FIFTEEN

| dedication: dewyzouis - for that amazing cover |

FIFTEEN

My hands were bleeding by the end of the night. Some of the blood my own, some belonged to what was covered in my room.

The bile that had risen up my throat hadn't disappeared, although it did well to nearly block any air from coming both in and out. The metallic stench filled my whole head, leaving me dizzy several of times but I fought with little strength I has buried to keep going.

I was on my hands and feet, following the trail of red liquid, scrubbing with an old pair of trackies that I snatched out my closet. The walls were covered in the same blood and every time I looked up, I swallowed down a sob. Droplets of blood fell to the ground and when I titled my head up slowly, I saw he even had reached the ceiling.

The colours swirled in my head until it was the only thing I saw. I started scrubbing, washing the blood off everything it covered. I pushed myself up and quickly stumbled to my closet, ready to pick out another piece of clothing that would help me clean this all up.

I threw the blood-soaked track suit bottoms to the side and turned back around to my room. The state of it was still the same, except the small corner I had started on. "Oh my god," I sobbed, one hand covering my hand so my cries didn't wake up my parents but this avalanche of emotions became hard to sustain. I bit down my hand, tears streaming down my eyes as I kept scanning my whole room.

"Oh my god," I kept breathing out repeatedly.

I managed to calm myself down and get back to cleaning it, my bare feet soaked in the cold liquid and fear aroused in my mind. If he managed to get in my room, when I was helpless, God knows what he was capable off.

I had a robe in my hand, and a few towels and I carried on scrubbing. I plucked the picture that sat in the middle of the wall and scrunching it up in a tight fist. When that wasn't enough to erase the image out of my head, I started tearing up the picture into pieces.

"Shit shit shit," I spat, throwing the pieces down on the floor before dropping down to my knees again. I picked up the towel and swiped the floor clean, all the while, chanting incoherent words to myself.

I stood back on my feet and reached for the walls, scrubbing so hard until the motion of going up and down disappeared and I stopped feeling anything. I tilted my head upwards, a small cry falling out of my tongue when I saw that the ceiling was covered in red splotches and I didn't know how to get up there.

"How how how how," I cried out, throwing the wet towel on the floor.

I quickly had a plan and hurriedly escaped out my room, dashing into the nearest bathroom. I picked a clean towel off the shelf and soaked it with water before dragging myself back in my room.

At the door, I nearly lost my footing but I caught myself before I slipped. With the wet towel in my hand, I pushed my desk in the middle of my room, directly under the part where the most splotches were. With the wet towel draped over my shoulder, I hoisted myself up my desk and nearly cried out in relieved when my hands reached the ceiling.

I started cleaning up there, my heartbeat picking up because I was finally getting somewhere.

When the ceiling was clean enough, I jumped down and ran back to the bathroom again. Doing the same thing, with wetting a clean towel, I raced back to my room and managed to clean up everything.

By the end, I stood in the middle of my room with just my bra and underwear. I had a whole pile of clothes and towels that were red stained, including my pyjamas and I had no clue what to do with them.

If I took it to the laundry my Mother would see it and then it would just cause something else entirely.

Whilst trying to draw up a plan on what to do with my clothes, I dragged my feet to my closet and just picked a large shirt to cover myself up. And that's when it came to me.

I turned on my heel and raced out my bedroom, down the stairs, into the kitchen and then went to the cabinet that had the black bin bags inside.

A few minutes later, I stared at the black bin bag, filled with the towels and clothes that were going to get burned in the morning. I glanced around my room, my initial fear and panic arousing in me again.

Shit shit shit.

He did this.

He came inside my bedroom whilst I was fast asleep.

My knees buckled underneath me and I tried, God knows, I tried to keep myself up but everything became too much to handle. I dropped down on my knees, my eyes staring down at my hands.

Her blood.

Her life I took.

Her blood on my hands.

I started scratching at my hands, at my arms, trying to get off the blood that stained my skin. It started bleeding, my own blood mixing with hers, and my vision turned blurry, black spots appearing at the end.

I was going to lose it. Heck, I was already on the brick of it.

Moments later, I found myself at the bottom of my bath tub, water sprinkling everywhere, attempting to wash off the dried blood... But it wasn't going anywhere.

Her blood on my hands.

Her blood.

_

_

_

"What on earth is happening here?" The loud screech of my Mother's voice snapped me awake and I nearly fell of the couch.

I opened one eye and glared at the woman that gave birth to me yet had no qualities of a mother. She was frowning down at me with her perfectly dolled up face. She wore a white chiffon blouse, with blush high pants and paired with nude heels.

I had no idea where she was heading at this time of day, when she hardly ever went to her workplace. Pug, her annoying chihuahua was sitting quietly by her feet, whilst giving me the sticky eye.

"I fell asleep whilst watching the TV," I came up with a white lie quickly, pushing myself up to a sitting position. I grabbed the blanket off the floor and threw it over myself.

My Mother pulled the blanket off my face. "Orianna, the TV is in the other room."

I looked over her shoulder and inwardly punched myself for getting caught in a stupid lie.

I snapped my gaze back on her face and saw that she was staring at me peculiarly. She was waiting for a plausible explanation and I gave her the best one. "I just came down here to think about my boyfriend who cheating on me with my own mum."

I watched her visibly flinch back at my words and she slowly moved back. "Orianna, you have to stop-"

"Stop bringing it up?"

"-listen to-"

"Stop thinking about it?"

"-this is not,"

"Stop wondering how much of a sick, twisted Mother you are?" I finished on a snare.

She reared back, her eyes wide and I should have known what would happen next.

The impact happened quick, the sound renovating inside my ears. My cheeks burned at her slap.

I stared at her open palm with distaste but spared no words as I got up and raced to my bedroom. I couldn't help it, the hurt of everything boiling up inside, cooking up, and I just had to remove the lid.

Wet tears splashing down on my cheeks and I just managed to bite back a sob before I threw myself on my bed, face first, and just let everything out.

I gave myself a few seconds before I told myself to keep it together. Even in my own house, with that woman downstairs, I couldn't break down. I had to be strong for my own sake so I didn't find myself at the bottom of the stairs, all limbs and bones broken.

Looking at the time, I realised I only had a few minutes left to get to school. I didn't know whether it was a good idea to show up to school in the state I was in, but the thought of him thinking he had one over me gnawed at my skin. He was not going to win.

I picked up my head, the heavy weight of it nearly forcing me to drop my head back down on my pillows. My eyes glanced around my room daintily, the daylight sneaking in from the gaps in the curtains and it illuminated the room to a certain level.

I could make out the subtle discolouring on the walls and I even realised that I had missed a few spots. My stomach dropped at the thought of scrubbing at it again, and I knew perfectly well that if I took another step towards the direction of the blood, I could possibly lose control over myself.

And that's when I realised that I couldn't do it. I surrendered in my own room, opted out more or less. I released myself and dropped my head down on my pillow, closing my eyes as soon as I landed.

My mind started swirling and buzzing with silly things, most irrelevant but I found that it helped me cope so I wouldn't focus on the situation at hand. I was waist-deep in my own thoughts that when my phone rang, I picked it off the nightstand and just answered it without paying attention to the number on the screen.

"Yes?" I answered, rolling to the side of my stomach and hooking the blanket between my thighs. The cold material felt good on my blistering skin as I waited for the person to respond on the other end of the line.

I nearly sagged at the sound of his voice when he finally spoke up. "You're not at school."

My heart started speeding up, my lungs finding it hard to taking in air and letting it flow through me. I opened my mouth to say something, anything that came to mind but found my tongue plastered on the roof of my mouth. And that's when I knew, with how rapid my fingers where quivering and how little control I had over my body response, that I was shit scared.

The feeling of fear gnawed at me until it rested in the pits of my stomach, tearing me apart from the inside.

"Yes," I finally managed to whisper, my voice coming out small and pathetic.

"Why?" He asked, shooting a question that he already knew an answer to.

I swallowed down my throat, taking a prolonged pause to gather enough confidence to speak again. And even then, the following words that tumbled out of mouth sounded weak to my own ears. "I couldn't make it." I told him.

I looked around my room, all of a sudden just seeing him everywhere, with blood coating his fingers as he marked my walls with my nightmare. I started shaking again, even more so when I heard him exhale over the phone.

"I wanted to speak to you," he started to say. The image of being in the same presence as Link and conversing with shook me to the core and then I really struggled to breathe.

Without giving it a second thought, I dropped my phone in my hand and ended the call. Gathering the front of my shirt with my hand, I dropped my head and tried to catch my breath, telling myself that Link was not in my room, that he was not coming near me again, that he couldn't possibly do anything after what he did last night. I started to think all sense of humanity had left him if he thought doing something like last night was deemed okay.

I looked down at my phone in my hand and wondered how he got my number.

My mind zapped me back to when he kissed me at the park and I nearly fainted at the memory of his lips covering mine, and how different he made me feel in that moment, almost as if there was no barrier between us and that I was a free girl.

Now all I could see was the bars surrounding me, and he was the only one with the key to pull up the bars.

I started to clean my room again, wanting to keep myself busy and occupied rather than killing myself with overthinking. I kept pushing one thought to the back of me head because even thinking about it for a second longer made my insides twist.

Confess.

One word and it suffocated me.

I didn't know how long I spent cleaning my room until I exhausted every muscle in my body and dropped on my bed with my hands and legs extended outwards. I breathed out, lifting one hand to cover my eyes.

"Doing things to keep yourself busy so you don't focus on the real shit going on," a male's voice came from behind me and every cell in my body froze. My hand slumped down to my side and I knew that I was done for, both mentally and physically because there's only so much I could take.

"Tell me Orianna, what has you running shit scared in to the woods this time?" Link asked me, appearing right in front me, his hands crossed over his chest and he loomed over me with his penetrating dark eyes.

****

> OKAY GUYS! So this is a brand new chapter! I know I've lost loads of readers on the way because I decided to start over again and they didn't want to stay :( but I'm forever grateful to those who stayed and read this twice there are two 'main things' that are gonna happen and I would love to see you guys trying to figure it out! I'm not going to lie, like two have toyed around with the idea in the comments section and I was like 'Nahh.... Are they reading my mind??'