The Friend

Cherish the ones who cherish you, sweetheart.

***

Warning: Graphic descriptions of violence and panic attacks.

CHAPTER XVIII

*****

THAT NIGHT, I couldn't get a wink of sleep because of the thoughts roaring through my head.

You're just a cheap whore, Araceli. Samantha wasn't wrong.

You'll never be anything more than an easy fuck to him; to anybody.

You probably deserved what Vincent did to you, anyway. You killed him for nothing because you deserved it.

A slut and a murderer.

I let out a tiny whimper and squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting the tears pricking my eyelids to successfully spill out. That seemed to be the wrong move though, because as soon as I was engulfed in pitch darkness, that's when the nightmare began.

The sound of someone's loud breathing filled the air and before I could even try to understand what was going on, the image of Vincent appeared before me.

He was tied up to a wooden chair, his blue eyes spilling over with tears as he looked straight into my own. I could see the evident fear on his face and his chest rising and falling rapidly as he struggled with his breath.

“Please,” I could almost hear him plead with me. I wanted to run over and untie him. I wanted to help him, but the clear liquid slowly started to tip over him and right before my very eyes, Vincent began to melt away.

I let out a scream, completely horrified as his skin literally began to disintegrate into nothing. I heard his loud screaming, his groans of pain and cries for mercy, but I couldn't do anything but watch.

His skin mixed with blood and his face began to droop first before it slowly fell off into small pieces onto the floor. I wanted to close my eyes and look away, but I realised that my eyes were already closed.

I sat up in the bed immediately, my eyelids flying open as I scanned over my surroundings to see if I was still in that same basement.

I wasn't. But the heavy breathing seemed to be following me still.

I placed my hand on my chest, trying to regulate my own breathing as I calmed the oncoming panic attack with the familiar sight of my own room.

The large, white closet at the back wall near the door. The desk table at the corner, the single bed at the opposite corner. The moonlight streaming in through the open curtains and the single picture of my mother and I sitting leisurely on the nightstand beside my bed.

She never loved you. Nobody will ever love you.

You deserved to die. Not Vincent.

“No!” I cried out, choking on my own tears as the darkness felt like it was envoloping me completely, rendering me incapable of breathing.

I reached over to the lamp on the nightstand and switched it on, just to make the familiar room feel less suffocating. But as the room finally filled with light, the vibrant colours of the cream walls becoming visible, I realised that I was waking up from one nightmare only to live another.

The door flew open and I swung my head towards the intruder. My guards were up, but once I realised that it was Anna-Maria, I let the pained whimper out again.

“Ara, it's okay, alright?” she instantly began comforting me as she closed the door behind her and walked towards me. “You're safe here. Whatever you dreamt about isn't real and it isn't going to hurt you.” She placed her hand on my arm gently and I watched it as she rubbed up and down my bare arm. “You see? I'm real. You're safe. You're safe here.”

Anna's voice soothed the tears and I found it so much easier to breathe when I wasn't choking on my own sobs. Soon, my laboured breathing became a natural thing again and I was only left sniffling on my bed.

“Can I hug you?” she asked me gently. I didn't hesitate in nodding and wrapping my arms around her. She returned the hug and played with my hair gently as she cooed reassuring words into my ear. “It's okay, babe. You're okay.”

We stayed like that for a few minutes until I had finally completely quietened down. She then pulled away from me and let her eyes trail over me with concern.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

In all honesty, I didn't. But the things I was carrying on my shoulders were getting too heavy for only one person and I wanted to share the load.

Anna didn't deserve that though. She was a good friend and had already been through a lot. I didn't want her worrying about the stupid mistakes I had made that led me here.

I just wish I was a better friend to her.

“No. Not really.” I shook my head and looked down at my fingers, feeling ashamed that I couldn't tell her what was wrong with me.

A part of me felt like she would leave me once she found out about all the fucked up shit I was hiding. And I wouldn't even be able to blame her because, if I had a choice, I would leave me too.

She was the only person I truly had and I wanted to be selfish.

“That's fine,” she smiled sweetly at me as she tucked my hair behind my ear. “That's completely fine. I just want you to know that I'll always be here if you need to talk.”

“You're a really good friend, Anna,” I found myself saying, smiling back at her as she beamed.

“You are too! I know you may doubt that, but I couldn't find a better friend in the world than you, babes.” I said nothing to that and she brought her hand down to her lap. “Do you want me to sleep with you?”

I nodded eagerly, believing that maybe if I had someone there with me to tell me that only I could see Vincent, then I would realise that it was only a nightmare before I properly got worked up and snap myself out of it.

She chuckled and reached over for the light, but I grabbed her arm and stopped her from switching it off. She looked to me in confusion, urging me to explain my sudden actions.

“Can we leave it on?” I asked, feeling like a pathetic little child because of my new found fear of the dark.

Anna-Maria didn't share the same thoughts as me, though, as she only smiled softly and nodded her head. She climbed into bed beside me and brought the covers over her chin as she faced the wall and I faced the other side.

And like that, we fell asleep with the lights on. Because the monsters that lurk in the dark are much more dangerous than the ones that attack when it's light.

***

No event like that night had occurred again for the rest of that week, but I still slept with the light on just in case. I wasn't entirely sure if I had actually experienced a panic attack, but all I was sure of was that it was mad scary.

Anna offered to sleep with me again the following night, but I declined because she spent more time awake than sleeping when I had actually accepted her offer. She woke up whenever she heard me start to make noise and instantly woke me up too, and then would spend long periods of time comforting me enough to make me fall asleep again. And through all this, she never complained once.

I always suspected it, but that night only confirmed it. I didn't deserve Anna as a friend.

Funny enough, I felt our bond start to grow stronger after that. And it felt nice to finally have someone to lean on. But there was still a part of me that had been rejected and unloved and abandoned so many times that still couldn't open up to her.

That part was the reason why I couldn't tell her what happened. Because I didn't want her to leave too.

The telephone ringing snapped me out of my thoughts and I looked over to it in confusion. Nobody tended to call the house phone especially not at six in the morning.

I still got up and picked it up anyway, because the house was always full of surprises.

“Hello?” I said into the phone, not bothering to ask who they wanted to speak to or why like we were supposed to.

I figured that if they wanted to speak to boss or Emma, then they could've just called them on their private phones. And if they wanted to talk to one of the maids, then they most likely didn't deserve respect for giving birth to the people that worked here.

Especially Lola.

“Hello. May I ask who I'm speaking to?”

The voice from the other end was deep and calm and made me even more confused at how familiar it was. It instilled a sense of fear within me, but I had no idea why and I couldn't exactly remember where I knew the owner of the voice from.

“I'm Araceli, a maid,” I answered respectfully. I assumed that the person on the other line could've been one of Daniel's business buddies and I didn't think that he would appreciate disrespect towards them.

I assumed wrong.

The man on the other end chuckled before saying something that made my stomach drop and my blood run cold. “And I'm Lucien. Please tell my son that I would like to speak to him.”

Lucien.

Daniel's father.

Lucien and I had... personal issues that no one was aware of. Not even him.

If he were to ever find out that I had a small hand in the chaos that took place in this house two years ago and almost got Daniel killed, I would actually be killed. I had to be on my best behaviour and not give anything away because if Lucien suddenly had reason to suspect me, I wasn't leaving this place until he got the truth out of me.

“H-Hold on one m-minute, sir. I'll go g-get him straight away,” I said, wanting to dig a hole and bury myself in it at my excessive stuttering.

I heard him let out a small breath of laughter at my sudden change in demeanour, but nothing else as I put the call on hold and stuffed the land-line in my pocket. After collecting a much needed breath, I began making my way over to Daniel's office.

I took a deep breath and put on my best poker face before knocking on the door twice.

“Come in,” his low morning voice surprised me. I didn't expect him to be up so early. Especially in his office.

I opened the door and let myself in, feeling my breath hitch at the sight before me. His curly, brown hair was an absolute mess and almost fell into his deep brown eyes, but he still seemed to pull it off. He seemed as if he had only woken up as he was only in a pair of low-hanging sweatpants.

After a few seconds of my silent gaping, he looked away from the files on his table and his eyes met mine as he crossed his arms over his bare chest. I did my best to not look at this drool-worthy biceps that flexed with his movements or his broad chest or his defined abs.

I wasn't sure why I was so shocked. It was obvious that he worked out. He had to, but I just didn't expect him to be so good looking.

“Yes?”

I snapped out of my second trance of the morning and took in the unimpressed look on his face before suddenly feeling my lips drop into a frown. His words half a week ago were still clear in my head.

“Your father called. He said he wants to talk to you.”

“Tell him I'm busy,” he said, turning to looking for whatever he was looking for in his drawer.

“But you're right here though,” I pointed out. He glanced at me briefly before collapsing into his desk chair and continuing his search.

“Really?”

I rolled my eyes at his sarcasm and pulled the phone out of my pocket. It surprised me how he could be so sarcastic, but still have the straightest face possible. He was just like his dad.

I took the phone off hold and held it up to my ear. “Hello?”

“Yes?” Mr. Reyes' voice came out almost immediately, making me wonder if he was just standing by the phone waiting for me to respond.

Shaking the thought from my head, I faced my task. “Boss is unavailable at the moment. You can always leave a message for me to deliver to him so he can call you back in his own time or you could call again later,” I said, pacing up and down the office.

It was a habit of mine. I had to pace whenever I spoke on the phone. Luckily, I didn't speak on the phone much, so my pacing problems were at a minimum.

“Just tell him it's his father that's calling. He'll answer immediately,” Lucien said as I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

“I've already told Boss that you're the one calling, sir. I can't do much else except for deliver a message if you have one.”

I had my fingers crossed behind my back, hoping that he would decide to just call back later so I didn't have to spend more time in front of Daniel. He wasn't paying much attention to me, but just being in the same room as him (as well as the same place that we had fucked) messed with my emotions. I didn't want to have to talk to him either.

“When he's ready, tell him” I bit back a groan, “that I called to let him know that I will be at the house in two days time with his fiancée.”

Fiancée? What fiancée? Daniel was engaged? To whom? When did this happen? Why had I never heard of her?

I had so many questions running through my head as I froze in the middle of the room, finally gaining the attention of Daniel as he watched me curiously.

“Hello?”

“Um, yes! Sorry, I was just taking that down,” I said, making up a quick lie to cover up my long and sudden silence on the phone.

Daniel had tilted his head to the side, probably wondering why I was lying, but Lucien thought nothing of it.

We said our goodbyes and as I ended the call, I turned around to face him.

He was already watching me and for a few seconds, all we did was stare at each other until he finally broke it by rolling his eyes and speaking.

“Well?”

“You have a fiancée?”

*****

The start makes me kinda feel bad for her... Oh well sucks to suck ig 💅

Anywhoo random update in the middle of god knows when because we hit a milestone or something.

Let's just pretend that half of those reads aren't mine and celebrate! Yay!!!

Also, I haven't ran this through find and replace because I just kinda rushed and put it together so if you find any "Marco's" let me know.