[Reviews - 1099]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 4449 times

- Text Size +




Author's Chapter Notes:
I didn't know how everyone would take the last chapter so thank you for all the reviews. Thanks to Jess!
Chapter 29

William was still lying defeated on the floor when I arrived back downstairs. Going into the bathroom, I started to run a lukewarm bath thinking hot water would be too much for the sensitive skin near his wounds. “Come on, William,” I said as I knelt down to grab his arm, “let’s get you into the bath.”

Angrily, he snapped his head up to look at me. “I said don’t touch me. What didn’t you understand?” His eyes were red from both crying and anger; blood was running down his face from the cut at his eyebrow. He looked like a madman and if I didn’t know him as my brother, I would have been terrified of his temperament. But this was still shy William – the boy who wrote poetry while locked in his bedroom. “Don’t get macho on me, William. There was nothing you could do. You rubbed your wrists raw trying to get out of the straps and Adam is a lot bigger than you. Let me take care of you for once.”

“Elizabeth,” he whispered in a pained voice, “I don’t want you to get hurt too. I’m naked and you bathing me is not going to sit well with grandmother, so let me be.” He looked me in the eye and my heart wrenched.

“Like hell I’m leaving you be, William!” I responded while placing my hands on my hips. “That bitch is not stepping foot in here again today. You know that’s not like her, she rarely serves dinner. Besides it’s too soon for her to come back – she likes to make us stew. For her, half the terror is the anticipation. Now come on and let me help you.”

“Fine,” Will huffed, “but if you’re skinned too I’m telling you I told you so.” He started to stand but swayed when he got so far up. I quickly grabbed his arm trying to both steady him and not hurt him at the same time. He hissed between his teeth when my hand caught one of his cuts.

“Why don’t you grab onto me instead. Put your arm around my waist or shoulders, whichever is easier for you.” He nodded and grabbed hold of my shoulders. We walked slowly into the bathroom leaving small droplets of blood behind us.

I tested the water one more time before I shut off the taps. “Get in. Maybe you can lean on one side so your back is to me.” I said as Will put one leg then the other over the side of the tub. He hissed again as his skin hit the water, but there was nothing I could do about his discomfort. He slowly turned his body to face away from me as I went to lock the door and grab a cloth.

Carefully, I began washing his back with just water in a nurse-like manner. The room was silent except for the hisses coming from William when I touched a particularly tender wound, and the lapping of the water against his skin and the porcelain tub. I worked as if in a daze, dipping and squeezing the cloth monotonously while applying the slightest of pressure to the whip marks that were still bleeding more heavily than the others. When I was done with his back, I drained the tub of the pink tinged water and refilled it with clean lukewarm water again.

I got another cloth from the linen closet and began the same process on William’s arms, legs, and backside. William lay with his eyes closed just allowing him to focus on my hands, while his body became more pliant under my tender touch. My mind wandered to the demon that our grandmother must possess in order to take such pleasure in inflicting this much pain. I wondered how many times our own mother had to endure something like this before she finally got away. A pang of guilt crossed my mind as I thought that mother wouldn’t come back to this awful house unless she really did think it was absolutely necessary. Surely, no one would willingly come back to this Hell.

“Beth,” William’s soft call broke through my thoughts. “I think we should change the water again.” I looked down to see that the water had turned to the sickly pink color again.

“Yeah, ok.” I reached down and pulled the plug to drain the water. Again, I went to grab another cloth as the water level lowered. “Here, let me clean your face.” I said as I returned to the bath.

William winced as he turned and sat up, pulling his legs up to afford him some privacy, as I did earlier. Carefully, I wiped the blood from his face and told him to hold the cloth at his eyebrow while I went to grab the first aid kit. “Cut’s pretty bad. You probably need stitches, but I guess a couple of band aids are going to have to do.” I told him as I looked at our limited supplies in the kit. “It’s probably going to scar.” A permanent reminder of grandmother’s torture.

“Yeah, well, it’ll give me rugged look. I can tell everyone I got it in a bar fight when I’m older.” William let out a little chuckle and I couldn’t help but smile. I could never picture William in a bar fight.

“There, good as new.” I told him when I finished putting on some anti-bacterial cream and the band-aids. He snorted and I started running the water again to fill the tub for a third time. “This will be the last time. The cuts are starting to slow down their bleeding.”

He nodded and rolled back over to his side. “What about the marks on my back? Do you think they’ll scar?”

“No, I don’t think so. A lot of them are shallow, but the ones that are deep are clean cuts. Drusilla is obviously an expert at this type of punishment.” Curiosity got the best of me. “How bad did it hurt?”

“Bad. The first time it hit me it stung like a bitch, but I thought I could handle it. Then when she kept going over other places she had already cut, it was excruciating.” Will said quietly. “I wonder how many of these types of beatings mom had to endure when she was our age. It makes me sad for mom and angry at Drusilla for being so heartless.”

“Yeah, well, we all know grandmother is insanely cruel. I don’t know why mom would want to come back here, let alone expose us to the possibility of this.” Thinking back to my earlier thoughts about mother and not wanting to start another argument, I finished up washing his wounds. “Let’s get you dried off and on the bed so I can cover the wounds. Do you think you can stand?”

Will nodded and began to stand up, which he accomplished with a little help from me. I drained the tub again and got a cup to rinse his body from the tap in the tub before letting him out. After grabbing one of the towels from the linen closet, I began drying his feet, slowly working up his legs mindful of any markings. As I reached higher up his thighs, his hand stopped my movement. I looked up in confusion. “I think it’s best if I took it from here.” He grabbed the towel and covered his manly bits, making me very aware of my brother’s naked body.

My cheeks reddened as I stood up without making eye contact. Scenes from Will’s birthday ran through my head. “I’ll go turn down the bed. If you need help getting into the bedroom, let me know.”

I hurried into the other room and took a deep breath to calm my nerves. We’d definitely been in this room too long.

Banishing those thoughts with a shake of my head, I pulled the comforter and sheets down to the end of the bed. With that done, I started to work on the floor. There were small pools of blood in various places, so I wiped what I could away with paper towels. Adam was going to have to do some cleaning in here as well.

Hearing William’s feet shuffling at the bathroom door, I straightened up from the floor and saw William standing with a towel swathed around his hips and his arm bracing his weight against the door. “Can you help me?” he asked sadly.

“Of course,” I walked over and he grabbed my shoulder. “I want you to lay on your stomach on the bed,” which he did as soon as we made it there. Grabbing the first aid kit again, I repeated my actions of applying the anti-bacterial cream gently to the wounds on Will’s body, before dressing them loosely with gauze. The only sounds in the room were William’s steady breathing and the ripping of the tape. It angered me to see his mangled back, since only a few weeks ago I was rubbing oil on perfectly unmarred skin.

I thought he was asleep, so his voice startled me when he spoke as much as his question did. “Does it bother you when I talk to you while you’re in the bath?”

“No, of course not. If it did, I’d tell you to leave.” I answered firmly not liking where his line of questioning was heading.

“She’s right though, isn’t she?” He asked somberly. “It’s not normal for a brother to watch his sister bathe. I’m depraved.”

“William, nothing about our situation is normal. There are only three rooms we can go to and you come in there to talk to me, not to ogle me. God, William, it’s like she wants to catch us doing something wrong, just so she can punish us. She’s the sick one, Will, not you.”

“But what if she’s right? What if some of the things she said were true? What if I do think of you in ways I’m not supposed to?” He asked so softly I could barely hear his shaken voice. “What if I do want to touch you? What if I do dream about what you would taste like; feel like?”

There it was. William had just come out of denial. It no longer mattered if I knew whether or not he remembered anything about New Year’s or his birthday – the two ton elephant that had been lurking in the shadows for months had just come and sat on the bed with us. Fearing that his admission just shattered any invisible barrier that was keeping us on the side of moral, I had to push Will back into the closet so I told him what I told myself to rationalize my less than pure thoughts. “Will, you’re seventeen years old. We’ve been stuck together in close quarters for over six months. If we were at school, you’d be having these thoughts about Cecily or Cordelia, but instead I’m the only girl that you see on a regular basis, so you transfer those thoughts onto me because your subconscious mind has no one else. Well, except Dawn and grandmother, and Dawn is only eight, which would make you depraved, and I’m way hotter than grandmother.” I tried to joke with him, but it fell flat.

“So you don’t think I’m disgusting?” Will asked looking for reassurance.

“No, Will. You’re just a victim of this situation, a teenager with hormones and no other outlet. I don’t think anything about you is disgusting.” I said gently running my hand through his hair. “You were so brave today with grandmother; you didn’t crack under her abuse. I’m so proud of you.”

“I don’t feel very proud. I begged her to stop in the end.” He cast his eyes down at the floor in humiliation.

“There was no shame in that, William, she was hurting you, but you didn’t give her the ‘confession’ she wanted most.” I leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek. “I’m going to go spend some time with the twins and let you rest. Try to get some sleep before dinner.”

“Thanks for taking care of me, Elizabeth.” Will said before closing his eyes. “You’re a good sister.” I smiled at his heartfelt words and left him for the attic.





You must login (register) to review.