Just Breathe

Chapter Thirty Bailey

I feel the blood run down my face from the gash on my forehead when the door smashed into me. I feel dizzy, and my vision is a bit hazy, but not enough that I can’t see exactly who is in my apartment. Father. He seems a lot thinner since the last time I saw him, and to most people, he wouldn’t seem like a threat, or at least he would be easy to fend off. That’s where they’re wrong. When you deal with a man who blames you for his wife’s death and all his misfortune in life, he reveals a strength as powerful as the Hulk.

We stand there, facing each other without saying a word. That’s the scary part about him, he barely ever speaks. He has always liked to show me rather than tell me how much everything is my fault. I can feel my heart pounding, making my chest hurt from its uncontrolled thumping. The ringing in my ears intensifies and my body draws a cold sweat.
You know what’s going to happen. You have to fight back this time! If you don’t, he will kill you.

I try to think of what I can use as a weapon against him, but the only things that are sharp enough are in the kitchen, and there is no way I’m going in there and chancing him finding Logan. I don’t look around as to not distract him to pounce when I remember the lilies Gavin gave me, and how I placed them in a vase out on the coffee table in the living room. I wasn’t that far from it. I just couldn’t allow him to notice it and have him use it against me.

“You know, you’re not as stupid as I thought.” He begins as he slowly steps in my direction. I don’t move back, it will only infuriate him and have him attacking me before I can reach for that vase. I slightly turn so that I’m still facing him. Placing my back to the coffee table.

“I never thought you had it in you to pick up and leave, especially taking what’s mine.” He moves closer, never taking his eyes off of me.

“Took me this whole time to actually find you, and I bet in your stupid little head of yours, you thought you were in the clear, uh?” He questioned, but I knew better than to answer.

“You could have been if you had remembered to change the plates on Joe’s truck.” He lets out a cackling laugh that sounds like nails screeching on a chalkboard. I grimace and take a cautious, slow step back in the direction of the coffee table.

“You’ve caused me a lot of trouble. Trouble that has me in hiding because you took off and fucked up my payment plans!” He shouts this time, and I know I’ve run out of time. I try to make a run for the coffee table, but I’m jerked back by my hair. I can feel my scalp stinging from the force of his hold and automatically reach up to grab his hands.

“You’ve pissed off a lot of people who now want me dead!” He shouts in my face, and the overwhelming stale breath of cheap alcohol makes me gag.

“I didn’t do anything.” I get out. I have no idea what he’s talking about, but it seems as if I was his ticket out of his mess.

“You did everything! Everything is your fault! Everything!” He shakes me really hard, and his tight grip on my hair pulls even more and has me letting out a scream.

“SHUT UP!” I feel it before I see it. My head snaps back from the force of his punch and a metallic taste overflows in my mouth. I spit the blood out so I don’t choke, but that only grants me another hit, this time a slap which causes me to bite and split my lip. He throws me to the floor and kicks me repeatedly in the ribs, and for the life of me, I try to suppress my screams so he won’t keep kicking, but the excruciating pain that explodes, about has me ready to throw up. I gasp for air, but the more I gasp, the more the pain spreads like a wildfire inside, trying to consume me.

“You think you have a right to scream in pain?! You don’t know pain!” He roars and kicks my stomach this time. I try everything in my power not to make a sound. He paces in front of me while mumbling to himself. I take the opportunity to drag my broken body towards the coffee table. I’m not that far, but my body screams in protest for me to just stop and curl up into the fetal position. Keep moving, Bailey! Don’t you dare give up!

“It was supposed to be you! Not her! You! You should have been the one to die! That’s pain! The pain of having to live with the murderer of your love!” He spits out while he continues his pacing, and before stopping in front of me, landing another kick to my ribs. I can’t stop the scream that comes racing up my throat. The pain is just so unbearable. It feels like an inferno has spread inside of me. He grips the back of my neck and forces me to look at him. I look into the eyes that Logan and I have inherited, and try to figure out when I stopped being his daughter.

“I’m… your daughter… how could you… want me dead?” I whisper out in between small coughs of blood. I don’t know why I asked him that. Maybe, deep down, the little girl in me has always wanted to know why I wasn’t enough for him anymore.

“You are nothing to me! You killed the love of my life!” He roars in my face and shoves me back down again, making me hit my head on the floor. I look up slightly and notice that with all of his shoving he’s managed to place me right in front of the coffee table. I see the vase. I spit out more blood and pray to my mom that I don’t blackout from this excruciating pain and that I can reach that vase and have enough strength to use it on him.

“You’ve ruined everything for me! They’re coming for me, and they will kill me. All because of you! But if I’m gonna die, you’re going to die too!”
I manage to reach the vase and get to my knees, but I get shoved from behind and go tumbling forward, bringing the vase with me. I vaguely see it rolling, empty, under the table towards the couch. A sharp pain spreads inside me as I land on the floor. I’m dragged away from the living area and feel like a grenade exploded inside of me, as my father lands yet another kick to my side.

“I’m ending you tonight, Bailey! I should have done it a long time ago!” He’s on top of me now, shouting in my face, but a lot of what he’s saying sounds muffled and the pain that’s shooting inside of me doesn’t allow me to focus. I feel something cold wrap around my neck, a tightness spreading and preventing my ragged breathing any further. I try to move my hands to remove the tightness, but I don’t think it’s working. FIGHT, BAILEY! YOU FIGHT FOR LOGAN! I try once more to grip my hands around the tightness and shove it off me, but darkness seeps in, and a peaceful quiet descends upon me.
                                                                                                     ~
"Bailey!" I think I hear someone calling my name. It sounds extremely far away for me to make it out clearly. Shit, my body feels like it’s gone up in flames.

“Bailey! Open your eyes, baby.” Gavin? He came back. I didn’t think he would, after our fight. Open my eyes? My eyes are open, it’s just dark. Panic washes over me as I remember what happened. Forget me, find Logan. Please let Logan still be hiding.

“Bailey!” Why does he sound like he's stuck in a damn tunnel? Shit, my entire body feels on the verge of exploding. Father dearest must have done a number on me this time.

"Bailey, you just stay with me, okay! Don't you dare close your eyes on me! Stay with me!" Everything he says seems so damn muffled, and I don't know why he keeps asking me to keep my eyes open, they are, he just has to turn on the damn lights.

"Lo... Logan" I think I managed to get out, but to my ears I can’t make anything out clearly, and wow, does my throat feel like it’s been through a shredder.

"I have him. He's safe. Hunter’s with him. Just stay awake. Please!" Again, everything he's saying sounds so damn muffled, but I don't even care, because he just made everything better by telling me Logan is safe.

I really hope my mind isn’t fucking with me because the next thing I feel is that inferno inside of me taking over my body, and the numbness finally engulfing me and everything going completely dark and silent again.