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She’s silent, and I can hear her swallow.
“I have no interest in you,” I say. “You just happened to be stuck here, and there’s no way out. I’m actually doing you a favor here. I doubt that there will be a place for you to sleep soundly other than this room, my room, after what happened tonight.”
I didn’t mean to make her remember what happened back there near the fountain, but she had to hear it.
There’s no other place safer in this house for her than my bedroom.
Back there in the yard, I could hear their whispers when they thought about ways of using her. I could hear Kelvin’s excitement and sick thought in his voice when he talked to her.
I’m blind, not f*****g stupid.
No matter how much I don’t want to admit it, the safest place for her here is where she is with me.
“So, we’re going to do this,” I say firmly. “You are here with me because you have no other choices. I am allowing it because my brother is being a pain in the a*s. You’re going to stay in this room, but you will do your best to make it feel like you don’t even exist.”
Silence falls.
She might be at a loss for words, but my idea is the only way for her to survive.
“This place is not for you, Emily,” I speak in a low voice. “Eagle Wings is not where you belong. It’s not your comfortable home where you can sleep soundly holding your unicorn. It’s the place where you will hear gunshots and witness bloodshot when it’s necessary.”
She lets out an audible gasp. I can even hear the slap of her palm covering her mouth, as though she can’t believe what I just said.
“I’m f*****g blind, and I’m not your f*****g hero,” I make my point clearly. “So, it’s up to you. You might want to try to escape and risk getting yourself killed. You might want to roam around the house where they will steal a chance to harass you, or you might want to stay here and be good, pretending like you don’t even exist.”
She doesn’t say a word for a while, but then she whispers brokenly, “Why do you have to be so mean?”
I scoff. “You’re welcome.” I can’t believe she forgot that I just saved her.
I walk away from my bed and head to the bathroom, leaving her to absorb everything that just happened to her.
It’s only day one with Emily, and she has already given me a f*****g headache.
I curl myself on the bed, leaning against the headboard as I hear the water running inside the bathroom. Liam is taking a shower, and I’m here like a helpless girl.
What should I do?
While I’m hugging my knees, another lone tear falls to my cheek. I miss my family so much. I wonder what Kate and Tyler are doing right now.
My phone has been taken from me, and I can’t even call them. Even though I can’t tell them what happened to me, I just want to hear their voices.
While I’m pondering in my thoughts, Liam walks out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his torso. The sight makes me let out a gasp, which causes Liam to snap his head toward me with a scowl on his face.
He glares in my direction, his wet hair hanging loosely on his forehead. I’m restless because he looks angry, again.
“Did I not tell you to make it like you didn’t even exist?” he reminds me in irritation.
“You’re walking half naked,” I counter.
He rolls his eyes.
“It’s not my fault that you startled me,” I say.
“It’s not like I’m going to do something to you–” he stops mid-sentence and growls. “Fine.”
It seems that he remembers what almost happened to me tonight. Despite still fuming, he snatches his jogger from the wardrobe and walks back into the bathroom. When he comes back, he’s already wearing his pants.
I’m grateful that he didn’t get naked and change clothes in front of me because that might make me feel uncomfortable.
I watch as he searches for something inside his wardrobe again, looking like he’s trying to find a T-shirt to wear. His back is facing me, so I can see his massive Eagle Wings tattoo again. It indeed looks like actual wings, black with silver streaks, his identity as the king.
I find myself mesmerized by his tattoo again. It’s beautiful.
“Stop staring,” he snaps, making me taken aback. “I can’t see it, but I can feel it.”
I sigh, tearing my gaze away from him. I feel his movement toward the bed, and the next thing I know is that he dips into the bed, lying next to me, already wearing a black t-shirt.
He rolls on his side, facing the opposite direction. “Too bad that there’s only one bed in this room, and that there’s no f*****g couch. Be grateful that I don’t kick you out of my bed.”
Again, his words sting.
Now that I think about it, he’s actually doing something nice, but his words ruin it.
I travel my gaze around his neat bedroom. There’s a recliner sofa near the bookshelves and a chair behind the desk, but none of them is suitable for someone to sleep on.
While my eyes focus on the bookshelves, I find many books lining inside it. I wonder if he reads braille books.
“Do you read–”
“Just let me f*****g sleep,” he interrupts before I can finish my question.
I stare down at myself, at the mess that I am. My clothes are damp because of what happened at the fountain, ruining the bedsheet where I’m sitting. But I don’t care. I have no energy to move.
I feel drained, mentally and physically. My body no longer feels cold. Maybe it has been numb for a while.
But then, I can get sick if I stay like this, so after mustering all the energy left in me, I get off the bed and walk toward the bathroom to wash myself.
I could barely get enough f*****g sleep last night.
While I was lying in my bed, I couldn’t stop thinking about Emily. I knew for sure that her clothes were soaked because of the incident at the fountain, and when she finally decided to take a shower, I did let out a sigh of relief.
She didn’t have her suitcase with her yesterday, so I knew that she didn’t have any clothes to change into. I purposely left the bathrobe hanging behind the bathroom door, and I guess she took that.
I just couldn’t imagine her sleeping beside me without any clothes on. She didn’t seem like a girl who would be comfortable doing that despite the fact that I was blind.
The night was getting worse when she started crying. She might think that I didn’t notice it, but I could hear her sniffling, and it was f*****g annoying. I knew that she had just left her family and that she was now stuck in this place that felt like hell to her, but goddammit I hate it when girls or women cry.
Not that I cared.
Or was it annoying because I f*****g cared?
Now as the morning comes, I splash the water from the sink onto my face. My head is pounding. I brush my teeth, but I still can’t stop thinking about the girl who is now sleeping in my bed.
My brain is trying to figure out what I will do today with her being around. Her existence is already annoying me this much, I wonder how I will survive the following weeks — or worse, months. Ethan better be f*****g coming back here as soon as possible so that we can talk. I have to persuade him to send Emily away, but with the way we always argue, we will only end up fighting.
Maybe he’s right. I can’t f*****g control my anger. But then again, he’s not the one with disability.
I step out of my bathroom, ready to have my morning jog. The sooner I can escape Emily, the better.
Emily’s voice surprises me when I’m about to open the door of my bedroom.
“Where are you going?” she asks.
I turn around, hoping that she will notice the irritation written on my face.
“Morning jog,” I say.
I’m about to turn around when she interrupts, “Wait. Please, don’t leave me just yet.” Her voice holds so much vulnerability, and I can’t help but feel bad. She’s still trying to figure out how to adjust to this new situation.