Chapter 66 CHAPTER 068
Something very vital that is just out of my reach.
I hear footsteps at a distance that I can't judge from my position, bound on this metal chair, but it is clear that it is someone walking by. I can't mistake the rhythmic sound of hard boots slamming on the cement floor.
"Is someone there?" I yell, but the sound comes out pathetic. Low and weak. My throat is parched. I am tired and I am scared.
I have just been kidnapped. I don't know what to think. My best friend betrayed me. My heart lies in a million shattered pieces at the bottom of my stomach.
The footsteps stop. Then it starts moving again, but by the faint sound of each step, I can tell it is receding instead of coming towards me. I clear my throat and open my mouth.
"Hello! Who is there! Help! Hello!" My voice echoes back at me emptily. Whoever it was is gone. I sag dejectedly into the uncomfortable metal chair. My body heat has warmed it to a point, but my back is bent at an angle that makes my whole body hurt. I don't know how long I have been sitting here, but I know I can't last for much longer anymore.
"Amelia." A weak familiar voice whispers from behind me, and if I wasn't bound to the spot, I would have jumped.
"I am so sorry. I know there is nothing I can say that would make this make any sense or would make this any forgivable but I need you to know that I am very sorry." Ashley breaths from a point behind me, she sounds both faraway and close by. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
What is she talking about? Why is she here?
I close my eyes. Maybe I am hallucinating. I can't turn around to see if she is really there, even if I can, my vision is so fucked, everything is pitch black or shaky. Unfocused. I doubt it would do any good.
So I stay still. Not even daring to breath. I listen for anything that can be verified as real. The footsteps outside the door. The sound of the light bulb flickering. The quietness of the dark. I can't even tell if it is night or day outside. My head hurts. It feels like something is splitting my nerves with a sharp blade at the seams. It rips me up and makes me feel nauseous. I feel the wetness behind my skull but I can't put a finger there to confirm if it is blood or just my imagination. Reality is tilted. I can't trust anything.
So I sit still and hold my breath.
"I didn't plan for this. I didn't know he would do this." Ashley's voice breaks. And the broken quality of that usually buoyant voice snaps me out of my reverie. It is real. Ashley is somewhere in this darkness with me.
"Ashley? Is that you? Ashley?" I say cautiously. Maybe my brain is playing tricks on me. Why would she be here? Is she not with Tyler? What is happening? Where is Tyler? Where am I? What is going to happen to me?
"Yes." She sounds tired and her voice is choked full with shame so palpable, it reaches out to me and pulls me out of my head. I gain a bit of coherence.
"What are you doing here? Where are we? Why did you betray me to Tyler?" I strain to look behind me but it is impossible. My body is so weak, I can't even heft the chair around. It is heavy and solid, almost like it is rooted to the ground. I turn my neck, craning as far as I can go and my eyeballs explode with pain. I can't see anything. But I can hear and that raspy breathing is the sound of Ashley crying.
I feel nothing. Asides anger. Anger is better than fear and heartbreak and I cling to it desperately.
"Ashley. What the fuck did you do?" My voice is hard and carries high. Loud enough for her to hear me, wherever the fuck out of my reach that she is. I don't deserve this. I have been nothing but great to Ashley. I gave her my all, and she would turn around and betray me like this.
"Were you and Tyler in a relationship I didn't know about? Was that how he convinced you to betray your best friend? Your fucking sister?" I throw her words back at her. She was the one that made our friendship into a sisterhood during our first year of college. When we stuck together like glue. Inseparable in our individual traumas. We bonded because at that time in our lives, we were both vulnerable and needed someone to lean on. We leaned on eachother.
And yet here we are. Ashley just continues crying softly behind me. The sound grates on my nerves. It is probably a good thing that I am bound to the spot, else I would have gotten physical with her. I can't control the rage swirling in the pit of my soul. Betrayal tastes bitter like bile in my throat. How could she do this to me? How did she allow Tyler get into her head?