^^^AURORA^^^

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"How dare you lay your hand on a woman?"

No, he didn't call me Aura, he didn't call me Sven's stepdaughter, he called me a woman.

Sven felt his jaw and then his bloody nose. "What's your business? Get out of my house or I'm going to call the police."

Winter smirked, folding his arms comfortably. "Go ahead. Maybe abusing a minor is acceptable in the British constitution."

Yeah, I wasn't eighteen yet. I was seventeen. Eighteen by December twenty-fifth.

Sven opened his mouth and closed it after a futile attempt to produce words.

"Let's get the hell out of here, Aura." I didn't struggle with Winter as he literally pulled me outside and into his car. He started the engine and backed away from my house.

"What the fuck was that back there?"

I totally saw that question coming.

"I don't want to talk about it now. Give me an hour to get my shit together."

Winter heeded my request and kept driving. I didn't care where he was driving to as long as it wasn't back home.

Summer and Cole were surprised to see me again. One look at Summer and her lips turned down. She understood.

A smug smile crept up my face when I saw how close she and Cole were on the couch. His left hand over her shoulders and her head on his chest. I would certainly talk to her later. For now, allow me to dwell on my present predicament.

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"We're here for you, Aura." A figure with a hooded face said.

"We're here to take you to where you belong." The other said. Their voices sounded so robotic and it scared me.

It was just me and them in this dark forest. The sky above was a strange red colour.

"See that there?" One of them pointed at the sky.

The other one laughed. "That's the colour of blood. It's about to rain blood. Your blood and everyone's blood."

I cried and cried but they continued laughing at me.

I jerked awake in a bed that wasn't mine. Groogy, my eyes lazily strayed to the photographs on the walls, a vintage photograph of the Eiffel tower on the wall beside the king-sized bed, another of Summer, Cole and I playing on a beach this year's summer. There was a photograph of one of the african models that worked at this modelling agency he had been taking practical lectures of photography. Habiba.

Winter was obsessed with photography. I could even see the strap of his Nikon camera sticking out from his dresser.

And his favorite colour like mine was black. You could tell from the colour of the rug, curtains, sheets, and most of the furniture.

But, my question was how I got into his room?

Memories of the previous night soured my countenance. Did mom return home yesterday and realized I wasn't in my room? If she did, what did Sven tell her?

"Slept well?" Winter stood in the doorway leading to his bathroom. He had on a white singlet and a pair of black Nike joggers. His hair was wet and the droplets of water on his bare skin showed he just finished taking a shower.

NO. I dreamt that the monsters were taking over me!

"I did. Thanks for last night." Pulling my eyes away from his biceps and the tatoos on his left arm, I got out of bed and peered outside. It was way past dawn.

Thank God schools hadn't reopened yet or else I would have skipped a day and I hate skipping school.

"Want to talk about what happened yesterday?" Winter pressed on again.

I turned to face him, flushed by our closeness. Unable to look at his face, I leaned on the wall to put a little distance between us.

"Okay."

"How long has he been hitting you?"

I reached into my memory for the exact date. "25th December, 2014."

Winter frowned. "What the fuck? On your twelfth birthday?" I looked up. He was staring straight in my eyes. This time I couldn't gaze away.

"Why didn't you tell anyone? Your mom? Me? Summer? Cole?"

I didn't want to offend him by saying Summer knew about everything. "Sven promised that my clothes would be the last thing anyone finds if I breathed out a single word."

"He's a such bastard and he will pay." Winter brought out his phone. I didn't care about who he was calling because the tears I had locked away for two years escaped their cages and coursed down my cheeks.

Winter was still talking to whoever and didn't notice me until I started punching the wall in anger.

"F*ck, f*ck, f*ck!" I yelled.

"Oh sh*t. I'll call you back." Next thing, my hands were tightly leashed in Winter's grasp.

I struggled with my friend. "Leave me alone."

Winter overpowered me and turned me around, looking me straight in the eyes. With every passing second, the anger in me trickled away and then, I relaxed, falling into his arms, burying my face in his shoulder. He held me.

"I hate crying, I f*cking hate crying."

Winter ran his fingers through my hair and kissed the top of my head. "I know love, I know."

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So, this thing called depression is very tricky like the sides of a dice. You can never tell what part of it would roll out. You can never tell what number you'll get. It can be one, two, three or six. It didn't matter how hard you throw, what's going to be the outcome is what will be.

Yeah, I've been depressed for as long as I remember and the only thing keeping me sane are my friends. I barely go outside to hang out with other kids but I'm just scared the demon inside me would be unleashed.

So, the days I'm happy, I just go with the floor and the days I'm a depressed mess, I just feel like killing myself all over again.

But I'll be fine.

After my shameful outburst, Winter suggested we both hit the gym in their house so I would 'Punch my sorrows away.'

He borrowed me some of his clothes which fit perfectly as a were the same height or almost since I was six feet tall and he was just an inch taller.

Later on, I took a shower and changed into fresh clothes. Black sweatpants, black round-necked T- shirt with a tornado drawn in front.

Wearing similar outfits, we headed to the kitchen to get some food to eat. No one was in the kitchen, his mum and dad usually go for morning runs but since it was past eight already, they might have gone to their workplaces. Lauren was a medical doctor in one of the hospitals around here, one her husband was a major shareholder in.

"There's some cereal and milk in the fridge, if you'd like to eat that." Winter offered, sitting on the kitchen island.

My stomach on a normal day would have been an abyss but today, my appetite for food was dead.

"That'll do." I opened the said fridge. The Lionheart's house was like a second house to me and I virtually knew my way in and out of the house.

With a bowl of cereal mixed with milk in hand, I joined Winter at the kitchen island. He was devouring an apple and grinned at my choice of bowl.

"Willow's going to be pissed if she catches you with her favourite bowl."

Realizing my error, I regarded the blue Pooh Bear bowl in disdain. "The last person I care about right now is your sister, no offence."

"None taken."

For the umpteenth time, I checked my phone for an imaginary call from my mother.

"She hasn't called yet." I waved my phone at Winter who yanked it out from my grasp. Then, he jumped down from the island.

"I'm going to take you somewhere so eat up."

"Where are we going?" I asked with a mouthful of cereal.

"Somewhere. Ew, close your mouth." He made a face at me but I only opened my mouth wider.

"Disgusting." He shook his head and left me alone wishing I could just stay here with him forever and boy return to my wrecked family. Being realistic, I knew I had to return there soon.

"Aurora!" Winter yelled.

Emptying the rest of the food into my mouth, I hastily rinsed Willow's bowl and returned it to its place before hurrying outside.

Outside, a couple of casual workers were straggling around trying to get things done in the large compound. They were everywhere, in the garden to my right, the swimming pool somewhere farther. Everyone was just busy.

Winter completed the twirl of his car keys around his fingers and caught it finally leading the way to his black Chevrolet, one among many of his cars. While he could boast of six different cars, I could only drive my mom's car on Saturdays when she sent me to the mall.

Sven, with all his money didn't deem it necessary for his step-daughter to have a car. But did I give a flying fuck about it? No. I didn't care about anything, I didn't care about life itself. The only people I worry about is my friends, I didn't want to hurt them by taking my life. So the best thing I can do is smile when they're around and bury myself in grief when they're not.

Inside Winter's car, I strapped myself with the seatbelt in front. "Where are we going?"

He smirked, sticking a key in the ignition hole. "Patience baby, patience."

With a roll of my eyes, I grabbed his phone from his pocket and played a racing game while he drove to wherever.

"I have a big game next two months in New York."

Pausing the game, I looked at my friend. "An international game? That's good, but why are you telling me now?"

"Did I commit a crime?" His eyes stayed on the traffic.

"Er, no, no, no. I mean, you're telling me your plans two months ahead." I stumbled over my words.

Winter chuckled. "You're talking nonsense right now, Aura."

Scoffing, I resumed my game. "Rude."

"You're my best friend, Aura. So, if I don't tell you these things, who will I tell?"

Nobody.

True, Winter's my best friend. But Summer who I've been friends with since forever didn't tell me some things. As for how I met Winter, that's a story I'll tell you later, maybe when schools reopen. It's for a reason, trust me.

"Did I just render the mighty Aurora speechless? Or I took your breath away?" Winter teased.

You always do.

To mask my feeling, I shot him an annoyed look which he didn't take seriously. "And I'm going to knock your teeth off. Keep talking."

Winter was about saying something when his phone rang, playing a song by Eminem in my hand. Cole. I put the call on loudspeaker but allowed Winter talk.

"Dude, I just got invitation cards to Sarah's party." Cole started off, talking as if he was high on weed.

"Good morning to you Cole, and why the hell am I attending a party for the girl that spiked my drink in order to get a quick f*ck."

I stuck my fist in my mouth, laughing at his comment.

"That was five months ago, mate. Besides there's going to be lots of fish there."

Winter sighed. Lots of fish means lots of prospective hook-up partners. Yep, my friends are players. I don't think they've been in relationships lasting more than a week. I've lost track of how many girls they've dated. Seriously.

Winter was grinning at the dirty look I gave him. "What's the time?"

"Seven...And Winter-"

"Yeah."

"Bring whoever you're with to the party because I know you're with a girl." Cole laughed and hung up.

The smile on my face got wiped off when Winter parked the car somewhere, beaming deviously at me.

"Oh no...no...no." I shook my head.

"You're definitely coming."

I had a quick flashback to my embarrassing moments at parties. Throwing up on random strangers, making out with random people in one night, peeing in a pool, starting fights, you name them.

"Hell no, Winter. And hold on-" I looked outside the car, at the body of water stretching into the distance. "Why are we at a river?"

"There's a facility in there, I often come here, especially when I want to be left alone." Winter replied.

In there? So that's where he disappears to most of the time.

"In there?" I pointed.

Winter nodded. "You'll see. Let's go."

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"Holy shit Winter, we're going under water." I said to Winter, ignoring the stares of the man and woman in the water tight elevator which decended downwards with us.

"Calm down my pet." Winter patted my shoulder. It was as if we were in another universe. I noticed the little fishes swimming outside the glass walls of the elevator.

Cool.

"There's a facility like this in Hawaii. Me, mom and dad used to visit while Willow always used the sharks as an excuse not to visit."

"I don't think they would hurt her because she might be their long lost relative."

Winter rolled his eyes after the elevator opened. He walked with me to the receptionist's desk and I admired the neat working environment. It was a beautiful lady in navy blue blazer jacket and skirt that we came to face with.

"Hi Winter." She purred like a cat.

I cringed. Like she could be five years ahead of Winter and here she was flirting with a teenager like a female dog in heat.

"Hi, Lydia. Me and Aura-" He slapped a hand over my shoulders. I gloated at the downward curve of Lydia's lips. "-would like to book a session here."

What kind of session?

"Sure thing." Her fingers flew really fast across the keys of the keyboard before her. "How did you get to be so tall, Aura."

Seems like someone wasn't paying attention in Biology.

"There's this thing called genetics, you should check it out."

I think she caught my sarcasm because she rolled her eyes and slid some tags over to us.

"Here are your number tags. Winter, you're in eight, Aura, you're in five."

Winter steered me into a long corridor with about ten mahogany doors on both sides. A lady was the only other person walking past us.

Where are the others?

"I wished we were in the same room." Winter whispered but I pretended not to hear him as he knocked on a door which had the number '5'. A blonde elderly woman opened up smiling cheerfully at us.

"Hi Winter."

Why is he so popular around here?

He smiled back. "Hi Mary. Meet Aurora my best friend. Aura, meet Mary, your masseuse for today."

My jaws fell open and I let Winter push me inside the room, giving me a two-fingered salute as Mary shut the door on his face.

"Relax, you'll be fine."

Her words instead of assuring me, set me on edge. She gave me two neatly folded white towels and asked me to change in the corner.

Two other girls were also attended to in the room. Their faces were down and their towels barely covering their asses. I grimaced and lay on the bed Mary showed me to.

Winter, you're so going to die at my hand.