Whelve

Chapter Ten

Ev

I wasn't sure what woke me up. But when I opened my eyes the sun had barely managed to start shining. It was way too early to be awake, especially since the previous night I had spent about six hours watching videos with Daniel. I tried to focus on my surroundings, hating the fact that I had to force my eyes open. Omen had dismissed the makeshift bed I had made her, with the new blanket, and was now sleeping right next to my face.

Daniel shifting around made me raise my head to look over her at him. He was still asleep, but his features at once alerted me. There was a crease on his forehead, and he seemed in pain. I sat up, squinting as the sun blinded me and leaned closer to him.

"Danny?" I muttered, trying to wake him up.

Instead of responding, Daniel turned around and coiled up in a fetal position. Seeing this, I hesitated for a moment, but my worry won me over. Slowly, I reached out and softly I tried to shake him awake. His breath came to a halt and I leaned forward a bit, opening my mouth to speak up again. But before I could utter even one syllable, Daniel moved, and his fist connected with my face.

"Fuck!" I yelled out as I heard my nose crack and my face flew back.

My voice must have snapped him out of it because when I could see him again, he seemed absolutely awake and responsive. I reached up to my nose and barely managed to touch it when I felt something drip. Immediately I shot out of bed and sprinted to the bathroom.

Once there, I leaned over the sink, so the blood would fall into it and reached to grab a handful of toilet paper. I shoved some up my bleeding nostril, keeping my head low and reached up to felt around my nose. Besides the general soreness, nothing hurt, so I sighed as I realised, I hadn't broken anything. I changed the paper and turned to Daniel who was standing by the door.

"That was a hell of a sucker punch," I said and chuckled. Daniel took half a step back. "I don't think anything's broken. It'll probably bruise though..." I went on.

He took a couple more steps back until his back hit the wall by the kitchenette. I switched up the paper again, noticing how the blood flow was already starting to get smaller. When I turned my head to Danny again, I saw that he had slid down the wall and was almost sitting on the floor.

"Hey, it's fine. I get nosebleeds easily... don't worry about it," I assured him.

His chest was moving rapidly, and he seemed to be on the brink of tears. I backed away from the sink and turned to him, lowering down so I could be on the same eye level as he.

"Don't hurt me," he muttered, and a tear ran down his face.

I lifted my hands in a surrendering manner and tried to look him in the eyes, something he was making extremely hard for me as he kept his gaze lowered. Instead of crouching, I ended up sitting on the floor completely and taking a few deep breaths myself as to not panic. He was panicking enough for both of us.

"I'm not gonna hurt you. No one is going to hurt you. Not anymore..." I said calmly.

I wasn't sure whether he heard my words, much less understood them, but I noticed Omen elegantly walking up to us, taking in the scene before her and then walking toward Daniel. I quietly watched as she went and rubbed her head to his outer thigh and all but forced him to pet her. As his hand moved over her back, I couldn't help but hear her loud purring, and a small smile tugged on my lips as I saw Daniel close his eyes and let out a breath through his mouth.

"God why does this keep happening to me?" he asked, the soft crack in his voice making me gulp.

"You really need to talk to a professional," I muttered and bit my words when he looked up at me. I hadn't been looked with such an intense look of betrayal before. Fresh tears started filling his eyes and I couldn't help but notice his jaw tremble. "Hey, Danny. Listen to me, you are not broken. You are just hurt. A doctor will be able to help you a lot more than I can..."