3Author's Note: Hi, sorry for the wait, my exams are over now though so here is the next chapter. I really like this one, so I hope you do too!
Chapter 11
It took us only four and a half days to get back to what had been my home for months. I think it was because The General was anxious to sit down and study the journals.
When we finally arrived, General Peterson had me taken back to my room by James.
We walked back my room and when we got there James said, "I'll bring your lunch.", and left. As odd as it was, I sort of felt as if I was arriving home when I flopped onto my bed. As bad as my memories were of this small, four-walled 'cell', it was one of the few things that still belonged to me.
Half an hour later, James brought me my lunch and I scoffed it down as fast as possible, savouring the excellent taste. I spent the rest of the day taking a bath and reading. That night though, when James came to bring me my supper he found another excuse to beat me and when he couldn't stand it anymore, as I lay on the floor on my stomach, only half conscious, he turned me over, didn't even bother fully taking off my or his trousers and got on top of me. He kissed my neck and stroked my, luckily, still clothed body. With a groan, he entered me and began sliding in and out. When he was finished, he got up, collected my tray from lunch and left. Once more, I cleaned myself up and fell asleep in bed, trying not to start crying again.
A week passed before I saw Oliver again. He didn't come to visit me and I was forced, after a few days, to admit to myself that I missed him and his company. When he did finally come to visit, I rather wished he hadn't. The atmosphere was awkward and though neither of us mentioned the kiss, it was obvious that it was what we both were thinking of. After a few strained attempts at conversation, he left. The next time he came back was three days later. I offered him some of my lunch and tried to ease the tension.
"Has The General looked at my father's journals?" I scrambled for something small talk-ish to say.
"I guess so, he hasn't mentioned them, but he was anxious to look at them."
"Oh." I didn't know what to say and hated the awkward silence that followed.
"Leah, about that one night," I was so glad that he had broken the silence that I didn't care that he was bringing up an extremely embarrassing topic, "when I kissed you- I shouldn't have done it".
"It's okay" I spoke quickly, I just wanted everything to go back to normal again, "I forgive you." He stared at me, slightly taken aback by something.
"I wasn't going to say I was sorry." he had stood up and I decided I had better as well.
"But you said you shouldn't have done-", I was confused: why was he getting upset? He interrupted me mid-sentence though.
"Oh that is shit, James comes around here every other day and fucks you whenever he likes and he doesn't have to say anything, but the minute I make a mistake and kiss you, suddenly I have to apologise?" he was shouting and I tried to calm him down.
"No, Oliver, I didn't say you have to apologise!"
He slapped me hard across the face.
"Fuck you." His words stung worse than the slap as he stormed out the door.
When James came to give me my food, I wondered about what Oliver had said. He had said that James didn't have to apologise, and he did. I thought about it and automatically dismissed it while I thought, of course James needs to apologise, I never said that he didn't. And what does Oliver know anyway? Hours later though, as I tried to fall asleep, something I had said to James came back to me: "I forgive you, James; I understand why you do this to me". I had said that to James just before he had raped me for the first time. I wondered for the first time whether maybe Oliver could be right. I didn't want to admit it, but I had- subconsciously- forgiven James without an apology but had never forgiven Oliver. Oliver had treated me so much better than James had and yet it was Oliver I had chosen not to forgive. For some reason, this thought scared me. Why did I favour James over Oliver when Oliver was by far the better man?
That evening, only about an hour after I had fallen asleep, The General and a very pissed off looking Oliver came to fetch me. Oliver didn't even look at me as we walked in silence to the usual room.
I was extremely relieved when I saw that instead of the lone chair in the middle of the room, the table and three chairs were back.
I sat down as The General paced around the table. He pulled out one of my father's journals and slapped it down on the table.
"These journals have nothing in them. Nothing but stupid accounts of your father's shitty everyday life."
"Don't you dare talk about my father like that!" Everything that was going on with Oliver and James and now this was not helping my mood. My temper seemed to be shorter than normal.
"I'll talk about him however I like. I warned you of the consequences if this happened", he stopped behind my chair, wrapped his hand around my neck and squeezed. The air escaped my lungs as I began to panic. My eyes darted around the room as my hands clawed at his strong grip on my neck. I looked over at where Oliver sat and caught his eye. His face was unforgivingly expressionless and he looked, I thought cynically, as if he was almost enjoying it.
The General's grip suffocated me for a minute longer before he suddenly released me. I gasped and choked as I tried to fill my lungs with air. The General continued walking around the table and stopped once more opposite me.
"Luckily for you, Soldier Danfield here has an idea that has excused you, regrettably, from your punishment." he really did look like he was disappointed at the idea of not being able to inflict pain on me.
My eyes widened with surprise and I turned and stared at Oliver, shocked at why he would do something like that for me. When he looked at me though, his face was still completely blank.
"What do you mean?" was all I could ask.
"In the journal's, your father made reference many times to a brother of his: Lewis,", my heart froze, already I knew where this was going, "Soldier Danfield has suggested that we find this uncle of yours and see if he has any more information for us.". I tried to think of something to stop them from capturing Uncle Lewis as well, but couldn't think of anything that The General would listen to, instead I just settled with saying, "Please, don't. He doesn't know anything. Don't hurt him." my voice was shaky as I suppressed tears. I would rather have been tortured than know that more of my family were going to be harmed by these Fallentered. I looked at Oliver and saw that he seemed to be smiling smugly at himself. I couldn't stand it anymore and screamed at Oliver, "You son of a bitch! Couldn't you be happy with just hurting me?". Before Light Eyes could pull me up from my seat, smash me against the wall and restrain me, I managed to punch Oliver in the face and happily saw a small rivulet of blood run down from his nose.
The General laughed amusedly at what had just happened. He walked out of the room after turning to Oliver and saying, "Soldier, I think you keep her under control by yourself while you take her back to her room"
To my disgust, Oliver stood and laughed while he wiped the blood from his face said "Yes Sir." before walking over to where Light Eyes was still holding me against the wall.
"You can go, thank you Soldier Compton, you and Soldier Phillipson can leave." to which Light Eyes; or Soldier Compton; said, "Yes Sir." and marched out of the room followed by The Torturer; or Soldier Phillipson.
Once they were gone, I glared at Oliver and spat, "How could you do this to me?" He still had an amused look on his face as he answered, "Do what? Save you from Soldier Phillipson's torturing? I would have thought you would be grateful." he walked out the door and I hurried after him so that we were walking next to one another.
"Grateful? You think I'm going to be grateful that another person from my family is going to be hurt; tortured like I was?", I was livid. Suddenly, his face lost its smile and he kept his eyes forward as he said, "He won't be hurt if he gives us what we want". I noticed how he had included himself in the 'we'.
"I guess I shouldn't have expected any different from a Fallentered. None of you care about anything but yourselves." my voice was bitter and angry. Oliver abruptly stopped walking, grabbed me by the shoulders and slammed me against the wall.
"Don't care? You think I don't care about you?" his dark eyes pierced into me and his voice was hard.
"Of course I care about you." his voice suddenly turned soft and quiet. He looked down for a while but looked back into my eyes as he said, "I've cared about you for a long time, Leah." His lips touched mine and after a second or two, I found myself responding to his touch. My hands locked around his neck and he pushed closer to me as his hands moved down my body to rest at my hips.
Out of nowhere, someone pulled Oliver away from me and threw him onto the floor. I only realised that it was James as he started to punch Oliver repeatedly in the face. "You bastard! She's a Dorrenion! Keep your hands off her!" he was shouting at Oliver but he seemed to have passed out as James kept hitting.
I tried to prise James off Oliver as I screamed, "James, stop it! Don't hurt him!"
Only then did James seem to realise that I was still there. He stood up, wild eyed, grabbed my arm and dragged me to my room, Oliver forgotten on the floor. We were only down the passage from my room and I wondered if James had been on his way to give me a beating, or worse, to rape me again when he had found Oliver and me. He unlocked the door and threw me inside. I fell onto the floor and tried to stand but James's arm swung out and I fell back down as he hit me.
"You filthy whore, why did you let him touch you?" I found it strange that he thought I was innocent and that it was all Oliver's fault.
"Why do you care, James? You do worse to me." I couldn't stop myself from saying this. His eyes blazed with anger as he advanced towards me. I tried to back away but he caught my shoulders in a vice grip.
His voice was dangerous as he said, "I can do whatever I like to you, you're mine. He's just a horny fool." Anger exploded inside me as I struggled out of his grip and slapped him across the face.
"I don't belong to you, you bastard!" This sent him flying with rage. He grabbed me and beat me worse than ever. He ripped my clothes and I screamed and cried as he raped me. He had to hold me down with strong, crushing hands as I tried to throw him off me. But in the end, he was stronger than me and I couldn't escape. He plunged in and out and between his groans and heavy breathing, he said in a low voice, "You are mine. You belong to me and I will do whatever I want with you." He repeated this over and over again while I sobbed and wished I could just curl up and die.