Page 63 of Afflicted

Juliet’s breathing changes slightly, like she’s sighing softly, almost like she’s listening, Her eyes remain closed.

I lean on the bed, gazing across at Sam. “We were best friends. All our lives. It was always Si and Harri. Always. We were inseparable.”

“That’s really sweet,” Sam says softly.

I nod, swallowing hard, trying to dislodge the lump that’s formed in my throat. “I never saw Harriet as anything but a sister. It was never a romantic thing. But one day she had her swan moment, you know, went from being an awkward gangly teenager to a young woman. And suddenly, all the boys wanted her. She was beautiful. Long coppery hair and big green eyes, they fucking panted after her every chance they got.”

“Did that change your friendship?”

I shook my head. “No, she adored me. Nothing changed. It was all fine, until… Until…” I don’t know if I can talk about that night. I take a deep breath. “There was a party. One of the snotty boys from the good side of town. She was invited, I wasn’t.”

“So she went alone?” Sam asks, clasping her hands together.

“She asked me to come with her, but I was a shitty little teenager, took it to offense. Told her to go and have fun with her new friends, like a right little dickhead.” I clasp on to Juliet’s warm hand, wishing I could somehow wrap it around myself. “So she went alone. Then she showed up to my place at 2am.” I clench my eyes shut, remembering the pinging of the pebbles against my window, going downstairs to let her in. Her bruised face, her split lip, her eyes wide with terror. Her torn dress. She’d been so excited about that dress. It was red…

“Silas?” Sam asks after a while.

I clear my throat. “Four of the boys at that party had gotten her drunk. They’d dragged her into the bathroom, and they… They had their way with her. While everyone was just a few feet away, they raped her, for hours. When they finally let her go, she came stumbling down the street to my place. No one helped her along the way. They just let this bleeding, crying little girl run down the street, all on her own, in her torn-up dress.”

Sam rubs a hand over her mouth. “Oh my god.”

“She was so afraid to tell her mum, she was worried she’d get in trouble for drinking, can you imagine? As though it would somehow be her fault? I told her she hadn’t deserved it. But…” Anger creeps into my veins, like acid, like lava. “When we told her mum, that was almost exactly what happened. I was so shocked. Everyone told her she had asked for it. That she’d given those boys the wrong idea.”

“Oh my fucking god,” Sam spits out. “Unbelievable.”

“I was furious. I went to the police, all on my own, tried to make a report. But they did nothing. And those fucking boys, they told everyone in school what a slut Harriet was, how she’d wanted it, taken them all at once, just the most vile fucking lies.”

Sam sucks on her teeth and shakes her head. “Poor kid.” She sighs. “So what happened then?”

I look up at the ceiling, replaying that night in my head. Replaying every single second, the countdown to Harriet walking out my door into the night, for the very last time.

“It was a few months later,” I say quietly. “She seemed to be doing OK. She’d come over for dinner, we’d watched some telly, then went upstairs to listen to the top 40. The number one song was one she loved, and her tape deck was broken. So I said I’d stay up with her and record it.” I can’t help but smile a little. “The Power of Love, by Huey Lewis and The News. She made me go to the cinema to see Back to The Future four times just so she could listen to that song.”

Sam smiles sadly, but says nothing.

“So we stayed up, recorded the song and nearly carked it laughing, because my tape deck didn’t have internal recording so we had to be quiet. In the background, you could hear us both giggling and trying to shut up.” The lump in my throat is unbearable. “She was happy. She looked so beautiful. And then… Then she took that tape, and she kissed me, just a quick peck on the lips, which she’d never done before.” I inhale through my nose. “I should have known, I should have seen the signs. Something was very wrong. But she seemed so happy.”

“You were just a kid, you couldn’t have known.”

“But I should have seen past all the smiles, I should have fucking seen it.” I grit my teeth, holding on to Juliet’s hand to steady myself. “I went to bed, thinking all was fine. Then I woke up to screaming. My mum, and Harriet’s mum, they were screaming and crying in the landing. I ran downstairs, everything was a blur. There was blue and red lights, an ambulance and police, all the neighbors were out gawking. And then there she was. On a fucking stretcher, her hand hanging out from under this horrible blue sheet they’d put over her.”

Sam’s face is weighed down by sadness. “She killed herself.”

I nod, blinking rapidly. “Her mum found her hanging in the bathroom. No note, nothing. She just decided in that moment that she couldn’t live with what had happened, and what those boys kept doing.” I clear my throat, threading my fingers through Juliet’s. “And then, there was a funeral, and flowers at the school, and teachers talking about the importance of asking for help. All those fuckers who’d believed the rumors, they lined up at her fucking funeral and cried, like she’d been their best friend, when she’d beenmine.” I swallow down the tears and misery on a heavy inhale, steadying myself. “And all I was left with was that tape, with her giggles behind her favorite song.”

“I’m so sorry, Silas.” Sam chews on her lip for a moment. “Those four men at the pub, all those years later. That was them, wasn’t it?”

I run a tongue over the tip of one of my fangs. “About a year after I was turned, I saw one of them in the paper, he was becoming a barrister or something, had defended a big case straight out of college. I started tracking down the others, discovered they were all still friends because scum like to travel in packs apparently.” I laugh bitterly. “Then they organized a little get together, sitting in the pub congratulating themselves on their amazing lives, their trophy wives and their mistresses, all while the girl they raped, the girl I fucking loved, was nothing but dust somewhere in a cemetery.”

“I can’t blame you for what you did.” Sam shrugs. “I’d have done the same thing.”

“Margot was so proud of me,” I say with a laugh. “My maker, she was thrilled. It was all over the news, right when vampires had come out. The perfect introduction, ey?” I scoff cynically. “No one ever knew it was me, but when they brought me down here I disclosed it all. Didn’t feel right to be around humans when I’d killed them myself. I was expecting punishment, and all I got was understanding. They said they couldn’t blame me for what happened.”

“No sane person would. I think it’s the power we all wish we had when we’re helpless.”

I smile at her wearily. “So now you know all about me, Sam.”

“Explains why you’re so attached to her.” Sam’s eyebrows twitch together for a second. “But you know that saving her won’t change what happened to Harriet.”

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