“Hug time.” Emery rolls her eyes playfully and steps aside to let Harper in. She hugs me and don’t get me wrong, I love Harper and adore the hell out of her, but Emery and I just click on a different level. You know how you can walk into a room and spend five minutes with someone but it feels like you have known them for years? That’s how I feel about Emery. I just know she and Kenna would get on so well and we could go from a duo to a trio. “You will do amazing things, Tor. Just remember that you can talk to other people and not just the ones you are clinging to here.”
I didn’t expect to see Masen or my father waiting for me out front of Walter House, but a stupid insecure part of me had hoped that one of them would be here to pick me up and take me home. Instead, Frederick is there waiting. I have nothing against my father’s driver but he isn’t the person I wanted to see. As he can sense my melancholy he shoots me a sympathetic smile and collects my bags from me.
The drive home is long and boring, Frederick doesn’t try to make small talk and neither do I. He and I have nothing in common or anything to talk about aside from the fact his boss locked me up for a year. Walter House was only bearable because of Emery, without her I would have fallen into a pit of despair and never survived. I reach up and clasp the heart pendant that she gave me, this pendant has become something I use to ground me and keep me in the moment instead of getting lost in my own thoughts. I find it hard to stay out of my own head. I find myself constantly trying to remember that night, any little detail at all, as not being able to remember plagues me. Ihave nightmares but they aren’t of that night, it’s of my entire life being erased and not knowing who I am.
There is nothing worse than feeling like everything around you has changed but you have no idea why.
CHAPTER TWO
TOREN
When we finally arrive, it’s late and none of the lights are on inside.
They couldn’t even wait up for me.
I push that bitter thought away and climb out of the car. Frederick instructs me to head inside and he’ll bring my bags to my room. I tell my feet to move but they refuse, instead I stand here at the foot of the pathway that will lead me to my home and yet, as I stand here staring at the mansion I grew up in I feel no homeliness.
Nothing about this place feelssafe, it holds no warmth for me anymore. I expected to arrive here and feel like the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders. I feel none of that, I just have this crushing sense of foreboding. My gut is twisting, my fight or flight instincts have kicked in and I’m being urged to run as far away as I can.
“Is everything okay, Miss Toren?” I startle and whirl around to face Fredrick with my hand over my chest. The concern in his eyes snaps me out of the trance I was in. I force my feelings into a box deep inside me and smile for his benefit.
“Of course, I was just… taking it all in,” I lie. Before he can say more, I force my feet to move, each step closer feels heavier.
Stop being stupid, this is your home!
Even as I say the words over and over in my head I don’t believe them. I grip the handle and push the door open. Immediately I’m hit with the smell of fresh paint. I furrow my brow as I step inside and flick the foyer light on. My jaw pops open and my eyes widen. Gone are the cream colored walls with the gold trimmings, the bright cherry red paint paired with the black trim is ominous and feels cold. I step further into the house, flicking the lights on as I go and nearly stumble over my feet at all the changes.
The paint has been spread throughout the house, the kitchen has even been remodeled and is no longer stainless steel, it's all black. The game room no longer has numerous PlayStation and Xbox consoles, it now hosts pool tables and a cigar tasting area. The photos on the walls are now non-existent. I rush out of the room and head into the living room, praying he didn’t destroy my favorite place.
“No.” The word tumbles out of me. The sectional sofa where we all spent so much time laughing and watching movies is gone and replaced by a couple of black leather ones. The fireplace has been replaced with a new open one. The picture of Masen and me that hung proudly on the far wall is gone, that picture always brought a smile to my face. Mase and I were only little but our mom took that picture of us and we looked so happy but that wasn’t why I loved it, it was one of the last things we had of our mom.
Unable to handle more changes I head upstairs to my bedroom, I don’t even look around. This is sensory overload right now with all these changes, I can’t think of a single reason why my father would make such drastic changes to our home. He had time to do all of this but couldn’t even pick up a phone to call me! I stop outside my bedroom and send up a silent prayer that he didn’t damage my space like he did the rest of thehouse. I push the door open and step inside, not bothering with the light, I need a moment to prepare myself in case he ruined everything in here.
Just as I close the door, a hand wraps around my throat. My scream pierces the air before a hand is clamped over my mouth and I’m shoved against the wall so hard my head bounces. I sway slightly and my vision goes blurry for a second before it clears, then I’m fighting off my attacker. When I hit him, the hand around my throat tightens and my air supply is cut off.
“No one will fucking save you from me.” I still at the sound of his voice and go slack, the hand around my throat loosens just enough to allow me to breathe,just. The hatred I can feel wafting off this stranger has me wanting to wet myself but I manage to control my bladder.
“Hmmm,” I try to speak while the hand covering my mouth doesn’t move.
“You escaped a year ago but you won’t get away this time. You ruined my life and now I will destroy yours.” My brows draw in. The anger that laces his tone has me floored. I have no idea what this stranger is talking about or how the hell he got in my room. “I’m going to take everything away from you like you and your cunt of a brother took everything from me.” He releases me with a hard shove. I crumble to the floor, gasping. It takes me a minute or two max before I lift my head to face him, only there is no one in front of me. I scramble to my feet and flick the light on. I scan the room but he’s nowhere to be seen. The only sign he was actually here is the open window.
What the fuck just happened?
I dash across the room and poke my head out of the window. I scan the yard but there’s no sign of him anywhere. How the hell did he just jump out of my bedroom window on the second story of the house and vanish like a damn ghost?
I step back and rub my throat. I can still feel the heat of his hand on my skin.
You and your cunt of a brother took everything from me.
What the hell did he mean?
Who the hell is he?
What happened while I was away?
I feel the panic in me rising again and fear wrapping me in its clutches, so I reach up and clasp the pendant in my hand, closing my eyes.
“To teach is to learn. To learn is to excel. To excel is to thrive. To thrive is to live,” I say aloud. I have no idea why I find comfort in those words but they always help me when I’m on the verge of having a breakdown. I know most people probably think I should be grateful that I only lost a week’s worth of memories and not my entire existence, but a week of my life is gone! I might have felt differently if I didn’t wake up in a hospital with broken bones and no memory of how I ended up there, then being shipped off to Walter House. But all of those things happened and I have no ideawhy.
