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“Ev?” I knocked louder this time, but still no reply came and I instantly panicked.
“Harris,” Kailan warned, but I already had the bathroom door open just a crack. I knew it was creepy, but I had check she was alright. Something inside was screaming at me that she wasn’t – that she needed us.
I peered in, then instantly threw the door open when I saw her. She was on the ground under the shower, all of her clothes still on. As I ran towards her I feared she had slipped and banged her head.
“Evie?” I yelled, and Kailan was right behind me.
“What happened? Has she fallen?” Kailan asked.
“I don’t know. Shut off the water!” I ordered as I dropped to my knees before her. I wanted to scoop her up, but I knew I shouldn’t if she had fallen. I leaned as far forward as I could to see her eyes, and that was when I realized she was crying, deep mournful sobs that broke my damned heart.
“Ev? Talk to me, sweetheart. I’m right here,” I said more softly as I took her shaking hand in mine. She didn’t respond. She didn’t even look at me. She just lay there, her eyes clamped shut as she cried her heart out, her whole body shaking so hard it scared me. “She’s not responding. What do we do?” I asked as I looked up to Kailan. He was toeing off his boots when I looked to him, then, wordlessly he climbed into the shower stall and sat on the ground behind her.
“She’s okay,” he told me as he scooped her up and settled her in his lap. She was limp in his arms, like she wasn’t even conscious, but Kailan managed to get her so her back was leant against his front, and he was holding her tight. “She’s going to be just fine. We’re going to talk to her and stay with her until she’s ready to come back to us, okay?” he told me calmly.
“Okay,” I agreed as I got to my feet and kicked off my sneakers. I stepped into the shower too and sank to the floor beside Kailan, my back leant against the wet wall. Kailan started to talk to her as I took her trembling hands into mine, but I couldn’t stop thinking the same thing over and over in my panic – we were too fucking late. She already reached breaking point and we had allowed it to happen.
EVIE
I was lost in the darkness, consumed by my nightmares, only this time I wasn’t even asleep and they were haunting me. I could see myself on that table again, hear my screams as Soloman tortured me and yelled at me to give him the words he wanted. I could feel the pain of every touch of that knife, could smell the mold of the room, mixed with the iron scent of my own blood. I was right back there and I couldn’t find my way back out, no matter how hard I tried.
But then I felt arms banding around me. I felt heat surrounding me and heard the softly spoken words of someone talking to me and the flashback started to drift away. Soloman disappeared and the pain eased off. Heat returned to my trembling form and I started to become of aware of the real world, my past horrors finally relinquishing their grip on me.
“…you hear me, darlin’? You take as long as you need, but you come back to me when you’re ready, okay? I’m right here, Harris too. We’ve got you. You’re safe, pretty girl, and so very loved.” Kailan’s voice got clearer. I could feel strong, slightly rough hands holding my own, a thumb tapping on the back of my hand over and over. Harris.
I allowed the feeling of safety to fill me, because I was safe. If Kailan and Harris had me, I knew I was safe. I moved my hand where it was wrapped inside of Harris’s as the numb feeling receded and an awareness of my body returned to me.
“Ev? Can you hear me, sweetheart?” Harris asked softly. I opened my eyes and looked to where I knew he was beside me. My head was pounding and I was freezing cold, but I could feel Kailan holding me in his arms. “Hey, there you are.” Harris smiled, but it didn’t hide the worry all over his face.
“You back with us, darlin’?” Kailan asked.
“I…I think so,” I uttered, my throat rough once again from crying. “Did I freak out?” I remembered Kailan leaving me in the bathroom, but the rest was fuzzy. My clothes were soaked through and I knew there had to be a reason the guys had felt the need to climb into the shower with me, fully clothed and looking completely spooked by whatever I had done.
“We lost you for a little while,” Harris answered. “But that’s okay because you came back to us.” He lifted one of my trembling hands to his lips and kissed my knuckles.
“I’m sorry,” I told them. “I just…it was too much.”
“We know, Evie. You have nothing to be sorry for, beautiful. We get that you have way too much on your plate right now,” Kailan said. “But you can talk to us. You don’t have to shut us out when things build up too much. We love you. We want to be here when you need us.”
“He’s right, Ev. It kills us to find you like this, all alone. We want to be here to hold you and make you feel safe when everything gets to be too much,” Harris agreed.
“I’m just so sick of being like this. I never used to cry before…not really and now it feels like I never stop. I’m j-just so tired,” I told them honestly.
“Give yourself a break, Evie. You’re dealing with PTSD, and rightly so after everything you went through, plus, on top of that you have this psycho stalking you and trying to terrorize you. Anyone would be struggling in your position. I think you’re handling it all pretty fucking amazingly actually,” Kailan told me.
“I just…I need it all to end. I really d-don’t know how much longer I can stand it all.”
“We know sweetheart, and we’re working on that. For now we’re safe in this amazing apartment. There are security on this floor and throughout the building. That motherfucker can’t get near you here, so how about we just take some time out to regroup a little, huh? We’re all tired and we all need a break. This is the perfect opportunity for that,” Harris suggested.
“My brothers aren’t going to leave us alone. They’ll want to know where I am,” I sighed.
“You just let us deal with your brothers. I don’t want you to worry about any of that, okay? Their issues are their own to deal with, not yours,” Harris told me firmly.
“Let’s get out of here and get you dry. You’re starting to tremble,” Kailan added, and I nodded. I was freezing and the both of them were pretty soaked through too.
I still felt a little out of it as the guys got me to my feet and helped me from the bathroom to a large bedroom next door. I was just exhausted, in all possible ways, and in desperate need of sleep.
Thankfully Kailan and Harris seemed to realize that, because once we were all dried off and changed into fresh clothes, they tucked me into the middle of the huge, sumptuous bed, then both laid down either side of me.
