One of Nine

CHAPTER 4

⚠️AUTHOR NOTE⚠️: I would like to make a quick comment about this chapter. This chapter has a very heavy depiction of sexual assault. Please go forward cautiously, and only read as much as you feel comfortable reading. Thank you all for the support! I hope you're enjoying reading my book as much as I am enjoying writing it. 

CHAPTER 4

I had finished The Secret Garden and was scanning the shelves for another book that might catch my eye. As my fingers grazed along the aged spines, a name made me stop.

Harland

My breath hitched and my heart skipped a beat. I knew it wasn't the same Harland that I knew but nonetheless that name would never be one I could forget.

My fingers trembled as I grabbed the book. I tried to read the title but could only focus on the name.

It taunted me, reminding me of every little thing that I had forced myself to forget, the things I had tried so hard to run away from, and yet even in a place where everything from the real world seems non-existent, I'm still followed by him.

Something was inside me, heaving and clawing at my insides. It felt like my chest was collapsing, attempting to drown itself in the deepest pit of my stomach and all I wanted to do was run away and scream.

So I did. I let out a sound I had never heard myself make before, blood curdling and bone chilling and so loud it couldn't have been coming from me. But it was. My throat burned and I couldn't stop. The screams were scratching my throat on their way out of my mouth, ripping away at my cheeks and pulling at my teeth as they forced their way out of my body.

I shut my eyes and before I knew what I was doing I was tearing the book, ripping the pages out, feeling the sting of paper cuts on my fingers. My hands gripped both covers and tore the book down the spine before I let it fall on the floor. I had stopped screaming.

"Opal?"

I turned my head quickly, noticing then that I was extremely dizzy.

I saw a figure standing in the door before the room spun and I saw nothing but black.

When I woke up my entire body was tingling. I was still on the floor and I could see the torn book pages strewn around me. I looked up and saw Eli sitting on the floor next to me.

I moved to sit up.

"Whoa, take it easy," Eli said gently, reaching towards me.

I ignored him, pushing past his outstretched hands that were trying to stop me. I had stood up too fast but that didn't stop me from tearing through the library, through the cramped gym, into the small adjoining bathroom and slamming the door and locking it behind me. 

"Don't worry you'll enjoy it"

"No!" I screamed, my entire body shaking and screaming, trying to get out of itself.

"Opal!" Eli's voice seeped through the cracks between the linoleum floor and dark wood door. His fist pounded against the door, as I continued to wail.

"Don't worry you'll enjoy it" His voice was echoing around in my brain, as clear as when he said it the first time. It snaked up my neck and up into my ears, pushing itself into my head.

"AGHHHH!" I started to scream again, the pain and the torture now ten times worse than before.

I crawled into the shower, my hands scratching at the tiled wall as I reached up towards the knobs.

"Stop please."

He acted like I hadn't spoken. His hands kept moving my clothes in ways I didn't want them to. I couldn't move, his other hand pressing down on me, keeping me there. I just closed my eyes and pretended that this wasn't happening, silently praying that this would end soon.