Cuts P.O.V

I text Horn my phone number and hastily shut my laptop. I dive into bed and pull the covers over my shaking body. Ricky is finally home. By the sound of his heavy stumbling footsteps, I'd have to say he's drunk, again.

My attempts to slow my breathing fail. My heart is racing. Ricky and alcohol is not a good combination. Ever since he lost his job he's been out drinking his troubles away. It isn't exactly the smartest decision.

The door swings open. Light from the hallway comes flooding into the room. My body flinches on instinct. Tonight won't be peaceful like I had hoped for.

Ricky's muscular body makes the entire bed shake when he flops onto it. I nearly shriek, biting my tongue is the only way to stop myself. After a moment, I get the familiar metallic taste filling my mouth and running down the back of my throat.

"Vince~, Baby~," he purrs, using the legal name he gave me that I actually despise.

I used to trust Ricky. He seemed so nice and trustworthy. I didn't have a masculine name and I had no idea who I really was. Letting Ricky choose seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, I regret that decision.

I act as though I am asleep. My heart is racing. I'm hoping Ricky will believe I'm asleep in his intoxicated state. I just want a nice quiet night for once.

Unfortunately, Ricky decides that he doesn't want to let me sleep. He scoops me up roughly like a ragdoll and holds me on his lap.

"Ricky, it's late," I manage to sputter out.

"C'mon, Baby~," he slurs out, getting rather close to my neck.

My attempts to escape his grasp are fruitless. He's much stronger than me. If he wanted to, he could snap every bone in my body like a twig.

"Ricky, I'm tired. I'm not in the mood," I whimper as he bites my neck.

All of the sudden, Ricky growls and tosses me aside, rather roughly. I'm tossed off the bed completely and end up hitting the cold wood floor.

"You're never in the mood," he snaps while laying down.

I bite my lip and close my eyes tightly. I don't bother with getting up. It's better that I stay on the floor and wait until morning. I'd rather not see my new bruises until I take a shower in the morning.

"I'm sorry," my voice comes out in a barely audible whisper.

The only response from Ricky is a soft grunt and the sounds of snoring. He's out cold for the night. Carefully, I sit up on the floor. My skin had started to stick, causing the horrible feeling of having to peel myself off the floor.

I peek over the bed and see Ricky passed out. He won't be up for a while. The only thing I need to leave with is my phone.

I carefully crawl around to the other side of the bed. My phone lays silently on the bedside table. Stealthily, I slide it off the table and sneak out of the room.

I slowly walk down the hall, avoiding floorboards near the center of the floor because they tend to creak. Even if Ricky is asleep, I don't want to risk waking him up. It's happened before and the end result was not pretty for me.

Slowly, I make my way down the stairs. Once I'm at the bottom, I let out a soft sigh of relief. For now, I'm safe.

After looking around the living room I decide that the couch seems like the best place to rest for the night. I hesitantly lay down on my side, tensing with pain. After that, I decide that laying on my other side would be best.

I turn on my phone and see that there's a new text message. I click on it to see what it says.

Unknown, 12:35 A.M.
Hi, this is Horn. Now you have my number.

After glancing at the time I determine that Horn is most likely asleep by now. I enter him into my contacts and then exit the app. It's late and I decide to get some rest.

I take a pair of earbuds that were lying on the coffee table and plug them into my phone. Now I am able to listen to music without worry of waking up Ricky. Although, I wouldn't be playing my music loud enough for him to hear it anyway. That would just be stupid.

I click on the music app icon and wait for it to load before choosing a song to play. I decide to play something more mellow and relaxing so it will soothe me to sleep.

I'll message Horn in the morning. He might ask about why I had to leave our call so suddenly. I suppose I'll have to make up some elaborate but believable reason in the morning. I'm too tired to come up with one right now. Normally, I don't stay up later than midnight. I don't want it to throw off my sleep schedule.

Soothing melodies soon carry my mind into a land of slumber. The troubles of the real world melt away and I'm allowed to relax. Tonight is a night without nightmares. The time I sleep is the only time I can relax and not care about every single possible outcome for a certain scenario. I'm not anxious or paranoid. I can finally be at peace for a few hours.

Thankfully, my relaxing sleep is uninterrupted by horrid nightmares. Sometimes, on rough nights like this, I'll be forced awake with terrifying nightmares of my past hell.

I'll be trapped in a hospital room; one with padded walls that are inescapable. Doctors will come in to cut, burn, and scratch me; anything that harms my skin they will try. They don't care if I cry or scream. The torture continues until I beg for the sweet release of death.

Normally, at that point, I wake up in cold sweat and tears. Ricky never noticed or maybe just didn't care. Either way, I was alone. Luckily, that didn't happen tonight. I get to sleep my troubles away until the morning. Hopefully, I won't be in too much trouble when I wake up.