2. - – Mackenzie
CHAPTER TWO
-
MACKENZIE
“Fucking get out!” A scream shakes my body, making me curl up tighter into a ball, rocking harder as I try to block out everything.
My mom has been screaming at a man for the last hour, and I am scared he is going to hit her again.
She told me to hide, to stay out of sight, ‘cause if he sees me, he is going to hurt me too. So, I did. I am hiding.
A loud bang tightens every muscle in my body as if it’s being pulled harshly by a big truck.
I snap my eyes tight and sing lightly as thuds echo on the ground towards me.
Tightness around my ankles makes me whimper as I am yanked from under the bed.
Blinding pain erupts in my skull as my head smashes on the floor.
“Found you,” the voice that haunts my nightmares says.
Another scream, followed by pounding on the door makes tears roll down the side of my face.
The last time he touched me, he hurt me. I had blood on me when he was finished.
I hope he doesn’t hurt me this time.
So many people have told me that darkness is peaceful. The one place where everything is shut out.
That’s not what it is for me, though. To me, it’s like I am trapped with the worst parts of my life all crammed into one place, waiting to pounce on me.
My eyes feel heavy like someone has stuck tape to them, holding them down. My hands are in the same fate, unable to move. Tethered to something that refuses to let me go.
I twist my body as I arch my back off the mattress, trying to get the blood back into my limbs; they went to sleep a little while ago.
The dull tingles creeping into my fibers are telling me that in a few moments, I’m going to lose complete feeling.
Maybe that’s a good thing. I only wish that could happen to my soul.
“You know he is coming?” a deep, gruff, sonorous voice sounds into the darkness, bringing me back to awareness.
I know the voice, and I can see his face, even though my eyes are shut.
The light blue eyes that wrinkle up at the sides when his boyish grin graces his face, his salt and pepper hair that is shaggy so that strands hang over his eyes.
He isn’t that much older than me, maybe twenty-five.
He told me that his hard life has made his hair turn from all the stress, but he never told me what hardness he had in his life.
No one really knows what he did or what has happened to him.
Elijah Frost was here before I arrived. I had heard whispers of one patient being a permanent fixture in this awful place.
He started breaking into my cell once a week.
I wouldn’t know until I turned over in bed and found him sitting in the corner, just staring at me.
His eyes were dead behind his stare; whenever I looked at him, I saw nothing.
The first few nights, he stayed silent. Just looked at me with a concern, and some kind of wanting I’ve never had in my life.
I’ve always had to live in fear, with the uncertainty of what is going to happen next in my world.
So, a strange man sitting in my room looking like he was going to devour me is nothing.
But he never touched me, and from that day on, we became friends.
Although there are times when I catch him glancing at me, almost staring at me like I am the only thing in his world, and I wonder if he wants us to be more.
We spent many nights in my cell laughing and sneaking out to get into whatever trouble we could find. That would normally mean breaking into the hospital kitchen and eating the ice cream they would never let us have during the day.
Elijah became someone that I can’t live without.
I love him, and the way he is always looking at me, or trying to save me from my dark thoughts, I swear he loves me too.
“You don’t know that. Besides, I don’t even know who that was in his office.
That wasn’t Dr. Miller. Not my Killian.” I whisper the last words, because it wasn’t.
Killian has fucked me over his desk, making me come so hard like that was his only goal in life.
Whoever that man was today, I didn’t like.
“He is one and the same,” Elijah says, his voice plagued with annoyance. “I don’t know why you like him so much. There are better options than an old man in a white coat,” he barks. If I let my mind think about his tone, I would say he sounded jealous.
Huffing and ignoring his words, my hands fist and I pull down, trying to somehow break the hold again.
Elijah can’t be pissed at me, if he wanted me, he should’ve said.
He has never made a move on me, I’ve tried to kiss him many times with no win on my part, so I don’t know why he always acts like this whenever Killian is around.
It’s not like he is being pushed away by me, he just doesn’t want me like that, I’m too dark, too broken.
“Are you going to stop judging and fucking help me?”
“Nope.”
A growl rumbles in my chest before I puff out a breath of irritation that makes my cheeks bulge. “Leave, EJ.” I use the nickname I have for him that annoys him so much. My ears wait to hear the sound of his feet shuffle as he leaves my cell.
Nothing.
A prickle of awareness washes over my skin. It’s like the feeling you get in the dark when you think someone is watching you, or that moment when you run so fast because it feels like someone is chasing you.
My eyes twitch beneath my eyelids. They’re lighter now, so I peel them open slowly. The world is fuzzy in front of me like a windscreen washer on a car window during the rain. I blink several times until my vision is clear.
I lift my head slightly then flick my eyes to find Elijah looking at me, his eyes raking up and down my body, taking in my half dressed self before they land on my eyes, and his nose flares.
A look of devastation burns in his eyes; my mouth opens to speak but my words get stuck when he shakes his head then flicks his eyes to the black shadow standing at the bottom of my bed, looking right at me.
His silver eyes glow in the moonlight that creeps through the bars of my window and my body goes rigid in shock. “Dr. Miller?” Fear shakes my breath, making my words wobble.
I can’t see anything else about him, just the shake of his head and the white of his teeth as they are slowly revealed in the darkness.
My hands fist as I yank my arms back, trying for the life of me to free the grip holding me down.
All I am rewarded with is the jingling of the chain refusing to give way.
My eyes flick to the side. Elijah leans back in the chair, lifts his leg, crosses it, and rests it on his thigh.
He shakes his head at me, then his brow creases as if deep in thought.
I often wish I knew what he was thinking whenever he gets that look on his face.
He always looks like he is about to destroy the world and carry me off with him over his shoulder to somewhere far away to keep me safe.
A part of me wishes that was true.
“My psycho? Are you being naughty again?” Killian’s voice is low and deep, so much so, it rattles my heart.
“Fuck you, you drugged me, Killian. I don’t want you anywhere near me,” I spit.
My eyes meet his malevolent gaze.
“That isn’t your choice to make, Mac. As your doctor, I recommend I fuck you like the little whore you are.”