Page 21 of Remnants
Nora
ELEVEN
“You know what I miss?”Mac sighs deeply as he leans over his tracing table where he is working on a drawing.
“I can only imagine,” I mutter while absently playing with my dog tags. It’s an unseasonably cold, dark, and stormy day which means no walk-ins and my clients called to cancel their appointments. I would go home, except I have anxiety driving in the rain since my accident. I worry that something may happen and my reaction time will be slowed. So, I’m waiting for the storm to break up, which doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon.
“Katie’s strawberry lemonade cupcakes,” he moans. Hearing her name twists my heart. I haven’t seen her for five days since she came over and we kissed. We’ve been texting, very casually, but it wasn’t enough.
I knew that James was monitoring her phone, so I didn’t want to send anything that could cause an issue, or text back too fast, or frequently. It’s exhausting. But, I have hope because he is going away for a three day weekend and I plan on showing Kaitlin an amazing time. I’m going to take her out to a festival, a nice dinner. I’m going to treat her how she deserves, and I justhope it will be enough to show her exactly what she could have if she would let me in completely.
“Yeah, well, I don’t think her husband would take well to her baking cupcakes for others.”
“Fuck James,” he mutters. I chuckle before looking toward the back door, as a light knocking comes from it. Mac gets up to open the door. Sometimes walk-ins try to use the door to avoid walking around the building. When he opens the door, his large body blocks the person from my view.
“Holy fuck. Nora!” Mac calls and I watch as the person collapses against him, my heart dropping as I see the wet blonde curls fall over his arm. I jump up and run over, ignoring the pain in my knee due to the lack of my cane.
“Oh my fucking god,” I breathe as I look at Kaitlin’s soaked body in Mac’s arms. Mac lifts her up and places her on a tattoo table.
“Get blankets!” I yell at our two shop-hands. I run my hand over her shivering face, scanning for injuries. I can’t see any, which only makes me feel even more sick.
“Sweetheart,” I whisper, pressing my lips to her cold head. Why is she so cold? The walk from the parking lot isn’t that far. I take the towels and blankets from Jamie.
“Lock the front door, turn the sign off, and pull up the back camera. I want to know how she got here,” I whisper. I begin to dry her hair when she cries out. I look at her scalp and see she has a fistful of hair ripped out.
“Bub,” I say calmly to Mac. “Grab my sweats out of the back and if I don’t have a sweatshirt—”
“I’ll pull one off the merch rack.” He pats my shoulder but I barely acknowledge it as I grab the privacy curtain we have for more intimate tattoo appointments and close off the area. I grab her heels and take them off, noticing how one is broken and her feet are covered in blisters.
“Sit up, baby,” I say softly as I unzip the back of her blue dress, helping her stand as I let the dress fall off her. It is my first time seeing her naked. Why? Why does this have to be the first time? I roll my lips in my mouth as my eyes begin to prick. No underwear and there are cuts, bruises, and bites all over her thighs and breasts at various levels of healing. Then there’s the phrase “Pig Slut” written in marker across her pubic area. Katie doesn’t speak, she doesn’t look at me. She just continues to stare straight ahead, a lost look in her eyes.
“Kid.” Mac’s soft voice brings me back to reality. I reach my hand out and take the clothes from him.
“Hydrogen peroxide,” I manage while clearing the frog in my throat. “I also need tape, gauze, and rubbing alcohol.” I finish drying Kaitlin off before placing a blanket over the bed.
“Come on, sweetheart, let me clean you.” I press a kiss to her temple before laying her down, placing a blanket over her lower half while I clean the marks on her chest, bandaging the deeper ones. She is going to have to go to the doctor. I don’t know when she last had a tetanus shot, but that can wait a little while. I move the blanket up to her chest and uncover her lower area and that’s when I see the extent of the damage. I’m going to vomit, and then I am chopping off his dick and choking him with it. Again though, that can wait. I feel myself compartmentalizing—a necessity in the military.
Walking to the tool box where the tattoo supplies are held, I grab the isopropyl alcohol and some cotton pads. I make my way back to her and finish bandaging her cuts and bites before soaking a cotton pad in alcohol and beginning the task of removing the slur from her lower abdomen.
As soon as the cool pad makes contact with her, Katie breaks. I know cleaning it off doesn’t hurt—I made sure there were no open cuts around the area. But I think me touching that spot is bringing her out of her state of shock. Her body convulses as shewails out cries that make my legs weak and heavy. I drop the cotton pad and make my way up to her face, using my hand to brush the wet hair off her head to stare into her beautiful eyes.
“Shhh…” I coo as I continue to stroke her. “Take a breath, baby. There, that’s my good girl.” I kiss her forehead and go to pull away but her icy hand grips me.
“N-Nora…” Her body shakes as she tries to speak. “He… I said no.” She cries out and whatever thread I have left inside of me, holding my sanity together, snaps in that second. I pull her to my chest and wrap my arms around her soft body. My hope was to show her how she could be treated if she left him for me. I wanted to kiss her at the top of the ferris wheel. I wanted to move her away from that neighborhood, help her open a bakery, and fall in love.
None of that could happen now. He broke her, and because of that, I’m going to have to break him.
Kaitlin
TWELVE
I flinchas I pull myself out of my mind once again. It’s been three days since I ended up at Black Widow and Nora has refused to let me go back home. Not that I’m really fighting her on the matter. Yesterday, James started his apology calls and texts. I almost answered at one point, but the look on Nora’s face… I couldn’t disappoint her. Not only that, I didn’t want to answer. I don’t know what is going to happen between Nora and I in the future, but I do know that I cannot stay with James. He’s escalating so fast and I truly fear that I may end up dying by his hand.
My family will disown me, but at least I’ll still be alive. James had been so angry and when I told him no, when I tried to stand up to him… he raped me. He continued throughout the night, and the next day he spent hours drawing surgical marks on my body to show me where I needed work done. And then he saw Nora texted me. He asked about it and I was so tired, I came clean. I told him that I had sex with her. That I wanted to be with her and he beat and raped me while holding a knife to my throat. All while telling me how he was going to get me pregnant and then I would never escape him.
When I screamed no over and over, it was like the small parts of James that were still human disappeared, and he turned into a monster, taking me while I screamed for him to stop, all while laughing…
“Junebug.” I blink and stare at Nora who holds a cup of coffee in my face.
