Chapter 24
Ector
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes. Everything is absolutely perfect.” She says with excitement and dances forward. “Can I see the map?”
If I want her to trust me, I need to be able to trust her. So with that in mind, I let her hands take the map.
“Thank you for trusting me and letting me take a look for myself.” She places a kiss on my cheek to end her sentence.
The map is showing that our next stop will be Mermaid Lake, a place I have never been to but heard a lot about. It’s supposed to be one of the finest places to exist.
“It looks like we might have to sleep somewhere on the way there, I don’t think we’ll be able to go all the way before the dark hours arrives."
It makes me uncomfortable knowing that she won’t be as protected as I’d like her to be. It’s unsettling. Anything can happen out here and for that reason, I need to keep myself awake.
“Oh, okay.” Nervousness seeps through her voice.
We walk in the bright green forest for hours, and as the sun begins to set, I realize that it’s about time that we build a fire and find somewhere to sleep.
As the sky turns pitch black, we arrive at a place that looks like someone’s abandoned old home. Trees that must’ve been planted have grown into a circle, and big, dry leaves have been braided around the broad trunks.
Looking around, our eyes trying to adjust to the darkness, it feels better to stay here than to continue searching for another place that might not come.
“Should we stay here?” Her angelic voice asks, almost as if she was reading my thoughts.
“I think that would be for the best.”
My body paces around, eyes in deep search for dry sticks and leaves that can be used for the fire.
“I’m gonna go a bit further down the hill and see if I can find some more wood.”
“No! Please don’t leave me here all alone.” She pleads, grabbing my arm. “I haven’t told you because I feel ashamed, but I’m truly terrified of the dark.” Her voice is barely above a whisper.
“We need something to keep us warm.”
“I can keep you warm.” She pleads, her cheeks turning rosy as she realizes what she just said.
Doubting her statement, I give in and trust her with her proposal. A fire would have been better, it would’ve kept danger away.
Or attracted it.
We move into the circle of trees with her hand glued to my bicep as I feel her body shaking with anxiety. I sit down with my back leaning against the tree, and Genevieve puts her head in my lap.
“Are you not going to sleep?” She yawns.
“I won’t be able to sleep knowing that danger might find us.” I pause, hesitating to speak the following words. “I can’t let anything happen to you.”
Her only answer is to snuggle closer to me, her head in my lap and her arm around my legs.
“Are you still awake?” I ask her after a few quiet seconds pass.
Reaching for her back, trying my best not to make any rapid movements, I grab the lilac journal and the pink feather pen out of her bag. If writing down her thoughts helps her, maybe it would help me too.
Flipping through the white pages, I make sure not to read the page she wrote earlier, instead I choose to start writing on one of the last ones. Hopefully something she won’t notice for a long time.
Thinking to myself, it doesn’t take long before I press the pen against the paper.
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I don't understand what's happening to me. For as long as I can remember I haven't cared. I haven't cared for others, and absolutely not for myself.
I've always felt best hiding in the shadows and not having anyone disturbing my peace, or what I thought to be peace.
It only took a few days for her to make me soften up. For me to find one lost puzzle piece after another. Pieces of myself that I thought would've been lost forever, parts of me that had been mourned along my mother’s death.
I never thought that there would be a life to live after her brutal death, but there was, and Genevieve was in it. She is in it, and she's spreading light around me in a way I never thought anyone would ever be able to.
She isn't my savior, but she is an angel that has been sent for me to be able to save myself.
I think I’m starting to lo-
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The sharp snap of a branch steals my attention, leading me to put the book aside. I take a steady hold around Genevieve. Trying not to wake her from her deep slumber, I gently place her beside me.
Standing up and looking over my shoulder, I deeply hesitate to leave her behind, but I have no choice.
Rushing outside to see what caused the sound, my body gets slammed to the ground without warning. As my eyes meet the ones of the heavy person lying on top of me, my face loses its color, and my heart sinks to my stomach.
“Father?” The terrified word leaves my mouth as I feel myself shrinking into the small boy I once was.
“We meet again, you ugly piece of shit.” He spits in my face and I feel the saliva running down my cheek.
With my body frozen in shock, everything suddenly feels hopeless. I thought I escaped him the day I managed to flee from home.
“I can’t believe I’ve received the chance to end your life just as I did to your mother.” He smiles as he lifts the same old silver dagger above his head.
Before I get the chance to think, the dagger moves closer to my chest. My arms move rapidly and manage to catch the blade in between my palms, feeling it cutting my flesh open.
Seeing him again, the monster that destroyed me, anger and pure rage started building up in me. Using those feelings of hatred, they become the source of my strength to push him off my body.
Seeing him flying to the side in the same way he used to throw me around our small home, satisfaction spread through me.
“Acting tough now? All I can remember is your annoying screaming and crying.” The words coming through his gritted teeth are filled with anger, and they cut deeper than any blade could.
A drop of blood lands in my eye and my vision turns blurry.
I stand up, my body is losing blood and my head is dizzy from falling to the ground.
“What do you want?” My voice comes out strong, harsh.
“I just told you, did you not listen?” He licks the blade that holds my blood.
“You’re insane.”
“Oh, you say that like I didn’t already know.” He laughs as his body moves closer to me, dagger ready in his hand to stab through my chest.
With my vision blurry, I try to move away from him as fast as possible, but I’m too slow. And suddenly, another burning feeling appears over my stomach, and blood drips to the ground.
Feeling a burning sensation of rage, I launch forward and reach for the dagger in his hand. The old man falls to the ground and starts begging for mercy.
“Stop it, Ector, this is pathetic.”
“Don’t you dare speak my name!” I scream at him.
“Ector?” The calm voice I could listen to speaking for an eternity comes from behind me.
Losing my focus, I turn my head to her, looking like a monster with blood smudged all over my face.
Everything around me starts moving in slow motion as I see Genevieve cover her mouth with one hand and pointing toward me and my father with the other. By the time I understand that something is deeply wrong, I look down and see the blade go through my solar plexus.
No.
Locking eyes with the monster before me, I know that I’ll bleed to death by pulling the dagger out of the wound, but I’m willing to sacrifice my life for the world to be free of this monster.
“You ruined my fucking life!” I spit out. And with one fast movement, his neck was sliced open.
Blood spilling from his body is the last satisfying view I get to see before collapsing to the ground myself.