I gasped, falling limply into the chains at Everett’s voice, tears dripping down my face.
“You have to keep breathing,” he told me evenly.
“Where are you?” I asked through the tears, my voice barely above a whisper. “Why haven’t you come yet?”
“We’re still searching.
Still searching?Fuck. Okay, no, that was fine, I could handle this. I could do this. “Okay,” I said, sniffing, trying to calm myself down. “Okay, Lillian wants to fuck you, and she lied about knowing how much I drink, I don’t know why.”
“What did they do to you?”
I swallowed, feeling the blood slowly dripping down my skin. I must have finally torn my wrists too because I could feel the warmth of the blood sliding down my arms now. “Nothing I couldn’t handle. They’re putting a man outside my door,” I went on before he could respond. “Phil. He’s got a wedding ring, hazel eyes, no tattoos.”
“Okay, good. You’re doing good.” He was quiet a moment. “Get some rest, Olivia, focus. Fall into your own mind, somewhere safe. That’s where you need to find your peace right now.”
I nodded, tears dripping down my face, my heart shattering. “Okay,” I whispered back, my eyes lifting to that door. Somewhere safe? The only safe place in this world was his arms. The only safe place was within his death aura. “Are you stillcoming?”
“I won’t stop until you’re in my arms again.”
I inhaled sharply. “And Lucy?”
“Out of surgery and sleeping.”
I swallowed down a sob and nodded again. Lucy was alive and Everett was coming. It’s only been a few hours; I could keep going. I could. I still had some fight left. I was fine. I’d be okay.
Everything would be okay.
16
Olivia
July 5th, 2022
6th, 2022
7th, 2022
8th
It had to have been the 6thby now, right?
They refused to feed me, but they gave me water, and by how many times I had soiled myself, by how numb my body was, I was sure it had at least been a day.
At the very least a day and a half.
I was sure.
I blinked heavily, staring at that door. They had come in and tried to drown me again, but I survived it. At least, I think I survived it.
Heaven couldn’t have been like this, and Everett was still talking to me, so I had to be alive.
Lillian’s father allowed her in here every couple of hours, Ithink, to beat me. I was her punching bag, she said. Better than a regular one because I ‘felt real’. It prepared her for the real world. Apparently, she had a lot of rage to get out of her, and I was the only one good enough to help her accomplish that.
Everett said he couldn’t take the chance with just hanging around the city, waiting for her to find him, that it would waste too much time, and I think she hated that. I think she blamed me for it. Blamed me for the amount of time she had spent in the city, waiting for him at that park like I had, waiting for him like I had waited for him.
If I had the ability, I would have laughed, but as it was, I didn’t think I could anymore.
I think one of those blows to my head had broken something inside of me because I couldn’t even remember what my own laughter sounded like.
