Resilience

63| Bryn

ARABELLA'S POV

Not an ounce of sleep came to me last night.

All of my tossing and turning and staring at the ceiling kept me occupied as a twinge of something resembling distress sieved through the walls of my brain.

The horrors and terrors of my past kept me awakened as the demons in my mind clawed and screamed at me while prancing  around openly, mocking me— chasing me— laughing at me as they reopened the wounds of my deep buried memories.

These traumatic memories are like the pages of a book, with each page containing a more terrifying story than the previous one. Some were dark and horrible, while others were lonely and desperate.

These memories were scattered around in the deepest and most personal parts of my brain, like the tiny specs of dust floating around as they gather in clumps, settling down seemingly permanently, and no matter how much I steer away trying to get rid of them, they keep coming back more fiercely than before.

These memories had been flooding back as a result of triggers from last night's events. The entire ride back home was tense. My thoughts were a haywire of mess, which seemed to happen a lot lately.

The little amount of distraction I got from the memories of John, source to my worry of Rhett, came back with full force after I saw the beaten and bruised bodies of the two people. It was pretty obvious that they had also been subjected to the cruelty of abuse.

And right now, I'm sitting on the grey leather chair, staring at the injured boy in front of me, who's still motionless and unconscious in the same room he was brought to last night. My heart yearned for a glimpse of his brown eyes, which remained hidden from me as his eyelids shielded them from mine.

My mind flashed back to the events of the previous night as I waited patiently for Rhett to wake up. My hands had unconsciously found his, as my hold on his seemingly lifeless hand remained tight.

When we got home, we rushed to the infirmary, which had already been crowded by members of my family.

My uncles and aunties were pacing around worriedly, while my brothers, with the exception of Alexander, Elijah, Max, Vincenzo, Emilio, and Enzo, were either standing leaning against the wall or sitting with angry expressions on their faces, which I suspected was because they were relating the abuse to mine.

My grandparents were also there, as my grandpa was trying to calm down my grandma who seemed to have tears in her eyes. My heart ached when I saw her sad expressions, but it was also filled with admiration and respect for the empathy she had for people she'd never met before.

"Are they all right?" I asked hurriedly, catching everyone's attention as I came to stand in the middle of the room with dad besides me.

"We have no idea, we just arrived about 5-10 minutes ago and they immediately took them into the room and have been inside ever since. The child and the guy were still unconscious, and the rest of your older brothers are inside with them right now. Doctor Reme (their family doctor) is looking after the small child with Enzo while Max is with the boy." Uncle Matteo explained as I nodded my head realising that it's better if I didn't interrupt them right now.

I sat down next to an angry Mason who looked away from me, probably still mad about the kiss. I took a deep breath and leaned my head on his shoulder, instantly relaxing when he didn't push me away.

I'm pissed at this guy,

But I still love him...

Noah came over to sit next to me on the other side, taking my hand in his, giving me a soft smile to reassure me. I couldn't return his smile, but I squeezed his hand in response, while closing my eyes to keep any tears from falling.