73
The silence stretched for longer than I liked. In the small room, I could hear the sound of our breathing in sync. In. Out. Slow. As if calculated, as if restraint. Alaric tried to avoid contact with me, his eyes dropping to the table, his hands clasped together, his head drooped. When he lifted it, I caught the tears that glistened in them below the dim light of the room.
It only made my anger burn hotter.
I leaned forward, the cuffs biting into my wrists, the chain rattling faintly as I moved. My voice was low and trembling. “Dominic,” I said, my breath hitched, the name catching in my throat. “He…” My voice cracked, my chest heaving with the effort to keep the tears at bay. My trembling fingers tightened into fists, my nails digging into my palms. “He was alone, Alaric. Poor. Living in the woods for years. And you knew.”
I slammed my cuffed hands on the table, the harsh clang echoing through the room. Alaric flinched, his lips parting to speak, but I didn’t let him.
“You knew,” I hissed, my teeth clenched. “You watched him scrape by in that wretched cabin, barely surviving. You let him suffer!”
Alaric’s head snapped up, his voice rising in desperation. “Eleanor, you have to understand—if I had come to him, Vaughn would have found him! He would have found you through me!”
“And that was your excuse?!” I shouted, my voice breaking. My heart pounded so hard it felt like it might burst, the sound of it thundering in my ears. Thud. Thud. Thud. “You let him rot in that place, Alaric! A place that should’ve been condemned! What do you think that did to him?”
Tears welled in my eyes, hot and relentless, blurring my vision. I didn’t care. My body trembled with each harsh breath, my chest rising and falling unevenly as I pushed on. “He was a grown man, Alaric. A proud man. And you let him break. You let him be reduced to nothing, scavenging for scraps, freezing through winters alone. Alone!”
Alaric’s hands clenched into fists, his knuckles white as he tried to defend himself. “If I’d gone to him, I would have brought Vaughn to his doorstep! I would have put him in even more danger—”
I slammed my hands down again, the metallic clink of the cuffs ringing out like gunfire. “Don’t you dare try to justify this to me!” I shouted, my voice trembling with rage and despair. “He didn’t need you to stay away! He needed you to fight! He needed someone to save him, and you just watched! Watched him fall apart while I—I couldn’t even find him!”
A sob tore from my throat, and I leaned back, the anger giving way to overwhelming grief. My shoulders shook as tears spilled over, dripping down my cheeks and onto the table. “He needed someone, Alaric,” I choked out, my voice breaking. “He needed me. And you… you kept us apart.”
Alaric reached out, his face stricken with guilt, but I recoiled as though his touch would burn me. The chain of my cuffs rattled as I turned away, my shoulders heaving with every wheezing breath. “You let him believe he wasn’t worth saving,” I whispered, my voice raw. “You let him suffer when you could’ve stopped it. He loved me, and you took that from us.”
The room was suffocating now, the silence thick with unspoken pain. Alaric’s voice, when it finally came, was low and heavy with anguish. “I thought I was protecting you both.”
“Well, good job, now he’s dead,” I whispered, the words cutting through me like shards of glass. My breath hitched violently, and my body convulsed with the force of my grief. “He’s dead, Alaric. And even when he was dying, even as he suffered… I still mattered to him.”
I wiped furiously at my face, my fingers trembling as they failed to stem the torrent of tears. The cuffs on my wrists rattled with every desperate motion, the cold bite of the metal grounding me in my anguish. My chest heaved, each breath jagged and sharp, the ache inside unbearable.
The sobs came harder now, wracking my entire body. I tried to muffle the sounds, pressing my hands to my mouth, but it was useless. The anguish refused to be silenced. I banged a fist against my chest, over and over, as if the physical pain might dull the ache in my heart. It didn’t. It only deepened the hollow emptiness that consumed me.
“That should have been me,” I choked out, the words barely audible through the sobs. I slammed my fists against the table again, the cuffs jangling loudly as tears blurred my vision. “It should’ve been me! Not him, Alaric! Not him!”
I collapsed forward, my head in my hands, my shoulders shaking violently. My fingers dug into my scalp as I struggled to breathe, the air thick and suffocating. “He didn’t deserve this,” I wheezed, my voice raw. “He didn’t deserve to die alone, thinking he was nothing. Thinking no one cared.”
When I looked up, my vision was still blurred, I saw tears trailing silently down Alaric’s face. They glistened in the dim light, staining his cheeks. It was the first time I had ever seen him cry, but it brought me no comfort. If anything, it only heightened and intensified the anger I felt towards him.
“Why?” I rasped, my voice breaking. “Why are you here now, Alaric? Why now, after thirteen years? Why, when it’s already too late?”
He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off, my voice rising in a mix of anguish and fury. “You don’t get to come back now. You don’t get to sit here and cry as if you cared. If you cared, you would’ve come before. You would’ve stopped this before it was too late!”
I slammed my fists against the table one last time, the sound reverberating through the small room like a gunshot. My chest burned, the ache unbearable, and I let out a cry—a raw, guttural sound that seemed to tear through my very soul.
“You let him die, Alaric,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “You let him die, and now… now you come to see me?” I shook my head, the tears streaming down my face. “It’s too late. It’s too late for apologies. It’s too late for you.”
That’s when I heard the footsteps approaching down the hallways and I couldn’t be more proud or happy that I was being returned to my cell, away from Alaric, far away from the featured of his face that reminded me too much of my father’s. I was being torn apart from insides by my emotions. I wanted to hate him, to get a gun and drill a bullet in his head and at the same time, I wanted him to hug me, to kiss my face like dad, to tell me it was alright, to.. Act like dad.
Act like I was a kid once again, with no worries in the world. But even that wish seemed too much for a genie so I just shot out of my seat, wiping the tears off my face for the last time. The metal chair scraped across the floor with a shriek before it tipped and clattered to the ground. My chained hands trembled as I jabbed a finger at Alaric, my voice shaking with rage.
“Fuck off!” I snarled, my breaths coming in quick, uneven gasps. “You think you can just waltz in here and fix everything? After thirteen years?” My voice cracked with every word that escaped my lips, but I didn’t care. The anger was the only thing holding me together. “You’re too late, Alaric. Too fucking late!”
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t flinch. Instead, he pushed his chair back and stood, his movements deliberate and calm, though his eyes betrayed his urgency.
Before I could take a step back, he was in front of me. His hands gripped my shoulders, firm but not rough, and in one swift motion, he pulled me into his arms in a suffocating hug. For a brief moment, the memory of being five, held in his arms as I clutched a candy bar he’d bought me, flickered in my mind. Warmth exploded in my chest. I couldn’t deny it but I felt the warmth, the giddiness of being held by him. But the warmth of that memory was drowned by the icy reality of the present.
“Let go of me!” I hissed, thrashing against his chest. My cuffed hands pressed against him, shoving with all the strength I had left, but it wasn’t enough.
“Eleanor, stop,” he said softly, his voice breaking. “I’m here to help you. To make things better.”
“No!” I yelled, my voice muffled against his shirt. “I’m not a child anymore! You can’t just hug me and make it better!”
I shoved harder, my cuffed wrists scraping against his chest, and finally, with one wild push, I broke free. He staggered back, his arms dropping to his sides as he looked at me, his face etched with pain.
From the other side of the door, Joe’s gravelly voice rang out. “Time’s up!” The jingle of keys followed, each metallic click sending a jolt through me.
I turned away from Alaric, my steps quick and uneven as I moved toward the door. “Shove your help up your ass,” I spat over my shoulder, the words laced with venom.
“Eleanor,” Alaric called after me, his voice low and desperate. “Listen to me. I’m going to get you out of here.”
The lock clicked, the sound sharp and final. I froze mid-step, my body tensing. My chest heaved as I turned my head slightly, just enough to glare at him. “Save it,” I snapped, the words cutting like a knife.
The final twist of the key echoed like a death knell, and just as the door creaked open, Alaric’s next words stopped me cold.
“Last night, Dane…. Vaughn took him.”
A\\N; I'm so sorry for the late update. I'll try to update two to three chapters everyday henceforth. Thanks for reading!
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
