Saint's P.O.V
I woke up in the middle of the night due to the tight squeeze I received out of nowhere which almost constricted the flow of oxygen in my airway. The fuck just happened. That stopped when I moved in my sleep his hands left me and my eyes popped open.
I saw Perth, who was no longer holding me in his arms, hugging himself and folding his body in a fetal position trying to get closer to me in that way. He was sniffing but not crying. Everything was visible as he never turns off the lamp on his side.
He looked so vulnerable in that state that I wasn't able to see it anymore. I tried waking him up by calling his name but he didn't respond. I tried shaking him by his shoulders. He stopped shaking and whimpered but instead of waking up, he started scratching his exposed arms hard, leaving red marks.
"Perth. Perth, wake up it's me, it's me, what's happening? wake up", I raised my voice shaking the weak figure in front of me to wake him up from his nightmare. What the hell is happening to him?
His eyes shot wide open and they looked directly into mine. His eyes looked lost, still droopy. He jumped to hug me instantly and I shifted immediately trying to comfort him. "Hey, hey it's okay, it's okay, did something happened?", I asked in the calmest voice that I can master at that time.
That is when I felt the first drop wetting my shoulder. I've never seen him cry before. I was shocked. "I don't know, I don't know, I don't remember", he managed to bluff in between his quiet sobs and sleepy voice.
"It's okay, I'm here, Sammy's here, we are here", I repeated continuously rubbing his head to calm him down.
"There are scars; No, keep her away, keep her away", he almost whispered the last part after screaming 'No'. "From what?", I asked feeling seriously anxious. "I don't know, I.. I can't remember", he mumbled with his voice fainting with every word he said. There was a silent pause for a movement before I realized that he zooned out again from the exhaustion, clutching on to my shoulder even in his sleep, afraid of letting go.
What is he talking about?
What is it, that he can't remember?
I'll have to find it out. I can't let him be this powerless.
I tried to free myself from his hold to place him on the bed properly. But he refused to let go of the grip on my shirt clinging even more than before. I've never seen him like this before. He looked so weak that my brain screamed to protect him. After that, I somehow managed to lay him down. And embrace the warmth in my cold arms trying my best to cover him up and went to sleep.
...
I woke up earlier than him. We were still sleeping in the same position from the last time we were up. He must have been strained so I decided to let him sleep some more. Carefully untangling his fingers from my shirt. I got up and left to take a bath. I came out and wore my spare clothes which I had at his place from the last time I slept there. He was still sleeping now hugging the pillow I kept beside him for replacing me a few minutes ago.
I went downstairs where I can already hear some voices of kitchen utensils. "She must have woken up too and I need to ask her about the whole situation", I made my mind
"The meeting is being taken care of by Mean, I've already informed him about your leave Saint", I heard Yacht sayings right after I reached near the living room joined by the kitchen. This is why I liked having friends to work with. I could only thank him in return for doing this.
"Join us Phi", came Sammy's voice from the kitchen who just noticed me. I just nodded and sat at the table.
"Where's he?" She asked and I can clearly hear the concern in her voice.
"He's still asleep; he had a nightmare, he must be exhausted", I replied to which her expression dropped in a second. Sadness and I guess what was Guilt was written all over her face all of a sudden.
"Sammy, can I ask you something?", I asked gathering all my courage. I know that it might sound weird to her cause we started dating a month ago and now I'm asking this. But seeing him in that condition made me want to protect him, and I can't do anything about it if I don't know what was it all about.
"Yes", she said and to my surprise, it wasn't hesitant at all, but rather sad. "What is this all about?", I asked finally.
"I'll be leaving for work now, I'll give you guys some privacy" Yacht said standing up but Sammy tightened her grip on his hand which she was holding under the table. "No, stay I need you", she said looking straight up in his eyes. They shared a short understanding gaze for a moment before Sammy turned her head towards me.
She took a long pause before starting. I can see tears forming in her eyes already. "It happened when our Uncle and Aunt refused to adopt us; they were not financially stable to look after even one of us, so we were sent to a foster house for some time". She said and I sat there in silence letting her continue.
"I don't remember much of them, but only some stuff. One day, I broke their vase accidentally and I didn't know how our new parents would've reacted to this, so I started crying. P'Perth found me he took the blame on himself for that, he was just trying to save me", she said, wiping the teardrop which rolled down from her cheeks.
"I can only recall bits of what took place next. They took him away saying that he needs to be taught a lesson; I confessed what actually happened there. But the guy smirked even wider noticing that he lied too; It was not his fault", she managed to murmur cause now she was crying her eyeballs out. I kept my hand on hers which was on the table to calm her down and after some time her eyes found mine and her grip on my hand tightened and I blinked gesturing her to go on.
"They kept him somewhere for God knows how long, I cried and begged for them to release him, but one slap from them was enough for me to faint; I didn't stop my crying and thankfully the neighbors noticed the abnormal behavior, and they were caught; I want to forget it but the image when the rescuers took him out of the basement is still so vivid in my brain like it happened just yesterday; he looked like his soul left his body, pale, eyes empty, scratches all over his body, he lost a lot of weight", she said now weeping buckets. I can't even imagine how those soul-full eyes would have looked like that, even the thought of it made my heart crack.
"We were sent to the orphanage after that, the child rescue service took the responsibility for his psychological health. but those people were set free after that, and were still a threat to us; After adoption, Mom and Dad pressed charges against them with the help of their friends, they got sentenced for 7 years for that, they were also made to attend psychological sessions", she said and I knew she was at her limits, so I stopped cause my curiosity was not greater than the pain she felt.
I got up and went near her. "It's okay you can stop now, please don't cry", I said stroking her hair to calm her down and it worked somehow, she hugged me from the side, crying. There was a long silence followed by that and she finally spoke. "Let me take it out now, I won't be able to do this again, please", she pleaded. I nodded softly taking my previous seat holding one of her hands and the other was held by Yacht.
"Why was he being like this earlier, even his nightmare, he kept repeating about not remembering stuff ?", I managed to ask her finally. After the word 'Nightmare', her face grew even paler than before. "He was diagnosed with Dissociative amnesia after that incident", she said and I nodded for her to explain me.
"It is sometimes seen in the cases of childhood trauma, it blocks the memories of the traumatic event; It's nothing but a way of natural survival to protect your brain from psychological damage, It can be mild or severe, preventing you from functioning properly, but fortunately he didn't show those symptoms; but Dissociative amnesia is temporary and your memories can eventually come back, but for him they never did, but they were triggered by seeing them again", she explained.
What the fuck did they do to him?
"I don't know what they did to him there. He forgot everything, even our parent's death. He spent the entire night crying after they broke the news to him, he refused to eat or drinking anything, he was already weak so they had to keep him on an IV drip; he only stopped throwing tantrums after he came to know that even I didn't ate anything", she said crying again. Poor girl, she must have blamed herself for this even though it was not her fault any brother would have done the same.
"It's okay Nong, it was not your fault", I said drawing circles on the back of her hands. I can even feel the tears that were gathering in my eyes.
Then we heard the noise from upstairs, he must have woken up by now. I heard footsteps and quickly rubbed my eyes to clear any evidence of the thing which happened here. "Don't tell him anything forcing the memories out won't help him and him", she said before rushing to the washroom to cover her face.
He came downstairs with a bright smile on his face as always. It was hard but even I had to, pretend as nothing happened. Living with a piece of information that can bring severe changes to one's life was hard. But hiding something from the one you love was even tougher.
Yes, I love him. How can I not? it's not because of sympathy or something but just causes he is he, and no one can be more caring, loving, comforting, and considerate as him.
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How is it? 😶
I know it might seem blunt and I'm sorry for my bad writing skills, please bear with me.🤕
Hope you like it❤🖤
The credit goes to the owner
I heard this song before writing this chapter and it made me even more depressed😣☠
I'm sorry for all the grammatical errors😅
There might be some other error I just used Google here, I'm not a professional 🙃
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Love love 👽🐳
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