AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Not even a flinch.
I reached over, my fingers barely grazing her back as she tensed and stiffened, turning back to face me and pointing a sharp dagger under my chin. The cold metal dug deeper into me as she spoke.
“I know this probably won’t kill you but It’ll feel damn good to slice your throat open.”
Her rage-filled eyes held no tears any longer as she kept them locked on mine.
“Catalina I-”
Before I could even say another word, Catalina took off in the direction of her room. Slamming her door so hard I was pretty sure the door had fallen off its hinges.
Too far. I took it a little too far.
She needed to hear the truth. Yes, it was harsh but hearing the truth was always difficult and I wasn’t like Gabriel. I wasn’t going to sit and coddle her with sweet words and soft voices to coax her out of this. She needed a reality check and tonight was the first of many. Yet I couldn’t help but think of the way she reacted when the belt hit her skin, or rather the absence of a reaction to it, the deep trails of scars that decorated her back, and the small pain that radiated in my chest when I saw it. I promised Gabriel that I would not harm her. She asked me to hit her, asked me to take that belt to her skin. As the belt graced her skin I thought I had broken my promise to Gabriel, that with that one motion, I had harmed her. Yet she did not move, no sound. Nothing as the belt clashed with her. She just stood there. As if nothing had touched her. As if she had taught herself to mask her pain and hide it. Hide it well. And for some reason that made me angry.
* * *
Catalina didn’t leave her room the next day. Gabriel checked on her a few times but all he said was that she wasn’t feeling well and that she wanted to be left alone.
Fine by me.
The less I saw of her the better. Especially after last night. Part of me was tempted to tell Gabriel that there was nothing I could do to help his friend, just so I would never have to see her again.
By noon she still hadn’t emerged from her room and Gabriel had stepped out to get her some medicine that apparently would help whatever sickness she was feeling. Whatever she was feeling had Gabriel concerned.
She’s fine. She’s just hungover.
Her hangovers never lasted this long, and she never got sick to the point where Gabriel had to step out to get medicine for her.
Fucking Hell.
Before I could even comprehend what I was doing, I made my way to her room and knocked on her door.
Nothing but silence greeted me.
I knocked again.
Silence.
“Catalina, are you alright?”
Silence.
Fuck this shit.
I pushed open her door,
“Ignoring me isn’t going to-”
Her bed was empty. Quickly I glanced around her room. There was nothing but darkness, except for a small freckle of light creeping out from underneath a door across the room. I made my way over, careful to not step on anything or disrupt her order of things, and gently pried the door open. I found Catalina hunched over, shivering, in the corner of what seemed to be her bathroom, her skin looked pale as if all the color had been drained out of her and her eyes were red and swollen as she looked at me.
“What the fuck happened?”
“Who are you?” She asked,
Who am I? Is she serious?
Slowly I approached her and knelt beside her. She tensed as I approached and pushed herself up against the wall,
