Phoenix

Chapter 30

PTSD

Essence's POV
_ "I told you I'm fine." I speak into my phone as I drop the book I had in my hand on the bed.

_ "But they should have called us." My mother argues on the other end of the line.

_ "I don't think they really had the time to do that." I roll my eyes.

_ "We could've helped." My father butts in.

_ "They had it under control." I reason. Silence.
"You done worrying now?" I groan.

_ "Fine, but if you need anything or something similar happens again, we would like to be informed next time." My parents say.

_ "Noted." My slightly shake my head grinning. A soft knock on my door is produced, before it opens and my delivery guy walks in.
"Look guys I gotta go, I have 'visitors'. Love you. Bye."

_ "Bye. Take care honey!"

I end the call and sit up in bed. Phoenix closes the door behind him and shoves the keys into his pocket. Immediately the room is filled with his rustic expensive cologne which mixed with the smell of food.

_ "I got us Chinese tonight." He informs me, plopping onto my bed in gray sweatpants and a simple black t-shirt. His hair was wet and he gave off the scent of some masculine shampoo.
"I came here as soon as I was done with classes and hand to hand combat. I can't wait for the coach to be back. Juggling teaching and studying as well as co-directing the whole academy is not easy." He rants. I smile at the subtle crease between his eyebrows as he unpacked out food and spread it out on the bed.

_ "Thanks." I say. For the past few days, Phoenix has been bringing me my breakfast lunch and dinner and carrying me around the place as I was still not allowed to get out of bed.
The doctor visits me everyday as-well to run checkups on me and clean my wounds. He says I'm recovering quite well and even booked me a dentists appointment for next week.

_ "That's the least I can do for you Essence." He shoots me a serious look as we had been arguing about him feeling guilty about the whole thing this whole week. "Oh, and my mom's coming over in a-bit. She wanted to check up on you. Is that okay?" He asks.

_ "Yeah, yeah it's fine." Laying in bed all day was extremely boring, but the girls visiting daily and Ian's hourly checkups on me helped me cope. Not to mention I was busy catching up with all the courses and assignments I've missed.

But when I'm alone, flash backs haunt me. Not just from the events of this week but because of the similar experience I've been through when I was younger. The memories from ten years ago were what kept me mum that night. It was the post traumatic disorder that kicked in.

A group of men were sent to kidnap me to get back at my parents for murdering their boss. They drove up to my school and took me along with another little girl who also had black hair and blue eyes. They must of been confused on which one of us was the Heisler's daughter, so they took us both.
They kept threatening that they'd kill us both if we didn't tell them which one of us was me, and when I kept calm while she screamed and cried for hours, they found out it was me who they wanted since no normal child would react that way to being kidnapped. And so to trigger me, they killed the little girl right before my eyes then proceeded to torture me.
9 year old me had to grow up with the guilt of another person's death on her hands, eating her up on the inside. I used to have night terrors for years as the pale tiny body splattered with blood was all that I saw whenever I closed my eyes. But it eventually got better the more missions I've been sent to.
But being kidnapped again triggered my ptsd and now whenever I was alone in the silence of my room, I could hear the screaming and pleads of that little girl.