43Perfectly Star-Crossed Chapter Twenty-One - Punishment
It was official, I was worried. It had been a whole day, and I had no word from Isaiah. Nobody got any calls and when anybody tried to call him it went right to his voicemail. I would even catch Brian with a worried look on his face when he thought I wasn't paying attention.
"Where the fuck is he?" I yelled. "He should have called by now! I need to talk to him. Brian I need to go see him," I had begged him to take me and he was firm in his answer, no.
"Delilah, I know that you're worried. But he will get in contact with you when it's safe. Don't worry, he is George's favorite, so he won't kill him," I could just hear the end of that sentence 'but he'll beat him to a bloody pulp.'
"If they kill him, I will hunt them down," I said viciously. It wasn't an empty threat. That was four hours prior to the door being banged on vigorously. Brian, ever cautious, made sure he had his gun on him. When he opened the door Isaiah literally fell through onto him. I felt my heart stop momentarily.
He was bruised and dried blood was everywhere and his breath was interrupted by wheezing. It took me all of two seconds to dash across the room and fall down by his side. Forget the "tough as nails" façade, I started crying. I lifted his head into my lap and smoothed his hair back from his forehead. He looked up at me through swollen eyes and tried to smile. It looked more like a grimace.
"Oh babe, what did they do to you?" I said softly.
"It's okay, I'm fine," he said through ragged breaths. Here he was beat half to death and he was comforting me. I had to laugh at that, though there was no real humor. Brian lifted Isaiah as easily as he would a sack of potatoes. I was momentarily awed by that considering how small he was compared to Isaiah. I followed them to the bathroom where Brian left us.
I started the tub, adjusting the temperature so it wasn't too hot or cold, and carefully started taking off his clothes. I started crying again when I saw his torso. They had cut him. It wasn't too deep, but just a mediocre cut with some punches to it would hurt like crazy. Once I got him undressed I helped him into the tub. I grabbed a cloth that was hanging on one of the towel bars and started gently wiping him off.
"Thank you, Princess," he said softly. I could only nod, I didn't trust myself to speak. The water was already tinted red and I hadn't even gotten half way down his stomach. I had to stop for a minute. It was too much and I started bawling. Not dainty little tears that you see in the movies. No, tears that had me almost screaming, and snot running down my face. Isaiah rubbed my head as I cried. When the worst of it was over he spoke up. "Delilah, this was being merciful. I had to have a punishment. I expected it, which is why I didn't let you go," his voice was hoarse and it made me want to cry more, but I forced myself not to. "George understands the situation and he wants to meet you. He wants to help us D, but he needed to put me in my place for lying to him. Liars are not tolerated," I sniffed and nodded. "Baby, stop crying, I'll be okay. At least I'm not dead," he gave me a half of a smile.
"I know, I just hate seeing you hurt. It's like, they might as well have done this to me," I started my task again and when he was all clean he laid in the water awhile longer, saying it soothed his aching muscles and then I helped him out. He wrapped a towel around himself and we went into the room I had been staying in. "Lay down and I'll get some peroxide, it won't hurt as much as alcohol," I told him.
I went downstairs and asked Brian where I could find some peroxide and he showed me. He also gave me some bandages to cover the cuts up. I made my way back upstairs to find Isaiah passed out on the bed, his towel hanging dangerously low. But I didn't even take the time to admire it with him being in so much pain. It was better that he was unconscious. It wouldn't hurt so much.
I did the job carefully, making sure I thoroughly cleaned the wounds so they wouldn't get infected, before bandaging them up. When I was all done I just sat and stared at him. How had one person come to mean so much to me? I couldn't fathom it. Half a year ago I didn't care about anybody. If I had passed Isaiah on the street, I wouldn't have even looked twice. Now, by an odd turn of events, he had come to mean everything to me.
I curled up next to him, not touching him in fear of hurting him. Warmth was radiating from his body. I carefully grabbed his hand and set it on my stomach. "We made this, Isaiah. We made life," I whispered. "It's making up for all the lives we've taken. This kid's going to have the best life," I sighed. Isaiah's hand started to move on my stomach.
"Yes it will Princess, don't you worry about anything," he said groggily. His hand moved up to my face, though his eyes were still closed. Yeah, we'd get through this together.
Yay, I'm back. Okay, this was really short and I'm sorry it wasn't exactly up to par. But the next one will be better. Promise. No time for individual thanks but Thank you to my reviewers. You inspire me. I'll try to get a new one up soon. The end is coming! I think haha