Colton
Alexis looks at us with a slightly-panicked expression.
“You guys need to hide, right now!” she hisses, pointing toward the closet. “If my parents find you, I am as good as dead.”
I take an uncertain step toward it, and the others slowly follow.
“Hurry!” she urges, and we quicken ourselves, slipping into her basically-empty closet.
She comes over, obviously preparing to shut us in.
“I don’t care what reason you have,” she whispers urgently. “Just do not come out. Stay here, no matter what, got it?”
We nod uncertainly, and she slams the door, shutting us into darkness. None of us say a word, and I know they’re all listening as intently as I am.
I hear the same slurred female voice that called to her before. “Lexie, Sweetheart, what took you so long? You have someone here to see you.”
I faintly hear her respond, but its too quiet to catch her words.
“I don’t give a **** what you want!” a man’s voice snaps. “He’s here, and he’s here for you! Now ******* get to it!”
“Come on, Darlin’,” another male voice, this one obviously drunk as well, drawls. “You remember me, don’t you? We have fun together.”
As soon as the words are out of his mouth, I feel frantic movement in the cramped space of the closet behind me, and someone is grappling for the door.
“I’m going to kill him!” I recognize Joel’s voice.
And I realize what he’s thinking. And suddenly it makes way too much sense.
I turn in the same moment he opens the door, and I’m out before he is, tripping over him and stumbling down the hall. A bedroom I saw when we were coming back here now has its door closed, and I turn to it abruptly, trying the knob only to find it locked.
“Alexis!” I yell frantically, beating on the door. “Alexis, just open the door. It’s okay. You don’t have—“ I stop at a voice from the front of the trailer.
“Hey! What are you ******** doing in my house?”
I ignore him. “Alexis!” I call again. “Come on, open the door!”
“Get the **** out of my house!” the man screams at me, storming down the hall towards me. “And get away from my daughter!”
And that does it.
“Your daughter is in there with a man who’s getting ready to do horrible things to her, and you’re getting paid for it!” I snap. “You don’t deserve the right to call yourself her father!”
“And what would you ******** know about it?” he growls back. “If you don’t get off of my property this ******** instant, I’ll get my gun.”
“I don’t doubt you will, Mate…” I hear Luke’s voice behind me and glance back to see all of them standing there. “But you’ll really have to use it if you want us out, because we are not leaving this house until your daughter is safe.”
“Where the **** did you ********* come from?” he spits. “Get the **** off of my property!”
From inside the room, I hear a whimper of pain that’s obviously from Alexis, and I can’t take it anymore.
I start beating on the door again, harder this time. “Open that door right now!” I yell at whoever’s inside. “We’ve got the police on the way…” I hope that’s true and someone called them… “And I wouldn’t want to be in your position when they get here!”
There’s a scuffle of movement behind the door, and in a sudden rush of movement, the door flies open, to reveal Alexis hanging from the knob, while a man is attempting to tear at her clothing, ignoring the tears streaming down her face.
Without a second thought, I pick her up, desperately clutching her to myself as I back from the room.
The man inside lunges at me, but Mike swiftly steps between us, shoving the man backwards and slamming the door in his face.
But the moment I take a step back toward Alexis’s bedroom, a giant weight hits me, and I stumble into the wall, wincing at the cry of pain that escapes Alexis’s mouth at the impact. Her furious father is looking in no way compassionate, his blazing eyes just inches away from mine while he swears sentences at me.
“******** give me my ******** daughter, you ********* ****hole!” he screams, his spit hitting me in the face.
Before I can respond or try to get him off of me, Joel beats me to both, yanking him away from me and shoving him across the hall.
“She’s not your daughter in anything but blood,” he says as he does, and shoves him into the room with the other man, slamming the door again before either can escape.
Silence reins for a long moment.
I look down at Alexis, still in my arms, and see her head pressed into my shoulder, tears relentlessly streaming down her face.
I sink to the floor, pulling her a little closer as I murmur to her. “Hey, it’s okay,” I whisper. “You’re gonna be okay. That’s never gonna happen again.”
She’s crying too hard to answer, and I just hold her a little tighter, rocking her gently as I begin to sing.
What happened to your life?
It’s more than makeup staining your eyes.
You wanna be in a better place,
Say you don’t wanna live this way—
All alone.
I realize I’m crying too as I continue to sing, at a loss of what else to do.
When your heart is cold,
And when you feel you’re letting go,
You can rise above
The world below.
Rise tonight.
A deep breath, and I keep going.
So hard to watch you bleed.
Your fragile heart, ripped at the seams.
You’ve gotta try to help me understand,
But first you’re gonna have to let me in.
No, you’re not alone.
When your heart is cold,
And when you feel you’re letting go,
You can rise above
The world below.
Rise tonight.
You can rise tonight.
There’s a light,
A hope, in your eyes,
Like a star,
Burning in the sky.
There’s a fire
You can’t hide tonight, whoa.
There’s a light,
A hope, in your eyes,
Like a star,
Burning in the sky.
There’s a fire
You can’t hide tonight, whoa.
When your heart is cold,
And when you feel you’re letting go,
You can rise above
The world below.
You can rise above
The world below.
Rise tonight.
You can rise tonight.
She’s quiet by the time I finish, just curled against me, terrified, but she pulls back after a long moment, her eyes locking onto the ground.
“Sorry,” she whispers. “I… I didn’t…”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I reply gently. “Alexis, I am so sorry. No one should ever have to go through that, even once, and you’ve obviously gone through it more times than you can count.”
She shakes her head. “I deserve it,” she whispers, rising as she says the words. “I—“ But she stops mid-sentence, swaying on her feet, and reaching out for the wall to steady her.
Luke steps forward swiftly as I get to my feet.
“Are you alright, Love?” he asks.
She tries to nod, but it obviously causes another wave of dizziness to hit her.
“I… I’m ******* fine.”
“No, you’re not,” Moriah says gently, but surely. “What’s wrong?”
“I… nothing!” she replies desperately. “Nothing’s wrong, **** it!” But even as she says it, she obviously takes another wave of it.
She shakes her head in an obvious attempt to clear it, but it doesn’t seem to do anything to make her feel better.
“I just… need some fresh air,” she adds, turning to the living room.
We follow her out, past a woman who’s obviously her drunk mother, passed out on the couch, and into the warm night air.
Alexis stands still for a moment when she reaches the ground, breathing deeply, but it still doesn’t seem to help.
Joel steps up to her side, laying a gentle hand on her arm. “Darling, just tell us what’s going on,” he murmurs. “Everything is going to be okay.”
She jerks away from his touch. “That’s because I’m ******* fine!”
She takes several steps away, along the side of the trailer, but we follow her stubbornly.
“You’re not fine, Alexis,” Mike says tenderly. “But that’s okay. No one could be after what you’ve been going through. Just tell us why you’re so dizzy. It’s obvious you know.”
“I’m not—you don’t—I don’t—“ she falters, continuing to try to walk away from us. “I’m fine!”
But she sways again, and this time, I barely step forward in time to catch her as she falls.