Chapter Thirty-three

Chapter Thirty-three

I stared at my petite reflection in the mirror, the cut on my face beaming back at me shyly. Ethan was one bastard that hid his true colours for far too long. I believed in the mirage he showed me and I let the crazy love I had for him to blind me. My mind warned me, but can you blame me? Please don’t, even if you can. Blame it on my stupid heart. Yes, my stupid heart.

Sometimes, when I reflect on everything that has happened, I just hope my heart will do the honours of raising its own glass as we cheer to how stupid it was for not seeing that everything would come to this at the end. But no, I do all the fights, I do all the running, I do all the crying and all it does is to sit there, pump blood, and be stupid again. Cos tell me, why is my heart whispering so much about Brandon? He is clearly a monster but it has chosen to ignore this again. Hmmp!

“Dear heart,” I sigh wearily as I stare at my face in the mirror, “please, no matter how stupid you get, don’t let me fall for the wrong people again. I’m not even over Ethan yet, please don’t attract another toxic.”

I heard a cough, and I gasped and turned to the direction of the sound. It was Brandon. He was standing by the sink with a towel stained with blood, wedged over his chest. He seemed totally oblivious of my presence, and I too didn’t notice him coming in.

I kept still so he wouldn’t notice I was there as fear clouded my reasoning. As I watched him quietly from the inner part of the bathroom, close to the shower, I saw him cough painfully again, and he spat blood into the sink before flushing it with the gushing water from his tap.

He seemed to be in a lot of pain and he looked terrified. I could see droplets of blood run down his nose as he stood there heaving like the next moment, he would pass out. I didn’t know why, but I felt so sorry for him strangely and wanted to help him, calm him down and reassure him that all was fine. I just didn’t want to see him as the enemy at that point, (and for real, he wasn’t the enemy, but also a victim as me) but I wanted to help him as I would a helpless child that has lost his way and is crying for his mama.

He grabbed the corners of the sink fiercely as his hands trembled. Right where I was, I could feel my feet turn into jelly beneath me. I had never seen this side of him, the vulnerable Brandon. My body shivered in fear as I watched him helplessly struggle all alone. I could feel a pin crease the walls of my heart at every move he made with his body in a bid to quell the pain he was feeling. He looked like he wasn’t taking it any longer and would soon pass out and I screamed, rushing to him in terror.

“Brandon!” I screamed as I ran towards him, but it seemed my voice ignited a strength in him that was long dead, and he readjusted and stood firmly like he wasn’t the same person that looked like he was about to die some minutes ago. His eyes darkened at the sight of me and he looked like an infuriated beast with his grey eyes blazing mist and lightning.

“Why are you here?” He asked angrily with a voice that seemed to subdue the weight of his pain and only show a hint of it. I paused in my tracks, my skin melting off my bones by the danger in his voice. He looked like he would tear me apart if I came any closer, but something in me stubbornly wanted to go to him, and hold him, and touch him, so I defiantly continued walking towards him like I didn’t hear him speak at all.

“Stop right there!” He growled and my feet automatically stopped on their own accord at his intimidating voice. I could feel my breathing stop and for a while, I thought the whole world had come to a stand still.

“But you need help Brandon…” I managed to say, but he interrupted me angrily.

“Get out!” with his fist pounding on the sink, once, in anger, “Now!” he screamed again, and I immediately found my feet fluttering quickly towards the exit of the bathroom.

As I got to the door, the stubborn and fearless part of me reactivated, and I instantly left the door handle and turned to face him with a defiant look on my face, defying all the tension in the room.

“I’m not leaving.” I said boldly. Where this boldness was coming from, I had no idea.

I started walking back to him in slow, confident steps and he stared at me with a lethal, but almost defeated look. There was a lot of pain pooling in his eyes, and somehow, I felt it would only be partial of me to leave him here in his worst moments when he stood still, by my side when I went through some shits with people he didn’t even know. Here he was, suffering from the pain of the blade that would have been driven into me, all alone, and he expects me to leave? Nah, not working.

“If you are entitled to protect me,” I said, staring him right in the eyes, defying the menacing aura he was exuding, “then I too am entitled to protect you.” I said in finality, and for the first time, I could see weakness in his eyes. It looked like he would break down like a three year old and just cry, and at that point, my motherly instincts kicked in and I started walking towards him.

“No…please, don’t come any closer.” He pleaded wearily, but I wasn’t hearing any bit of it.

“I might hurt you, Galena.” He said weakly again, and I stopped right in front of him, while he crouched over the sink with blood running down his nose.

“If it will make you feel better, then go ahead, but I’m not leaving you here.” I said authoritatively, but immediately my hand came in contact with his skin, he groaned and screamed in terror before passing out right in my arms as I caught him right in time.

He was burning like a furnace - a really high fever. I gently placed him down on the floor of the bathroom with so much effort, and I could see the wound on his chest where he was stabbed by Ethan, still fresh and untreated and I could only wonder why.

As I tried to get up to fetch some water, he pulled my hand back, clutching it tightly and whispering;

“Mother…”