Chapter 22
Ector
Genevieve grabs my hand and drags me with her as we follow the troll to the back door, her touch sending heat through my body.
The troll opens the door that looks like it’s hidden on purpose, blending in perfectly with the wall. He hands me a big burning torch that spreads a strong orange light around us.
“Good luck!” He winked at me before pushing us inside and shutting the door behind us.
“Let me go first.” I say, taking the lead in case something unpredictable happens.
All alone in a dark muddy tunnel with only the torch spreading light around us, the path suddenly splits into three.
“So what do we do now?” I ask her.
“I’ve read a lot of books where this happens.” She says, looking curious like she’s solving mysteries in her own mind.
“Let’s take the middle one.” I suggest.
“Everyone knows that you should never take the middle one.” She answers.
“Or, maybe that’s what they want you to think, brain fucking.”
A rosy tone appears on her cheeks.
“Brain fucking could mean something totally different so be careful with that sentence.”
My eyes widen and even though I can’t see it, I can feel my face turning red.
“Maybe you’re not as innocent as you look?” I tease.
She hits me on my shoulder and shakes her head. “Stop it! Let’s go now, we take the middle one as you suggested.”
Going first with a tight grip around the torch, she follows right behind me. The tunnel is quiet, the only sound around us being our footsteps and it makes me oddly uncomfortable. I like the quiet, I enjoy the peace, but not in a place like this.
As we continue down the path, all of a sudden the yellow and orange light from the flaming torch meets the white light from the end of the tunnel.
As we exit the tunnel, my hand reaches for the map in my pocket but unable to focus I look over at Genevieve who looks joyful and excited.
Tossing the torch in the small river beside us, I make sure that the fire goes out.
I grab her cheeks, “I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that this is okay with you.” I speak, and then my lips meet hers.
Without warning, time stops. And in that moment it’s truly only the two of us, flesh to flesh.
Everything rushes through me, and the feeling of victory crashes down.
The air around us became thick yet so easy to breathe.
However, my body wouldn’t let me take another breath.
My arms wrap around her, my hand tilting her head to deepen the kiss. With her hands pulling my clothes, I abruptly press her against a tree, neither of us getting enough from one another.
“Oh gosh.” My words come out as a whimper as I lift her up, her legs wrapped around my waist.
And just when the moment felt so perfect, my body decided to fail me. Instead of sitting down on the big stump beside us, I trip to the ground beside it with Genevieve landing on top of me.
She bursts out laughing as she sits on top of me, and all I can do is to try my best not to feel embarrassed. Especially when I can already feel myself grow underneath her.
As she calms down, a nervous expression grows on her face and she stands up. She must’ve noticed. My hands cover my face as I stay on the ground, lying completely still, too scared to move.
“Get up!” She giggles.
“I can’t."
“Why?”
I can’t tell her that I’m scared of my dick poking out the waistband if standing up. “I just got a little dizzy.”
“Yeah, sure.” She bites her lower lip and walks away from me.
—
“Did your father ever do something good? Or was he pure evil?” Genevieve asks me.
“He was pure evil.” I say, no emotions coming through as I speak the facts. “And your father?”
“I think he did? But I can not really seem to remember it. It’s like, I know he did good things, but all the negative things took over, so that’s the only thing I remember.”
“Do you remember any of the bad stuff that you want to tell me about?” I don’t expect her to answer this question, but she does.
“Yes, one time he hit Esme. We had been outside, playing with some animals. She had picked a beautiful, coral red flower for our mother, but when we arrived at home and our father saw it, he became so angry at her, furious almost. And hit her. He slapped her cheek so hard. She was blue and purple for at least a week after that. We had to lie to our friends about what had happened, that she had fallen on a rock, even though that was far from the truth. We simply never spoke about it ever again, she didn’t want to.
I think she felt ashamed of herself, she must have thought that it was her fault. I know how much it hurt her.”
“I’m so sorry that you and your sister had to go through all that.”
“It’s not your fault.”
I know it’s not, but I feel like I have a responsibility to apologize to her, because her father never will.
We both go quiet and get stuck in our own thoughts, at least I do. One memory suddenly decides to consume me, one that I don’t want to think of.
I had just been outside, playing with my boring sticks. Walking into our house, I saw my father holding my mother against the kitchen counter with his sharpest dagger against her throat.
I tried my best to be quiet, not wanting to be seen, knowing that he gets angrier if he sees me.
Please don’t hurt her, dad... Not my mommy... Take it out on me, not on her, she does not deserve it. But I do, I know I do, that’s what you always tell me, I deserve to be punished.
The floor creaked underneath my tiptoes, and my father’s eyes made contact with mine as fast as he heard it.
“You fucking rat!” He screamed at me.
I ran up the stairs as fast as my legs would let me, and slammed the door shut behind me. I tried to hide but he was too fast.
“Have I not told you to not slam the doors, you piece of shit?”
He grabbed me around my neck and lifted me up, threw me into the corner, and I landed on the hard wooden floor.
He came closer and tore my thin, oversized shirt into pieces.
The polished silver dagger that he was still holding in his hand came into view, and before I had a chance to move away, he started slicing up my flesh.
Blood was spilling from the deep cuts on my chest. He grabbed my arm and turned me around so that my back was facing him. Extreme pain was spreading all over it. I was screaming from the bottom of my lungs while the warm, deep red liquid ran down my back and stomach.
And then, everything went black.
As I woke up, my whole body was on fire, every single part of me was burning.
Tears poured from my eyes while lying in my mom’s lap. “Why mom? Why is he doing this to me?” I asked her in deep pain.
She started crying with me, “I don’t know, honey, I don’t know what to do.”
I wanted to be even closer to her, but I could barely move. “It hurts...” I cried out, begging for help.
“I know, honey. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” She cried while running her hand through my hair.
I tried to fall asleep again, not wanting to feel this pain, not wanting to feel anything at all.
I couldn’t take it anymore. But I couldn’t leave, because then my mother would be all alone with him.
And I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let anything happen to my mother, and if it did, everything would’ve been my fault.
And then I would’ve gone through all this pain and agony in vain.
I needed to protect her.