Ginger Fox Part 2

"Who told you?" His hand releases my face, understanding that his touch no longer brings me happiness, only bitterness.
"Told me what? What are you talking about, Jonathan?" Baby looks at me, smoothing my wet hair and pushing it back from my face. "Gim, who did this? Who hurt you?"
I don’t look at her; I’m being torn apart by the broken blue gaze of Roy’s melancholic irises. I pull my fingers away from my chest and lift my hands, cupping them towards him. I see him stand up suddenly, disgusted, stumbling backward, his back hitting the wall, breathing in agony and revulsion. His eyes shut, avoiding my hands, his mouth tightening, pale, as if I were holding a crawling animal in my palms. I lower my eyes to what I’m holding, staring at her image. I drop my fingers, letting go of the photo I had kept close to my heart, gripping it with as much agony as a branding iron. I place it on the floor, near my feet, and lift my gaze to Jonathan, who wears the face of the most profane madness. There it is, the truth, the rest of the ice cube that Jonathan is. What I see is ugly, distorted, twisted. The face of horror in its ultimate essence, his body stiff with pure fear. He is not a man; he is a frightened boy.
I stand up and pick up the photo, raising it to him. Roy twists, turning his back to me and staring at the wall. His shoulders are hunched. His powerful legs kick the wall with dry thuds.
"Look at her, Jonathan... Look at me." His head shakes in denial, inhaling the air more forcefully, like a wounded animal.
"Take it! Throw it out of your hands..." His trembling voice comes out hoarse like a drum. He lifts his fist, punching the wall until it’s stained with his blood.
"No! Look at her! Look at what you’ve made of me!" I scream, releasing the wave that crashes over me, the paralyzed soul that now pulses with repulsion inside the office.
"NO! Get it out of your hands, Gim!" New punches hit the wall, wild and beastly. "BABY, GET THAT OUT OF HERE!"
My body turns at once, looking at Baby, who’s collapsed on the floor. Her face is red, just like her eyes. The blonde curls up, closing her eyes as I extend my hand to her, showing the blood-stained photo.
"Oh my God!" Baby covers her mouth in horror, her body shaking in agony.
"You knew, didn’t you, Baby?" My head tilts to the side, closing my eyes, letting the tears flow down my face. "Everyone here knew what I was going to be used for."
"Gim, I... Oh my God! Gim..." She curls up more, hiding her face, her shoulders trembling amidst her painful sobs.
I breathe in as if it were the last hit of the drug that is Roy’s scent, inflaming my nostrils with every essence of his that burns me. I hear the sound of his footsteps, pacing like a caged animal in front of me. My heart slows its beats, breaking inside my chest. I open my eyes and see Jonathan agitated. His hands run through his hair, gripping his head tightly as he kicks the bookshelf until his foot shatters the door. There’s an emptiness in his blue eyes, lost in madness when he turns to me.
"I chose her; I alone made that decision! But I didn’t want to hurt you, I didn’t intend to..." His arms stretch out like claws to trap me between them, but I refuse to let him hurt me again. "I’m sorry..."
"Don’t touch me!" The words spill from my lips with hatred. I lift the photo up until his eyes meet the image, hitting him like a bullet. "You don’t feel, Roy! You feel nothing! So you can’t feel sorry for the harm you’ve done to me! You’re as monstrous as she is!"
The end! The final move of Sodom! My black-and-white world, the hell he had thrown me into. Everything ends here, between our eyes locked on the photograph.
"You were right, Roy. Your demons hurt me, wounded me so deeply that I don’t want you around anymore."
"Ginger..." His eyes close, his face dropping as he loses himself in his traumas, as trapped and carved into them as mine are within me. "Hold my hand..." My eyes fall to his outstretched fingers before me, and I look at the hand that once held me, the hand of the man to whom I had given everything, and he left me with nothing. "Feel it, please, feel my heart."
"You don’t have a heart!" My fingers release the photograph, clenching by my side, holding onto me between the pain and the madness of what he did to me.
"Hold my hand..." I shake my head in refusal, denying him the touch.
"I can’t hold the hand of the one who cursed me, Jonathan! I can’t hold the hand of the man to whom I gave my heart, my body, my soul, and he disemboweled them in cold blood!"
"NO! No, Gim!" My body drags backward as he rushes at me, uncontrolled.
The shadow that rises between us stands in front of me, crying in pain, breathing heavily. I just seek refuge behind her back. Baby blocks him, and I hide my face among her blonde hair.

"GET OUT, BABY! GET OUT OF THE WAY..."
"IT'S OVER! IT'S OVER, JONATHAN!" The shield that separates me from him is Baby's body, pushing him away. I shrink at the sound of his angry kicks against the bookshelf again. His growls are primal, frustrated at not being able to reach me. "I warned you! The past is a dangerous place to visit!"
Baby kicks the photo in anger, sending it flying into the fireplace. I curl up, squeezing my fingers into my arms, watching the photograph burn, being erased by the flames.
"No! Gim, hold my hand..." I hear his voice, hoarse with distress, calling out to me in agony. "Ginger, hold my hand, feel... Just feel my heart. DAMN IT, GINGER, FEEL IT!"
My fingers rise to cover my ears, shaking my head in denial, locking myself inside. Jonathan has no heart, only pain and darkness, and he dragged me there, trapping my soul with his, along with hers.
"Jonathan, it’s over. It’s over..." I whisper to him.
"Gim, give me your hand. Please, little Nautilus." His voice is urgent, heartbreaking, like a knife plunged into my chest. No, I can’t let him get close to me again, I’m not in the right mind to let him near me now. "Give me your hand, feel..."
"No! You don’t feel! You don’t feel!" I scream through my tears, pressing myself closer to Baby. "I want to go home, I don’t want this anymore. I don’t want to be near you, I want to go back to my life." I collapse onto my knees, falling into the pit of despair that has consumed me.
Baby's body moves, pulling me into her arms, holding me tight. I love him, I hate him, I hate myself!