Page 58 of See You Soon
"How old are you?" I ask.
"Twenty-five." She whispers.
"Ah. I'm twenty-two. I'll be twenty-three this December."
I keep brushing her hair and I'm able to get almost all of the knots out on one side without pulling her scalp so hard.
Violet doesn't respond. We sit there in silence for a good few minutes. Watching Andy Dwyer and April Ludgate be an iconic couple. They were polar opposites yet they absolutely adored each other and balanced one another out.
"He reminds me of Damon... Andy does.”
My heart skips a beat and I realize she's opening up to me. Internally, I was thanking God that she was feeling comfortable enough around me to do so.
"How so?" I ask, untangling another knot. Glancing from the TV and back to her hair.
"He's funny, always saying positive shit in fucked up situations..." She looks down at her hands, I stop brushing when she moves, avoiding pulling any hair.
"Damon... Damon's my lover, I guess. We never put a title to what we were but we acted like we were together. We had been seeing each other for six months and everything was going well. We're in the same unit so we got deployed... together. More time to see each other without getting separated as the military life likes to do... And then this shit happens." I hear her teeth grind together.
“All of our friends died in the Humvee crash. But we didn’t. At first, we thought we were the lucky ones...I was dead wrong.”
I choke up. I need to figure out a way to stop myself from crying. I keep brushing her hair as she pauses.
Don't cry. Don't cry.Don't. Cry.
"He saved my life one night while being tortured." Her voice chokes up. I stand there silently, giving her the space she needs to tell her story.
"One man would hold me down and the other raped me in front of Damon. They wanted him to hear my screams. They wanted to break him and I down, to give them information about our unit and our military posts... so they would rape me. Beat us, starve us, until we were on the brink of death. One day... the creeps demanded information again from him and I but we didn't budge, as always. So..."
She pauses, readjusting herself, holding her knees tight. And I'm internally breaking. I don't want her to go on. I don't want to hear about all the horror she went through. But if I could be that person for her right now, I would listen clearly.
"They stripped me naked in front of Damon making him watch." Violet starts sobbing uncontrollably, gasping for air I stop brushing her hair and I hold her shoulders, gently, trying to comfort her.
"You don't have to continue, Violet. I—" Violet cuts me off.
"No! Let me get this out. I can't keep this in my head. Let me get this out, please! I don't want all of this to be trapped in my head... please!" Violet whips her head towards me, looking up at me, pleading and I want to so badly hug her like she was my sister. A big sister that I never had. A tear falls out of my eye and I nod.
"They stripped me down naked. They lit a fire on a fucking piece of wood, holding it to my thigh. I start screaming and Damon's shaking in his chair. I'm looking at him while I'm being burned and these fucking evil pieces of shit, laugh at me. They were too busy torturing me, they couldn't see that Damon was breaking his hands to get out of his restraints. I couldn't stand the burning... the pain of my skin getting burnt off… so, I spit on the man’s face. The one holding the wood." She scoffs.
"He didn't like that." She smiles, wickedly.
"It got him to stop burning me but it didn't stop him from wanting to kill me for it. It sent him into a full-blown rage. He dropped the wood and grabbed a machete instead. The other creep tried his best to stop his friend, he tried to talk him out of it but the man was charging for my throat. Then Damon gets free and tackles him to the ground, knocking the machete out of his hand."
She starts to sob again uncontrollably.
And I'm crying. I've lost it. I'm balling my eyes silently behind her, my body trembling and I feel like I don't know this world I live in after all. The evil that lives in this world is starting to hit me like a train and I want to flee. The world Danny so badly wants to protect me from. The stories he doesn't want me to hear. I get it now.I fucking get it.
"They both tussle but it's two versus one and... and they beat him so bad. He goes unconscious for a day... he saved my life. And... and I was angry. Angry at him for not letting them just kill me. For getting himself beaten so badly."
She's crying, her face in the palm of her hands and her heart rate goes up. Her blood pressure reflects that it's dangerously high. The stress of her telling her story was causing her vitals to jump all over the place and I stood there frozen. Unsure of what to do. I hesitate. I finally make a move. I hug her from behind, softly. I hold her from behind hoping she can feel that she's not alone anymore.
"You're not alone Miss. Redd. You're here, now. You don't have to heal by yourself. You'll be with family and friends soon and if you want, I'll give you my personal phone number whenever you need to talk. I'm here for you."
Violet sniffles, wiping away her tears.
"They have to get him back," Violet whispers. The tears are falling off my face and I do my best to wipe them away with the back of my hand.
"They have to get him back so I can yell at him. Fight with him. Hug him. So I can tell him that I love him. I never got to fucking tell him that. We've only been seeing each other for a couple of months and I don't care what anyone thinks... but I know. I know that I've loved him since the first day we met. I fucking love him." Her voice is muffled, by her hands but I can still hear her words clearly.
