Page 127 of His White Moonlight
“Wrenly, please, baby, talk to me.What happened?”
My breathing started coming faster and faster until I was hyperventilating.
It was Bennett.Bennett sent me there.Bennett was the reason for all my abuse.School.Office.Pack.The one person who was supposed to love me above all reason had condemned me to seven years of hell.Why?Because he was in hell, he wanted me to suffer with him?
“You get one chance to let go of me,” I said, barely keeping my head above a complete panic attack.
He seemed to sense it, too, because he immediately released me.
“Please don’t do this, Wrenly.”
“Do what?Hate you?It’s too late for that.”
I left his room on shaky legs and closed myself in my bathroom, where I turned on the shower, sat on the floor, and cried my heart out.After the pain faded, a numbness crept in along with exhaustion.I sat there, listening to the shower and thinking of nothing.
A knock on the door, and Mom’s voice penetrated my mental haze a while later.My legs had lost feeling.It took two tries to stand and unlock the door.
Mom immediately pulled me into a hug.I didn’t hug her back.I couldn’t.Something inside of me knew that welcoming her concern would open the floodgates to my own emotions, and I wasn’t ready to deal with that yet.
“What’s wrong?”she asked.
“What’s right?”I asked with no inflection.
She pulled back to look at me, her hands framing my face and her thumb wiping at the tears trailing down my cheeks.I thought I’d stopped crying.Maybe they weren’t tears but liquid pain leaking out because I just couldn’t contain it anymore.
“Sweetheart, you’re scaring me.Please tell me what’s wrong.”
I focused on her face, seeing her concern.Her love.
“You want me to say something reassuring.Something to make you feel better, but I won’t.He sent me to hell.Four years of being chased.Cut.Burned.Held down.Suffocated.”
Tremors rocked through me, and Mom’s pupils exploded wide.She stumbled back a step and held her hand to her mouth.
“What?”she gasped.
I was done trying to protect the people who loved me like they’d failed to protect me.
“Ihatedschool.I asked you to let me come home, but you told me to hang in there.That it was the best school for me.People put their kids on waitlists before they were even born.I was supposed to be grateful.”
Something crashed somewhere in the house.
“I’m done being grateful, Mom.I’m done cooperating with your plans for my future.I’m done.”
I closed the door and returned to my spot on the floor.
Another crash shook the floorboards.I leaned my head against the wall and stared at the water raining down from the shower.
* * *
I wokeup with a headache in a dark room.The reason for the heaviness in my chest slowly resurfaced.I didn’t cry.Sleep had helped me move past the pain-filled tears.
“They don’t know what to do,” Grandma said from the darkness.“I told them to stop trying to do anything.That’s what caused the problem in the first place.”
The pain leaked out again, and she wiped it away.
“Life is hard, my little Wren.Sometimes it’s harder than it needs to be.I’m sorry for everything you’ve suffered.”
Her hand closed over mine.
