“Hey, Gabe, where’s Mils?” Mercy pops up from behind me and seems to finally get the bastard’s attention on the right track. “Is she with you?”
“She went to the bathroom. She’s meant to meet me out here, but I guess that was a little while ago.” He looks at his phone to check the time and frowns. Grabbing him by his shirt I get up in his face, now being too frustrated to be able to hold myself back.
“You were supposed to be looking out for her and you don’t know where she is? Are you some sort of moron?” He shoves me away and we begin to have a crowd gather around us.
“Hey, I can’t go to the toilet with her, she said it was a long queue!” he snaps back. “Maybe instead of pounding on each other, we should go and look for her, genius!”
“If anything has happened to her-”
I don’t finish that sentence because Mercy, the only sensible one among us, pulls me back and looks at both of us with blatant exasperation. Gabe and I then look at one another before falling in line behind the fiery little redhead leading us back into the mob inside.
Amelia
Matt passes me a couple of white tablets, telling me they’re painkillers, before sitting down on the bed beside me. I thank him when he places them inside of my hand but make no further attempts to take them. Thankfully, he’s too preoccupied to notice. He begins bouncing his leg up and down and running his hand anxiously through his hair. I try to surreptitiously shuffle towards the door, but he grabs at my wrist and pulls me back down to sit with him.
On the outside, I sit as rigid as a plank of wood, staring at the wall in front of me, not really knowing what to say for the best. On the inside, however, my heart is breaking for the end of our friendship, for the end of the boy I used to know, because it’s quite clear he’s no longer here with me.
“Millie,” he eventually says, “I need you; I can’t stop myself anymore. I know what you saw, I heard you watching it, but it was all for you, I promise. I thought of you the whole time!”
“W-what?!” I smile anxiously, trying to sound like I have no idea what he’s referring to, then begin to shuffle away again, but he only pulls me back more forcefully. “Matt, please let me go,” I murmur, with tears rolling down my cheeks because I realized a long time ago that I’m physically no match for him.
“Look at me!” he barks angrily, but I stare at the floor, completely unable to face him, unable to face any of this.
The sting of his slap shocks me to my core and I can no longer keep the sobs at bay, so I let them out with full force, desperately seeking some sort of empathy from him.
“I said, fucking look at me, Amelia!” My crying just makes him angrier. He grabs the back of my hair and pulls it sharply to one side before slapping me across the face again.
I scream at the impact of his hand on my cheek, which seems to switch him back to the Matt who was rocking on the floor after he had raped Sam. He instantly retreats and slides down the wall and onto the ground, shuddering with his own tears while he repeatedly tells me how sorry he is.
“What have I done? I’m so sorry, Millie, I’m sorry…”
Trying to make the most of this opportunity, when guilt and despair are holding him hostage on the carpet, I leap up and head to the door with forceful steps. I’m about two footfalls away from the exit, from safety. So, so close…
I reach out to the handle but only manage to dust my fingers across the cool metal before his hands are on me again, pulling me to the ground with a thump. His hulking, big, footballer’s body is on top of mine, wrestling with my flailing arms, all the while I cry out, begging for help, begging for him to stop. But he has a mean determination in his eye, one that tells me that this time, he won’t, not until he’s done what he wants to.
‘You can fight this, Millie,’ I tell myself, ‘you’ve been fighting this for the past two years. Don’t let him win, don’t let him consume you!’ So, I fight with everything I have in me, with all the rage and sadness of the past two years. I feel like I’m winning, that someone is bound to notice the sound of a struggle, that Gabe will come looking for me. I manage to keep him off until he hits me three more times, hard, and all of them across my face.
The shock, alongside the metallic taste of blood in my mouth, makes me feel nauseous and breaks my focus on holding him back. He takes advantage of the fact and grips hold of my hands with one of his meaty ones, then uses the other one to push my dress up my legs. Once exposed, he fumbles over his fly, just like in the film, just like he did with Sam. The thought has me shuddering and I sob more and more uncontrollably, with panic fully taking over both my mind and body.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I have this all figured out,” he says in a kind of manic rant, “I won’t use a condom like I did with Sam…no!” He laughs to himself and pulls his pants down, the sight of which causes my heart to almost stop altogether. “Hopefully, I can knock you up and then we’ll be connected forever, Baby. We’ll be a proper little family!”
He’s gone insane! I shake my head rapidly, no doubt with a look of pure horror written all over my face, but I don’t have the stomach to say anything. Even if I did, I have no idea what I could possibly say to make him stop. With one slick, effortless movement, he rips my panties away, then takes a moment to grin with what looks like relief at me.
“Finally, Sweetheart! Finally, I get to feel that tight cunt of yours, finally you’ll be mine. And once I have you, you won’t want anybody else, least of all that motherfucker, Bowie! Are you ready?”
“No, no, no!” I yell, shaking my head with an ache that’s threatening to split my whole head in half. I shut my eyes tightly and brace myself for this nightmare to happen. “Matt, p-please!”
“Get the fuck off of her!” a familiar voice growls from behind me. “I’m going to fucking kill you!”
My eyes remain firmly shut, still believing that my attacker is going to have his way with me. It’s only when I hear the thumping of bodies that I even register no one is holding me down any longer. I chance to open my eyes to see Bowie towering over us, lunging for Matt, whose erection is still out and moving around while they fight. I whimper and scramble back, not stopping until I hit another warm body, one which pulls me into their arms with tenderness. A stark contrast to the ones that were holding me down only moments ago.
I tremble as I watch Matt and Bowie go at one another, with rage marring both their faces, just before Gabe leaps in out of nowhere and helps Bowie to pin Matt to the floor. He hisses through his teeth and thrashes around like a wild animal, looking not of sound mind.
“The police are on their way,” the body behind me whispers gently to my ear, making me cling onto them a little tighter. “Shhh, it’s ok, Mils,” she says softly.
“I fucking love you, Millie!” Matt gasps in between gut-wrenching cries which have me feeling sick again. “I love you, you gotta know how much I love you!”
Bowie picks him up and shoves him against the floor again, making him whimper in pain before balling himself up into the fetal position. Bowie looks at my semi-naked body with pity, but I can’t bear it. I can’t stand to look at any of it, so I bury my face inside of Mercy’s arms.
Chapter 33
Bowie
“You ok, man?” Gabe mutters and slaps his hand over my shoulder.
It’s weird coming from a guy who has been nothing but a pain in my ass, but I appreciate it all the same. The three of us are all sitting around silently, lost in our thoughts, just watching Millie continue to sleep inside of her hospital room. She doesn’t have any major injuries, but it still haunts me to look at her bust-up face. To be honest, I think they’re keeping her in here for shock more than anything else. Though, they did find ketamine swimming around her blood sample, something that can be easily slipped inside of a girl’s drink before being raped.
I smile tightly at Gabe, wordlessly telling him I’m pretty fucking far from ok, but thanks for asking. He pats my back a few times before walking over to sit with Mercy w
ho remains glued to Millie’s bedside. For all her bravado, she’s a wet mess at the moment. I will forever be in her debt for coming to get me when she did, otherwise, I guess Matt would have got his way.
“Amelia?!” A fragile-looking woman with tears streaming down her face comes barging into the room like a whirlwind. She looks thoroughly unkempt; her hair is akin to that of a feral child’s, and I have no idea who she is. Gabe, on the other hand, seems to, seeing as he’s openly sneering at her. She begins taking large strides towards Millie, but Gabe gets to her before she can disturb her rest, which is the best place for her right now.
“Oh God,” she sobs, then slumps down onto the chair where Gabe was just sitting. “She’ll never forgive me! I’ve been the worst mother possible!”
“Well, maybe not the worst,” Gabe mutters unsympathetically, “I mean there are worse out there, but you know…” he shrugs his shoulders, not really caring about the more audible sobs he’s just induced from her. His matter-of-fact attitude over it has me smirking without meaning to because it’s obvious who this wild woman is now. I walk over to Millie and possessively take her hand inside of mine before looking up at her mother.
“Are you? Is Millie your…?” She can’t seem to speak coherently, so I decide to help her out and throw her a bone.
“I’m Bowie,” I tell her, thinking about it before I finally hold out my hand for her to shake. “Millie and I were dating, but I guess I kind of screwed it up, as could have been predicted.”
Mercy nods slowly but keeps her weepy wide eyes fixed firmly on her friend. Even when she’s an emotional wreck, she knows how to bitch at me without trying, though I kind of like that about her.
“Bowie? As in Bowie Phillips? As in Sam’s brother?” she asks me with a look of deep shock and confusion. “H-how is Sam?”
I’m a little surprised by her genuine concern for my sister, seeing as her son has been sitting in jail for the past two years on a wrongful prosecution.
“She’s ok. Then again, she knows nothing about any of this.”
My sister is going to freak out all over again. In fact, I can’t even begin to imagine how she’s going to handle all of this. The video evidence is in police custody. Thankfully, I didn’t watch it. That would be something I could never have got out of my head, so Gabe had refused to show me. I must remember to thank him for that one day.
“You must think I’m a terrible mother,” she looks to the floor ashamedly. “I guess I am.”
“People deal with things in different ways,” I reply on a shrug, “I don’t know enough about it to judge. Millie doesn’t talk about you, or her father, that much.”
My response seems to upset her even more, but I’m not going to apologize for the truth just to appease her guilt. From what I have heard and witnessed, she more than deserves it.
“Perhaps you three should go and rest,” she suggests out of the blue, “I will stay by her side…I promise!” She looks at Gabe’s judgmental expression, her eyes turning wide to try and convince him of her sincerity. “It’s time I started acting like a proper parent. I’ll call you the second she wakes, I promise.” She turns to me this time and I frown in return, not quite knowing whether to trust her or not.
One by one, we all look at each other and silently agree to let her have this. It might be better for Millie to wake up to her mom instead of all of us. We saw everything and I don’t know how she’s going to feel about that, especially as she was half-naked at the time. I remember how Sam felt after she admitted to being attacked, and that was only with words, not a full-blown live-action performance for us all to see.
With some reluctance, we all get up to go. Gabe slings his arm around a still weeping Mercy and walks her out. When they have gone, I turn to her mother and ask if I can have a minute with Millie, even though she’s still out cold. She smiles awkwardly at me before walking towards the corridor where she hovers around, not knowing what to do with herself.
I ignore her uncomfortable pacing outside and lean in towards Millie, ready to give her my speech in her unconscious state. I know I won’t be able to sleep tonight if I don’t get it out there.
“Mils,” I say softly next to her face and take her hand inside of mine, “I can’t wait for you to give me that smug look tomorrow, the one you promised me when you said you’d prove Grant’s innocence. You deserve that one, Mils, and I am more than happy to take it. But I want you to know that me ending things was more about giving us a chance to break free from all of this…horribleness. I thought we were too tainted with it all to be with one another. But I’ll admit, I have hated every minute of not being with you. I thought your brother had done something so awful, so vile, that I couldn’t see beyond it, but it was never your fault, Millie. I hope you know that. I hope you know how much I love you and want to be with you, even if you can never forgive me for being such an asshole to you. I love you, Amelia Thomas!”
I grip hold of her hand a little tighter and I swear she squeezes back, but her lips and eyes remain closed.
“Sleep well, Baby,” I whisper before I finally have the strength to leave her, vacating the seat for her mother to take again.
“Bowie?” her mom calls out to me before I exit altogether, “Thank you for looking after her. We don’t talk much and that’s my fault, but the last time she did speak to me, she told me she had met someone, someone special. She sounded the happiest she had been in a long time; I guess that’s down to you. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me just yet,” I smile sadly, “I also broke her heart. I couldn’t see past what Grant did to my…” I laugh mirthlessly, then shake my head over what I’ve just said, realizing it’s no longer accurate. “What I thought he had done to my sister. I shouldn’t have blamed her for what happened to Sam, even if Grant had been the one to hurt my sister. I guess I should have taken more time to see how she must have been feeling, how she must have been trying to cope with it all.”
“You’re not the only one,” she replies guiltily and looks away, unable to face me just as much as I’m unable to face her right now.
My head is out and out pounding by the time I roll out of bed. For a few blissful moments, I don’t remember seeing Millie struggling underneath Matt’s erect cock while her half-naked body was on show for all to see. I don’t remember having to beat the living shit out of my former best friend, a guy I had known since we went to middle school together. I don’t remember that he raped my sister and let the love of her life take the fall for it because he’s a raging psychopath with an extremely unhealthy obsession for my ex-girlfriend. I don’t remember that she is my ex-girlfriend.
“Bowie, Honey,” I muffle a random noise back to my mom, who is looking in at me through my bedroom door. “Sam’s here. She’s worried, but we haven’t told her about…any of it.”
“Oh, right,” I snap my head up and swing my legs around to sit on the edge of the bed. “Sure, I’ll be right down, Mom.”
She smiles sympathetically as I rub a hand down my face, trying to get my head together over how I’m going to break everything to Sam. This is not going to be pretty and to save my sister from any further embarrassment, I asked my parents if they would mind if I talked to her alone. They understand how close we are and that we’ve both been directly affected by what happened, so they agreed.
Sam’s already perched on the sofa, chewing on her nail, probably contemplating what on earth has happened to warrant her being summoned back here so urgently. She hasn’t returned since her attack and I can tell she’s beyond anxious to be back in this house, in this town, in a place she believed the love of her life had violated her.
I turn towards her so she can see me properly and I notice her already tearing up, correctly sensing something isn’t right. I try and smile reassuringly, though Lord knows why, for I’m about to offer her anything but reassurance.
My attempts seem to do nothing to comfort her as she leaps up to hug me, when we both begin to feel the weight of our emotions buil
ding up inside of our chests. In fact, I’ll admit I’m already shedding some tears over what’s happened, and despite trying my best to wipe them away, she catches me before I can throw my hands back down again.
“You’re not sick are you, Bowie?” Her usual tanned complexion, just like mine, has turned deathly pale when she questions my health and I almost laugh. Of course, I don’t. Instead, I shake my head and watch her heave out a huge sigh of relief. “And Mille? Is she ok?”
“Er…yes and no. Come and sit down, Sam,” I can see the anxiety and panic beginning to bubble up inside of her again. Her eyes are wide, and her hands feel clammy inside of mine. We sit for a few minutes while I try my best to think of how to get everything out into the open without inducing a panic attack from her.
Trouble is, I’m not known for my subtle warm and fuzzies when I have something important to say, I’m more of a rip-the-band-aid-off kind of a guy. I end up sighing and restarting my sentence about a hundred times, which is the complete opposite of what I wanted to do.
The Darkness Within Page 36
