Her skin was frozen and she knew she was halfway to a corpse, breath swirling warmly by her lips but dying slowly with every second as she half dragged herself toward Hargreaves Hell House which, for the first time in her life, seemed to be a slither of salvation. The warm hit her like a steam train and she was certain she couldn't have been out for long, her hair still wet and clung around her cheeks protectively as she forced her way up the towering stairwell.
Her room had never felt so far away, as she tumbled through the door, her bed seemed like a paradise, falling down into it, the first sob came.
Quinn O'Connell was completely and utterly alone in this world, a world that fed her many horrors and yet, still promised a thousand more. Time stood still all around her and she suspended in a semblance of hell, hell would have been better as she dragged the comforter over her body, sobs painfully wracking through her body, her head searing, throat thick and heart heavy. Never in her life, had Quinn O'Connell been so prepared to give up the fight. And she knew that she couldn't do this alone anymore because her hope was gone... She needed to survive off of someone else's.
Quinn didn't know why his name was the one she clicked on, she didn't know why she even had his number in the first place but when Edwards name popped up in the blur of her teary vision, she knew that this was right and so, she typed a text that she could only hope would change the world for her. One text was all it took, a text that she spent an exceeding amount of time in typing with her blurred eyes and shivering blue hand.
QUINN O'CONNELL
hypothetically, if a girl was in need of a friend. A friend who would listen to the things she was prepared to finally say, and not pester her for the things she wasn't. a friend ready to hear an ugly truth. could the girl count on you to be that friend?
Edward Cullen replied almost instantly, as though he had been waiting.
EDWARD CULLEN
The girl doesn't have to be alone anymore, because there's at least one person who is prepared to do anything to save her. No matter what it is she needs saving from...
QUINN O'CONNELL
and would that someone be prepared to pick up the girl at midnight tonight, just to save her from all this mess?
EDWARD CULLEN
All I need is an address Quinn, and I can be there as soon as physically possible
And so she sent him the address for Hargreaves Hell House and got dressed out of her sodden, frozen bikini...
