Chapter 43

(Amelia POV)


A few hours later….

I was so tired after seeing everyone and having to say goodbye to Alexander and Owen not knowing what may happen to them. I decided to just lie down for a little while, but quickly fell asleep against all my fighting to stay awake. I started to wake up when I heard an echo of a voice calling my name.

“Amelia? Can you hear me? Amelia?” I woke to the sound of a soft voice whispering in my mind.

When I opened my eyes, I was alone in a dark room, and I frantically turned in every direction trying to find a single source of light. My heart raced and my heart began to race making my breathing become erratic.

“Hello? Who’s there?” I barely managed to shout out.

From the corner of the darkness, light began to break through until what seemed like the door of heavens opened.

“You are safe Amelia. Please do not be afraid.” I squinted my eyes and tried to focus them on the face of the person walking toward me.

“Elena?” I asked my voice soft and just louder than a whisper.

She smiled and came to a stop right in front of me.

“Yes. It’s me Amelia.” She says softly.

“But how? Why?” I ask her.

“Amelia, I know you have so many questions and I wish I could answer them for you, but I can tell you that you are the one who called me here.” She says.

“Me? How could I have done that?” I had not been awake long enough to understand what was happening.

“Amelia all of this has happened because of you.” She says simply.

“But what? I don’t understand.” My head begins to throb, and I raise my hand to it and try to message some of the pain away.

“Amelia…none of this is real. This world you have been peeking into isn’t real.” Elena says

My heart stills and I slowly meet her gaze. What was she saying?

“What? Of course, it’s real! Why are you saying these things? I didn’t imagine everything! W-what are you…why are you playing with my head like this again? How many times will you mess with my mind?” I screamed.

“Please Amelia, I need you to listen to me before it’s too late!” Elena says stepping closer to me.

“NO! I need to go back! Alexander and Owen, they could be in danger! I need to go back!” I cried trying to feel around me for a way out.

“Amelia please! None of what you saw was real! Please listen! I need you to wake up!” Elena cried out after me as I wandered around the dark void.

“Please please…there has to be a way out…” I chanted to myself trying to find something…anything!

“Amelia, listen to me. Remember what happened last night? Your mom came home and found you trying to run away. Do you remember? You were trying to make it to Liam, but she caught you. Do you remember?” Elena’s voice sounded small and distant to the sounds of my own panicked voice.

What is she saying? Last night…I was not back home. I was with Alexander. Wasn’t I?

I stopped moving for a moment as a memory flashes through my mind. Mom…no! No! I wasn’t. home last night. I was far away, far away…

“Please Amelia you need to remember. Please!” Elena begs and gasps when a loud sound rings out all around us and the room begins to shake.

“What is that?” I call out to her covering my ears as the sound grows louder.

“It’s too late. Amelia please you need to wake up now! NOW!” Elena yells but the walls begin to crumble around us, and she suddenly disappears.

And I am alone.

The walls of the dark room falling away, and blurred images replace them. Was I waking up? Had Alexander and Owen returned?

“I SAID GET UP!” A familiar voice sends chills all over me.

No…no…no….not there. I can’t be back here! They need me. I need them…I need to go back!

“GET THE HELL UP!!!”

Pain. Sudden and intense pain shoots through me.

“GET UP!! GET UP!!!”

It’s her. Mom.

No I need to run! Liam? Owen? Please…no! Why would they make me relive this? I had run away, I had found my new life. This is a dream! A dream!

Pain.

“I KNOW YOU HEAR ME GIRL!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? WHERE IS HE?”

Who? I don’t know…I don’t know…please stop hurting me.

“WHERE IS LIAM? TELL ME AMELIA!”

No, I found Liam! I was with him! Wasn’t I?

I tried to open my eyes again, to make sense of what was going on around me. This was déjà vu or something. I was dreaming about the night Liam had left, right? But why can I feel everything? I can feel every hit from her. I have never felt a dream so real…except when I had my vision. Vision! That’s what this was, a vision of my past. But why?

“TELL ME WHERE HE WENT AMELIA OR I SWEAR TO GOD YOU WILL NOT STEP A FOOT OUTSIDE AGAIN FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!”

“Mom please I don’t know.” I cried out.

“YES, YOU DO! HE TELLS YOU EVERYTHING! WHERE DID HE GO AMELIA?”

“I swear mom I don’t know.” I cried and held my arms around me to try and protect the parts of my body that were already in too much pain.

Pain.
Her hand slammed into my face this time, even though she always promised never to let the marks show. If they showed then someone would try to take us away, and she didn’t want to lose us. We were all she had, even though she got angry sometimes. She needed us and we needed her.

Yeah…she needed me. She doesn’t mean it….

“What kind of brother would run away and leave his sister behind to lie for him? He really cares nothing for you! Just like your father! Running away from his family, like a coward!”

“Mom he will come back. He will come back.” I tried to say to calm her, but she had been drinking and there was no talking to her when she was like this.

Pain again. Then I stumbled back into the darkness.

“No let me out!! Someone let me out!” I cried into the nothingness.

“Amelia! Please listen to me.” She was there again.

“Let me go! Send me back I don’t want to see this again!” I beg her. “Whatever you are trying to teach me, please I can’t do it. I can’t be back there!”

“Amelia, please…I don’t have much time. You need to understand this if you are going to get out of here! None of it was real, ok? You were scared, you needed a place to run to. Your mind built a whole other life for you when your mom would hurt you. It’s how you have survived this long. But none of it is real. You can’t keep running to that place or you will never get out!” Elena tried to explain. “You need to wake up! You need to run!”

“But how can that be? I felt them! I felt everything!” I said looking down at my hands in confusion.

“The mind is a powerful thing. You were trying to ruin, but you couldn’t so you imagined that you did. That you escaped and made a life for yourself, but then things would happen right? Just before something would finally be resolved and the problem would be solved you would get pulled away. Right?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

I turned and shut my eyes and opened them several times hoping somehow that would eb enough to wake me up from this nightmare. I screamed out in frustration when that didn’t work, and Elena grabbed me and pulled me close to her and held me tight.

“Shhhh…it’s ok Amelia. It’s ok. I know you are tired, but you need to fight. You need to wake up and keep fighting! Help is coming…” She said once more before disappearing again and my arms fall away from where I had been holding on to her.

The room around me began to shake again, but this time I didn’t try to run or scream for help. I let the rubble of my mind fall over me and pull me back to reality, if that what you could call it. My body felt heavy now, and every movement I tried to make only made me cry out in excruciating pain.

“You need to stop falling asleep and tell me where your brother is. Understand?!”

“I-I swear I don’t know.” I try my best to answer and pull myself off the ground.

My mom let out a loud sigh and picked up something from off the table beside her. The light hit it and even with my eye swollen almost shut, I could see what it was. I held my hand out and tried to pull myself away from her with what little strength I had left in my other arm.

“You will tell me where that boy went with MY money, and you will tell me now! Did you know Paul left when he found out that money was gone? He left because of that boy!”

How long had I been out of it?

“While you ran and hid in your closet, that boy ran with my money taking the last thing I had left in this world with him! I am so damn tired of you two taking everything from me! I won’t take it any longer! It ends now.” She stepped closer to me and crabbed my wrist and tried to pull me to my feet, but I stumbled to the floor.

“Get UP!” She yelled pulling me to my feet again.

She pulled me toward the door by my arm, and I stumbled along behind her begging for her to not hurt me, but she didn’t stop. She pulled me until we reached the back door, and she pushed it open. Once we stepped out on the back steps, she jerked my arm quickly and stepped out of the way making me trip and fall down the back steps.

My head hit the damp grass of our back lawn and I yelped from the sudden impact. I held my head and tried to pull myself away from her, but she soon was towering over me with the knife tucked in one hand.

“Mom please. If you do this someone will hear you and call the police. You don’t want that right?” I try to talk to her, but all reason as gone from her eyes.

“Do you think I give a damn! I don’t care if they lock me away, at least I will be free of you!” And with that she pulled her arm with the knife above her head and looked me dead in the eyes. “I’ll be free.”

She whispered and I closed my eyes…free…I would be free too….