“They can’t get you here. I won’t allow them. Not in the day or the night.”
“They don’t come out in the day,” Oakley spoke the words like I should know that. “Only at night, when I’m…sad.”
“Like last night?” And the other couple of nights he’d woken up in panic.
Oakley nodded, trying to shift closer to me.
“Have you ever seen the monsters?”
“No. But they…can touch me.”
“Do you think, maybe it was Donny that did the touching and hurting, and not the monsters?”
Oakley held his breath, as though he was thinking about that option. It was possible, with some of those pictures that were taken, that Oakley could have easily been drugged out of his mind. There was no way he couldn’t remember some of the things that were attached to him if it were otherwise.
The question was now, would Oakley’s thinking change? Would he learn that the monsters weren’t real, not the ones outside in the dark? Or was that going to be forever a part of him, something he couldn’t overcome?
“I don’t know.” Oakley finally answered. “He…he always said no one would want me since the monsters had me first.”
“I’m sure he told you a lot of things, didn’t he?”
Oakley nodded against me, his hair brushing against my cheek.
I breathed deep, not sure what to say, or how to even go about any of this. Oakley was broken in so many ways, it was a surprise he was even currently in my lap.
“I’ll be sure to tell you a lot of things, too. Like how good you are. Like how happy I am that you trustme enough to be in my lap right now. Like how much I adore you.”
Oakley gave out a half-grown, half-sigh type of sound, trying to burrow deeper into me. I chuckled, picturing his reddened skin at my words.
“Good boys get rewards. Remember?”
“Yeah.” Oakley squeaked the answer out.
“That means, you get good touches, treats, and happy moments like watching something on TV, or maybe even a bath.”
“I like this.” He made no move to leave my lap, which I was more than happy with. “Sir….his treats made me feel funny.”
Wasn’t surprised.
“None of those here. Ever. The only medicine I want you to take is those white pills, to help your anxiety. Like last night, when you needed two pills instead of one.”
“They keep the monsters away.” He pulled back enough to look at me for a single second. “You keep them away.”
“Oh, Oakley, sweet little one,” I sighed. “I want to take away all the monsters from your life. The ones that scare you, the ones that are on your shoulders, the ones that haunt you in your dreams. Any bad thing, I want to take away for you.”
“Please?” He looked at me with hope, fear, and uncertainty swimming in his eyes.
Chapter 29
Oakley
Could he take away all of that? Would he fix everything that had been done to me? Could he take away the pain that didn’t want to let me go? The kind of pain that was so deep, the sun never saw it?
Was it even possible for a single person to take away all of that, though? Let alone someone who bought me. Someone who Sir said would destroy the rest of whatever I clung to?
There wasn’t much left of me, so it wasn’t like I’d lose anything to let Sabastian do what he wanted. If that was all he did want, to just take away the hurt, then so be it. I’d gladly let him.
So far, this man was nothing like Sir had been. Sabastian was, dare I say it…kind.
