Page 88 of Overcast

I rememberrough skin brushing against my forehead. His scent; weed, and something that smelled like the ocean. I recall the tresses of my hair gently being pushed away and my batting at the intrusion.

It’s cryptically quiet when nothing but loud music and haughty laughter normally seep under the crack of my bedroom door.

The mattress I'm on is too comfortable.

The air is too fresh and clean.

The sound of crickets and birds were minuscule at best at night; only leaky exhausts and car alarms were my only lullabies besides what I could hear in the good earpiece of my headphones.

Sleep began to evade me on and off, reminding me then that I wasn't home.

I was in my tormentor’s home.

He won't let me go. He bathed and dressed my wound, brought some weird man in to check me out.

I wanted them both gone.

I prefer to be left alone.

Now staring at the window, the sky is cloudless, painting that infamous "sky blue" color over the flowering tree that gently brushes against the glass. The pink buds remind me of how beautiful it is outside and welcomes me there, but I'm far from where I aspire to be.

I'm a prisoner that isn't being tortured this time; however, I'm still being "kept".

That’s the problem.

My reality is still being confined. I’m still near him. I’m not back in a place where things are familiar, where I can go down streets I can navigate. I have no clue where I am or how far away home actually is.

Granted, a very tiny piece of me is grateful for the experience.

Because, for the first time in my life, I feel like I can do anything. That I can stick up for myself, go off and do wonderful things that I only imagined in my head for brief periods of time. Now they demand to be done because I’ve been given a second chance, thanks to Emric’s sister.

I want to live by the ocean. To have the consistency of the waves always crashing along the beach. To hear it’s different melodies depending on its mood and the way Mother Nature wanted.

I almost died by water but want to go set up roots there, make sense, right?

As crazy as it sounds, I connected with it, I guess. As long as I’m not there against my will, I think it’d be a great beginning to the new “me”. To discover more things about myself because I have a feeling that I’ve barely scratched the surface. I downplayed myself my entire life just being timid and secluded in a world with so many possibilities.

Not anymore and not with this second chance.

Except a broad man with tattoos and a voice that can spew out the most terrifying things stands in my way.

However, he also speaks with velvet laced in his tone. Like he actually cares about what happens to me.

He knocked on my bedroom door this morning, but I pretended to be asleep, not wanting him to tell me that I had to eat and check my bandages.

He’s done enough.

I know that I need sustenance, but it can wait for a while longer. The quiet within the house is welcoming over the chaos that I always lived in with Dad's buddies.

I wonder what Emric is going to do with him.

As much as Dad’s words hurt me, what kind of a daughter would that make me if I turned a blind eye and let Emric handle him. His way of administering orders and mine are two completely opposite things.

I’m aware that I have to ask, I’m just afraid of what he might say and that there won't be anything I can do about it.

A robin lands on one of the tree branches with a small twig in his beak. He’s making a new home, just like me. A little nest to bundle in and find some sort of peace in an always-changing world. Way up where nothing can touch or harm you. I crave the same thing.

“You’re finally awake.” I snap my eyes closed and inwardly growl at the voice behind me.

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