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It was still early in the morning. The clock on the cement wall said three a.m. I could still hear them partying upstairs though, the bass of their music dropping so hard that it fell through two levels of the house and into the lower room. I could even feel it pulsing through my feet into my chest. One of the girls had come down, clearly highly intoxicated and stumbling around the room, trying to find something. I have no idea what it was, but when she saw me after I almost succeeded in hiding myself from her under the bed she tried to make out with me. Luckily someone else, just as drunk, came down to get her, and they left together leaving me with my virgin lips. Hooray. I don't think I would want to waste my kiss on her, drunk or sober.

My back ached so much, throbbing and stinging every few seconds. Whenever I moved any part of my body, I could feel the skin stretching and pulling apart, sometimes being so painful that I yelled or screamed. Luckily the music was so loud no one heard. But I hated it. I hated Jeff for putting it there.

I tentatively rose out of the low bed in Destri's borrowed t-shirt and pants, wincing as the cuts folded and stretched over each other. Better get some breakfast before they eat it all in a couple hours, I thought, shuffling to the stairs. Ugh. I have to climb them. This is so going to hurt...

By the last step I was practically crawling to the door at the top, wiping tears away from my face angrily and trying to ignore the loud music. If I weren't so stupid and vulnerable and maybe had some self confidence and a really ripped best friend who followed me everywhere, maybe this wouldn't happen, I thought, struggling to get back on my feet and pull the knob. Finally with much strenuous effort and pain, I stood and opened the door, walking through the spacious hallway to the kitchen around the corner. The granite countertops, thin and elegant barstools, high ceiling, broad sink, dishwaser, oven, and high-tech microwave made it obvious that Destri's parents were well-off. Not only that, but they were awesome too. They let him have parties like this at their super expensive house, actually talked to him and worried about him and fussed over him and did all the things awesome parents do. I wish I were Destri's brother. I'd been here so many times that I was pretty much his brother anyways.

I sighed as I stared at the dark cherry wooden cabinet above me, barely visible in the darkness. The cereal is in there. I need to get it. This is so going to hurt. Maybe someone will come down and do it for me. Maybe it will magically fall out of the cabinet by itself...

...maybe I don't need to eat this morning-

"Dude, you know where the cereal is." I turned my head to see Destri stepping down the long stairs from the direction of the thumping bass, staring me down like I'm a pest he has to eradicate or some mission he has to accomplish. I went back to staring at the cabinet. So close and yet oh so far away. Destri came to stand by me, glancing from me to the cabinet and back to me. His eyes were like knives, and I couldn't bring myself to look at him. If I did, he'd immediately tell something super not-normal bad had happened. "Just get the cereal," he said, hitting my arm.

I winced and rubbed at the tender spot, turning away to those darned stairs again. Maybe it's better if I just leave. I don't want anyone to get any more involved, especially Destri. He's already in too deep to be safe. "I'm not hungry anymore," I said, shuffling tiredly back to the basement door. "I'll leave in a few minutes. Thanks for letting me stay the night."

And suddenly I bumped into something. A wall? Oh, it's Destri. How'd he get there so fast? My senses must have leaked out with all that blood I lost. "Sorry," I mumbled, stepping back and staring at the ground shyly. I can't even see straight. I'm such an idiot.

"You can stay here for a while," I heard him say. Glancing up to see his face, it was completely solemn and serious. The dark eyes from behind his black hair glistened with ferocity, sending chills down my spine. I couldn't look away. He's going to figure it out, he's going to know what Jeff did if you don't fricking look away now... But I couldn't do it. He was asking me the question with those eyes. What happened when you left? As if on cue, the cuts on my back shot the pain through my body once more. It took all my might not to let it show on my face.

I opened my mouth to speak, my gaze still held firmly by Destri. "Um... I don't want to impose-"

"You're not imposing, stupid," he almost lashed out. It made me tense up, my shoulders lifting slightly. If I stay I'll most likely tell him at some point. But I can't go home, and the woods aren't safe anymore... with Jeff in them and everything, waiting to cut me up into a million little pieces while I'm still alive to watch me suffer. There are so many ways he could do it... Like in my dream. When he tied me to a tree and gagged me up in the middle of the night and had the knife, and was going for my face first... Maybe he'd draw pictures in my skin before cutting my eyelids off and carving the smile into my cheeks like his face, and then stabbing me through the heart. Or slowly cutting off a body part at the separate joints. Maybe he'd remove all my cartilage from my body first, and then skin me alive and cut my organs and eyes out to make me eat them... I can see his face as clearly as though he were there, I can see the blood flowing down my stomach like it's really happening-

"Alex!"

I jolted back to reality, jumping back a little at Destri's voice. The images plagued my mind, waving in and out of my broken thought process. "What?" I asked shakily, trying to calm my voice and stop my body from shaking. There was a pain in my gut. Like it had happened. Like I was torn apart.

I felt his eyes still piercing through me as I stared to the side, trying not to cry. He can't see anything. What the hell have I gotten myself into?

There was silence as he just stared at me and I continued glaring at the side of his arm, fiddling with his borrowed shirt. I have to wash this and return it. I have to leave. "You can't go anywhere else," he said pointedly. He'll interrogate me later. I can feel it in his voice. "You staying?"

I have to leave. "Yes," I whispered. I'm so dependent. I'm so easy to get. He's going to know. And I have no idea what he'll do about it, but he might get killed doing it. "Thank you."

"I'll lend you some clothes later-"

"I'm going to buy clothes today," I hurried out. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine."

He looked at me with that intense thing he does with his eyes that makes me feel guilty, like I've done something wrong here. Which I most certainly haven't. I'm the good guy. "I'm coming with you to buy them," he said. Whatever. I made my way to the door without looking at him. Jeff has ruined my life. I'm lying to my only friend and forced to stay at his house, using his clothes and his food.

A sudden pain in my back made me jump in the opposite direction, gasping at the torture. I looked back to see that Destri had put a hand on my back. It still hung in the air where I had been a moment before, that solemn look still on his face. Not even shock. He knows, I thought, trying to even my breaths. He knows now.

He lowered his hand slowly and opened the basement door, holding it open for me. Not saying anything. I didn't trust him, and backed into the narrow stairway, facing him the whole time. He just stared at me all the way. What's he going to do? Is he going to look? Is he going to kick me out? Or make me tell him? He's got awesome ju-jitsu skills and could seriously make me tell him without even breaking a sweat. His silence irked me until I turned the corner in the stairwell and could no longer see his dark grey eyes piercing through me. Like they could see through my body to the jagged writing on my back.

I made it. He's not asking yet.

"We're going to talk about that before you go to buy any clothes."

Dammit.